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Striker (comic)

Striker was a fictional British comic strip created by Pete Nash in1985 and ran in various formats until its last issue was published in 2019. The strip first appeared in The Sun newspaper on November 11, 1985, and was published daily until August 2003 when the creator decided to launch the strip as a weekly independent comic book. However, the strip returned to The Sun during October 2005, after the comic book had published 87 issues and suffered financial problems. Over the four years the newspaper strip was published daily until the end of September 2009, when it transpired that Nash had served a years notice to bring the strip to a conclusion. However, Striker returned on January 26, 2010, as a full-page comic strip in the weekly UK lads magazine Nuts, where it was published as a weekly strip until October 2010. It subsequently went unpublished until January 7, 2013, when it started to be published in The Sun newspaper. Over the next three years it was published seven days a week, before it was announced that Striker would no longer be published in the paper after February 13, 2016. Later that year, it was announced that the strip would be brought back to the paper by popular demand, with matches shown live on the internet for the first time.

Publication history
Striker was created during 1985 by Pete Nash, who had just become a design sub-editor on The Sun newspaper, where he was exposed and took inspiration from the original artwork of strips like George and Lynne and Axa. As a result, he decided to create a newspaper cartoon strip and explored a number of ideas, before deciding on a football theme, as the only other strip was Roy of the Rovers, which he personally believed had become "tired and dated". Nash subsequently drew the first ten panels and despite the amateurish, overdrawn and messy look to them, he showed the strips to The Sun's managing editor at the time Kelvin MacKenzie. Kelvin subsequently asked Pete to show the strip to his deputy and managing editor, before the first newspaper strip was published on November 11, 1985. Over the next few years, the strip was published, in a pencil, brush and ink format in A3, before it was reduced in size by photocopier to the size it would appear in the paper. During August 1990, Striker started to be coloured in with Pantone markers, after being reduced to publication size. During 1994, as Striker approached its tenth year, Nash felt that the newspaper strip needed a "major update" with fresh faces and new characters. As a result, Nick left Thamesford FC and joined Warbury Warriors as their "Player-Manager" during July 1994, with the challenge of taking them from the conference to the Premiership in successive seasons.

During 1997, the author was looking at several demonstrations of computer programmes including Photoshop and Illustrator, as they could be used to colour Striker in a cleaner, simpler and more effective way than markers. He remarked to a demonstrator that "it was a shame [that], it couldn't instantly calculate perspectives", the demonstrator subsequently recommend that Nash looked at the 3D software packages. Three months later Nash sat down at his computer with a consultant and a copy of Lightwave and learned how to produce 3D-generated artwork. However, because this took up a lot of time, the author hired another John Cooper to draw Striker, until the strip was ready to be launched in 3D. Striker subsequently made its debut as the world's first 3D-generated cartoon strip on March 16, 1998, however, this proved to be a disaster as his retouching of the 3D images looked heavy and clumsy, and the images lacked the comic feel. The then editor of The Sun Stuart Higgins, did not like it and nor did most of his staff before the author decided to revert to 2D after three weeks. For the rest of the year, Striker was drawn in 2D by Cooper, while Nash worked with another writer on some of the stories. Towards the end of 1998, The Sun dubiously agreed to the authors request to publish Striker in 3D again, but this time the strip was expanded to be a double-deck strip. This time Nash "was reasonably happy" with the "overall look and composition" a lot better than during the previous attempt.

The new-look Striker, subsequently proved to be a turning point for the strip's success, as the Daily Mirror, Daily Express and the Daily Star tried to poach the comic strip. During June 1999, the author decided to set up his own company Striker 3D, and set about recruiting staff in order to improve Striker, while laying foundations for future projects like a website and a comic book. The Sun also liked the new-look strip and as a result decided to increase its size to a triple-deck strip, while commissioning Striker 3D to create 3D-graphics to illustrate its and the News of the World's news and feature articles. Striker's new look also made it commercially viable to attract corporate sponsorship and during 2001 Richard Branson’s Virgin Mobile became Striker's first sponsor. However, at around this time Nash's long-term relationship with The Sun started to deteriorate, as, in addition to the newspaper strip, the author wanted to publish a weekly comic that would feature Striker as a major part of its content. Over the next few months, The Sun and Nash had several issues that could not be resolved, which resulted in the author reluctantly giving a years notice, to terminate his contract with The Sun during August 2002. These issues included licensing issues, with The Sun trying to claim ownership of Striker and trademark the brand and characters without the authors knowledge.

On August 28, 2003, Nash published Britain's first weekly comic strip in twenty-five years, with a launch budget of around £300 thousand, after he had put his house firmly on the line. Striker's distributors originally projected that 39 thousand copies of the comic had been sold, however, it was later revealed that they made a mistake and they revised their estimate to 29 thousand. The author was disappointed by this, as it was considered to be only just over their break-even amount of 28 thousand copies being sold. Over the next few weeks, sales of the comic were consistent, which was considered to be mainly due to a promotion that WH Smiths, were running in conjunction with the comic. However, once this promotion came to an end, availability of the comic plummeted, with sales slowly starting to slide as a result and eventually slipped below the break-even mark. Over the next few months, Striker 3D held several meetings with wholesalers and retailers, who told them that they had a very good product, but needed to spend more money on promoting it. They also were inundated with phone calls from readers who were disappointed that they could not find Striker, and in turn, they inundated their distributors with phone calls and held several meetings with them.

During issue 34 that was published at the end of April 2004, the author announced that the comic might end during June as it was "chronically underfunded" and "cash-strapped". As a result of this, the author decided to convert Striker 3D into a public limited company, which eventually meant that Nash could sell shares in his company to the comics readers. Despite fears that they would not raise the minimum £300 thousand that they needed to survive, the share offer was successful as the raised around £200 thousand, while an advertising agency pledged another £100 thousand by agreeing to trade future invoices for shares. As a result, the future looked promising once again, with Striker 3D managing to cut their operating costs, while increasing the number of pages to 36 and adding a glossy cover to the comic. Over the next few months, the company moved into the black, while having meetings with potential investors who were impressed by Striker, but refused to invest as they could not understand why adults would want to buy such a comic. As a result of this and sales continuing to decline, Nash decided to accept that after 87 issues, Striker was not going to make it as a stand-alone publication, with the final comic published on May 12, 2005.

After the comic folded Nash was offered the chance to take Striker back to The Sun, on terms that he hoped would pave the way for a better relationship. As a result, the strip returned to the newspaper on October 3, 2005, where it replaced The Premier and was published six days a week for the next four years. However, the relationship did not improve over the years, with the newspaper not getting behind the strip as they said they would. During September 2009, fans of the newspaper strip started to ask where it was, after the strip had not been published in the newspaper. It subsequently transpired that Nash had served a year's notice to bring the strip to a conclusion, with the last strip appearing on September 18, 2009, as he had run out of ideas and wanted to pursue other avenues. The author subsequently received an email from the weekly lads magazine Nuts, which offered to adopt Striker and give it a new home. Striker was subsequently first published in the magazine on January 26, 2010, after Nuts had spent £500 thousand promoting the magazine, in a series of poster campaigns in football stadiums and adverts on Sky TV. However, due to the harsh economic climate, the magazine was not able to find a corporate sponsor for the strip, which meant that the income was not sufficient to cover the artwork and production costs. As a result, the author decided that it was not viable to continue producing the strip and served a months notice, that the final strip in Nuts would be published on October 5, 2010.

Striker subsequently went unpublished until January 2013, when it returned to The Sun where it replaced The Shadows comic strip and was published in the newspaper and on its website, every day for the next three years. During the opening months of 2016, the then editor of The Sun, Tony Gallagher decided to end the two surviving comic strips in the paper, Hagar and Striker. However, less than two weeks after The Sun had dropped Striker from the paper, the paper asked the author to bring Striker back following a protest from fans, but initially only offered space for 3 panels a day. According to Nash, they explained that the decision was taken as a result of cost-cutting measures caused by declining sales and advertising revenue, however, the author announced that he did not wish to place all of his eggs in their basket again. As a result, long negotiations ensued including with another unnamed newspaper, before Nash achieved a deal with The Sun, enabled him to explore the commercial opportunities for Striker outside of The Sun. However, the price for this non-exclusivity was a big drop in the income from The Sun for Striker, which the author commented wasn't enough to cover production costs.

The comic strip returned to the paper during August 2016, with a two-week catch up on previous events, before the new era kicked off on August 29, 2016, with daily motion comic videos of the episodes shown on both The Sun's and Striker's website as well as Striker's YouTube channel. During Christmas 2016, the author published the first of around fifteen books, which contained every strip from 1985 onwards. Nash subsequently decided to end the strip on a cliffhanger during May 2016 and ran a classic striker story, while asking for more money to produce the strip with from The Sun as he felt overworked. The Sun subsequently reaffirmed its commitment to the strip with a better page rate, but it still was not enough to cover production costs. However, when potential revenue from merchandise sales and other ventures was combined with the money from The Sun, Nash hoped that it would be the start of a successful, exciting and more independent era for Striker. The strip subsequently resumed in The Sun on July 31, 2017, and ran through until the following summer, when the author took another break and ran a classic striker story in the paper and online.

During November 2017, Nash outlined plans for a new weekly comic publication which would utilise crowdfunding and feature both Striker as well as Psycops. He stated that there were 4 main problems with the previous weekly comic publication, which were that the overheads were too high, they couldn't afford to advertise, they were trying to please people of all ages and that it was too Striker-specific. He went on to state that the comic would be less focused on Striker, that they could advertise from the strip in The Sun, that the overheads would be far lower and that adults would be their target audience. Fans generally welcomed the idea and the author subsequently launched a Kickstarter during April 2018, where he asked to raise at least £35 thousand and offered various rewards including a 12-week subscription. Striker subsequently exceeded their target and raised over £43 thousand, which was then used to launch the comic during September 2018.

