Lots of wood to chop

Friends, we have a lot of wood to chop at KAH to prepare for our millioneth meal celebration. The first goal is to package 130,000 more meals. Gather up your family and friends in packs of 8-10 and establish a time to pack-away! We have each Wednesday night and Saturday morning in January for dates available. If those times do not work for you - give Pastor Renee a jingle to set something else up. The 1,000,000th celebration will be February 12th. Think of groups you are involved in and jointly get your hands in the tubs and help us meet the 1,000,000 mark. Neighbors, workmates, church groups, fams, coffee clubs, therapy circles, teammates....Start scooping friends!

BFE relay race

Are there any willing Kiwanians to join me in the 1st BFE relay race. It is a 60 mile race for teams of 5-7 people. The legs of the relay range from 3-5 miles. The course is through Adams County ending up in downtown Hastings. It looks to be a good time. The race is a fund raiser ($275 per team) for The Special Children's Fund and Girls on the Run. Both are fabulous orgainzations. So, if you want to jaunt around Adams Co - let me know. We also will need a driver to tote us around the course.

Fairfest Parade pictures!

Sorry for the delay in posting these! It is now August 2 – but the parade was July 17. I'm not exactly sure what happened those days (weeks!) in between. Life, I suppose, just happens!

In either case, it was a beautiful day for a parade, and as you can see the Kiwanis entry looked great!

In retrospect, I should have taken a photo of Tom G, who was a Fair judge for the day. (Sorry Tom!)

For more on the parade, click here for the previous entry by Mary P.

If you click on any of the photos, it will go to a new window and display a larger photo, which you can download and perhaps use to make a print. (Otherwise, just call or email me and I can send you the original 3-4 MB files.)

Contract Disputes

Perhaps some of our newer members need to have a sit-down with Tom G. Several times during the parade set-up, Tom kept mentioning that x,y, and Z were not in his contract.

Fairfest Parade

Many thanks to Doug N, Don S, Eric B, Tom G. The parade trailer was fabulous. This quartet did a great job decorating the trailer with recycled table cloths from Kiwanis events. 8 chairs, a plant, the Kiwanis flag, along with the banners donned the float. Aktion CLub was delightfully represented by David B, Chris M, Lois H, Terry, and Andrea F. They added a lot of cheer to the event. Doc L, Darryl. and myself held down the last three seats on the trailer while Doug and Don flanked the float walking. Tom G served as a parade judge. A ginormous thanks to Steve Plambeck for toeing our float with his antique John Deere tractor. Also, much appreciation is due to Don S for dismantling the float.

July 1

I was really blown away by today's program. I saw the topic--something about Hastings K-9 dogs and thought "ho-hum"(yawn) but I was very pleasantly surprised. The officers were so professional and so interesting that the program just flew by. (Much like Fr. Benton's presentation--spell-binding, but in a different way). Anyway, as the mom of two boys similar in age to Larry and Travis, I kept thinking just how proud their own parents must be of them. And Rex (the dog) was fearsome.

Mike Howie was the greeter and Ron Veburg gave the invocation. There were two guests; Darla brought her sister, Kathy, who works for her and Randy Paxton from the Salvation made his second visit. We installed (inducted?) two new members, Susan Price and Michie Burmeister.

We talked about the upcoming events--Recovery in the Park, the concession stand for the Friends of the Library sale, and the Kaboom playground project. Dave Kempf and Doc Lemonds are back from the Internation Conventional in Las Vegas and I believe will give a report on their activities at a future meeting. Linda Stark won the Atta Kiwanian drawing, but deferred since she had recently won. Jim Krebsbach was the next name drawn, but he is in Germany. Finally Kathy Schultz was drawn from her work on H.H. day. (At the time I took these notes, I knew what HH stood for, but by now I have forgotten.)

Karen K. was happy because her family will join her on July 4 to watch fireworks from her front yard, and because she got a new printer (and had to return two other new printers, but that is another story.) Dave K. is happy because of his convention experience, and also because he got a full time IT job at Mary Lanning. Doc L. was likewise happy about the convention. Mike Howie is happy because it is his wifes' b'day and because he survived a camping trip with 16 Boy Scouts. Mike Johnson is happy because of his birthday and anniversary. He has a trip with some Boy Scouts on the horizon.

June 24

Matt Fong was the greeter; Father Benton gave the invocation. The smoke detector blitz is Saturday June 26--Neil Grothen has posted some details about the event on the blog. Recovery in the Park is Friday evening July 9, followed the next day by the library fund raiser where Kiwanis will run a concession stand. Margaret Shaw needs volunteers to bring brownies and cinnamon rolls. Prep day for the Kaboom playground project is August 5 and the build day is August 7.

Mike Howie won the Atta Kiwanian for his work at the El Dia book and children fest.

Doc Lemonds and Dave Kempf are in Las Vegas at the Kiwanis International Convention. No doubt they are having a wonderful time. In fact, during Happy Basket, daughter and Mom Karen Kempf reported that things are going well. Also at Happy Basket time, Renee Johnson reported that she was on her way to the Twin Cities with a group of Lutheran youth. Chuck Hastings reported that Dave and Marge Peterson (Mary's parents) would be celebrating their 48th(?) wedding anniversary on June 26 from 2-4 pm at the KC hall. Darrell Nelson and members of the Chorus of the Plains will be singing at the Blue Moon this evening. Gaynor Watson is pleased to have his daughter and granddaughter (and one other relative) staying at with him until August 15. The family is from Shelton, CT. His granddaughter, Connie, attended today's meeting. Finally, on a less happy note, Rob Lloyd told us that Tim Groenseth is moving to South Dakota and will leave our membership.

The best part of today's meeting was Father Benton's heartfelt talk and slide presentation of his recent trip to the Holy Lands. Words cannot describe it adequately. I think it is safe to say we were all spell-bound.

June 17

Playing catch-up again, after suffering through computer/internet problems for ten days. All fixed, I hope.

June 17 was great because we awarded our first award for an outstanding young person. Doug selected Joe Peterson, Mary Peterson's son, for a variety of reasons, one of which was the mission trip to Russia (actually one of the other states(?) but I cannot spell it.) He also is active in KAH and used to help Mary with Aktion Club. He attended our meeting and was presented with a certificate.

Les Harms greeted and Karen Kempf gave the invocation. We had several guests. Joe Peterson and Lyle Weitzel came with Mary Peterson; Franklin Rice was a guest of Don Goodrich; Randy Paxton, a youth minister at Salvation Army, was a guest of Abe Tamayo. Doug gave Lila VanBoening a gift for allowing herself into being railroaded into playing piano at the last possible minute at last week's meeting. Neil Grothen talked about the upcoming smoke detector blitz and Dan Rutt talked about Recovery in the Park. Lucky Lila won the Atta Kiwanian free meal. Mary Plock was happy about a golf tournament, Doc Lemonds was happy to see Franklin Price and he was happy that Ashley Hajny is helping him with some work twice a week. Ashley entertained us with the story of her adventure in picking up Jordan Hammond from Camp OK. Dave Kempf is happy because Mason is home and undergoing chemo. Chuck Hastings told us that KAH packed 46,000 meals in the past week (?) and Don was happy to see the article on Renee Johnson (and her Harley) in the Tribune.

Our program was Energy Pioneer given by Scott Kleeb and Jay (didn't catch his last name.) The goal of Energy Pioneer is to show people how to stop energy waste in their homes at no up-front out-of-pocket expense.

Saturday, June 26 Smoke Detector Blitz

In speaking with Police Officier Ed Burmood today, he says that the Smoke Detector Installation Blitz scheduled for Saturday, June 26 is on go!

The Hastings Life Safety Coalition board of directors has extended an invitation to our Kiwanis Club to help in the Smoke Detector Installation Blitz at Smitty's Trailer Park, Saturday, June 26, 2010. The Coalition is providing free smoke detectors to the residents of the trailer park. The Coalition thinks the cost of the gift of a smoke detector is small, if it can save a life!

Officier Ed Burmood is the founder and chairman of the Hastings Life Safety Coalition. The Coalition was formed as a result of Officier Burmood's involvement in a fire last December. He came upon a trailer home on fire in which a baby, a young boy, and an adult man died. Officier Burmood personally transported the young girl who was burned in the fire to Mary Lanning Memorial Hospital.

For those who can help Saturday morning, we are to meet at the Lincoln Park Fire Station at 9:30 am to receive our assignments and supplies. We will divide into teams of 2 or 3 people. By 10:00 am we will be in the park and making door to door contact. One person should have a cordless screw driver and step stool for the installation, one person may serve as the driver, and another person may be needed as an interpreter. The residents will know ahead of time by letter that we are coming to install a free detector.

If there are enough volunteers, Officier Burmoood thinks we will be able to finish in 60 to 90 minutes.

neil g

P. S. One of our own Kiwanis members was connected with that December fire. Major Abe Tamayo and the Salvation Army helped the survivors. Major Tamayo conducted the funeral services of the baby and young boy. Also this last winter, Major Tamayo has given assistance to others because of a fire where there was no smoke detector.

