>Nebraska Iowa Kiwanian
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Nebraska Iowa Kiwanian |
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| Vol 52, No. 4 | Serving the Children of the World | May June 2007 |
It is great to be a Kiwanian and especially in the Nebraska-Iowa District. So far, we have nine new
charters this year. It looks like there will be three more to make 12 for the year. Thanks to all of you for MAKING A DIFFERENCE.
Arlene and I really want to thank all of you for hosting us at the Official Governor Visits. We only have one division remaining. A special thank for the many contributors to the Nebraska-Iowa Foundation when we made the visits. Giving to the foundation was our wish rather than the usual gifts. There were still many personal gifts, and Arlene received many things as well.
Arlene says, "I just can't begin to thank you for the many beautiful gifts that were given to me. I think it is the kindest group of people that I have even seen. As many of you know, I have a disability, and I just had all kinds of people wanting to help me. It gave Dave a chance to go and talk to other people. There was always someone there to help me and give me kind words. I give to you all my greatest appreciation for everything and showing support for me."
Arlene was able to attend all but one of the visits. I certainly appreciated her traveling with me. We just reached 10,000 land miles.
The visits were so much better and more fun than we had been led to believe. The average attendance was 73 per visit. We met so many longtime friends from my Extension career and Arlene's teaching days. We never will forget seeing each and every one of you.
I really want to thank Bob Dunaway for the really great weekend and for hosting the Past Governors Retreat. The attendance was also very good. Arlene and I enjoyed the evening with Steve and Barb in their lovely home as well. Thanks to each of you. We really appreciate the support from Governor-elect Mark and Treasurer Don throughout this year. We have held two meetings together and one teleconference.
After much consultation with Mark and Don, I have appointed a Long-Range Study Committee. I asked Milford Hanna and he has agreed to serve as Chair. Than I appointed Steve Siemens, Larry Ziska and Kim Wermersen to serve on the committee and they have accepted. They are underway. I made the announcement at the Past Governors Retreat in Pella.
Since our last issue of the Kiwanian, we welcome the Spencer Builders Club and the Algona After Five Kiwanis Club to our Kiwanis family.
Governor Dave and First Lady Arlene
Governor Dave and Arlene presented 50 Hug-a-K-Bears to the CAASA House in Spencer. It is a home for the abused. This was the first presentation from the $650 provided by Past International President Steve Siemens and his wife, Barb. Steve and Barb wanted to do something for Governor Dave’s and First Lady Arlene's Hug-a-K-Bear project.
At the Midyear Conference, Steve gave a portion of the income from his book sales. It totaled $650. Thank you so much Steve and Barb. It certainly was appreciated very much.
Governor Dave, Jessica Ranslow, Coordinator for the CAASA House, and First Lady Arlene Hessman
One of my goals for all Kiwanians is to have fun in Kiwanis. This is a good example…
Many of you know Arlene and I were in Lincoln, Nebraska during the March 1 blizzard. We were scheduled for Governor visits to Division 23 at Hastings at noon and for Division 21 and 22 that evening.
We didn't get to Hastings, and the Lincoln visit was rescheduled for April 16. We were in Lincoln for four days. Lt. Governors Gus and Irv were very good to us. They took Arlene and me around Lincoln, where we attended other local club meetings.
We thought a gift for them would be appropriate for all their time and transportation. Being Cyclone fans that we are, maybe a Cyclone cap for the Husker fans would be fun. We purchased the two caps and presented them at the rescheduled Governor visit (see below). Later that evening, Gus and Irv presented Arlene and me with a Husker umbrella. This was not planned, as neither of us knew about the gifts.
And, yes, we have used the umbrella. It came in very handy at the Governors visit in Hampton. It was raining that day. My longtime friend and County Extension Director, Lt. Governor Bev Peters, saw us and couldn't believe these Cyclone fans were using a Husker umbrella. Of course she is a Cyclone fan, since she still works for I.S.U.
We have had fun with that umbrella. Arlene used it one day to go into Wall-Mart. Who cares when it is raining???!!!