Nick Jarvis
Over the years, the strip has mainly revolved around the life of striker Nick Jarvis, who originally played for Oakvale, before moving to Thamesford during 1986. Over the next five years he played regularly for Thamesford, before he briefly moved to the Italian club A.C. Tornado, during the 1991 story Burnout. However, Nick returned to Thamesford at the end of that story as the club was wound up and ceased to exist. During the following year, Nick became the chairman of Thamesford, after he brought a house which the owner had just inherited from his father. Over the next two years ... During May 1994, after Thamesford had won the FA Cup, Nick decided to give away all of his shares in Thamesford to the season ticket holders in order to continue playing in the Premier League. However, he struggled to find another club and that managers felt intimidated by him because he used to be the chairman at Thamesford and was scared of him stamping his authority on them. As a result, the only club that was interested in him was the non-league conference side: Warbury Warriors. Jarvis subsequently becomes their player-manager, before he became fed up with Eric Openshaw's penny-pinching antics that he quits and returns to Thamesford during 1997. However, Jarvis returned to Warbury later that year and got them promoted to Division 1, after Eric was confronted by the fans and players. Over the next few years, Warbury win promotion to the Premier League, before they are relegated from it during 2002. After they were relegated Jarvis quits in order to end his playing career with Northern Spirit in Australia before he had his leg chopped off by a shark while surfing of Bondi Beach.

Eric and Vanessa Openshaw
Eric Openshaw is currently the Warbury Warrior's chief executive. He originally brought Warbury Warriors during 1994 for £300 000, when they were struggling in the Vauxhall Conference League and had hoped to sell it on after securing a ground improvement grant from the Football league. As a result of a bet with Cyril Rawlings, Eric found himself tied to the club for longer than he envisaged. The bet was that if Warbury were promoted to the Premier League in successive seasons, Eric would win Rawlings’ supermarket chain. However, if they failed, Rawlings would get Warbury's Gasworks Road ground and turn it into a commercial development. After several twists and turns including a murder attempt by a hitman in a clown mask and an arson attack at the football ground, he managed to hold on to the club. Eric was forced to sell the factory to raise money for the club's second stadium in 1997. Eric has a strong northern accent. He often seems like a buffoon. Openshaw is tight with his money, and argues with Jarvis over his unwillingness to pay for players. He questioned his son Todd's paternity; after discovering his true parentage, he attempted to divorce his wife Vanessa and met a woman his own age, Doris, though quickly took Vanessa back due to Doris's voracious sexual appetite. After spending three years out of the game, he attempted to buy back Warbury in 2013, before Li Ming outbid him and rehired Eric in his former Chief Executive role.

Vanessa Openshaw is Eric's wife. She has cheated on him with Nick and most of the team, making little secret of the fact that she married Eric for his money. As a result of a liaison with Nick, she conceived a son, Todd. She told Eric that he was the father, although the baby shared neither Vanessa's nor his hair colour and their sex life was almost nil. Eventually, Eric discovered the truth, leading to their marriage temporarily breaking down. Despite still being married to Eric, and Nick being in a relationship with Li Ming, Vanessa makes little secret of the fact that Nick is the man she truly desires.

Li Ming Wong
Li Ming Wong is the owner of Warbury Warriors, in her second spell in the role, having originally brought it from Eric Openshaw in 2006, and then Sheikh Mustapha Futti Khalub in 2013. After an attempt on her life by her brother a few months after buying the club, she spent the next two years mostly running her late father's businesses but returned to the club to take an active role during the season which saw them win the European Cup. She attempted to bankrupt the club following the breakdown of her relationship with Nick, though she re-purchased the club four years later and the two rekindled their romance, despite Nick still not entirely trusting her. She was killed in an explosion on her yacht while on honeymoon with Nick whom she married days earlier.

Dave Boreham
Dave Boreham is Kurt's former assistant, having served in that role under Nick for many years. He had an undistinguished playing career, the highlight of which was nearly winning promotion to Division Two with Newport County in 1983. Dave has managed the team on a few occasions, including in 2002–2003 when Nick quit and again when Nick was jailed for Gary Lewis' apparent murder in 2005. Dave has a beautiful daughter named Alex, who worked as a lap dancer. He is now the manager of the Welsh team, Brecknock Dragons, who play in the World League.

Scrapper Griswell
Scrapper Griswell plays defence. He had anger-management problems, and was a target for opposing players (despite his great stature). He has had two stints in prison: one when he was falsely accused of rape, and another when he broke into the office of the club's owners in 2002 to find out what their plans for the club were. His wife is Bertha, a stewardess at the club and a bog snorkelling champion. Their wedding ended in disaster when a flood forced their guests to swim to safety. After selling Warbury in 2009 he became a multi-millionaire, only to be swindled out of his fortune by a corrupt investment banker, forcing him to return to the club in 2013. In 2015, he retired, and is now the club's defense coach.

Callum Angelo
Callum Angelo is one of the team's main forwards. He had a troubled life due to his poor background (his mother, Donna, worked as a dominatrix in order to make ends meet, and continues to do so despite Callum's sizable income providing her with a comfortable lifestyle), but is one of the team's best players. Callum and Scrapper were sent to prison for breaking into the office of the club's owners in late 2002 to find evidence of suspicious goings-on. He was briefly set to transfer to Newcastle in 2004, but was stabbed by Chuck Rivers' former drug dealers and the transfer was called off while he recovered. He eventually moved to the Tyneside club, implicitly leaving Warbury in protest of Nick's dismissal by the Sheikh, but agreed to return to the club in 2013 out of loyalty to Nick.

Fabian de Guisson
Fabian de Guisson is the side's other main forward. He joined from Paris St. Germain for £500,000 during Warbury's first Premiership season. He regards himself as too good for the club, and constantly talks of moving to a bigger team. He has a son, Romeo, from a one-night stand. He considered giving Romeo up for adoption, but changed his mind upon discovering that Romeo was a good footballer. In March 2007, Fabian's sexual-assault case brought by Celia Montgomery was dismissed when Fabian's lawyer lied about his mental condition. Fabian spent time in a mental hospital, where he argued with the patients and had sex with a doctor he thought was his; his real doctor diagnosed him with a severe case of narcissism. During the strip's hiatus he moved to LA Galaxy, though fled the country after a scandal in which he unknowingly took in a teenage runaway, and returned to Warbury on a cut-price contract. Fabian's trademark goal celebration is 'The Peacock Strut', which both the opposition and his own teammates see as him showing off and being arrogant, this celebration is particularly used after he has scored a solo effort or wonder goal. His son Romeo has also used this celebration. He eventually had to retire for medical reasons, and is now the attacking coach.

Plot
The strip has followed the adventures of its hero Nick Jarvis from his debut as a 20-year-old footballer to his present-day role as the billionaire owner of fictitious football club Warbury Warriors. When the strip started Nick was an apprentice engineer and an amateur footballer playing for his home team, the non-league side Oakvale, who had just been drawn against Manchester United in the third round of the FA Cup. Oakville were subsequently well beaten in this match, however, Jarvis played well and was spotted by Jim Cassidy and Alex McCabe, who were the manager and chairman of the fictional Thamesford Football Club. Cassidy and McCabe subsequently approached Jarvis to play on a trial basis for Thamesford, however, he initially rejected this offer, but later changed his mind and played against Ashton. After impressing in his trial match, he signed for Thamesford on a permanent basis, however, he soon found himself facing a charge of making love to an under aged girl. At his subsequent trial, Jarvis was found not guilty after the prosecution's witness was star struck and found not to be able to distinguish between the fact and fantasy.

Thamesford subsequently celebrated their 50th anniversary by touring Mexico during the 1986 World Cup, where Nick was kidnapped after his teammate Gary Lewis claimed that he was Thamesford's most valuable player. The kidnappers subsequently asked McCabe for half of Jarvis reported value of £900 thousand. McCabe initially refused to negotiate with the kidnappers, but was told that he would need to look for a whole new team and manager if he didn't pay the ransom. As a result, McCabe paid the ransom to one of the kidnappers, who told McCabe that Jarvis would be freed if he got back to his fellow kidnappers within two hours. However, he was subsequently killed in a landslide, before he got back to his fellow kidnappers. As a result, his fellow kidnapper was about to harm Jarvis, before he managed to escape with the kidnapper's sister to the nearest town. Jarvis was subsequently approached to play in the village's annual football game, where he scored a couple of goals before they gave him a lift back to the team's hotel. He then had a holiday in Acapulco with his girlfriend, before flying back to England for the player of the year awards and pre-season training.

Lewis subsequently turned up with an ex-girlfriend of Jarvis's to the player of the year awards, where he got drunk and attempted to drive them both home. On the way home, a cat ran out in the middle of the road and caused Lewis to crash the car, however, thinking that she was dead and fearing being done for manslaughter, he swapped places with her. His girlfriend subsequently regained consciousness but had amnesia and could not remember what had happened. As a result, she was charged with careless driving as well as being drunk in charge of a car. Jarvis quickly realised that Lewis had framed his ex, however, Lewis denied this and fell out with Jarvis on the pitch and were both fined £400. Jarvis was subsequently placed on the transfer list by Cassidy at his own request, before he realised how he could prove that Lewis had framed her. After proving it, Jarvis spoke to McCabe and Cassidy and told them what had happened, McCabe subsequently tried to take a business approach by selling Lewis while bribing Jarvis and his ex-girlfriend. However, the local sports reporter had a tip-off from Hazel's flatmate and ran a story about it, before Lewis was arrested and found guilty of Perverting the course of justice. Jarvis subsequently came off the transfer list and scored against Liverpool, while McCabe had a heart attack during the game, before he died of lung cancer and advanced heart disease. McCabe's widower subsequently sold the club to a gangster called Eddie Carlton for £11 million, who becomes the chairman of Thamesford. Jarvis meets Carlton in a nightclub after he had been chatted up by the chairman's lover: Angel, before he is carpeted by him after the next game.