Thanks for recognizing Joe today

Hi All, Many thanks for presenting Joe today with a youth recognization award. Doug's comments put Joe in the very best light. My hope for this kid is that he is aware of the needs around him and uses his gifts and abilities to help those who are experiencing problems. Wow! That's just like our Kiwanis club. There's no better group (not just his ole hag mother) than you guys to show him how this works. Our membership has many gifts and abilities and uses them efficiently to help our local and global neighbors. Well, anyway friends, thanks again. Please remember his face (and report indiscretions to MLP) and continue to encourage him to serve others.

Playground

I forgot to mention that part of our new business was discussing the new playground we are helping to install on Lake Hastings. This is a project funded by a Kraft grant and Kaboom (but not the Kaboom cleaner). Installation date is August. Watch for more details or talk to Drew Ceperley.

June 8 Board Meeting

We met at noon on June 8 at the OK. All the regulars were there, plus incoming Board member Eric B. and new member Ashley H. It's always nice to have visitors. Any member is welcome to attend. We did all the usual board stuff--minutes, trerasurer's report, correspondence, bills, etc. Under old business we talked about the Kiwanis/KAH packing event for June 15 from 6-8 pm at the Manual Arts building. Food will be served. This is a family event, so bring yours if you still have one! The other item was the smoke alarm installation at Smitty's Trailer Park on Saturday June 26 starting at 9:30 am. There are 226 trailers to service, but since we are one of several groups involved it should only take 60 to 90 minutes. This is a community service project, so talk to Neil G. if you have questions. Please sign up to help. Under new business we approved three applicants for membership--Susan P., Dan S., and Michie B. Induction date is TBA later. July 10 is the Friends of the Library sale. We will man a concession booth again this year. It is always a lot of fun to work, and to wander around looking at all the CHEAP books. Watch for the sign-up sheet. After new business, we hear committee reports. Youth Services will hand out dictionaries again this year; they will also participate in the back-pack project. Community services decided to assist Revive Inc with their concert/barbecue on July 9. We will provide manpower and a cash contribution. Aktion Club is planning on doing a roadside clean-up. KAH has an event on June 9 in the morning, two back-to-back events on June 12, and the Kiwanis event on June 15. Finally, we approved the new mugs we are ordering to give to our speakers and discussed possible participation in various upcoming parades. All of this in the space of one hour. Wow.

June 10

Wow. What a busy meeting. When I arrived at about 12:07, the greeters had been acknowledged, the invocation given, the Pledge of Allegiance said and the guests introduced. I looked around and spied only one guest, RuAnn Root, returning for a second visit. (I apologize if I missed any one.) Doug was already doing the announcements and when he had a chance, he leaned over and told me that reason the meeting started early was that the program portion required more time than usual. Then all of a sudden it was time for Don and Mary, but there was no Mary. Or Darla. Or Lila. We had just begun singing a capella (Don said not only were we singing a capella, but we were singing without instruments) when Lucky Lila walked through the door and was instructed to go straight to the piano. She did an admirable job with no notice or practice, on top of what I think was a stressful morning for her. Amazing. And of course, while we were all heartily singing with Don and LiVila, Mary walked in.

Back to the announcements. Checks were given to RuAnn for CASA and Dan Rutt for Revive. Drew spoke on the Kaboom playground project. We thanked Neil Grothen for drving the campers to Camp OK and Don Janssen (in advance) for picking them up. Thanks also to Ashley for transporting Jordan Hammond. The Free Meal went to Kathy Schultz. During Happy Basket Renee Johnson was happy for the success of her VBS, which is in its last two days. Ken Franzen was happy because several members helped to finish the tree plant at the Arboretum. (Tom Genung told me that the planters were Ken, Tom, Eric Buderus and Mike Howie. Sorry if we missed anyone.)

The much anticipated and very interesting program was Ron Haase's mission trip to Niagara(oops! Should have said Nicaragua. See Kathy's comment. Thanks Kathy.) He will be returning for another trip soon and needs various items--he left a list--including school supplies.

Upcoming events include a Kiwanis/KAH packing event on June 15 from 6 to 8, to use up inventory. Bring your family and an appetite because food will be served.

Fire detector installation project coming up June 26. Ask Neil.

Friends of the Library sale is coming soon—July 10th I believe.

June 3, Kiwanis noon meeting

Greeters today were Ken & Gail Pitz and Lee Saathoff. Invocation was given by Ron Veburg.

Don Siffring asked for Kiwanis volunteers to help plant some more trees this coming Saturday, 8:00 am, June 5, at the Highland Park Arboretum. This is a good project!

Drew Ceperley explained that our Kiwanis Club has been invited to be a Community Partner with the Kool-aid Days Committee and the City of Hastings in building a community playground project at Lake Hastings Park. If our Kiwanis Club signs on to participate, we need to have some members to help plan and to help build the playground on Friday, Aug. 6, 8:00 am - 2:00 pm. I hope Drew or Doug Neinhuesser will write a separate blog about this project!

David Kempf passed out the sign-up sheets, reminding the members of the different volunteer opportunities. Police Officier Ed Burmood, chairman of the Hastings Life Safety Coalition, is asking for Kiwanis volunteers to help install smoke detectors in Smitty's Trailer Park on Saturday, June 26, 2010. We are supposed to meet at the Lincoln Park Fire Station at 9:30 am to get instructions and assignments to start installing at 10:00 am. The Hastings Life Safety Coalition has already completed the installations in another trailer park. Officier Ed Burmood had invited other organizations as well, so we may be able to finish in 60 or 90 minutes.

On Tuesday, June 15, 6:00 -8:00 pm, our Kiwanis Club will have our own KAH packing event. Family members are welcome to join in this event! And, lunch will be served!

Father Benton's guest, today, was a person who lives in Venezuela. (The guest was a board member of Father Benton's Foundation for a school in Venezuela.)
Maureen Mohlman's guest was Ruann Root.
Kathy Schultz's guest was her husband, Dale.
Darla Bruna's guest was her sister Kathy, Darla's office manager.

Rob Lloyd announced that Linda Stark was selected as today's Atta-Kiwanian for her all day effort at Pancake Day!

Don Goodrich, along with Darla Bruning, led us in singing. We needed to raise our arms anytime we sang a word beginning with a B, so we got our exercise, also!

Karen Kempf was the first Happy Basket person! She was happy that the June Astonisher was complete and was ready for distribution! She announced that if anyone received an Astonisher with blurred printing on the inside, they could exchange it for another.
Darrell Nelson was happy to introduce the two Camp OK scholarship winners, Cirus Wingler and Joe McDonnell. Darrell also thanked Ron Janssen and myself for providing transportation.
I probably should have put in a dollar for being happy that my wife, Joyce, agreed to be the second adult with me to take the campers to Omaha. However, she told me that I owe her big, so I don't know if I can afford the dollar.
Margaret Shaw was happy that Lloyd's foot was improving. There had been a serious concern with his foot. She was also happy that they are celebrating 23 years of marriage!
Greg Schultz was happy that the Red Cross is having a fund raiser this Saturday, June 5, at Reno Bar. (Greg's on the Red Cross Board) There is a cook-off and eating, 11:00 -2:00 pm, car show until 5:00 pm, poker tournament starting at 7:00, and karaoke at 8:00pm.
Kathy Schultz was happy that Dale came to Kiwanis today, and that he helps her whenever she facilitates at KAH.
LeRoy Hahn was happy that he and Rose got married last Saturday! LeRoy and Rose both looked happy! I think our Kiwanis Club is fortunate to have both of them as new members!

Our speaker today was David Witt, Hastings Public Schools Teacher of the Year! In his speech, he told how he was drawn into becoming a teacher. While attending college he started realizing that the people, who were the most important to him, wanted to help others, rather than wanting to get rich or famous. Even though he has received numerous awards in teaching, he soon forgets them. The only thing that inspires him is seeing successes of his students in his English classes. He teaches students how to learn, and to learn new things, such as Romeo & Juliet and Scarlet Letters. He teaches students to learn after their formal schooling. David Witt emphasized that the Teacher of the Year Award is not about his own teaching, and that the award is to represent the good teaching methods of his fellow teachers. However, Larry Ross, at the end of the talk, commented that he saw the comments written by David Witt's former students. He said the comments of the students were heart wrenching of how David Witt had helped them. That may be the reason for his selection as Teacher of the Year.

On adjournment, Doug N.'s closing thought was, "I plan on living forever, so far, so good."

neil g

Past Two Weeks

I missed posting the last two meetings, so here is what I remember two weeks later. The Annual Meeting on May 20 was festive and would have been perfect EXCEPT for the fact that I smelled the saurkraut as soon as I walked into the room. So I did not eat, although I am sure many other members enjoyed the dinner. The Annual Meeting is when we elect four new Board members to replace the four who are leaving September 30, at the end of their two year term. New Board members are Dave Edwards, Heather Bolte, Eric Buderus (sorry, Eric, if I didn't spell your last name correctly. I will learn how, I promise) and George Howard. Our new vice-president, who will take over as president in two years is John Boltz. Ashley Hajny was inducted as our newest (and youngest)member. She was also celebrating her birthday AND as Key Club president, it was her job to give the annual Key-Club-Year-in-Review. It was a very good presentation. Ashley always does an excellent job at the podium--she truly speaks from the heart. Greeters were Scot DeWitt and George Howard; Ashley Hajny gave the invocation. Dave Kempf was K of the Day. Guests were Dr. Charles Newman, Dan Saalfeld (who is in the process of filling out an application) and Kiley (I don't have her last name in my notes, but she was from Key Club. Perhaps she was a scholarship winner? Somebody please chime in with the facts.) Six members attended the recent leadership training (Don Siffring, trainer; Dave Kempf, tech guy; Joan Bittfield, John Boltz, Karen Kempf, and Darrell Nelson.) Atta Kiwanian winner was Ken Franzen for his work in the winterization project last fall. Five people were happy (Dave Kempf, Ashley Hajny, Karen Kempf, Doug Edwards, and Father Bensen, but only Anne Castek was DELIRIOUSLY happy because she is getting married in two weeks.

