Every year TIC Gums’ employees, from both the Belcamp and White Marsh locations, come together to enjoy food and fun at the company picnic. Although these people work as a team on a daily basis, in recent years, a friendly rivalry has formed during the picnic’s volleyball tournament. This year the R&D team will once again face off against the Motley Team for the title of TIC Gums volleyball champions. The past two years R&D has won the tournament and according to team member Dan Grazaitis, “We’re just as good as we were last year, so we should have no problem getting the three-peat.” Mat O’Connor, captain of the Motley team, will try to prevent this from happening, saying, “The key to success on the volleyball court is teamwork. Mar’s R&D team has certainly demonstrated this over the past couple of years. The challenge for any team in this competition is to play as a unit with little to no experience of playing together regularly. Our team is built with players from many different departments and we feel that we just may have the right stuff to win the trophy this year.”

No matter what the outcome is, the annual volleyball tournament is sure to be exciting and competitive as always. The winning department will have bragging rights around the office for a whole year. The tournament will be held rain or shine tomorrow, Saturday, September 11th. The results will be posted here, will it be R&D, Motley, or a late entry – will let you know!

Gum Guru Guest Blogger: Kimberly Beckham, Marketing Specialist

Next month I plan to embark on a journey that millions of young girls dream, cry, scheme (I mean plan) and hope for…the wedding planning journey! The hand stitched beautiful princess gowns, the attention, the vibrant colors (yes, green comes in at LEAST 60 shades), the exotic flowers, the delicious food, the oversized cake with the bride and groom figurine …oh and did I mention the attention! Up until this point, I’ve been excited to start this rite of passage, but in the last few weeks, my nerves have shed all the fluffy, warm, eye twinkling feelings accumulated in the past 27 years of my existence. Excitement has been replaced by EXTREME soul gripping nervousness! Between starting a new job with lots of responsibilities and a huge learning curve, putting together a budget, perusing various wedding websites and witnessing 3 of my closest friends go through all that they did, my view of this whole process has shifted quite a bit. I hope I will make it through this next year without losing too much hair!

It seems that despite all the anxiety, I’m still dreaming and playing things out in my head of how wonderful it will be when it comes my time to turn to my “prince charming” and say, “I DO.” Here’s a toast to the road to October 16th, 2011!

Of all the hours I volunteered at Perryville Elementary School, I’m most proud of the science night and book swap programs I put together. These photos are from our first science night held in February 2009.

I had the idea for science night during the previous school year because I wanted families to come to school and enjoy science together. This wasn’t about having the family spend time on a project at home; it was about having fun and learning something at the same time. I researched the way other schools handled science nights and I was excited to put an evening together but the other PTA members weren’t so sure our small group could handle such a program.

The next year, I made sure to get science night on the calendar and worked on it from just after Christmas until the night itself. The boys and I spent evenings and weekends testing and adjusting experiments and I put together equipment lists and instructions for each station.

On the day of the event, I spent most of the afternoon pacing and feeling nauseous. Hinda Smith, the principal, had asked me to speak at the start of the night which I normally wouldn’t have had a problem doing but I was too nervous. I don’t think I was that nervous on the day I got married!

We kicked off the evening with PTA parents and teachers manning each station and the students and families eagerly jumped in. The stations that drew the biggest crowds were Balloon Skewer where skewers were pressed through inflated balloons and Balloon Blow Up using soda and vinegar to inflate balloons.

It was a bigger turnout than I had ever hoped for with 103 students and family members participating. The next day the school was buzzing with excitement as everyone talked about what a great time they had. My mission was accomplished.

The 2009 event was such a hit that it really put the pressure on me for the 2010 science night. I tweaked some of the experiments, replacing a few of the more pedestrian stations with more interactive options. Because our first science night drew so many people and we wanted to make sure that everyone could attend the second time, we actually had to cut off registration a few days before the event.

Science night 2010 was another success and was attended by 115 students and family members.

Gum Guru Guest Blogger: Frances Bowman, Marketing Specialist