Thamesford is subsequently drawn against Oakvale away in the FA Cup before the players are invited to a Christmas party at Carlton's home. Angel subsequently blackmails Jarvis into having sex at the party and later into being her stud, after he discovers Carlton's secret plans to turn Thameford's stadium into a leisure centre and housing. Jarvis subsequently tips the press off about the development, which forces Carlton to hold a press conference, where he confirms the plans but denies reports that he doesn't care about the club. Carlton also ordered his minder to start a witch hunt in order to find out who tipped off the press, before he reads about Oakville having odds of 100–1 against beating Thamesford in the FA Cup and bets £5000 on his team to lose. Carlton then walks into the changing room on the day of the game and offers the players, a spiked glass of champagne and a chance to bury the hatchet with a pre-match toast "to an easy win today and more victories in 1987". After the game, Thamesford's fans were furious with the players and accused them of being bribed to throw the match as they lost 2–1 to Oakville. Carlton's minder subsequently discovered that Angel had been seeing Jarvis behind the chairman's back and reported back to his boss, who assumed that she had told Jarvis everything. Carlton subsequently confronted her and is about to throw her out on the streets, before he realises that she knows enough about him to be a threat to him. As a result, his minder locks Angel in a bedroom, while his boss decided what to do with her and Jarvis, however, she flees to Jarvis flat. After knocking them both unconscious and carrying them into the bedroom, Carlton's minder subsequently burnt the flat down, by placing a lit match into a wastepaper basket in an attempt to kill them both. However, Jarvis wakes up in time and manages to save them both by throwing Angel, out of the bedroom window, before jumping out after her. Carlton's minder subsequently informs his boss about the fire, who implements a contingency plan and does a runner to Brazil, before his minder is arrested. After the truth came out about the Oakville match, the fans got behind the team again, while Angel wanted to settle down with Jarvis who refused to get involved with her.

Story overview
Over the next few years plot lines included Jarvis being framed for drug possession; a club chairman from America fleeing a guilt-ridden past; helping a Russian player and his wife defect to the West; and getting involved with a juvenile delinquent with promising football skills and an abusive father. Jarvis was even called up for the 1990 World Cup but went missing and was forced to marry the pregnant daughter of a mob boss.

Arthur Crampton was Thamesford's fourth chairman since 1986, who died in his sleep shortly after Thamesford had won the UEFA Cup. His son Rodney Crampton who had gambling debts subsequently inherited his 51% stake in the football club, as well as his house Crampton Manor. He was free to sell any part of his father assets, including players from the football team, except for Crampton Manor which had been his ancestral home. After taking over as chairman, Crampton decided to review each employees file, put up ticket prices and sell five million pounds worth of talent. However, the latter did not go down well with the players who went on strike briefly, before Jarvis suggested that the entire first team resigned. As a result of this Crampton offered Jarvis, the chance to purchase Crampton Manor for tenth of its value, as compensation for breaching his contract and selling him.

After attempting to murder Nick, the chairman drained the club's bank accounts and nearly bankrupted it, before fleeing the country. Nick sold the property to pay some of the club's debts, but a disgruntled former director of the club persuaded their bank to initiate bankruptcy procedures. Nick and Cassidy were forced to sell every player except Nick and a few younger players, filling out the squad from cheap (or free) transfers from lower-league clubs.

During May 1994, after Thamesford had won the FA Cup, Nick decided to give away all of his shares in Thamesford to the season ticket holders in order to continue playing in the Premier League. However, he struggled to find another club and that managers felt intimated by him because he used to be the chairman at Thamesford and was scared of him stamping his authority on them. As a result, the only club that was interested in him was the non-league conference side: Warbury Warriors.

Warbury era
Jarvis joined the Warbury Warriors as player-manager, under a brief from chairman Eric Openshaw to get the side to the Premier League by 1998 (which would have meant getting promotion every year afterwards). Openshaw had a bet with the owner of a supermarket chain that he could do this; if Warbury failed, he would bankrupt the club and hand their ground over to his rival. Openshaw was nearly successful, since the side lost the 1998 Division One play-off final. By that time it was irrelevant; a former player burned the stadium down the previous year, invalidating the bet.

Warbury reached the Premiership the following year, struggling before finding their feet in their second season. Openshaw's refusal to spend money on extra players took its toll during their third season, and the side was relegated. Toward the end of that season, two corrupt businessmen (Charles Bullion-Browne and Jeremy Grubbet) purchased Warbury to close the club down, since they only wanted the land Gasworks Road stadium sat on. Jarvis was forced out, and the club went briefly out of business. Their plan eventually failed when it was discovered that a 1 ft "ransom strip" around the whole ground was owned by an old lady named Ethel, who would not give permission for the ground to be used for anything other than sport. Without the stadium, they lost interest in their acquisition and sold it back to Openshaw. Jarvis played for an Australian club until his leg was severed in a shark attack. Although his leg was reattached, his playing days were over. He returned to Warbury near the end of the season, but since the players were out of condition, the training facilities dilapidated, and the club having forfeited any points from the matches they didn't play, they were again relegated.

In Division Two the side won promotion easily, but the season was marred by two events. Openshaw's wife Vanessa was kidnapped by a gang who forced the club to lose 9–0 to Manchester United in a League Cup match. The criminals' ineptitude made it easy for the police to catch them, however, and the result was voided (although United won the rematch). Due to injuries to their main goalkeepers Jarvis signed an American goalkeeper, Chuck Rivers. Rivers suffered from depression and abused drugs; he committed suicide after some of his former drug dealers nearly killed one of his teammates.

In the Championship (the former Division One), Openshaw sold part of the club to a Russian gangster known as Boris Anokov. Gary Lewis (now managing a nearby pub) hatched a new plot: he would fake his own death at Jarvis' hands and claim the insurance money. Anokov found Lewis useful; he made him turn the pub into a brothel, giving Lewis the money to buy the pub and transfer it to Boris. Lewis never bought the pub, fleeing to the Cayman Islands with Boris' money. Jarvis was nearly convicted for the murder, but Lewis eventually confessed to the crime (after Anokov was killed by a rival gangster) and was imprisoned.

After a poor start to the 2005–06 season (and being refused permission to sign Joe Rock, a player from The Premier), Jarvis attempted to resign and become manager of Portsmouth. However, Openshaw recorded an insulting phone call made by Jarvis, edited it and replayed it to Portsmouth chairman Milan Mandarić; Jarvis seemed to be turning down the job offer and insulting Mandaric. A Chinese businesswoman (Li Ming) bought the club to turn them into the country's top side, and Openshaw remained in charge. Desperate to receive a £10 million payout promised by Li if Warbury was promoted to the Premiership, Openshaw convinced Jarvis to sign Ramiro Alvarez (a player from Juventus). Alvarez, however, spoke no English, played badly and went AWOL when Jarvis refused to play him in the first team (as promised by Openshaw). Alvarez' high salary caused unrest between Jarvis and the players. Li Ming was unhappy with her investment, telling Jarvis he would be fired if Warbury failed to reach the Premiership at the end of the season.

As the season continued, Jarvis and Li Ming began to fall in love, and during a session of martial arts they decided to pursue a relationship. When Openshaw vanished under mysterious circumstances, Vanessa discovered that he arranged a DNA test for his son Todd which had proven he was not the boy's father (Jarvis was). Meanwhile, Warbury won the play-off final and would be returning to the Premiership after a four-year absence. Li Ming's father discovered her relationship with Jarvis, and demanded its end. Her rivalry with Vanessa for Jarvis' affections led her to fire him.

Openshaw returned several weeks after he disappeared; he had gone hiking to Devon to clear his head after finding out about Todd's lineage. He then walked the moors for some time, before being bitten by a snake (and claiming it was an adder, though he suffered no ill-effects from the bite). Looking for help, he found a pub run by a woman called Doris. Eric and Doris fell in love; when they returned to Warbury, Eric told Vanessa he would divorce her and marry Doris.

Li Ming was unable to find a new manager, as none of the candidates (including Sven-Göran Eriksson) were suitable. She rehired Nick, telling him she did not want to restart their relationship. When she informed her father she would not be handing over control of the club to her brother, her father slapped her and told his daughter that he would cut off her trust fund. With the club in dire straits (and favourites for relegation at the end of the season), Li Ming found herself under pressure to raise money to buy new players. With the transfer window about to close until January, Li Ming secured an investment fund to buy players; the conditions were that she was only given a limited selection of players to choose from and if they were sold, the fund would take most of the profits.

Due to bad blood between Li Ming and her father, the Warbury chairwoman was attacked in the Warbury club car park and then kidnapped. Li's captors demanded a £2 million ransom from Li's father. As Li's father and brother finally reached the hideout, Li was escaping. She heard a shot and ran outside, to see her father lying motionless on the floor. Her brother, Chan, told her the captors had shot him; he then turned the gun on Li, saying he had to kill her because their father favoured Li. Li tried to reason with Chan; their father woke up and distracted him, and he dropped the gun. However, after punching Li Chan grabbed the gun. About to shoot, he slipped, fell down a well and died. Li's father then told her he was sorry for trying to control her decisions and left everything to her.

Warbury managed to scramble to mid-table with a late run of good results, before they achieved their highest-ever finish of fourth place in the 2007–08 season, entering the UEFA Champions League for the first time in their history. Despite mediocre league form in the 2008–09 season (mostly due to club captain Kurt Panzer suffering mental health problems caused by his being blackmailed by a German couple whose son he had unwittingly killed in his youth), Warbury progressed through to the Champions League final, where they were victorious.

Amid the backdrop of Warbury's European adventure, Nick and Li Ming had begun a relationship and by the summer of 2009 had agreed to get married. However, Li Ming announced at a formal dinner (without consulting him beforehand) that Nick would leave his job as Warbury manager to become manager of the Chinese national team. Nick was so outraged by this action that he ended his relationship with Li Ming, who in turn withdrew her financial support for Warbury and attempted to have the club bankrupted. She eventually sold the now almost-worthless club to star French player Fabian De Guisson, who in turn sold it on to dunce defender Scrapper Griswell. Just as it looked like Scrapper had bought a dud, a saviour appeared at the last minute in the guise of Sheikh Mustapha Futti Khalub.