On to the May 27th meeting. Chuck Hastings and Rob Lloyd were greeters; Darrell Nelson gave the invocation. Lunch was (what looked like) beef over rice. It appeared to have an Oriental-type flair (flare?) Susan Price turned in a membership app--yay! I sponsored her. Anne Castek is getting married this weekend, so we passed around a card. I found out that Ashley Hajny will take the pictures of the event. (Digital, not film. I asked her.) One of our upcoming events is a fire detector installation project. We also passed around an interest survey to see if we were in willing to help with a playground installation and a circus promotion. The Atta Kiwanian winner is Neil Grothen. Darla Bruna and Ashley Hajny were both happy. The K of the Day Heather Bolte. A program on Big Brothers-Big Sisters (pretty interesting) was presented by Darci Meyer.

May 13 Continued

Oops, that last post got away from me. Greeters were Judy Barnes, Matt Fong, and Larry Ross. Lee Saathoff gave the invocation. Darla played the piano for Don. Darrell N. needs drivers to transport campers to Camp OK. Two adults are needed for each trip--up on June 4 and back on June 6. (Check with Darrell to make sure of the dates.) Neil G. volunteered to drive one way, but he is looking for a friend to go with him. Is anyone willing to be a friend of Neil's.

Today is Ashley's very last day of school. Invitations to her graduation are on the back table. She will be inducted into our club on May 20, by which time she will be 18. The Kiwanis Internation president will be in Omaha on May 22. Check our website for a link to the District website, which has the information on his visit, in case you are interested in attending. Darla B is happy because her son is graduating. Dave is happy because Ashley attended today's meeting (and after today it won't cost him a dollar each time she comes.) Mary P. announced that KAH is planning a packing event/picnic for our club. I think the date is June 15. More info later.

Next week is our annual meetings. So far the slate of candidates includes Neil Grother and John Boltz for vice-president; Board nominees are Maureen Mohlman, Doug Edwards, Eric Buderus, Heather Bolte, George Howard, Judy Barnes and Susan Spady. There may be others. Keep checking your email.

May 13 Meeting

I almost forgot to share the notes of Thursday's meeting, which would have been too bad because our program was GREAT! Abe Tamayo (hope I spelled it right--too lazy to check the membership list to find out for sure) was our speaker. His topic was Salvation Army. (May is Salvation Army month). Abe gave an interactive program, and he and Karen (didn't catch her last name) handed out pens, back-scratchers and water bottles to members of the audience who related facts about SA. Abe is an absolutely mesmerizing speaker--this was the third time he has been a part of one of our programs. If you have never heard one of his presentations, you have missed A LOT! Mary P. suggested that he put on an old-time revival.

We had two guests--Susan Price, who was making her second visit and Dan (again, no last name) who works at Bob Sass. You very likely might recognize him--he used to work for Renew. He came with Dan Rutt.

Don Siffring's name was drawn for Atta Kiwanian. Greeters were

Food Pantry Helped May 18

Eureka! I'm always happy when a job takes less time than anticipated! Ken Stein is also happy, because he got his trailer back! To top the happiness, Food Pantry is happy to get so much food!
On May 8, Kiwanis members helped load and sort, into Ken's trailer, two and 1/2 tons of food collected by the mail carriers for the Hastings Food Pantry. Late afternoon, today, May 18, some of our Kiwanis members volunteered to assist Hastings Food Pantry people store the food in their building. The Food Pantry workers seemed very grateful to get help! In just 1/2 hour we were ready to go home. However, Ken Stein and Jim Krebsbach had gotten there earlier than the rest of us. I even got home before Joyce threw out my supper. (actually, she wouldn't do that anyway.)
Kiwanians who helped today included Jim K. (he came with his bicycle), Kathy Hohensee, Ken Stein, Mary Peterson, and Mary's son Joe, and myself (I don't think I was very good help, but I was there.) I don't think I have missed anyone this time. When I blogged about the May 8 event, I failed to mention that Erik Buderus helped then.
neil g

Kids Against Hunger Kiwanis Packing Event

Friends, here's your chance....Did you miss including your friends and family during our recent membership drive? On Tuesday, June 15th from 6-8 we will have a Kiwanis KAH packaging event. We will also be providing hot dogs and chips for a light supper. This will be a great event to haul your favorite Kiwanis prospects to.

Children's Day / Book Day

Joan has set me up to contribute to the Kiwanis blog, so here goes!

Thank you to all of the Kiwanis members who helped with the Dia de los Ninos / Dia de los Libros Festival at the City Auditorium on May 2! We had a great time and I think everyone enjoyed the afternoon. We had about 800 people in attendance, and according to the tickets that Margaret took at the food line we served about 550 people. And we didn't run out of food either! We had some leftover rice and beans and also some cakes, and we took it all to Crossroads after the event ended so I know nothing went to waste.

We have already reserved the City Auditorium for the 4th annual Dia Festival - May 1, 2011. Mark your calendars now and plan to attend!

Kathy

May 6 Meeting

Here are notes from the May 6 meeting. Jim Karloff and Dwayne Strasheim were greeters and Jim Lewis gave the invocation. Congratulations went out to Mary Peterson for running in the Lincoln Marathon. We had two guests--Susan Price and Carmen Engelhardt (daughter-in-law of Tom Engelhardt). Both guests were a result of our membership drive. We had more names on out list of potential members, so hopefully some of the others will attend a future meeting. Today was supposed to be the day for potential new member attendance, so I was a little disappointed with the turn-out. Doug recognized the 8 Kiwanians who helped out at El Dia de los Ninos, which was a very fun event. Doug also announced the date for the Annual Meeting, May 20. At that time we will elect four new board members and a vice-president. Help is needed at the USPS food pantry drive this Saturday between 10:30 and 4:30. Darrell is looking for volunteers to transport two young campers to Camp OK in Gretna. We installed two new members today. They were Rose Lindstrom and Leroy Hahn, sponsored by Linda Stark and Tom Genung respectively. As it turns out, Rose and Leroy are soon to be married (to each other), but Rose seemed somewhat confused about the date--either May or September! Speaking of newlyweds, Lee Saathoff reports that he has been married one whole month now, but when asked, he admitted he has not been able to recover his sock drawer from Eileen. Last week's Atta Kiwanian was Father Benton. This week's winner is Kaleena Fong, who was recognized for the work she does in promoting Hastings tourism. Kaleena's name has been drawn a LOT of times previous to today, but you have to be present to win and she wasn't! So it was nice to see that stars aligned for her to win today! Mike Johnson and Mary Plock led us in song. Darrell Nelson was K of the Day. Our speaker was Donna Hastings of the Nebraska Arts Council, who assured us that the arts are alive and thriving in Hastings, Nebraska.

May 8 USPS Food Pantry Drive

This was a good day! The USPS mail carriers picked up over 5000 lbs of food for the Hastings Food Pantry! With the help of Kiwanis members and other volunteers for Food Pantry, the food got loaded into Ken Stein's large trailer, and sorted according to the different types. I thought we had a "blast" helping! (This phrase was originated by Tom Genung from his assessment of the Prairie Loft Kiwanis One project.)
Kiwanians helping today included Ken Stein, Gaynor Watson, Doug Edwards, Dan Rutt, Ken Pitz, Karen Kempf, Tom Genung and myself. I did not help the entire time, so there may have been others helping when I was away. If I am leaving out some information, please send a blog about it.
Food Pantry is asking for more help for Tuesday, May 18, from Kiwanis volunteers to unload the trailer into the Food Pantry storage. We will meet at 5:30 pm. There are still some boxes of food that we did not get sorted today, but I am thinking if we had 6 Kiwanis volunteers to help, we should complete the job within an hour on that Tueday. At our next Thursday noon Kiwanis meeting we will again pass sign-up sheets.
Neil G

El Dia

Fr Benton also helped today. I missed mentioning him on the earlier post.

El Dia de lost Ninos/Day of Caring

Today I helped at El Dia de los Ninos. As Neil Grothen would say, "It was a blast." Other Kiwanians helped as well--Karen Kempf, Don Siffring, Mike Howie, John Boltz, Kathy Schultz and her husband Dale, and Margaret Shaw and her husband Lloyd. Those are the only Kiwanians I saw--I hope I didn't miss anyone. I also hope Kathy blogs on the event.