Thank you goes to Lenora Hanna for providing these great pictures.
Governor Dave and First Lady Arlene
Governor Dave “thanks” Lt. Governors Gus Dornbusch and Irv Omtvedt with Cyclone caps.
Gus and Irv return the favor by presenting Governor Dave with a Husker umbrella.
Susan Hanna receives a gift from Governor Dave for her service to the district as Circle K Administrator.
Nearly 6,000 bears are in the hands of or will be in the hands of lots of kids around the Nebraska-Iowa District. The Hug-a-K-Bear project has certainly put the Kiwanis name in a lot of areas around Iowa and Nebraska.
We just received another 1,000 bears, which makes 6,000 this year. A quarter of those have been sent out already. We have shipped bears to 52 Kiwanis Clubs in addition to the many bears distributed by the Lt. Governors to other clubs. The Waterloo Club holds a record for bears to one club – 500 bears.
During our Governor visits, we received cash donations from local Kiwanis clubs to help with the bear project. Thanks to all of you for that. Many of the visits used bears as center pieces on the tables.
We saw this project in the Georgia District last year. Arlene contacted Governor Johnnie Johnson and his wife, Annie. They were enthused that we would want to do this also, and encouraged us to move ahead.
As you know, it has been a custom to have a Governor's project; really more of a First Lady’s project. Arlene first thought of giving bears to children with cancer. Then we decided to give bears to children in any kind of a trauma situation. She then decided on the Hug-a-Bear name. Then Key Club Lt. Governor Heather Feucht thought we should add the "K" and make it Hug-a-K-Bear. Thank you, Heather.We think this will be our last 1,000 bears, unless there are a lot of late requests. It has taken a lot of time to ship, keep the records, and so on. But we have enjoyed it very much, anticipating how much it will cheer up many children and give them comfort in time of need.
Thank you to everyone for helping make this a very successful project.
Governor Dave and First Lady Arlene
Three hundred eighty three is the number of Spencer K-Family members from eight clubs who were asked to welcome the Nebraska-Iowa K-Family members to the District Convention in Spencer, August 10-12.
Pictured below are officers of the Spencer clubs and Official Hosts, Governor Dave and First Lady Arlene, and Lt. Governor Ron Feucht and wife, Dawn.
Front row, left to right: Loren Jones, Spencer Aktion Club President; Gabbie Pearson, Spencer Builders Club Treasurer; Hayle Hess, Spencer Builders Club Vice-President; Arlene Hessman; Dave Hessman; Sara Dillard, Spencer Key Club President; Heather Feucht, Area 6 Key Club Lt. Governor. Back row, left to right: Bob Roti, Spencer Golden K President-elect; Kim Rieck, Spencer Noon Kiwanis President; Rich Noah, Spencer Daybreakers President-elect; Ron Feucht, Division 3 Lt. Governor; Dawn Feucht, Division 3 First Lady; Deb Feldman, Spencer After Five President.
In April, Lincoln Cornhusker Kiwanis presented 50 Kiwanis bears to DeEtta Mayrose, Public Relations at Bryan Lincoln General Hospital, and 75 Kiwanis bears to Pastor Tom Barber, Lincoln City Mission. The remainder of our bears will be going to the Teddy Bear Cottage project.
The idea of the Hug-a-K-Bear project was sparked by Governor Dave and First Lady Arlene. Some of the 144 bears we purchased came as donations from our members and others from our fundraising projects.
The teddy bears will be given as needed to children in the community who have experienced a trauma or unsettling event in their life. We want to give the children something they can call their own and make them feel special.
Lincoln Cornhusker President Sally Read presents 50 Kiwanis bears to DeEtta Mayrose, Public Relations at Bryan Lincoln General Hospital, and 75 Kiwanis bears to Pastor Tom Barber, Lincoln City Mission.
When Governor Dave visited Divisions 19 and 20 in Omaha, he was glad to see Circle K members among the guests. Dave is a strong supporter of Service Leadership clubs.