When Li Ming took over at Warbury, her father was unhappy about it. When Li began a relationship with Jarvis, her father ordered her to end it and fire him. She did, but eventually gave him his job back. During summer 2006, her father visited Li at Gasworks Road with her brother Chan. Li was attacked by thugs in the car park but fought them off, believing the attack to be orchestrated by her father. A short time later, Li was attacked by the same thugs at her house and kidnapped. The kidnappers demanded £2 million from Li's father. Li's father and brother went to the place where Li was being held with the ransom. Meanwhile, Li hatched a plan to escape from where she was being held. As Li's father and brother arrived she killed one of the three kidnappers, escaped and knocked the remaining two kidnappers out. She heard a single gunshot, and raced up to find her father lying on the ground. She turned to Chan for help, only to see that he was pointing the gun at her. Chan revealed he had shot their father and would do the same to her, as he was sick of being made to feel worthless by them both. Li pleaded with him; as he prepared to shoot, their father distracted him by calling out. Li kicked the gun out of her brothers hand; when Chan recovered his gun and prepared to shoot again, he stumbled and fell 150 ft down an unused mine shaft to his death. Li made peace with her dying father, who left his £15 billion fortune to her.
 * Li Ming Wong kidnapping:

During summer 2006, Scrapper Griswell married his girlfriend Bertha. Since Bertha was a champion bog snorkeller, the wedding was held at a peat bog in Wales where the annual bog-snorkelling tournament took place. Rufus's Uncle Luis provided music and entertainment for the wedding. During the reception Fabian first made advances towards Vanessa Openshaw, taking her outside to a portable toilet for some privacy. However, Fabian's nanny Mona discovered what they were up to, and pushed the portable toilet over. Meanwhile, due to Scrapper's negligence the party was disrupted by a flood and the guests had to swim to safety through the bog. Fabian and Vanessa's portable toilet drifted out into open water; they were airlifted to safety, with a news report suggesting they used the toilet as a makeshift boat.
 * Scrapper and Bertha's wedding:

During February 2007 Fabian de Guisson began attending relationship counselling with his partner Vanessa Openshaw, with both claiming the other was cheating on them. The counsellor, Celia Montgomery, decided to see them both separately. At their first session, Fabian made advances towards her, Soon after, Fabian was signing copies of his autobiography Je Suis Magnifique at a Warbury bookshop, when he saw Montgomery. He asked her whether she would be pressing charges. As she struggled to get away, her dress caught in the door and came off, leaving her in her underwear in the street. Fabian ended up in court, accused of sexual harassment. The case went badly, however, Fabian's lawyer lied that he had acted because of a mental condition. As a result, Fabian was sent to a mental hospital. There, he made a plan to seduce his doctor so that she would sign his release papers. However, after he made love to the wrong doctor his real doctor arrived, diagnosing him with narcissism.
 * Fabian in court:

In summer 2007, Li Ming Wong organised a tournament in Los Angeles. A few days into the trip, Jarvis arranged for him, Eric, Scrapper, Gerald, Fabian, Phil and Callum to have a plane tour of the Grand Canyon. However, plane trouble soon forced the pilots to crash-land in the water. Scrapper took the others on a raft to go for help. However, the strong current blew the raft off course, leaving the five in the raft in danger and Jarvis and the two pilots stranded. With a flare gun and a rope from the cockpit, Nick and the pilots were able to pull themselves to safety. The players' raft went down a waterfall, leaving the five stranded in a clearing. Scrapper and Callum went to find food, as Gerald told Eric, Fabian and Phil the legend of Bigfoot. The anxious players hear a gunshot from the woods. Three hillbillies emerge and engage in conversation with the players before Scrapper returns with Callum, attacks the hillbillies and escapes with the rest of the team. They find refuge in a cave, and Scrapper volunteers to search for the nearest town. When the others awaken, they find a large, gorilla-like monster standing at the cave's entrance. Gerald screams, only for the "monster" to pull off its fake head and reveal itself as Scrapper. The hillbillies, he explained, wanted him to wear this costume to bring back tourists and make people think a Bigfoot-type creature lived there. Openshaw wanted to leave, and looked for Scrapper. When he sees a gorilla-type monster searching through a bin and calls it, Scrapper asked why he was shouting. They turned to see the real monster, and ran for their lives.
 * Los Angeles trip:

Ewan Merenghi's agent, Jim Sykes, arrived early one season. Ewan's wife Cindy wished to be his agent and talked to Sykes about doing so. Sykes rejected Cindy's offer, but the two met at a hotel later on with Cindy attempting to bribe Sykes into accepting. During an investigation by the FA, it was discovered that Openshaw bribed Sykes during Merenghi's signing. Openshaw met Sykes and asked him for help, which Sykes refused. Openshaw went to church to pray for a way out; soon after, Sykes was found dead in his apartment from a gunshot wound to the head. Openshaw was arrested and questioned; his lack of an alibi and clear motive made him the prime suspect. Kyle Banner (Cindy Merenghi's ex-boyfriend), it turned out, killed Sykes to keep him from warning Merenghi about Banner.
 * Jim Sykes:

During the 2009 preseason Warbury toured China, during which Jarvis and Li Ming planned to marry. During a banquet, Li Ming informed the guests that she had arranged for Jarvis to become manager of China's national team so they could win the World Cup. Angry at not being consulted, Jarvis turned down the job offer. The wedding was called off, with Li Ming vowing revenge. She sold the club to Fabian, who thought he had a bargain until Jarvis and Openshaw told him the club no longer had a stadium or any players; instead, they had a points deduction for going into bankruptcy and failing to provide a team. The only asset the club had was a piece of farmland which could only be developed as a football stadium. Fabian sold the land to Scrapper, who thought he could use it for housing since Fabian did not disclose the football-stadium provision. As Scrapper and his wife surveyed their seemingly-worthless land, a wealthy sheik offered to buy it.
 * Story's conclusion in 2009:

At this point, Striker parted company with The Sun a second time, and the story was continued in weekly magazine Nuts. The Sheikh bought the bankrupt club from Scraper and with Eric's help was able to persuade the Premier League not to expel them. Despite the heavy points deductions imposed on the club, Nick was able to steer them to Premier League survival on the last day, only for he and Eric to be sacked days later for not being high-profile enough for the Sheikh's liking. After a nine-month run in Nuts, Striker went on hiatus for two-and-a-half years.

During January 2013 when the strip returned to The Sun for a second time, it was revealed that Warbury had suffered successive relegations and were now playing in League One. It was also revealed that they had been threatened with bankruptcy and expulsion from the Football League due to an unpaid tax bill.

Nick and Eric had both retired from football in the meantime, with the former having become a television pundit (a job which he quickly lost after repeatedly staring at his female co-host's legs). It subsequently turned out that the Sheikh's kingdom had fallen into a financial crisis, and in order to raise enough money to prevent it from being annexed by the United Arab Emirates, he sold the club back to Li Ming, who had since come to regret her actions in attempting to destroy the club four years previously, and quickly moved to re-hire Nick and Eric. Taking over a poor team which had been assembled by the Sheikh and a succession of intervening managers, Nick managed to haul them up from an unimpressive mid-table spot to promotion via the play-offs, during which time he temporarily came out of retirement due to the team's strikers being injured, inexperienced or talentless. In the summer, he began reassembling part of his old squad for the campaign in the Championship. In the meantime, Li Ming's presence in China became increasingly consistent, dealing with her late-father's businesses. During this time, she developed an acquaintance with Zhu Fang, a senior Chinese Communist Party official. Over time, Zhu Fang's intentions became more evident, with him revealing he wished to construct a factory in Warbury, making electronics/weaponry for the Chinese government, taking advantage of Li Ming's strong financial presence back in the United Kingdom. She soon became guilt-ridden with the plan and backed out, cutting all ties with Fang. Soon after, Fang planted a weighted bomb in Li Ming's office in the Gasworks Road Stadium. Bomb Disposal units deemed it a fake. Whilst back in China, Zhu Fang's plans were revealed to his peers, he was prosecuted and sentenced to death, his political position terminated immediately. The club excelled into the Premiership under Jarvis's leadership, with him continuing this success until Autumn 2014; when he and Li Ming, his then wife, began their honeymoon. A few days into the event, an explosion occurred, killing Li Ming. Nick was not present in the yacht at the time. It was revealed that the now-deceased Zhu Fang had a bomb placed in the yacht, fulfilling his death wish for revenge, stating the last was "merely to scare her". An unnamed man was shown walking away from the explosion, thought to be an employee of Fang. The incident took a toll on Nick's mental health, he contacted Eric and claimed that he no longer wanted anything to do with Warbury Warriors and would step down. Further attempts at contact by Eric failed, with Nick seemingly disappearing. Back at Warbury, Eric assumed full running of the club. Initially divided about whom to appoint as manager, he was blackmailed by long-suffering second-in-command, Dave Boreham, with Boreham holding the fact that Eric appointed Ajabu Ndonga, an underage teenage African footballer, for the club in 2010. Dave threatened to report Eric's misconduct to FIFA, for violating rules concerning young players. During Dave's management, he laid off many of the older players, or put them on the bench as substitutes. Many players opposed Boreham's reign over the club, with a few deciding to leave also. Although despite this, Warbury continued to flourish in the Premier league. As the months went on, former player, Fabian de Guisson, who had been crippled by an injury from falling out of a window a few months before, was appointed assistant manager by Eric, much to Dave's disgust. Eric believed that this move would be popular amongst the team, although this was not the case. Lead striker and star player, Callum Angelo took the decision to leave at the end of his contract. Claiming De Guisson's managerial position was one of the reasons he was leaving. This brought the club into disrepute, Fabian asked Scrapper Griswell, who had been "on the bench" for much of the previous games to play "up front", he agreed. Meanwhile, Eric discovered he was innocent of any wrongdoing regarding Ndonga and promptly informed Boreham, who resigned as manager before Eric reported him to the police. De Guisson assumed the managerial position full-time shortly after.

Nick, meanwhile, had been living a life away from the public eye, still on the Isle of Man, where he was still recovering from the mental anguish of losing Li Ming. He had inherited the club after Li Ming's death and took the decision to sell it. While visiting a Solicitors on the Isle of Man to begin proceedings of selling the club to Eric, he learnt he was left an excess of 1 billion pounds in Li Ming's will. This prompted Nick to consider what he was doing. In a series of flashbacks, he recalled Li Ming telling him to pursue with Warbury, although also remembering his father's dying words to move on to a larger club. He later informed the Solicitors that he was no longer interested in selling Warbury to Eric and returned to England, where he told Eric in person. After Eric had learnt of Nick's intentions, he asked him why he wanted to return, Nick replied it was what Li would have wanted.