Thursday I attended the Day of Caring, which Tom Genung told us about at one of our meetings. It was an all-day event for area caregivers. Future Kiwanian LeRoy Hahn was the emcee. It was an excellent event!

I never would have known about, much less attended, these events if it weren't for Kiwanis. What a great networking tool!

April 29th Meeting--Posted by Neil Grothen

Since Joan B went to the Care Givers program today, instead of the Kiwanis meeting, I told her I would attempt to do the blog of today's meeting.
Greeters were Heather Bolte and George Howard.
Group singing was led by Don Goodrich with Mary Plock at the piano.

There were many Happy Basket people today! Dave Kempf was happy that Ashley Hajney attended. However he was quite sad that his cousin's 8 year old daughter was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor. Patrick Crawford reported about the Community Theatre performing this coming weekend. Ashley Hajney was happy her brother is going to church. Mike Howie was happy about going on a boy scout campout. Dan Rutt reported about the Prayer Breakfast which will be held next Thursday am. Margaret Shaw was happy to have an Open Table bowl.
She also encouraged members to attend the pep rally for the Special Olympics participants at Hastings College field this evening. Special Olympics needs many volunteers. Linda Stark passed along greetings from Kevin Cunningham.
David Kempf handed out the sign-up sheets for the volunteer opportunities. He has those sign-up sheets organized as good as possible. However, I still prefer to sign up on the web site. He has made that web site very convenient to sign up, also. Some more volunteers are needed for the book fair this coming Sunday.

Darrel Nelson was the Kiwanian of the Day, introducing today's speaker, Kerry Winterer, CEO of the Nebr Dept of Health and Human Services. It was really a good informative program! If you missed the program, I think you can get the handout sheets he brought. Does our Kiwanis Club have good programs? Yes!! You better believe it!

Doug N closed the meeting with the final thought, " Everything has its own beauty, but everyone does not see it."
Neil G

April 22 Meeting

Today was South of the Border food--taco salads, or taco meat without the salad shell. Looked good, although I did not eat. Les Harms was the greeter and Don Siffring gave the invocation. Lots of guests, if you counted the therapy dogs. More on the program later.

Lee Saathoff introduced his new wife, Eileen (Aileen?) They both looked very happy and I wish them well. Current sign-ups include Dia de los Ninos, May 2nd. Help is needed. Events for the weekend are the the historical event at Hastings College on Saturday (remember Will Locke's presentation) and the ecumenical walk around Lake Hastings on Sunday, from 3-4 pm. Meet at the shelter. Proceeds will go to Kids Against Hunger. The membership committee mailed letters to 12-15 potential members, and will be followed up by a personal contact. Jim Heyen won the Atta Kiwanian drawing--his name was entered in recognition of the contribution of propane to Pancake Day.

Don thanked the Kiwanians who helped with the recent book fair. Our share of the proceeds amounted to $400. Jim gave a final report on Pancake Day. Sales were down, in-kind donations were down (no free meat this year) and expenses were up mostly because the donations were down). But although our net was lower than last year, it was still a successful event. Doug read a list of all the members who sold at least thirty tickets. Margaret Shaw received flowers and a bottle of honey for all her hard work. Kathy Schultz received a large decorated cookie for being the Pancake Queen (leading seller among the women members) and Ron Verberg retained his crown as Pancake King. He got a cookie and will keep the trophy for another year. Everyone received a roll of Lifesavers.

Happy Basket events included Ron's 80th birthday and Doc's trip to Branson. Drew Ceperly is back from Hawaii (it rained while he was there). John Boltz attended a Capital City Kiwanis meeting with his son, who is a member there. Special Olympics will hold a pep rally at HC on April 29 from 7-9 pm. Tonight is the Empty Bowl Soup Supper.

The program for today was a lot of fun. The afore-mentioned dogs were part of K-9 & Friends, a group of therapy dogs and their owners. The dogs who attended today's meeting were a wolfhound, corgi, St. Bernard, German Shepherd, Pomeranian and a boxer. Sorry, I don't know their names--they didn't sign in. (The dogs, I mean). I hope I didn't miss any of the breeds. Beautiful animals.

I am too tired to proofread this, so accept my apologies for any errors.

April 15th Meeting

Here are some BRIEF notes on the meeting. Greg Schultz and Heather Bolte were greeters. Les Harms gave the invocation. Lunch was roast beef--next week is a South of the Border meal.

Linda Stark passed along greetings from former member, Alan Kvetensky, who says he misses us. For those of you who don't know Alan, he was in line to be club president, but had to drop out of Kiwanis due to work conflicts.

The Atta Kiwanian free meal went to Chuck Hastings.

Les Harms presented another Know Your Kiwanian. This week we learned about Gary Aadland and his South Dakota heritage.

A lot of the Happy Basket announcements were the same as last week, and normally I would list them again, but my keyboarding fingers are tired tonight. New items included the final production of the season for Hastings Community Theater, Darrell Nelson is looking for a new District Treasurer and he won first place in the Masters Tournament at Southern Hills. Finally, George Howard is just back from a trip to Minneapolis when he saw the Dead Sea Scrolls (he was very impressed), went to a roller derby and heard a polka band (but not at the roller derby).

Ashley Hajny was K of the Day. She introduced Jordon Hammond, a Key Club member who attended Key Leader Camp last Fall. Hevspoke as only a high school boy can speak and I got a great deal of enjoyment out of listening to him.

Brain Team Symposium

I spent a few hours working at the book fair portion of the Brain Team Symposium. Several Kiwanians were there, either as a part of the Brain Team or as members of the Youth Services committee. If you are interested in the actual Brain Team, you could talk to Don Siffring or Franc E. Wagner. Here is what I know--every other year, the team brings in a renowned speaker, at least in there area, to talk about a child's brain and how it develops, how outside forces act on it, how it is "mapped", etc. This year's speaker was Jane Healey, who has written at least four books on the subject.

The attendance is capped at 400 and I believe there were at least 390 in attendance. The audience is primarily made up of teachers, day care workers, and medical workers. Dr. Healey's advice in layman's terms was play with your kids, let them get dirty, limit the amount of screen time they engage in (including television, DVDs, video games, handheld devices, etc.) She recommends NO screen time for children under two--in other words, don't let your tv set be the bablysitter.

Does any of this sound familiar to those of you raised in the nineteen-fifties?

She also talked about new research into how the brain functions. For example, she mention mirror neurons, which might have something to do with how infants mimic the funny faces that parents make. She talked about the lack of fatty acids in a child's diet and how some authorities recommend a spoon of cod liver oil daily. She also went into much more depth on topics I don't fully understand.


Anyway, those in attendance paid $120 to attend this day long session, meal included, and I got to see it for free just because I offered to spend my day selling a few books to motivated readers.

Upcoming KAH stuff

Howdy friends! There are some new activities and events with KAH coming up that I wanted to let you in on. First, today 4/16 at 3:00 there is an event with local 8th graders from Hastings Middle School. This might be prime pickings for potential Key Club members. On Sunday 4/18, Redeemer Lutheran is coming to site from 1-3. On Tuesday 4/20 from 10-noon there will be a unified effort to pack from two churches in Blue Hill. This is drummed up by Pastor Dan Cosson from St. Paul's Lutheran BH (they are making a return mission trip to Haiti this Fall) and he is bringing along pals from the United Methodist Church in BH. Of course remember to attend the monthly KAH meeting at noon on Wednesday April 21. On April 25th, the local association of parish nurses is hosting a Wellness Walk at Hastings Lake. The meeting place will be at the picnic shelter on the south side at 3:00. Any funds raised will go towards KAH. Please come. On April 26th at noon, the Aktion Club will have their meeting at KAH site and package meals after they eat pizza. The Heartland Lutheran event on 4/29 has been cancelled. Jumping ahead to May, May 1 there will be a foreign exchange group coming from Kansas. Quite a few countries will be represented. All helpers are so appreciated! There is a lot going on these days and conflicts from every direction. KAH is a family friendly option when you want your kids/grandkids to get off their rump and serve others. It is a good feeling to know that the time volunteered directly impacts the lives of hungry and starving people locally and globally.

April 13 Board Meeting

Your Board met Tuesday noon in its monthly session. We talked a lot about Pancake Day, the results of which were pretty good. I am sure Jim or Margaret will have more specific details at a future Thursday lunch. Ticket sale money is still dribbling in; Jim sent out an email calling for members to turn in any money they still have. Jim also said the Wish and Spin contract has been renewed for another year, with 26 ads sold. The Wish and Spin rotates through several businesses in town, so look for it. It is one of those "wishing wells" that you drop a coin in an watch it spiral downward, through the small hole at the bottom--kind of like watching your sink drain, except more fun. (I understand Wish and Spins spiral the opposite direction in the southern hemisphere--that's supposed to be funny).

