Kiwanis Happenings – March 8, 2012

We are going to recap two weeks worth here:

Monday Morning
We had a smaller group at Monday’s meeting compared to the previous week. We had 16 members and our guest speaker Don Whitty from Habitat for Humanity. “Happy Bucks” were offered by Vickie Goldapske for the outstanding birthday song from her table mates, Jan Krug for a great vacation that she just returned from and Gary Ring in celebration of his and Lois’ wedding anniversary. Jan Krug also had an “Honor Buck” for Gary Miller’s taking the Polar Plunge several weekends ago. Gary picked a deck of Green Bay Packer playing cards from the Kiwanis Treasure Trove. Gary Miller thanked those members that made an InterClub to the Noon Club last Tuesday. Glen Treml was the 50/50 Raffle winner and he drew the Jack of Hearts. Close but no cigar. That leaves 51 cards in the deck with nine pay cards and over $200 in the pot. Lots of chances to win.

Kay Vandervort, FDL Big Brothers-Big Sisters (March 1)
Kay Vandervort is the new Executive Director (since December 1st) of the FDL Big Brothers-Big Sisters. Kay formerly was the Executive Director of FDL Volunteer Center. Big Brothers-Big Sisters of Fond du Lac County is dedicated to serving children, families and the community by developing resources, environment, and mechanisms to provide a caring adult in the life of every child in need. Big Brothers-Big Sisters works in conjunction with area schools, community social services agencies, and other referral sources to better meet youths’ needs. Big Brothers-Big Sisters has developed a variety of pro-grams to fit the diverse lifestyles of their volunteers. Following are the various mentoring opportunities available:

  • School/Site-Based Match
  • Community-Based (Traditional) Match
  • Big Couple Match
  • Big Family Match
  • Bigs for a Day

Kay provided us with several sobering statistics about the population they serve. She also talked about where their funding comes from. Check out bbsfdl.org for more information.

Don Whitty, Habitat for Humanity-Fond du Lac County (March 8)
Habitat for Humanity of Fond du Lac County is a nonprofit, nondenominational Christian housing ministry organized to work with the local community to build simple, decent, affordable houses with those who lack adequate shelter. Don Whitty is the volunteer on-site building supervisor, and he joined us on Monday to talk about how a Habitat Build happens. Don has been in the construction business most his life and has built a number of houses during his career. Now he volunteers his time to make sure that Habitat Houses are built to industry standards and codes through the use of largely volunteer groups. Certain parts of the build like dry wall, plumbing, electrical, heating and ventilating, excavating, and flooring are done by professionals; many of them also volunteer their time, but the rest of the build is done by volunteers. Don gave us a number of stories about how volunteers would come to the job site not knowing which end of the hammer to use and leave with a real sense of accomplishment. He also told us how the women-only build days have become a very fun part of the project. Don also mentioned that Lowe’s is a large contributor of materials and person power in our local Habitat builds. Don finds his volunteer role very fulfilling and sees it as a way to give a little back to the community.