At the start of the 2015–16 season, Warbury were deducted a total of 30 points, as they had entered administration, but not exited it before the start of the season and financial irregularities over Jarvis decision to make Sports TV a part of the club's business.

Comic Era
As the comic era opened, Eric and Vanessa were taking money out of a cash machine, while three bank robbers ran out of the bank dressed in masks of Prince Charles, The Queen and Tony Blair carrying £100 thousand in cash. Eric subsequently managed to delay the robbers by pretending that his car which was parked in the way of their getaway vehicle wouldn't start. As a result, the robbers subsequently abandoned the money and ran off, as the police turned up before Warbury were drawn at home to Manchester United in the Carling Cup later that day. The robbers subsequently hatched a plan to get revenge on Openshaw by kidnapping his wife and placing a £2 thousand bet on Warbury to lose to Manchester United 9–0 in four different bookies. They subsequently traced her movements before kidnapping her ahead of the game and taking her to their hideout where Pickaxe Pete was waiting for them as he wanted in on their plans.

title: Striker (comic)


text:
Talk:Commandant of the Coast Guard

Previously unsectioned
Please explain "Unlike the Commandant of the Marine Corps, The Coast Guard Commandant is Chief of the Coast Guard IAW Title 18 USC 40."--67.164.231.139 21:16, 1 October 2005 (UTC)

SecDef Report?
Unless objected to, I would like to remove the reference to also reporting to the Secretary of Defense. The Coast Guard reports to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Briefing/meeting with the DoD Secretary is probably common, but the Commandant is not a direct report. I understand the USCG would fall within the Navy in a period of "declared war", but this hasn't happened since WWII and the changeover is unlikely to happen again. --Pesco 22:56, 2 August 2006 (UTC)
 * I'd agree with that. I'd agree so much, I took it out and left a very nice edit summary. And it is also mentioned over in the USCG article.  I know, cuz I put it there. :) — MrDolomite | Talk 01:17, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Term created revert
User:TommyBoy reverted this, but I think it should be included, as it's useful information. Thoughts?

"The term "Commandant" was created in 1908. Until that point, the commanders were commanders of the U.S. Revenue Cutter Service and other similar earlier agencies."

--Awiseman 19:03, 30 May 2006 (UTC)

My reversion of that particular info was unintentional. I apologize if I have offended anyone. --TommyBoy 19:41, 31 May 2006 (UTC)

Template
I have noticed that one of the other language versions of Wikipedia has a template for articles on the U.S. Coast Guard Commandants, and I would like to know if the same thing could be created in the English version of Wikipedia. --TommyBoy 07:54, 30 July 2006 (UTC)

Commandant lineage
It looks like the USCG traces the lineage of Commandant back to Capt Shepard of the Revenue Cutter Service in 1898. This is confirmed at the site of current Commandant Allen  citing him as the 23rd commandant. This numerical listing makes sense if one starts counting at Capt Shepard in 1898.--G1076 06:16, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Further confirmation: "Forty years later in 1883, Captain Leonard G. Shepard became Chief of the "Revenue Marine Division" and is considered to be our first Commandant." USCG Factfile - click History, then Past Commandants The date in Capt Shepard's Bio  has his appointment year in 1889.--G1076 14:15, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

Unknown insigne of the
I would like to illustrate the article with this imagetext from the USCG website. In order to describe the image file and afterwards choose a caption for the image in the article, I need to know how this insigne is called. --Scriberius (talk) 21:48, 31 May 2009 (UTC)

It is called the Commandant's Staff Badge. Eric J. Hebert (talk) 06:39, 1 June 2009 (UTC)

Infobox
So please there I am, what's the issue? Colonestarrice (talk) 19:47, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
 * As I stated previously, there is no "Department of the Coast Guard" and there wasn't a ref supporting the honorific "Mr. Commandant". But then, has it been established that should even be added? I would suggest looking to another infobox for guidance, such as; Commandant of the Marine Corps, or some of the other Joint Chiefs of Staff infoboxes. As for your current 'suggestions', I don't agree they are an improvement, and it seems another regular contributor here doesn't approve as well, though I wouldn't presume to speak for them, can speak for themselves. Perhaps propose your changes here, along with their rationale, and we can all discuss it. -  wolf  04:52, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

 * (Just to make this clear for possible new participants, these are my proposed changes).
 * I’m sorry that you see my revision as a disimprovement, the intent behind it was of clear opposite nature. Yes, you’re right, the honorific part was unsourced this is why I did not reinstate it upon your request. And as I mentioned in one of the edit summaries, the department parameter is not necessarily used for U.S. departments only (see POTUS for example) but rather for the official’s area/scope of responsibility in general. As Infobox official post’s template documentation states itself: “The organizational entity this official either heads, or is otherwise part of.” Colonestarrice (talk) 16:03, 10 January 2019 (UTC)

Waesche vs. Shoemaker
I know it's good to "be bold" but I want to discuss this first. It's been a long while since I made any edits. Notice also I count the first day of tenure as a full day: enddate - startdate + 1.

First, I propose we correct ADM Waesche's tenure as CCG. He began 14 June 1936 according to both his wiki bio and USCG's official bio page for him.

Second, I propose we identify CAPT Shoemaker as the longest-serving Commandant. Waesche served 3,489 days vice Shoemaker's 3,661 days. I believe our mistake stems from Waesche's official bio page that designates he served the longest tenure. The math just doesn't agree -- so I feel we must recognize the Coast Guard historian made a mistake on their website.

Please observe that even if Waesche's tenure started 1 January 1936, he would've only served 3,654 days vice Shoemaker's 3,661. RADM Billard comes in third with 3,050 days as CCG.

I'll make these changes if no one objects. Thanks! --Rob — Preceding unsigned comment added by Rsnbrgr (talk • contribs) 00:33, 19 February 2021 (UTC)

 * Well, you are correct if you count Shoemaker's time as commandant time. Shoemaker was a senior captain in actual rank and was never referred to as commandant. Also, he was never in the Coast Guard, but rather the Revenue Cutter Service. Shoemaker was promoted to captain-commandant on the retired list of the RCS in 1908. Today he is recognized as the second commandant. My guess is that whoever works in the Coast Guard Historian's Office either can't count or discounted the service of the RMS when counting the various commandants time served. Author C. Douglas Kroll in his book describes Ellsworth P. Bertholf as the first commandant of the Coast Guard Perhaps the Historian's office was influenced by the title of the book. If you look at the military billet of the senior officer or leader of the RMS, you must count Shepard, Shoemaker, Ross and then Bertholf. This counting makes Bertholf the fourth commandant and not the first as Kroll stipulates. Perhaps the service tenure count was made from Bertholf and not from Shepard; this would have eliminated Shoemaker' time. In any event the current Coast Guard commandant, Admiral Shultz, is recognized as the 26th commandant by the Coast Guard itself. If you want to make the changes, then go ahead and make them but please cite your changes by using the official bio on the Historian's Office page. Good catch! Full disclosure: I constructed the table on the Commandant of the Coast Guard article several years ago and probably botched the dates for the Hamlet and Waesche service dates. My bad and I'm glad you found it. Cuprum17 (talk) 01:45, 19 February 2021 (UTC)
 * Citations

 * References

 * Done! Feel free to fix my work as needed. Like I said: it's been a long time since I edited a page. :-) FYI, I decided not to credit Shoemaker for the longest tenure as (1) the USCG page still cites Waesche and (2) we can mod the table to denote days of tenure if & when we choose. Rob Rosenberger (talk) 18:24, 20 February 2021 (UTC)

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Commandant of the Coast Guard


text:
Chimney Point, Vermont

Chimney Point is a peninsula in the town of Addison, Vermont, which juts into Lake Champlain forming a narrows. It is one of the earliest settled and most strategic sites in the Champlain Valley.

For thousands of years, the locale was occupied by Native Americans. In 1731 it was settled by the French, who built fortifications and houses on both sides of the lake.

Along with the Crown Point peninsula across the narrows, the area was the site of conflicts between Great Britain and France as they struggled for control of North America. During the American Revolutionary War, Chimney Point was occupied at different times by both the American and British armies.

With the end of the war in 1783, American settlers returned to the Champlain Valley. In 1785, regular ferry service across the lake was established to and from Chimney Point. A tavern, once visited by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, served travelers and the community.

In 1929, the first Lake Champlain Bridge opened. It increased traffic and improved communication between Vermont and upstate New York. Following the discovery of deterioration in the piers in 2009, that bridge was demolished and replaced by a new bridge, which opened in 2011.

Chimney Point is a Vermont State Historic Site, preserving a 1785 tavern and presenting the story of three cultures, Native American, French Colonial, and early-American.

Geography
The Chimney Point peninsula is bounded by Lake Champlain and Hospital Creek. At its narrowest, Lake Champlain is about .3 miles across at Chimney Point. The Lake Champlain Bridge is one of only two bridges across the lake in its length of 125 mile.

The spot is a favorite with anglers. A boat launch at Chimney Point allows access to the lake.

Indigenous peoples
Archeologists have found evidence of human habitation in the Chimney Point area for as long as 7,500 years. Native Americans camped, hunted, and fished at Chimney Point. Their tools show they adapted to a warming climate and moved with the seasons to hunt, fish, and gather food. They made spear throwers and stone spear points for hunting animals, and stone tools for cutting, scraping, and working wood and other stone. In the Woodland period, the native peoples made ceramic pots for storage of foodstuff, water, and use with foods and produce.

French settlement
Samuel de Champlain was the first European to explore the lake that settlers later named for him. In 1609 he traveled at least as far south as present-day Ticonderoga, 13 miles from Chimney Point.

There were years of conflict between the French and English in North America as they competed for power, territory, and the fur trade. King William's War continued with actions from 1688 to 1697 as the North American front of the Nine Years War in Europe. With sparse numbers of colonists, both sides made allies among Native American peoples to aid them in their warfare.