Dan Rutt attended the meeting on behalf of Revive Inc. (dba Horizon Recovery and the Unity Houses) to tell us about their upcoming picnic on July 9th, complete with a band. Dave Kempf suggested that we hold a technology meeting for Kiwanians who are interested in learning more about our website, email, and blog. The board approved two new members whom you may remember seeing at the March 25th meeting. Induction is set for April 29. We also talked about Kiwanis One-Day. Six members helped at Highland Park Arboretum and six helped at Prairie Loft. Don gave a report on Youth Services--their immediate project is the book fair on April 16. Volunteers are still needed, so please sign up to help. Dave gave a report on the website and Key Club, and Neil reported on Community Services (which in this case was on One-Day). Tom said the Aktion Club will participate in a KAH packing session in place of their regular noon meeting on April 26.

Our next board meeting will be the second Tuesday in May. We will meet at the police station community room on the second floor of the building. (It is election day and our room at the OK will be in use.)

That's pretty much it for this month's meeting. Attendance was good--the two board members who couldn't come excused themselves ahead of time. We manage to accomplish a lot in just one hour and we almost never run over time-wise. And yes, it is a lunch meeting. This month's meal was lasagna.

You are all invited to attend any time. We always meet on the second Tuesday of the month at the OK Cafe.

Post by Neil Grothen About Kiwanis One Day

(I got this in my email from Neil who really wanted to post this on our blog. Thank you Neil. JB)

It was not my intention of writing a blog, but I accidently hit the "create blog" title on top of the Kiwanis blog. That took me to another page where I signed in, and before I knew it I was trapped in writing something on this page. Maybe I will cancel everything before I finish.
Kiwanis One Day went very well! I agree with Tom Genung, when he said it was a blast!! Before working at Prairie Loft Center I stopped by the Highland Park Arboretum to take a few pictures for the Astonisher. It was my understanding that they planted 31 trees that morning! Nine more trees will be planted this week. Don Siffiring, for sure, will be helping with that. Those who were working over there, when I arrived, were Don S., Greg Schultz, John Boltz, Gary Aadland, Jim Karloff, and Tom Genung. Since everyone was scattered throughout the park planting trees, I may have missed seeing all of the Kiwanians helping over there. Hopefully someone else will blog about the tree planting project over there, and will fill in more details.
At Prairie Loft Center, there were 6 Kiwanians working there, Matt and Kaleena Fong, Karen Kempf, Kathy Schultz, Tom Genung, and myself. It was a blast! According to Amy Sandeen, the director of Prairie Loft, Kiwanis planted a bunch of shrubs over there three years ago. We cleaned out the shrubs and remulched them. Matt and Kaleena refurbished the landscaping around one of the signs. We also landscaped around the house out there. I got to go now. You will probably hear more about it some other time.

Wrap of of Apr 8 meeting

The program for the week was Special Olympics presented by Lee and Judy Wiles. First, Doug presented them with two $150 checks--one for adult Olympians and the other for youth Olympians. Becky Crecelius was K of the Day and gave the Wiles a nice introduction. I was impressed with their message--I know little to nothing about the program--and even more impressed by the love they had obviously invested in it. Very good program.

One-Day

I agree with Mary. Someone needs to tell us how the day went yesterday. It was too close to April 15 for Maureen and I to get away to help, so I am curious about the day's events. Joe and I drove down Burlington late this afternoon and noticed the new sign and a lot of freshly planted trees. Looks wonderful. How about Prairie Loft Neil?

Kiwanis One Day

What's the story friends? I was hoping to see a re-cap of the Day's activities. I saw new trees at the arboretum and I saw signs to Prairie Loft. Someone needs to fill the slackers in on the fabulous work you did.

April 8th Meeting

Yum. We had turkey for lunch which was great, although after I thought about it, I realized we also had turkey last week, so that meant we had turkey two weeks in a row. Odd. Next week is our monthly ethnic meal, and the OK is open to suggestions, in case you prefer something other than Italian and Mexican. Or saurkraut. Please, no more saurkraut.

Neil Grothen and Jeannette DeWalt were greaters and Jim Lewis gave the invocation. Steve DeBacker, the president of Aktion Club, and his mom were guests. Dave Kempf was busy at work (his Mary Lanning job) moving his department into new quarters, so we didn't have sign up books. However, the signup lists are always on the website. Kathy Schultz passed around a sign-up sheet for reading at Head Start. By the end of the meeting she had all the volunteers she needed--reading seems to be a popular event. (Dave reports the move at MLMH went went smoothly.) Neil stepped in to do Meals-on-Wheels for April 9. Thanks Neil. As of the meeting date, you could still sign up for Kiwanis One Day, either for the Arboretum project or the Prairie Loft project. Upcoming events include the book fair for the Brain Team Symposium on April 16th. We will not participate in the Healthy Kids (Healthy Family?) event on April 17.

Linda Stark reported that the membership drive is humming along. KAH had nothing new to report--Chuck and Renee weren't at the meeting and I think Mary is just plain worn out after her year as president and the many, many packing sessions she facilitates.

We were reminded that Hastings College will hold their Walk Through Time celebration on April 24. You will remember that Will Locke talked about it we he spoke to our group a few weeks ago. You can check the blog from that date (I don't remember the exact date) for details. Sounds interesting. Tom Genung announced that the Day of Caring is April 29 at the City Auditorium, April 29, from 8 am to 3 pm. Lunch is included. This is a day long event for caretakers of the ill and/or elderly. Lee Saathoff got married Saturday congratulations!!) The only downside so far is that he lost his good sock drawer to his new wife. Dwayne Strasheim reminded us again of the senior recitial by our current Kiwanis scholar, Tuesday (I believe that would be the 13th) at Fuhr Hall at HC at 7:30 pm. The Open Table Empty Bowl soup supper is April22 from 6-8 pm at First St Paul's. Cost is $20. (It is a fund raiser). Margaret Shaw is very excited about new new car, a 92 Buick that runs like a dream. She also needs help frosting cinnamon rolls for the book fair on the 16th early, early in the morning. Check with her for the time, because I didn't write it down. Father Benton is about to leave for a three week tour to the Holy Lands. He is also excited that a recent youth retreat attracted 50 high school students and that CSS found a new home, the old Vincent Michaels, rent free.

George Howard is this week's Atta Kiwanian for his work on the dictionary project.

I am out of time for now, so will get back to you with the program details later. Suffice it to say, it was excellent. (I am on my way to an 80th bday party and am about to be late.)

Board Meeting

To Karen and any other folks I may have confused--

It is the May Board meeting that has been moved from our usual meeting room to the main restaurant, because the room is needed for voting. The front room is small, so Doug wants to restrict the number of bodies in attendance. The April Board meeting is unchanged--anyone and everyone is invited and encouraged to attend; we will meet in our usual location.

So my previous post is correct.

Joan

April Fool's Meeting

Here is a synopsis of the meeting.

Patrick Crawford and Jim Lewis were greeters; Renee Johnson gave the invocation. The meal was turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans, so I was happy. There were no guests this week. Doug Nienhueser was back from Las Cruces, so Dave Kempf was happy to return to his position of president-in-waiting for the next few months.

Dave urges us all to keep checking the sign-ups on our website. One-Day is Saturday, April 10. Help is needed there, and at the Brain Team (Book Fair) on April 16 and Healthy Kids on April 17. Tonight at 7pm Chuck Hastings could use 3-4 helpers unpacking food supplies at the KAH site. Also KAH is continually looking for more facilitators.

The next board meeting is April 13 and so far we have two new people to approve for membership, with the hope that we have 1 or 2 more beyond that.

Pancake net income is running behind last year, in part because we had to purchase sausage this year, whereas in the past Armour donated it. If you are still sitting on your ticket money, please turn it in.

Ken Pittz was drawn as this week's Atta Kiwanian, for which he receives free lunch next meeting.

Ten people were happy this week, but I'll be darned if I can remember why. Someone is going to Hawaii, I know.

Don Goodrich and Mary Plock led us in a few songs.

Heather Bolte was K of the Day. She introduced us to the speaker, Kim Grothen from Mary Lanning Hospital, who facilitated a question and answer session on the Lifeline Program, in which, for $33 dollars a month, the elderly and infirm can reach emergency help in case of a fall or other accident. Pardon me, Dr. Strasheim and English teachers everywhere for the above very long run-on sentence (The Lifeline sounds very good to me. Five years ago, on a Saturday morning when I was home alone, I fell and broke my leg. It took me over two hours to crawl along my carpeted--and not very clean--bedroom floor to the phone. You may wonder why my dog did not come to my rescue, as did I. Apparently she is too young to remember "Lassie" because she was of no use to me whatsoever.)

Please come to the meeting Thursday, and if you are interested, to the Board meeting on April 13 at noon at the OK. Same room.

I make no claims that this info is 100% accurate, but it is pretty much the way things happened!

Kids Against Hunger 31 March

Hi Friends,

Kids Against Hunger will be hosting a group from Minden on Wednesday night. The start time has changed since my original posting on the calendar and since the sign up sheets have circulated. The group (of 40+) is intending on an arrival time of 4:15 and will pack until 6:30. I apologize if I jacked up anyone's plans. It will be a good one to attend if you are interested in seeing all 4 lines operational at one time.

March 25 Meeting

Here is a synopsis of our first Post-Pancake meeting, held March 25. Dave was the president-of-the-day as Doug was unable to be there. Dave did a good job and will serve us well as the new club president next October. Eric and Lee were greeters; Doc gave the invocation. On the menu was Reuben casserole or hot dogs and saurkraut. I passed on eating--maybe next week! However, the cookies from Means-on-Wheels, given in appreciation for our help in delivering meals, were delicious.

