Kiwanis Holds Annual "Name That Tune" Competition

At the Firefighters' Benevolent Hall Friday night, East Meadow Kiwanis club members ate, drank and competed against each either in a seven-round competition of "Name That Tune."

The night started with a dinner provided by North Bellmore's A Taste Of Home. After dinner the attendees organized into different teams and took their places for the start of the competition. 

"The winning team gets gift certificates to local East Meadow restaurants," Alan Hodish, Chair of Name That Tune, said, adding that the winners had a choice between , or for their gift certificate. 

The competition was broken down into different music categories. The first round featured only songs from the sixties, moving to the seventies, eighties, duets, guitarists, girls' names and songs from movies or plays. The guitarists and girls' names categories had teams identifying famous guitar players and songs with a girl's name in them, respectively.

At a table in the front of the dining hall, Kiwanis President Harry Demiris acted as DJ and Kiwanis Secretary Jim Smith judged. Hodish acted as emcee, leading the different rounds. The night was also Hodish's birthday and the club presented him with a cake in the middle of the night's festivities.

"I couldn't think of a better way to spend my birthday party than with a hundred of my closest and most intimate friends," Hodish said, looking down at his birthday cake.

Eileen Demiris was in charge of the night's raffles and 50/50 contest. She drew raffle winners in between Name That Tune rounds, giving away wine, liquor and gift baskets.

East Meadow Chamber of Commerce member John Nunnencamp has attended both years of the Kiwanis Club's Name That Tune competition.

"It's good to get different businesses together and socialize," Nunnencamp said. "My boss [Peter Cipriano] is [soon to be] the East Meadow president of the Chamber of Commerce and I go to a lot of community events to support local businesses."

The night's game was rowdy and friendly and even had members of other local Kiwanis clubs playing. Arlene Gregory, president of Merrick's Kiwanis club, was captain of Team Shazam, a team named ironically after the iPhone app that identifies song titles and artists.

"We're in second to last, hooray," Gregory said, jumping up and giving high-fives to her teammates. 

Closing out the evening were the announcements of the winning team and the name of the 50/50 winner. Winning $195 was Mitchel Allen, Kiwanis President-Elect. The winning team for Name That Tune was, with 700 points, The Defenders, a team made up of last year's winners.

Hodish was excited about next year's game as everyone got ready to leave. "Next year we want teams from every division," he said, hoping to have a Name That Tune night involving other local Kiwanis clubs next time.