In 1690, the British governor of New York sent Captain Jacobus de Warm from Albany with orders to watch the French and Indians from Canada on Lake Champlain and to “endeavor to despoil, plunder and do them all injury as enemies, according to the usages of war.” De Warm built a small stone defense at Chimney Point that he, 12 soldiers, and 20 Mohawk allies occupied for about a month. In 1731, the French occupied the area, first building a stockade fort on the bluff at Pointe-à-la-Chevelure, today's Chimney Point. In 1734 or 1735, they began construction on the stone Fort St. Frédéric on the west side of the lake. At first both sides were considered part of a single royal domaine with Louis XV as seigneur.

In 1743, Gilles Hocquart, Intendant of New France, was granted a seigneurie of approximately 115,000 acres on the east shore of the lake, much of today's Addison County. French settlement on Lake Champlain was both military and agricultural with farms on both sides of the lake. The population of settlers at Pointe-à-la-Chevelure peaked at the beginning of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), at approximately 150 with 21 houses on the east side of the lake and 19 on the west.

French and Indian War
The French settlement at Pointe-à-la-Chevelure was close to major fighting in the French and Indian War, which took place at the southern end of Lake George (Lac du Saint-Sacrement) and at Fort Ticonderoga (Carillon).

When Major Robert Rogers, commander of the provincial ranger forces, scouted Fort St. Frédéric in early May 1756, he found settlements on the west side of the lake largely abandoned and was able to observe the fort from across the lake. The party slaughtered 23 head of cattle before returning to Fort William Henry on Lake George.

In the summer of 1759, as British Major General Jeffery Amherst and his army of 12,000 men seized Ticonderoga, the French retreated north to Canada, blowing up Fort St. Frédéric and burning houses on both sides of the lake. A remaining chimney on the east shore gave the area its new English name, Chimney Point.

On the west side of the lake, the British built massive Fort Crown Point with forty-foot-high walls and a six-acre parade ground, but it was destroyed by fire in 1773. When a British engineer inspected the fort in 1774, he found it to be “an amazing useless mass of Earth only.”

American Revolutionary War
During the American Revolution, Chimney Point's fate was closely tied to that of Crown Point. A small British garrison at Crown Point was captured by Americans under Captain Seth Warner on May 11, 1775. For nearly a year-and-a-half afterwards, the narrows was an important base for the American army and for their vessels of war on the lake. Headquarters was on the west side of the lake, but Chimney Point was occupied as well. During the American retreat from Canada in June and early July 1776, sick men were cared for on both sides of the lake.

On July 7, 1776, a council of generals presided over by Major General Philip Schuyler, commander of the Northern Department, ordered the army to withdraw from Crown Point and to fortify a peninsula opposite Fort Ticonderoga, later named Mount Independence. Among reasons for the withdrawal, Schuyler believed that American fortifications on the Crown Point side of the lake would be vulnerable to cannon fire from Chimney Point.

Until the defeat of the American fleet at the Battle of Valcour Island, the Crown Point-Chimney Point narrows remained an advanced outpost and naval base. With the approach of the British on October 13, 1776, the Americans destroyed defenses and buildings. Settlers on both sides of the lake fled south, leaving, wrote one observer, their houses and all their possessions “to the enemy, or to the flames.”

The British under Governor General Guy Carleton occupied the area from mid-October to early November 1776. Lieutenant General John Burgoyne and his army of 8000 men returned to Crown Point briefly in late June 1777 before continuing south to Ticonderoga and Mount Independence. German troops from the Duchy of Brunswick under command of Major General Friedrich Adolf Riedesel camped at Chimney Point. For the rest of the war, Chimney Point was a no man's land on a lake controlled by the British navy.

Ferries and steamboats
With the end of the Revolutionary War in the mid-1780s, Benjamin Paine built a tavern at Chimney Point and began a ferry service across the lake. By 1826, the ferry was powered by horses and made scheduled crossings to the town of Port Henry, about 3 miles away. The tavern was later enclosed in brick by Asahel Barnes, whose family acquired it in 1821.

In 1890, a steam ferry, the G.R. Sherman made the crossings on a greatly expanded schedule. Also in the 1890s, Millard Barnes enlarged the tavern and operated it as a summer resort, the St. Frederic Inn.

Chimney Point was a stop for passenger steamboats that traveled the lake.

Bridges
The first Lake Champlain Bridge connecting Chimney Point and Crown Point was built from June 1928 to August 1929. It was dedicated on August 29, 1929, with 40,000 people in attendance. Vermont Governor John E. Weeks and New York Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt, three years before his election as president, met at the center of the bridge. For 80 years, the bridge was a crucial link in the life and economy of the Champlain Valley, promoting tourism and tying the two sides of the lake together commercially and socially.

The bridge closed with almost no warning on October 16, 2009, after New York inspectors discovered serious deterioration of the piers. The bridge was demolished two months later. Ferry service reopened early in 2010, carrying more than 1.5 million vehicles and 2.6 passengers across the Chimney Point-Crown Point narrows.

Archeologists from the University of Vermont surveyed the area and worked with engineers and construction crews to protect historically significant sites. Numerous discoveries were made at Chimney Point, include the location of the 1731 French Fort and the foundation of the chimney that likely gave the peninsula its name. A new Lake Champlain Bridge, designed by Ted Zoli of the engineering firm HNTB, was constructed in two years, opening on November 8, 2011. Although the new bridge utilizes a different structural design, its central arch recreates the graceful lines of the earlier bridge. The new bridge has bicycle lanes and sidewalks for pedestrians.

Notable visitors
Noted Swedish-Finnish explorer and naturalist Pehr (Peter) Kalm visited the French settlement at Pointe-à-la-Chevelure in July 1749, staying more than two weeks. In the third volume of his Travels into North America, he included detailed descriptions of the lives of soldiers, the houses at the settlement, Fort St. Frédéric, the wind-mill, and the plants, animals, and minerals of the area.

In 1791, future presidents Thomas Jefferson, then Secretary of State, and Congressman James Madison, accompanied by slaves James Hemings and Matthew, toured upstate New York and eastern New England. On the night May 31, the party stayed in the tavern at Chimney Point. Madison observed, “On Crown point is one family only. On the opposite side the country is well inhabited.”

Chimney Point in popular culture
A tavern at Chimney Point was featured in the popular 1839 romance, The Green Mountain Boys: A Historical Tale of the Early Settlement of Vermont by Daniel Pierce Thompson. In the novel, which Thompson claimed was based upon "incidents which actually occurred," Green Mountain Boys leaders Ethan Allen and Charles Warrington (a fictionalized Seth Warner) engage in a drinking contest with British soldiers in order to escape capture. Millard Barnes, owner of the St. Frederic Inn, claimed that the tavern in the inn was the location of the legendary drinking bout. In fact, the tavern was built in the mid-1780s, a decade after the exploits of the Green Mountain Boys.

The original Lake Champlain Bridge, although unidentified, played a prominent part in the 2000 supernatural thriller What Lies Beneath, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. In the film, the ghost of a murdered university student lies in the water beneath the bridge.

Chimney Point State Historic Site
In 1966, the State of Vermont bought the Chimney Point property to protect it from private development. In 1971, it was listed in the National Register of Historic Places for its long and significant history. The state restored the tavern, and in 1991 reopened it as a museum. It has one of the most intact early tap rooms as well as a historic rural post office.

Exhibits and special events present the story of the three early cultures in the Chimney Point area — prehistoric and historic Native American, French colonial, and early American after the Revolutionary War.

The park hosts the annual Northeast Open Atlatl Championship and workshops on Native American techniques of atlatl and dart construction, flint knapping, hafting stone points, and cordage making.

Chimney Point Historic Site and Crown Point State Historic Site across the lake in New York cooperate closely on promoting the historic significance of the area and often jointly sponsor events. Visitors can walk across the Lake Champlain Bridge from one site to the other.

The museum at the Chimney Point Historic Site is open from late May through Columbus Day.

title: Chimney Point, Vermont


text:
Arachnoid mater

The arachnoid mater (or simply arachnoid) is one of the three meninges, the protective membranes that cover the brain and spinal cord. It is so named because of its resemblance to a spider web. The arachnoid mater is a derivative of the neural crest mesoectoderm in the embryo.

Structure
The arachnoid mater is interposed between the two other meninges, the more superficial (closer to the surface) and much thicker dura mater and the deeper pia mater, from which it is separated by the subarachnoid space. The delicate arachnoid layer is not attached to the inside of the dura but against it and surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It does not line the brain down into its sulci (folds), as does the pia mater, with the exception of the longitudinal fissure, which divides the left and right cerebral hemispheres. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows under the arachnoid in the subarachnoid space, within a meshwork of trabeculae which span between the arachnoid and the pia. The arachnoid mater makes arachnoid villi, small protrusions through the dura mater into the venous sinuses of the brain, which allow CSF to exit the subarachnoid space and enter the blood stream.

Unlike the dura mater, which receives a rich vascular supply from numerous arteries, the arachnoid mater is avascular (lacking blood vessels).

The arachnoid mater and dura mater are very close together throughout the cranium and spinal canal all the way to S2, where the two layers fuse into one and end in the filum terminale, which attaches to the coccygeal end of the spinal canal. Sandwiched between the dura and arachnoid maters lie some veins that connect the brain's venous system with the venous system in the dura mater.

The arachnoid mater covering the brain is referred to as the arachnoidea encephali, and the portion covering the spinal cord as the arachnoidea spinalis. The arachnoid and pia mater are sometimes considered as a single structure, the leptomeninx, or the plural version, leptomeninges (lepto, from the Greek root meaning "thin"). Similarly, the dura in this situation is called the pachymeninx.

There are two subdivisions of arachnoid mater surrounding the subarachnoid space, the dorsal layer and the ventral layer. The dorsal layer covers internal cerebral veins and fixes them to the surrounding tela choroidea. The ventral layer of arachnoid membrane, on the other hand, is a direct anterior extension of this arachnoid envelope that the dorsal layer forms over the pineal region.

Function
CSF circulates in the subarachnoid space (between arachnoid and pia mater). Cerebrospinal fluid is produced by the choroid plexus (inside the ventricles of the brain, which are in direct communication with the subarachnoid space so the CSF can flow freely through the nervous system). Cerebrospinal fluid is a transparent, colourless fluid and it is produced at about 500 ml/day. Its electrolyte levels, glucose levels, and pH are very similar to those in plasma, but the presence of blood in cerebrospinal fluid is always abnormal.