One of the benefits of this year's Pancake Day was that we got two new members as a result of it, Rose Lindstrom and Leroy Hahn, both of who came to eat and decided to join. We also had several visitors--Kristy Weeks of Mothers of Pre-Schoolers (or as Don fondly calls them--Mothers Against Pre-Schoolers), Dave Hartman (volunteer at KAH and also a pancake eater), Theresa and Joe Kempf (Dave's wife and son), Kathy Lee (?) of Meals on Wheels and "Ranger Ed" of the Boy Scouts. I hope I haven't left anyone out and that I got the names right.

Donation checks from Kiwanis were given to Kristy Weeks for MOPS and Heather Bolte for Boy Scouts.

KAH still needs more facilitors for packing events. Renee encourages would-be facilitators to attend a session to see what goes on at a typical event. One-Day is April 10 and members are asked to help out at one of our two projects for the day--tree planting at the Arboretum (Ken Franzen gave us an update) or working at Prairie Loft. Linda Stark talked about the new member drive. Jim Krebsbach is just beginning to tally the results of Pancake Day, but he still has a "pile of money" to count, so early results are not yet meaningful.

Maureen Mohlman won the Atta-Kiwanian free meal for our next meeting.

Les Harms presented another Know Your Kiwanian program. This week's "Mystery" Kiwanian was Renee Johnson, whose "past" none of us would have ever guessed!

During Happy Basket, Franc E. talked about the Health Fair March 27 and 28. Kid Vision will be doing vision screening and volunteers are still needed. Dwayne Strasheim told us about an upcoming senior voice recital on April 16. Renee promoted the Open Table's Empty Bowl Soup Supper, April 22. (We also learned that Renee and Kathy Schultz are cousins!)

Don and Mary led us in our weekly songfest.

Finally Ed Wiles of the Boy Scouts presented an exceptionally moving account of his life as a child without the benefits of Boy Scouts. I don't know how else to say it. It was simply very, very moving.

Future Pres gets his feet wet

Hello fellow Kiwanians. As most of you know, I absoulutely love Kiwanis. I have said several times that I would like to win the Lottery so that I could just retire and do Kiwanis full time. Maybe I'll get the chance this June while at Kiwanis International Convention in Las Vegas, maybe we'll win big! Well, I can always dream can't I? Anyway, I was somewhat nervous about my first outing behind the podium today. As it turns out, it wasn't nearly as intimidating as I thought it would be. Other than running a little long, I think it went well. I'm sure that after doing it for a while, you become accustomed to the timing and know when and where to cut things short or hurry them along. Joan is definately a life saver behind the scenes. She has the agenda all lined up and keeps the President on track very well. It really is amazing how much "stuff" we are able to cram into one hour, do it well, serve the needs of many in the community, and have an absolute blast while doing it.

If you asked me a few years ago if I ever imangined I would be as involved as I am today, the answer would have been a resounding NO. I still didn't really know what our club was all about and to tell the truth, only joined and showed up at meetings to get Gramps (Doc) off my back about joining this club called Kiwanis. We grew up with Doc constantly telling us we should go to this business or that one because they were Kiwanians. Or, he would point out somebody he knew or was in the news and would make sure that we knew they were a Kiwanian. I remember complaining behind his back, saying what is so great about Kiwanis? Why should I shop there just because they are in Kiwanis. It took a few years of being IN Kiwanis before it even clicked. In fact it was out of guilt for getting angry with another Kiwanis member, that I began to volunteer for every project and join as many committees as I could to make it up to him and Doc, for being such a jerk. If you still find yourself not being real certain what our club is all about, make some time to get really involved in some of our many projects. It will really open your eyes to what being a Kiwanian is all about. Especially the projects that actually interact with the children such as the Christmas shopping, reading at Head Start, or the annual bowling tournament just to name a few. You get to see the gleem in their eyes and get to experience the difference you are making in their lives. I was having a fantastic time! Collegues would ask me why I was spending so much time with Kiwanis when I was obviously tired and worn out. Because I am having fun! It is also very rewarding when you are able to spread this infectious fun to others, especially the youth. It's amazing to see how much fun one of our Key Club members is having and I am honored that she is allowing me to claim a small amount of credit by sponsoring her membership (or graduation) into our Kiwanis Club in May.

Celebrating Doc's 60 years with Kiwanis was a very special thing for me. It was also humbling and tinged with some guilt and regret. Had I listened to this wise man many years ago when he was trying to get us all to join, I could have been having this much fun a long time ago. People always say you should listen to your elders and I wish I had listened to Doc a lot sooner. Doc has such a love for Kiwanis and I am glad to say I get it now. I even find myself pointing out businesses and people and telling my friends and family, "there's a Kiwanian". It's hard not to. My goodness, I'm becoming my Grandfather. I guess there could be worse things. I am looking forward to spending time with Doc at my first International Convention, an opportunity that he is making possible. My sons were involved in Key Club and I hope that they will choose to continue on in Kiwanis one day so that I may be able to do the same for them someday and take them to their first International Convention.

Thank you to Doc and everyone else in the club for making Kiwanis so much fun!!

Pancake Day Thoughts

Another Pancake Day has come and gone. All I did was sit at the admissions table from 7 am to 3 pm, but from that vantage point, things appeared to be running smoothly. Thanks to whoever decided to move the drinks table close to me--it gave me more people to talk to, instead of just the person sitting next to me.

I saw a lot of Kiwanians who worked a few hours and a few Kiwanians who worked a LOT of hours. I asked Margaret if she was going to take Friday off from work, but she said no--she took Wednesday and Thursday off, but planned on working at her job on Friday. Wow.

It would be fun for me to be more in the middle of the cooking action, but then I have a vision of myself falling onto a grill, or into the pancake batter and I realize I am better off on my chair for the duration of the event.

I enjoyed visiting at length with Maureen, who is actually my best friend, Doc, Ed, Clyde and Jeannette DeWalt (sorry if I misspelled your name. One "n" or two ns"? Capital W or lower case w?). There were others who popped in and out of my area, too. I never had spoken to Clyde and Jeannette before, so it was fun getting to know them.

It was hard to recognize Dwayne Strasheim in his baseball cap.

I thought it was wonderful for KHAS TV to cover the event. I imagine Drew had a hand in that. Drew provided the Most Amusing Moment for me that day, when he asked us that morning for MORE tickets to sell.

I hope the sales were successful. I left before the big supper rush--I heard the last pancake was served at 7 pm. I am looking forward to hearing a preliminary report at Thursday's meeting.

I am betting that we didn't get 100% participation from all Kiwanians, and that all members did not sell all their tickets; I hope you did your best, though. It is a fun event, so if you couldn't make it this year, please plan to attend next year.

Sunday March 14 KAH

KAH had a packaging event this afternoon from 2-4 pm. There were four Kiwanians and two spouses working, plus about 35 packagers. In addition, a group of 12 visitors drove in from Oxford to see our operation. They heard about us and might be interested in bringing a group in to pack sometime, but wanted to see what were all about first. Over 14,000 meals were packaged. I believe that we are are only 26,000 meals away from 500,000 (that's one-half million) meals.

March 11 Meeting

Thanks to Linda Stark and Judy Barnes who said today that they have read this blog. This post is for you!

George Howard and Pat Crawford were greeters. Karen Kempf gave the invocation. Darla Bruna played the piano while Don Goodrich led us in some Irish songs. I assume the ethnic twist was because St. Patrick's Day is next Wednesday. (BTW, is it true that Daylight Savings Time takes effect on March 14? My Google Calendar says "yes").

John Boltz won the Atta Kiwanian drawing for all the work he does in cashiering our meetings. He can claim his meal on March 25 since next week's meeting will be replaced with Pancake Day.

We had five guests. Kari Valentine and Amy Niemoth had three occupational therapy students who are visiting the clinic this week while on spring break. Not many college students choose Hastings NE for a spring break location. Fr. Benton had two guests--Lynette Riemersma from The Zone and a guest from the YWCA. (Sorry--I didn't catch her name.) If you are impressed because I know how to spell--and pronounce--Riemersma, it is because I know her mother (same last name) very well. She owns the HR Block office in Red Cloud.

The Zone and the YWCA were represented at out meeting today because Fr. Benton was presenting them with a check, on behalf of Kiwanis, for The Zone after school program.

Kathy Schultz told us about the May 2 Dia de los Ninos y Dia del los Libros (my Spanish spelling is not necessarily correct) festival. Kiwanis is sponsoring a booth and will be looking for workers for 1:30 to 5:30 pm. Check the posting for the Tuesday March 9 Board meeting for more details.

During Happy Basket, Judy Barnes expressed her appreciation for the blog, which helps keep her connected with the club when she is unable to attend. Jim Karloff reported that he and his wife are finally in the new house they built. (Actually they probably had someone else build it for them.) Dave Kempf was once again happy because Key Clubber Ashley Hajny attended today's meeting. Ashley will be 18 soon, the minimum age requirement to be a Kiwanian, and will be inducted at the May 20 meeting.