Circle K District Secretary/Treasurer Cody Phillips, UNO Circle K President Julie Felt and Kiwanis
District Governor Dave Hessman
After a long career as a feature columnist and co-host of RAGBRAI for the Des Moines Register, Chuck Offenburger is now writing from his farm home near Cooper in Greene County, Iowa, about 55 miles west and a little north of Des Moines.
Besides his columns, he also is a regular in Okoboji Magazine, which is published eight times yearly for the Iowa Great Lakes area. Offenburger also does freelance writing for other publications, as well as serving as a visiting instructor at colleges and high schools, teaching journalism and courses on Iowa.
He continues to travel widely in the state for stories, speeches, meetings of boards he is serving on, and consulting on matters of economic development and tourism.
At the District Convention, Offenburger will share his ideas about how to continue to have membership growth in a declining and aging population base.
Built in 1889 – during the golden age of amusement parks – Historic Arnolds Park is one of the longest
operating amusement parks in the world. It features classic rides and attractions like a wooden roller coaster named The Legend, the Queen II excursion boat, live concerts, special events, dining, shopping, water rentals, sandy beaches and the Iowa Great Lakes Maritime Museum – all nestled on the shores of Lake Okoboji.
District Social and Dinner at the Roof Garden (Friday, August 10)
The convention team has put together a modest District Dinner this year at the Roof Garden in the park. The cost is only $10 per person (with early registration)! Social time before dinner includes a cash bar.
Don’t miss this chance to enjoy one another’s company before taking the Sunset Cruise on the Queen II.
Take a Trip Back In Time – Sunset Cruise (Friday)
We have discount tickets for the first 200 people to sign up.
Step aboard the Queen II and you'll be transported to another time. A time when ladies and gentlemen dressed in their best finery and boarded regal steamships bound for elegant ballrooms across the Iowa Great Lakes.
Built by Palmer Johnson and launched in 1986, the Queen II looks and feels like the steamboats of yesteryear. Tours last one hour and fifteen minutes, and include narration on various historical landmarks around the Iowa Great Lakes. Departs at 8:00 p.m.
Rock-‘n-Roll Museum
Here is a bonus attraction on Friday, August 10 – the Rock-‘n-Roll Museum will allow anyone wearing Kiwanis-branded attire to be admitted free.
Cart-loads of Good, Clean Fun From classic favorites like The Legend Roller Coaster and Ferris Wheel, to modern attractions like the Log Flume and Water Wars, Arnolds Park offers thrilling rides for all ages. Test your go-kart driving skills. Find your way through the mirror maze. Or take a trip through the amusement park on the Long Lines Limited Train. Whatever the ride, whatever the age, everyone is sure to have loads of good, clean fun! We have discount tickets, good any one day, August 8-15, for age 13 and up and 48” tall.
Spencer Golf & Country Club 2200 W. 18th Street, Spencer, Iowa 712-262-2004
*** Golf Digest rated SG&CC as one of the very best in Iowa ***
*** 2006 Top Club Professional in Iowa - Tom Monahan ***
7:30 a.m. Registration
8:00 a.m. Tee Time
$38 per golfer for 18 holes, or $20 for 9 holes!
Cost includes 18 holes, green fees, and cart share
Golfer 1:____________________________
Golfer 2:____________________________
Golfer 3:____________________________
Golfer 4:____________________________
Please mail payment (payable to “Kiwanis Daybreakers”) and this form to:
Paul Brenner Kiwanis Daybreakers 1305 Grand Avenue Spencer IA 51301Spencer Municipal Golf Course (**highly recommended**) 18 holes, tee times 712-580-7280 - south Spencer location near motels
Emerald Hills (15 mi. N. of Spencer) Tee times 712-332-7100
Brooks National (18 mi. N. of Spencer) Tee times 712-332-5011
Okoboji View (on Hwy. 86 West side of W. Lake Okoboji) Tee times 712-337-3372
District Convention Golf Committee:
Paul Brenner Ron Feucht
712-262-4113 712-240-2347
Sixty-two Siouxland high school students were honored for their academic achievement on Wednesday, May 2, at Western Iowa Tech Community College.