Etymology
The arachnoid mater is named after the Greek word arachne ("spider"), the suffix -oid ("in the image of"), and the Latin word mater ("mother"), because of the fine spider-web–like appearance of the delicate fibres of the arachnoid (arachnoid trabeculae) which extend down through the subarachnoid space and attach to the pia mater.

Additional images
The arachnoid cells continue inside the brain, covering the so-called Virchow-Robin spaces or perivascular spaces. For that reason some meningiomas can appear as completely inside the brain.

title: Arachnoid mater


text: User talk:83.70.36.60

title: User talk:83.70.36.60


text:
ICL 2900 Series

The ICL 2900 Series was a range of mainframe computer systems announced by the British manufacturer International Computers Limited on 9 October 1974. The company had started development under the name "New Range" immediately on its formation in 1968. The range was not designed to be compatible with any previous machines produced by the company, nor for compatibility with any competitor's machines: rather, it was conceived as a synthetic option, combining the best ideas available from a variety of sources.

In marketing terms, the 2900 Series was superseded by Series 39 in the mid-1980s; however, Series 39 was essentially a new set of machines implementing the 2900 Series architecture, as were subsequent ICL machines branded "Trimetra".

Origins
When ICL was formed in 1968 as a result of the merger of International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) with English Electric Leo Marconi and Elliott Automation, the company considered several options for its future product line. These included enhancements to either ICT's 1900 Series or the English Electric System 4, and a development based on J. K. Iliffe's Basic Language Machine. The option finally selected was the so-called Synthetic Option: a new design conceptualized from scratch.

As the name implies, the design was influenced by many sources, including earlier ICL machines. The design of Burroughs mainframes was influential, although ICL rejected the concept of optimising the design for one high-level language. The Multics system provided other ideas, notably in the area of protection. However, the biggest single outside influence was probably the MU5 machine developed at Manchester University.

The virtual machine
The 2900 Series architecture uses the concept of a virtual machine as the set of resources available to a program. The concept of a virtual machine in the 2900 Series architecture differs from the term as used in other environments. Because each program runs in its own virtual machine, the concept may be likened to a process in other operating systems, while the 2900 Series process is more like a thread.

The most obvious resource in a virtual machine is the virtual store (memory). Other resources include peripherals, files, and network connections.

In a virtual machine, code can run in any of sixteen layers of protection, called access levels (or ACR levels, after the Access Control Register which controls the mechanism). The most-privileged levels of operating system code (the kernel) operate in the same virtual machine as the user application, as do intermediate levels such as the subsystems that implement filestore access and networking. System calls thus involve a change of protection level, but not an expensive call to invoke code in a different virtual machine. Every code module executes at a particular access level, and can invoke the functions offered by lower-level (more privileged) code, but does not have direct access to memory or other resources at that level. The architecture thus offers a built-in encapsulation mechanism to ensure system integrity.

Segments of memory can be shared between virtual machines. There are two kinds of shared memory: public segments used by the operating system (which are present in all virtual machines), and global segments used for application-level shared data: this latter mechanism is used only when there is an application requirement for two virtual machines to communicate. For example, global memory segments are used for database lock tables. Hardware semaphore instructions are available to synchronise access to such segments. A minor curiosity is that two virtual machines sharing a global segment use different virtual addresses for the same memory locations, which means that virtual addresses cannot safely be passed from one VM to another.

The term used in the ICL 2900 Series and ICL Series 39 machines for central processing unit (CPU) is "Order Code Processor" (OCP).

Addressing mechanisms
The 2900 architecture supports a hardware-based call stack, providing an efficient vehicle for executing high-level language programs, especially those allowing recursive function calls. This was a forward-looking decision at the time, because it was expected that the dominant programming languages would initially be COBOL and FORTRAN. The architecture provides built-in mechanisms for making procedure calls using the stack, and special-purpose registers for addressing the top of the stack and the base of the current stack frame.

Off-stack data is typically addressed via a descriptor. This is a 64-bit structure containing a 32-bit virtual address and 32 bits of control information. The control information identifies whether the area being addressed is code or data; in the case of data, the size of the items addressed (1, 8, 32, 64, or 128 bits); a flag to indicate whether hardware array-bound-checking is required; and various other refinements.

The 32-bit virtual address comprises a 14-bit segment number and an 18-bit displacement within the segment.

The order code is not strictly part of the 2900 architecture. This fact has been exploited to emulate other machines by microcoding their instruction sets. However, in practice, all machines in the 2900 series implement a common order code or instruction set, known as the PLI (Primitive Level Interface). This is designed primarily as a target for high-level language compilers. The most powerful machines, such as the 2980 and 2988, implemented all instructions in hardware, whereas the others used microcoded firmware.

There are several registers, each designed for a special purpose. An accumulator register (ACC) is available for general-purpose use, and may be 32, 64, or 128 bits in size. The B register is used for indexing into arrays; the LNB (Local Name Base) register points to the base of the current stack frame, with the SF (Stack Front) register pointing to the movable 'top' of the stack; the DR register is used for holding descriptors for addressing into the heap, and so on. There are also two 32-bit pointers to off-stack data; XNB (eXtra Name Base) and LTB (Linkage Table Base).

Data formats recognized by the PLI instructions include 32-bit unsigned integers; 32-bit and 64-bit twos-complement integers; 32-bit, 64-bit and 128-bit floating point; and 32-bit, 64-bit, and 128-bit packed decimal. Contrary to C and UNIX convention, the boolean value true is represented as zero and false is represented as minus one. Strings are stored as arrays of 8-bit characters, conventionally encoded in EBCDIC (although ICL's EBCDIC has minor variations from IBM's version). It is possible to use ISO (essentially ASCII) instead of EBCDIC by setting a control bit in a privileged register; among other things, this affects certain decimal conversion instructions.

Because some of the PLI instructions, notably those for procedure calling, are very powerful (especially system calls), instruction rates on the 2900 Series are not always directly comparable with those on competitors' hardware. ICL marketing literature tended to use the concept of "IBM equivalent MIPS", being the MIPS rating of an IBM mainframe that achieved the same throughput in application benchmarks. The efficiencies achieved by the 2900 architecture, notably the avoidance of system call overheads, compensated for relatively slow raw hardware performance.

P (parallel) series
The first machines announced in the 2900 Series were the 2980 and 2970. The 2980 allowed one or two order code processors (OCPs), each operating at up to 3 million instructions per second, with real memory configurable up to 8 megabytes, with a 500 nanosecond access time.

The 2980 was initially the most powerful of ICL's New Range mainframe computers. In addition to the OCPs, it consisted of a store multiple access controller (SMAC) and one or more store access controllers (SAC), a general peripheral controller (GPC), one or more disc file controllers (DFC) and a communications link controller (CLC), together with disc drives (a typical configuration would have eight EDS 200 drives), tape decks, an operating station (OPER), line printers, and card readers. It could run the ICL VME (VME/B, VME/K) or the Edinburgh Multiple Access System (EMAS) operating system. A typical 2980 configuration would cost about £2 million (equivalent to £ million in ).

Unlike the 2980, the 2970 and the subsequent 2960 were microcoded, and thus allowed emulation of instruction sets such as that of the older 1900 Series or the System 4.

A 2900 Series machine was constructed from a number of functional modules, each contained in a separate cabinet. Peripheral devices were connected using ICL's Primitive Interface (Socket/Plug and cable set) to a Port Adapter on the SMAC. Logical addressing was employed and used a group scheme to identify system components in terms of Ports, Trunks, and Streams.

A Trunk was a generic name and a hardware address within a Port to which a peripheral controller would be assigned. A Trunk was a generic name for a controller for a number of Stream devices. A Stream was the generic name for the channel under which individual peripheral devices could be referenced.

The boot process for the 2960 Series merits special mention: the OCP contained a mini OPER terminal and a cassette deck. At boot, the OCP would perform its Initial Program Load (IPL) from the nominated IPL device. The IPL code provided the means for the OCP to discover the system's hardware configuration by enquiring down the Stream(s), Trunk(s), and Port(s) to find the default or manually elected boot device for the microcode set and/or Operating System to be booted. This process was called a GROPE or General Reconnaissance Of Peripheral Equipment. The cassette load method also allowed engineering staff to load and execute diagnostic software.

S (serial) series
The first machines were subsequently replaced by a family of machines based on the 2966 mid-range design, which was less costly to build and used serial rather than parallel interconnections. The 2966 was extended upward in performance to the 2988 and downward to the 2958, augmented by dual processor versions, to cover the entire performance range.

title: ICL 2900 Series


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Nouméa Accord

The Nouméa Accord (Accord de Nouméa) of 1998 is a promise by the French Republic to grant increased political power to New Caledonia and its indigenous population, the Kanaks, over a twenty-year transition period. It was signed 5 May 1998 by Lionel Jospin, and approved in a referendum in New Caledonia on 8 November, with 72% voting in favour. Under the accord, three more referendum votes, on whether to remain a special collectivity of France or become an independent state, have been held. One was held in 2018, and the second was held in 2020. In both votes a majority chose to remain French. The Nouméa Accord permitted a final referendum to be held, voted for by the Congress of New Caledonia. It was held December 2021 and widely rejected independence amid boycott by the independence movement.

Under the Nouméa Accord, France has continued to control military and foreign policy, immigration, police and currency. France will continue to do so, the vote having rejected becoming an independent state in 2021.

Named after New Caledonia's capital and largest city, the Nouméa Accord was the second accord following the Matignon Agreements (1988).

Under the conditions of the Accord, the Vice President of New Caledonia must be a pro-independence politician if the Presidency is held by an anti-independence politician.