I found out after the meeting that Les Harms has another Know Your Kiwanian ready to present, but it will have to wait until March 25.

Margaret Shaw updated us on Pancake Day preparations one last time before the big event rolls around next Thursday. She reported that 45 of our 95 members have not signed up to help. Members are expected to help set-up (Wednesday afternoon), work at the event (any shift on Thursday from 7 am to 7 pm) or to clean up Thursday night . Pancake Day is the one project that we expect ALL Kiwanians to work at.

All Kiwanians are also expected to sell 30 tickets. If you don't like to sell, then buy them yourself and give them away. It is goodwill with an inexpensive price tag. Pancake Day is our only large fundraiser. If we don't have a successful Pancake Day, then some of our charitable activities will go unfunded next year.

One last comment on Pancake Day . On Monday and Tuesday, Margaret and Linda Stark will call everyone who has neglected to sign-up. So to avoid hearing from them please go to www.hastingskiwanis.org and sign up today!

Last on the agenda of todays meeting was Will Locke who has many avocations, but who retired as Professor Emeritus, Teacher Education, Hastings College. He gave an entertaining presentation, including Power Point, on the History of Trees in Hastings. And yes, it was very amusing. He had lots of clever anecdotes to share, and also pointed out some very old and very interesting trees in the area. Will showed us a picture of HC with no trees in 1883. Then he showed us a current picture full of trees. Did you know that HC was the first certified arboretum in Hastings (1997) followed by Central Community College and then the Highland Park Project (2009 or 2010 I think)?

On April 24, HC will re-enact the first tree planting in conjunction with the anniversary of the college's founding. The public is invited to attend. The re-enactment will be at the corner of University and California (Doug Nienhueser said this is Frank Northrop's house) at 9 am. You can wear period attire. Please keep your eyes open for a fur cape that was lost at the original tree-planting (1883) and never found.

The meeting was over by 1 pm. We sure can pack a lot into one hour!

(This is the second time I had to write this posting. Even though it is autosaved every minute, I managed to lose it entirely. I believe I accidently deleted it and then save the delete.)

Youth In Harmony

I mentioned the other day that I wanted to go to the Youth in Harmony concert Monday night at the French Chapel. Well, I went and it was wonderful. The chapel holds 500 and there weren't too many empty seats. Several of our Kiwanians are members of the Chorus of the Plains (that's how I first got interested in their music) and Chorus of the Plains helped sponsor the Youth in Harmony clinc. (Don Goodrich sold me tickets to the Chorus of the Plains' annual concert a few years ago and I have been hooked ever since.) Don G., Darrell N., LiVila, and Don J. were all in attendance. The full chorus (almost 100 high school boys) sang first, then a few smaller groups, and then Back in Business--a barbershop quartet of men way younger than me. So barbershop is not only for geezers! BIB is from Lawrence Kansas and I guess they had worked with the boys at the clinic that day, because the kids really seemed to like them.

So, you can see that Kiwanis leads you in directions you never dreamed of. Four years ago I would have laughed at the idea of going out of my way to listen to barbershop and now look at me! Not only have I attended multiple bbshop events, but I have really enjoyed them.

Your Board at Work

The Board met today, with excellent attendance. All Board members attended, except for one who was excused. Five committee chairs also attended. We do the things that boards of organizations usually do--approve the minutes and the treasurer's report, pass around correspondence received, present bills for reimbursement, discuss new and old business, and hear committee reports. As you may have expected, we have some very active committees. Today Jim explained the workings of the Wish and Spin to us. We are ordering new mugs to hand out, mainly to our program presenters. We have agreed to have an activity booth at the Dia de los Ninos (Childrens festival) in May. We will have signup sheets available soon and are looking for help from a little before 2 pm until a little after 5 pm.) Our activity will be children creating book marks using our logo and the KAH logo. The bookmark can be used in a book that the children will receive at another booth. KAH is 60% above their goal for meals packaged. Aktion Club members really enjoyed hearing KHAS-TV weather personality Jon (or is it John) Walsh speak at one of their two recent meetings. Club advisors met and planned out the rest of the Aktion Club calendar for the year. Margaret and her committee have things well in hand for Pancake Day on March 18. We will participate in the Brain Team Symposium in mid-April, but not Creative Kids' Day at the mall--we understand that it is cancelled. Two of our members will attend the Kiwanis International Convention this June.

Stellar results KAH

Many thanks to Susan Spady. Susan jumped on board at the packing event on Sunday. We like seeing new faces at the KAH events. The more people we can have as facilitators, the more events we can host. Also, thanks to Rob Lloyd, Lee Saathoff, Chuck Hastings for being repeated facilitators.

Over the weekend, a total of 5 groups (St Paul's Lutheran Blue Hill, Clay Center United Church of Christ, Hastings Church of Christ, Wanda Drovers 4-H, and Zion Lutheran Wanda) packaged food for a noted result of about 25,000 meals packaged. Chuck and pals packed up 2 more pallets of outgoing food that Chuck took to CLS this morning. Another load of ingredients is scheduled to arrive shortly. We surpassed our 100,000 meal mark towards our Haiti goal and shy of the $23000 mark by just $3650. Way to go Friends! Shortly we will surpass the 500,000 meal mark! We are at 470,000 now.

Thanks to all Kiwanians for their continued support of this project.

Monday March 8

Thanks to Dave and Karen for their comments on my recent posting. Dave, you are probably right. This will catch on in time. I think I am going to contact the guy from Spencer Iowa Kiwanis who urged us to set up and blog and see what makes his work. Karen, I appreciated your comments on the Facebook aspect. I am a little clumsy in using Facebook, but I actually did a little chatting the other night to a friend and to my son. I notice you are also often available to chat. I am not really sure what being a fan entails, so I guess I will become a fan of something and see how it goes. See you both tomorrow, I imagine. I am going to the Youth in Harmony concert tonight at the French Chapel.

Here is a recap of Thursday's meeting. I get the feeling no one is reading the blog, but what the heck--I could be wrong. Ed Kuehn and Dwayne Strasheim were greeters and Don Siffring gave the invocation. KAH reports 10 packing sessions already scheduled for March and it is only the fourth of the month. The 100,000 meal goal has been surpassed by 31,922 meals and the $16,347.86 of the $25,000 goal has been collected. Skip-a-Meal was last week. If you haven't already done so, please give Jim Krebsbach the $6 you would have normally spent on last week's meal. Pancake Day is March 18. Be sure to sign up for a shift. Margaret still needs coffee urns and a serving cart. Kiwanis One Day is April 10. The Board will meet Tuesday March 9 at noon at the OK. Anyone is welcome to attend. Chuck Hastings received the Atta Kiwanian drawing and will enjoy a free lunch next week. Darla Bruna reported during Happy Basket that she is moving her real estate office and Karen Kempf plugged this blog and our page on Facebook. Karen, I think you mentioned something specific on Facebook, but my notes are a little garbled on that point, so feel free to make a clarification.

As always, the highlight of the meeting was the program. This week it was a Very Large Quartet from Hastings Chorus of the Plains, including Patrick Crawford, Darrell Nelson and Don Goodrich. (I hope I am not forgetting anyone.) They sang a few songs and then led our membership in a few more. I love to sing, so I thought it was a lot of fun. Before the singing, Lonnie Miner gave a presentation on a Youth in Harmony clinic that will be held in conjunction with Hastings College on Monday March 8. The culmination of the clinic will be a free concert at 7 pm that evening at the French Memorial Chapel on the HC campus. The public is invited to attend. I hope to go--I have already forewarned my husband, Joe, so he should be there too. (He is planning on going to Kansas City Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday--that's four days of freedom for him--so he is pretty open to making me happy right now.)

Skip-a-Meal

I missed Skip-a-Meal yesterday. I assume the new science building is spectacular and I wish I could have gone, but that would be too much walking for me. If anyone has an attendance list, I would like to see it. Anyway, I am sorry I had to miss it and I am looking forward to next week's meeting.

Correction

I stand corrected. Dave says the time is 10:00 am and not 10:30 am.

Pancake ticket sales

HI Friends, Asking for someone to sell tickets to (2) of my regular Pancake Day patrons. One is Rosch Construction on South Street and Rural Metro on Lexington. Both companies have been faithfull supporters of our Kiwanis Pancake Day!

"Oh my gosh! I just realized that now I have yet ANOTHER thing on the computer to keep me from getting my work done! I'm supposed to be knee deep in setting the company agenda for attacking Lead Based Paint right now and here I am blogging away! Thanks a LOT Joan and Dave!!"
I just posted this in response to Dave's comments about being a Cyberspace geek and thought I should share with anyone who might not scroll back that far to pick up the blogs. ACTUALLY, blogging is quite fun once you get on to it. You can post longer messages and it feels more instantaneous than Face Booking. I haven't tried those other sins like "Twitter" yet. Lord knows I am too tempted to get nothing done with just these two vices!
Seriously though, once you explore around to see how it works - this is great fun! Hope to see more and more participate!