The event, in its 49th year, is sponsored by the Downtown Sioux City Kiwanis Club. Each year the club coordinates with South Sioux City, Dakota Valley, Siouxland Community Christian and Sioux City East, West, North, and Bishop Heelan High Schools to select the top five percent of their senior classes. The club solicits the help of Siouxland businesses in honoring the students with a special banquet and a framed certificate.
During the evening, sponsors and business leaders visit with the student honorees to recognize their academic achievements, and share personal career and family experiences with them in the hopes of encouraging the students to live and work in Siouxland after attending college.
“For 49 years, the top priority of our club has been youth,” says Tim Swedean, president of the Downtown Sioux City Kiwanis Club. “The Top 5% Honors Banquet is our way of recognizing the quality of students our community has. About 70 students are recognized each year, and have the chance to view firsthand the career opportunities available to them right here in Siouxland.” Swedean adds, “The Kiwanis Club is appreciative of all the sponsors and escorts who support us in honoring the students.” This year, the club has secured about 100 sponsors for the event.
The Top 5% Banquet was originally an event sponsored by the Sioux City Chamber of Commerce. In 1981, the Kiwanis Club took over the event and has coordinated it since.
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Lincoln School K-Kids, sponsored by the North Platte Kiwanis Club, interviewed the residents of Linden Estates Assisted Living facility in North Platte on several occasions. The kids then made each resident a Memory Book and presented it to that person. The K-Kids also shared May baskets with the residents.
Are you the one to make a difference?
This truly is an exciting time to be a part of Kiwanis! We are pleased to announce a new membership campaign to directly assist clubs with membership growth initiatives. Are You the One? is a proactive approach to directly assist Kiwanis clubs in membership growth for the remainder of this year ...and beyond. We are offering clubs ten easy-to-implement growth strategies to increase membership. It’s fun and it’s easy. The steps are: Contact the Kiwanis Help Line. The number is 800-KIWANIS (549-2647), ext 411. Speak to a specially trained representative to get personal assistance, answers to questions, information, and collect ideas about service, growth, marketing, and membership.
Call for a personalized club brochure. Kiwanis will create a personalized, color brochure to promote your club, recruit members, and build relationships with community supporters. We will print 50 copies free of charge.
Identify who’s who. Identify occupations not represented in your club.
Request a prospect list. Provide us with your postal code, and we will send you a list of prospective members in the business community, including addresses, phone numbers, contact names, and mailing labels.
Plan a theme party. Invite four community leaders under the age of 40 to a club meeting, ask someone who has benefited from your club’s service to share their Kiwanis story, and celebrate Kiwanis’ contributions in your community.
Order recruitment materials. Give prospective members additional membership materials.
Conduct new-member orientation. Educate new members about Kiwanis and its local service impact.
Celebrate recruitment success. Recognize your club members for their recruitment efforts through the 1-2-3 You Hold the Key! contest.
Reconnect with missing members. Connect with inactive members. Order eight Missing Member Responder postcards free of charge.
Make a difference. Change the world one child and one community at a time. Do a service project in your community.
Check out the Are you the One? campaign at www.kiwanis.org/theone/ for additional information and on-line resources.
If you have any questions related to the campaign, please let us know. We greatly appreciate your dedication and service. Contact the Kiwanis Help Line at 800-KIWANIS, ext 411, or helpline@kiwanis.org.
If it takes a village to raise a child, building a playground for that child takes foresight, passion, patience, plenty of money and a lot of volunteers. They all came together recently in Milford, Nebraska, where the Milford Kiwanis Club raised almost fifty thousand dollars in a year, and installed the playground equipment in April.
Read the entire copyrighted story in the online Lincoln Journal Star by visiting this Internet location: here
KI Marketing & Communications
Did you know you can order a FREE personalized club brochure through Kiwanis International?