Signatories
The following people signed the Nouméa Accord on 5 May 1998:

 * on behalf of the French Republic:
 * Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister, the negotiations having been conducted on his behalf by his interior counselor Alain Christnacht,
 * Jean-Jack Queyranne, secretary of state of Overseas Affairs to the Minister of the Interior, the negotiations having been conducted on his behalf by his chief of staff Thierry Lataste.
 * on behalf of the Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (RPCR, anti-independence party) :
 * Jacques Lafleur, president of RPCR, President of the South Province Assembly and representative for the 1st electoral division of New Caledonia,
 * Pierre Frogier, representative for the 2nd electoral division, 1st Vice President of the South Province Assembly and mayor of Mont-Dore,
 * Simon Loueckhote, Senator from New Caledonia and elected from the Assembly of the Loyalty Islands Province and Congress of New Caledonia as well as being municipal councillor for Ouvéa,
 * Harold Martin, President of the Territorial Congress, elected from the South Province Assembly and mayor of Païta,
 * Jean Lèques, mayor of Nouméa, elected from the South Province Assembly and Congress,
 * Bernard Deladrière, Jacques Lafleur's chief of staff.
 * on behalf of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS, pro-independence):
 * Rock Wamytan, unitary president of FLNKS, member of the Caledonian Union (UC) part, Grand Chief of the Saint-Louis tribe and of the Pont-des-Français district, elected from the South Province Assembly and Congress,
 * Paul Néaoutyine, chief of the Party of Kanak Liberation (Palika) and the National Union for Independence (UNI) elected from the North Province Assembly and Congress as well as mayor of Poindimié
 * Charles Pidjot, member of the UC, nephew of former deputy Rock Pidjot,
 * Victor Tutugoro, spokesman for the Melanesian Progressive Union (UPM)

Popular consultation
Popular consultation for approval of the accords was organised in New Caledonia on Sunday, 8 November 1998.

Campaign
The local political class was divided on the question of the Nouméa agreement.

The following political figures and parties call for a "yes" vote, for reasons that are often diametrically opposed between supporters and opponents of independence:

 * the two main signatories, Jacques Lafleur's RPCR (which focuses on "at least 20 years of peace and stability" and a "future in the Republic") and Rock Wamytan's FLNKS (on behalf of the general interest of the country and future generations "),
 * the other two independentist movements, of moderate tradition, represented in the institutions, the Socialist Kanak Liberation Party (LKS) of Nidoïsh Naisseline ("the future of our country is at stake") and the Federation of Committees Coordinating Independents (FCCI) of Raphaël Mapou, Leopold Jorédié and François Burck ("yes to the long march of the men and women of this country, the yes to our common history so that it does not stop").
 * the various mayors of Bourail and Dumbéa, respectively Jean-Pierre Aïfa and Bernard Marant, long-time opponents of the RPCR
 * Delin Wema, former Kanak RPCR executive in the North Province who became one of the leading figures in the new party Developing Together to Build the Future (DECA),
 * Thierry Valet and Jean-Claude Legras, two members of Congress from  Une Nouvelle-Calédonie pour tous (UNCT, an organisation created by dissidents from RPCR which subsequently became the principal opposition to Jacques Lafleur within the anti-independence camp), who put themselves at odds with the official position of their movement (for them, the "Yes ... reconciles at the same time the respect of the others, of their culture, their way of life and the necessary mobilization of all energies to develop the economy of New Caledonia to guarantee social progress and full employment").

The "no" side featured:

 * the two main moderate anti-independence parties in opposition to RPCR: Dider Leroux's UNCT, which saw the Accord as paving the way for a "banana republic", reinforcing the hegemony of the RPCR over local political life and DECA, led by mayor of Koumac Robert Frouin, who presented the text as a "deceit" and a "Spanish farm where everyone finds what he wants to find", highlighting the differences of interpretation between the interpretations of RPCR and FLNKS.
 * on the right, RPCR members opposed to autonomy, local section of the National Front (FN) such as Guy George ("I urge you to refuse abandonment and vote no") and Claude Sarran's Movement for France (MPF) ( announcing a "collusion agreement" between "the socialist government to get rid of New Caledonia, the RPCR to extend its political-financial hegemony through transfers of powers and the FLNKS to satisfy its desire for independence"), as well as former RPCR Dick Ukeiwé,
 * on the left of the FLNKS, Louis Kotra Uregi's Union syndicale des travailleurs kanaks et des exploités (USTKE) who wanted immediate independence.

Results
Source : Décision du 9 novembre 1998 proclamant les résultats de la consultation des populations de la Nouvelle-Calédonie du dimanche 8 novembre 1998

title: Nouméa Accord


text:
The Fresh Air Fund

The Fresh Air Fund is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit agency founded in 1877. At sleep-away camps in New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, visiting volunteer host families along the East Coast in NYC-based programs, children get to have new experiences, learn new skills and gain new perspectives. Fresh Air children also participate in year-round leadership, career exploration and educational programs. The Fresh Air Fund has served more than 1.8 million children since its founding.

History
In 1877, The Fresh Air Fund was created to allow children living in underserved communities the chance to enjoy free summer experiences in the country. Reverend Willard Parsons, a minister who had just moved from New York City to a small, rural parish in Sherman, Pennsylvania, asked members of his congregation to provide country vacations as volunteer host families for New York City’s neediest children. This was the beginning of The Fresh Air Fund. By 1881, the agency's work was expanding so rapidly that Reverend Parsons asked for and secured support from The New York Tribune. By 1888, the agency was incorporated as The Tribune Fresh Air Fund Aid Society. Today, Fresh Air continues to depend on favorable publicity from the media with assistance from The New York Times.

Volunteer host family program, "Friendly Towns"
Fresh Air children ages 8 to 14 years old are given the opportunity to visit with host families to experience the joys of summer in the country. Fresh Air children are registered by more than 90 participating social services and community organizations located in disadvantaged neighborhoods in the five boroughs of New York City. First-time visitors, eight to 14 years old, spend one or two weeks with their host family. Youth who are re-invited by the same family may continue with The Fund through age 18 and may enjoy longer summertime visits year after year.

Friendly Towns host families are volunteers who live in the suburbs or small town communities. Host families range in size and background but share the desire to open their hearts and homes to give city children an experience they will never forget. Hosts say the Fresh Air experience is as enriching for their own families, as it is for the children. There are no financial requirements for hosting a child.

The majority of Fresh Air children are from underserved communities, often without the resources to send their children on summer experiences. Children create lifelong memories of riding bikes, swimming at the beach, visiting local attractions and making new friends.

In every Friendly Town, there is a volunteer committee and Chairperson responsible for the program. The committee publicizes the program, screens applications, checks references, interviews families in their homes and approves new hosts. The committee members also make follow-up visits to all participating host families every three years. The Friendly Town committee assists hosts while Fresh Air children are visiting and often plans group activities during the trips. The Fresh Air Fund provides support to Fund Representatives, Chairpeople and host families 24 hours a day, when Fresh Air children are visiting their towns.

Summer camping for New York City children
The Fresh Air Fund owns and operates five camps located on The Fund’s Sharpe Reservation in Fishkill, New York, 65 miles north of New York City. Sharpe Reservation has 2,300 acres of land with lakes, ponds, streams and hiking trails through the woods. The Fund's sixth camp, Camp Junior, is located in Harriman State Park.

Camp Tommy is The Fund's camp for boys, ages 12 to 15. Camp Tommy offers hiking, nature and other outdoor programs designed to develop cooperation and encourage team building. Major improvements and recently constructed facilities have created opportunities for significant educational programs, such as literacy and career skills development, computer workshops, photography and music. Originally Camp Pioneer from 1948-1998, Camp Tommy's inaugural year was 1999. Camp Tommy is named after Tommy Hilfiger, a supporter of The Fresh Air Fund.

Camp Hayden-Marks Memorial serves boys each session, age nine to 12. Campers take part in outdoor activities including sports, cooperative games, boating, arts and crafts, drama, science and hiking. Boys at Hayden-Marks Memorial also benefit from educational activities, including computers, video, music and art.

At Camp ABC, girls ages 9-15 live in small groups where they learn to develop self-confidence, independence and teamwork skills. Educational programs promote environmental awareness, cultural arts and physical fitness in a fun, safe, supportive environment. Camp ABC has a Leaders-in-Training program for 13 – 15 year olds, which focuses on personal growth, aiming for developing self-confidence and leadership skills.

Camp Hidden Valley serves 130 girls and boys with and without special needs, ages eight to 12. At this unique camp, children with and without disabilities live and play together. Camp activities include art, hiking, nature and creative writing. The specially designed pool complex is utilized by all campers, including children who use wheelchairs, braces or other forms of assistance.

Camp Mariah, The Fund's Career Awareness Camp, provides the opportunity for adolescents to explore educational paths and career options, while enjoying camp adventures. Camp Mariah offers a unique setting to engage boys and girls in an educational curriculum and prepare them for the world of work. Intensive three-and-a-half-week summer sessions and weekend camping trips are complemented by year-round activities in New York City. Children must be in the sixth grade to apply for the Career Awareness Program. Camp Mariah is named after Board member Mariah Carey.

Camp Junior, in memory of Lesandro “Junior” Guzman-Feliz, a 15 year-old victim of gang violence, is operated by The Fresh Air Fund in partnership with New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, Assembly Speaker Carl E. Heastie, Bronx Borough President Vanessa L. Gibson and the Palisades Interstate Park Commission. The camp is for boys and girls, ages 8-15, all from the Bronx.

Year-round programs and off-season camping
The Fund has expanded its initiative recently to intensify its relationship with young campers. Boys and girls from Camps Hayden-Marks Memorial, Hidden Valley and Anita Bliss Coler (ABC) participate in weekend camping programs in the fall, winter and spring. Activities included hiking, cooking, arts and crafts and cooperative games.

The Counselor-In-Training (CIT) Program at Camps Anita Bliss Coler (ABC) and Hayden-Marks Memorial have expanded significantly in recent years. The majority of the CITs are former campers. All CITs must be 16 and 17 years old at the beginning of the summer. During summer and weekend camp visits, young people acquire supervisory skills to become future camp counselors. They develop leadership, team-building and communications skills through a year-round program.

Career Awareness Programs
The Career Awareness Program focuses on expanding the education and career options of New York City adolescents. Boys and girls, ages 12 to 14, make a commitment for three years in order to participate in specially designed educational, recreational and camping experiences in New York City and at Camp Mariah. All students register in the spring of 6th grade. After completion of the 6th grade school year, they begin the program in the summer.

title: The Fresh Air Fund


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