Yes, the Spaghetti Feed was Friday. I remember because I was disappointed it was on a day I couldn't go. Will be in York at a Home Show.
I hope the new one school idea works out for Adams Central. The benefits to both students and teachers at the new state-of-the-art middle school here in Hastings would be wonderful to have available to all those rural students as well. Times and technology change and our children deserve to have the benefits todays world has to offer. As I mentioned at the meeting, from 4th to 7th I attended a one room school - District #2, sometimes called the Airport school. Good memories include the closeness of the kids, all the variety of nationalities we had since the State Hospital was in our district (German, Cuban, Turkish), and the ability to be in plays and presentations at monthly PTA meetings where the entire family attended. I loved the pom pom pull away, the high swings you could pile snow beneath and jump into, the forts we built from sticks and the grass from the yard mowed just before school started, and the many puppies we raised in those forts (animals dumped along the side of the road by owners who didn't want them any more.) From an educational standpoint, except for one bad teacher my first year, we had some really good teachers. But if your one teacher was deficient in any subject you simply fell behind. When I went back to Hastings Public in the 9th grade my music skills would have been nil if I hadn't been taking piano lessons. Our library was a walk-in closet with shelves on both sides where kids were sent to sit on the one chair (all there was room for) to discipline them. There were 3 in my class and it was the biggest grade! Yes, competition and interaction with others was limited. The one poor teacher we had was not there one day when we were let off for school. We kids had a grand old time at first but after about 1 1/2 hours of being alone decided we should call some of the school board parents and let them know we had no teacher. She was fired directly after that but I lost a lot under her poor instruction that year. I have two fond memories of her. One was the day she chased Bruce Latta outdoors with a heavy yardstick and came back in alone, dishevelled, and with a broken yardstick. (Bruce who was one of my 2 classmates was an imp and enjoyed giving her the dickens. My other memory was the day she came screaming out of that closet we called a library. We discovered she had found our missing garter snake peeking up from behind the books!

Feb 18 Meeting

Kids Against Hunger needs help unloading (and loading) food tonight at 5:30 and Saturday morning at 10:30. Meet at the Manual Arts building. Lee Saathoff apparently does a lot of transporting supplies between the MA and CLS (our shipping/receiving location.) He is one of those unsung heros.

The House committe needs help putting things away after our weekly meetings. Set-up is pretty well under control, but John needs help cleaning up. Talk to John or Doug N. if you are willing to be a regular helper.

Linda Stark was the winner of today's Atta Kiwanian drawing for all the work she does with the Aktion Club. Another unsung hero.

Doug Edwards reported that the Hastings College (I think) basketball game will be streamed live on the web, so if you are a fan, check it out.

Mike Johnson's church is holding a spaghetti feed. Part of the proceeds will go to Kids Against Hunger. The time is 5:30 to 7:30 pm, but I am not sure of the date. Tonight? Tomorrow? Mike has tickets, or they will be available at the door. (Next week I will take better notes.)

Today we had a good program with Shawn Scott and Brent Weston. They managed to fit one and a half hours of information into 30 minutes. Very interesting. I wish I could vote on the issue. Shawn is a Kenesaw native--he graduated with my son-in-law, Trent Sidders. In fact, he and Trent lived together for a while when Trent was in law school and Shawn was at UNL. Shawn was a shop teach at Kenesaw for a year, and then went back for his Masters. It is fun see the little kids we used to know grow into successful adults. This is the first time I've heard him speak, except on TV. I was duly impressed.

Hi Friends,

Simply a note of encouragement to sell or donate Pancake Day tickets and to sign up to help. This fundraiser is vital to fund our club's budget. I would also note that if you are inclined to promote a particular Kiwanis activity at Pancake Day do so- but don't show up that morning and expect Doug or anyone else to do it. Committees need to decide what and how they would like to advertise their projects. Now is the time to do this. It is also time to consider Gaynor Watson and his raw Pancake Day humor. Can anyone top him this year? Consider it a challenge.

Wed Feb 17

Joan said...
I don't quite understand blogs, and somehow I wrote this entry as a comment to Karen's first post. I really meant for it to stand on its one, so I attempted to delete from her's (don't think I succeeded) and insert it as a new entry

I was so excited to look at the blog and see that some Kiwanians have actually made comments! Mike, you deserve a free lunch. I am sure your name is in that box somewhere.Six of us read at Head Start yesterday. It was the first time for me--usually the spots are all filled up before I get a chance to volunteer. We read "Don't Eat the Babysitter." Kids' books are funnier than they were many (many, many) years ago when I was a pre-schooler.KAH board met today. Everyone is so energized because of all the packing events scheduled and because we are receiving donations. I saw an email today from Renee that one local church collected $2069.52 for Kids Against Hunger! My own church has scheduled a packing session for March 14. Our mission group has also collected money, but not as much as the church mentioned above.

Thursday Meeting, February 11

We had a very good meeting today, as we always do. Mike Howie won the weekly Atta-Kiwanian drawing and gets a free meal next Thursday. I have heard from several people that Mike worked very hard on the dictionary project and therefore deserved to be recognized.

Know Your Kiwanian has reappeared. This week Ron Veburg was recognized. Congratulations to Ron and thanks to Les Harms for uncovering all that information about Ron!

Don Siffring was the Kiwanian of the Day. He introduced our speakers, Ron Seymour and Jo Seilor from the Highland Memorial Arboreteum project. Jo gave us a history of Highland Park and Ron explained the project. I think everyone present has a clearer understanding of the reason we are helping to plant the trees. The project began in 2007; by this spring we will begin to see some results. Look for flowering trees!

Mike Johnson stood in for Don Goodrich and Darla Bruna played the piano for our musical portion of the show.

We have a new waitress and a new tip jar, so be generous and leave her a tip each week.

It is time for pancakes and it is VERY IMPORTANT for every single Kiwanian to do his or her part in ticket sales. If you are not a salesman--I confess that I am not--please buy the tickets yourself and give the money to Kiwanis and the tickets to friends, family or employees.

Thanks to Dave for setting up this blog. One of the break-out sessions at the Mid-Year Conference talked about having a Kiwanis blog. Even if only a few members use it, the facilitator urged us to try it out to serve the needs of those member who like this means of communication. So we will see how it goes.

What's new for our club in cyberspace.

Hello Kiwanians,

What can I say, I am a certified "computer geek" although I can't really take the blame for this latest addition to our electronic plate. No, Joan Bittfield gets the credit for this one. After our board meeting this afternoon, Joan asked me if I had ever done any blogging. This is probably one of the few electronic mediums that I have not yet sampled. Joan thought this would be a lot of fun to do for us, our club, and to pass along even more thoughts, ideas, and information to our membership. So, welcome to the Hastings Kiwanis Blog!

It has been an exciting week for me and Kiwanis. There have been several changes to the electronic medium used by our club. Probably the most satisfying for me anyway, is the addition of a PayPal account to our Kids Against Hunger project. This opens up a whole new source for funding this extremely worthwhile and much needed project. This provides people an opportunity give to KAH, that is completely safe and secure. The system also provides them with an immediate receipt for their tax purposes and does not require any maintenance on our part to send out these receipts. A "donate" button has been added at the bottom of our Kiwanis website homepage along with a copy of the article that has been purchased from the Tribune. There is also a donate link within the KAH website pages. I will be adding more as other pages on the web site are updated. Help spread the word that people who wish to help, can now do so just by visiting our web site (www.hastingskiwanis.org). Also, don't forget that by using GoodSearch (powered by Yahoo) as your internet search engine, you can help raise money for KAH just by surfing the web. One cent for every web search is donated to KAH at the end of the year. Another part of GoodSearch is GoodShop. By visiting the GoodShop web site, a large selection of online shopping companies (such as Amazon, Best Buy, etc) can be selected and then a percentage of your purchase gets donated to KAH. If you do a lot (or only a little) of online shopping, take a few seconds to check GoodShop.com to see the company you are ordering from participates. If so, just click on their link and then your purchase will earn extra money for KAH.

I have also setup a club email address on our hastingskiwanis.org email server. This account is accessible to officers, board members, and committee chairs to use to send information to our membership. The advantage to this is that the web site committee maintains the address book containing all of our Kiwanis email accounts. Also in the address book are a number of email lists, such as YCPO Committee, Youth Services Commitee (one for each of our committees), board members, officers, etc. These lists help simplify the selection of email recipients and are maintained by the web site committee as they change. This is a valuable tool as more and more committees start having regular meetings and need to start sharing information. A member of the web site committee can send the email message or the committee chair, officer, etc. can login and send the message themselves. This account also allows for several "identities" to be created so the person sending the message can use the account and send the email as themselves, with their email address so that any responses to the email will go directly to their account. This eliminates the need to keep checking back for any replies.

And finally, at Joan's urging, we now have this Kiwanis Blog. It is yet one more communication tool to help spread the word about the exciting things happening in our club, our district, and International. There is also a facebook page for our club and we may try to copy this blog to it as well. With the internet, the possibilities are nearly endless! Keep checking back, we'll try to keep you on your toes with new and exciting ideas as they present themselves.

David Kempf

Hastings Kiwanis Webmaster

New Blog

This could be a great place to exchange ideas! As the author of the Astonisher I suggest that if you have anything to contribute you post it here.