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Kiwanis defining statement, adopted October 2004.

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NEWSLETTER

Cedar Rapids Downtown Kiwanis Club

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The meeting was called to order by 1st Vice President Bob Hatala.  20 Members in attendance.

Guests:  Bob McAvoy 

Birthdays:   Charlene Boardman 7/27, lovely bride of Dick Boardman and mother-once-removed from Dan Breitbach

Anniversaries:  none  

Announcements: 1. Over the weekend, 26 people volunteered 205 hours toward the flood relief.  With the DeKalb club bringing 8, our club along with the Hiawatha and Marion clubs joined forces to help with clean up on 3rd Street SE. 

2. Bob read a thank you from Alyssa Driscoll for her Kiwanis scholarship to attend St. Xavier College in Chicago, IL.

 Happy Bucks:  John Locher – happy to have a buck remaining from his trip to Norway; Jim Platt – happy for the nice article on Doug Dix’s company in the recent issue of City Revealed; John Anderson – happy to be back in warm weather after his rather chilly fishing trip to northern Ontario; Don Grimm – 2x happy that he remembered his wife was out of town last week but she came back this week; Mary Corkery – happy for the great work over the weekend; Dick Boardman was 3x happy that his son was at their table today, that Dan Schmall got some press for the upcoming Shrine game, and that Ron Sunderman was giving him some good inexpensive insurance advice; Ron Sundermann – happy buck for the not-so-free advertising from Dick; Chuck Wehage – the chigger bites are going away since returning from his trip up north; Dan Breitbach – 2x happy for his mom’s birthday and for his son, Tommy’s, recognition as a 2nd team preseason all-American d-back; Sister C- happy to be back from vacation safely; and Bob Hatala – that OSHA didn’t show up over the weekend.

Speaker:  Bob introduced Don Tyne, Veteran Affairs officer for Linn County.  Don has 32 years of Army Reserve and 5 years active duty under his belt.  He is a retired Lt. Colonel.  He gave us an overview of our local Veteran Affairs office.  One of his primary tasks is helping vets receive benefits compensation for active duty.  This past fiscal year, his office received over $15 million for veterans in Linn County and an additional $5 million for medical care through the Iowa City VA Hospital.  He was instrumental in getting the Iowa Vet’s Trust Fund passed this past year.  This fund is set up to help vets who have experienced a major catastrophe, had uncovered medical bills or have lost jobs, became disabled or just have fallen on hard times.  The program provides food, clothing and shelter for several months until the vet can get back on his/her feet. 

This will be the third year for both their Stand Down and Sleep Out fundraisers to help the homeless vets.

Thanks Don for the informative presentation.

Upcoming programs:  Playtime Poppy is next week.

Word for the day:   “Declivity” by our wordsmith, Don Grimm.  Unfortunately, due to the attending members’ declivity in mental output today, we weren’t able to guess that the correct definition was: “a downward inclination or a descending slope”.

Submitted:   Dan Breitbach