The club brochure is a standard 8.5” by 11” sheet with two folds, creating a handy six-panel presentation. The full-color, professionally designed brochure is based on a Microsoft Word template, so it’s easy to add local information about club meetings, projects, and contact information. Using the template, clubs can print additional copies as often as they are needed and revise local information at any time. To view the brochure template, visit www.kiwanis.org/theone/cbrochure.html.
This brochure is one of many club marketing tools offered to help recruit more members. A campaign to make club members aware of these materials, many of which are free, is underway and is called Are You the One? (to make a difference).
Promote your club, recruit members, and build relationships with community supporters.
Clubs are increasing their service to children and communities worldwide and reporting thousands of success stories. There still are children who need our help, though. The most effective way to reach these children is by expanding the Kiwanis membership in your club. Will you accept the challenge? Are you the one to make a difference in your community?
“They say when a person loses his parents, that person loses his past. When a person loses a spouse, that person loses his present. When a person loses a child, that person loses his future.”
So began the meditation by Chaplain Noelle Andrew to a standing room only crowd at the Good Friday Prayer Breakfast on April 6th at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church, the meeting place of the Iowa City Old Capitol Kiwanis. Chaplain Andrew, a second year Chaplain Resident in the Clinical Pastoral Education residency at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, provided a few insights into pediatric chaplaincy. During her meditation, she described short vignettes of the lives of four children whom she has ministered to during the year in which she has focused on pediatric chaplaincy.
“Ashley was visiting the Children’s Hospital because her little sister Baby Michelle was born prematurely with many of her organs outside of her body, some of which were inverted inside out. The doctors met with the family and explained that Baby Michelle would require a very complicated surgery that could easily last 12 hours.
“Four year old Ashley was proud to be the big sister. Yet she did not understand many of adult conversations going on around her. She asked me, ‘Why does my sister have a bad “owie?”’
“I explained that God made her that way, just as God has made you.
“Ashley got busy and colored some stickers. One said ‘Great,’ which was her wish for Baby Michelle’s surgery. She gave me the sticker and made me promise that I would wear it all day on the day of the surgery.
“On the morning of the surgery I arrived early at the hospital. I made sure I wore the sticker as I had promised. Even before I could see Ashley, I could hear her running down the hall. She was saying, ‘Mommy, I wonder if that lady remembered to wear the sticker I gave her.’ When Ashley saw me with the sticker, she ran to me and gave me a hug.
“The family gathered with me for a prayer. Mom asked for special prayers for Baby Michelle. Grandpa requested guidance for the surgical team. Ashley asked that her sister get well.
“About four hours later the doctors came back in to see the family. I tensed, because four hours was way too soon. It could mean that the worst has happened.
“But the news was indeed very good news. Baby Michelle’s surgery had gone much better than anticipated. Today Baby Michelle is recovering nicely.
“Ashley may not have understood it all, but Ashley knows God loves her and is listening to her.”
Chaplain Andrew said that there are hundreds of stories to tell. Many times there is a happy ending, but not always. However the kids she talks to know that someone is there to listen and to be God’s presence for them.
The Good Friday Prayer Breakfast is the Iowa City Old Capitol Kiwanis Club’s annual fundraiser the Kiwanis Pediatric Chaplain Fund, a NE-IA District project to endow a permanent full-time pediatric chaplain at the University of Iowa Children’s Hospital. The Old Capitol Kiwanis club raised approximately $15,000 from this year’s Prayer Breakfast campaign. This includes money raised through approximately 20 clubs in the NE-IA District.
Other clubs are challenged to join the effort, which has an ultimate goal of raising 1.2 million dollars to endow a permanent chair for a full-time pediatric chaplain.
Chaplain Andrew will be speaking at the NE-IA Kiwanis District convention in Storm Lake in August 2007. This will be an opportunity to hear her stories, ask questions about Pediatric Chaplaincy and to learn how your club can be a part of this vital project.
Chaplain Andrew ended her meditation with a quote from an anonymous author:
“When your husband dies, you become a widow; when your wife dies, a widower. Children who lose their parents are called orphans. But we have no name for the parent who loses a child. It is unspeakable.”
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