sorry we missed this post last week; please read the report on both of the past two meetings included in this post.

Monday Morning
We had 19 members and four guests at Monday’s meeting. Joining us as guests were Joan Seidl and Lois Towne along with our guest speakers Bob and Marie Wondra. Mark Luttenberger started circulating the sign-up sheets for our first Salva-tion Army Bell Ringing date of November 29th. “Happy Bucks” were offered by Bob Kahl, to celebrate Deanna’s last visit to the cancer center in Milwaukee, and also by Gary Miller celebrating the halfway point in his shoulder surgery recuperation. Mar-lin Towne was the 50/50 Raffle winner and he drew the ten of spades, a $10 winner. Great Job Marlin. There’s still plenty of money left in the Raffle for next week.

Key Leader Program – October 31 Meeting
Six of our Key Clubbers (five from Fond du Lac High School Key Club and one from North Fond du Lac Horace Mann Key Club) attended a Kiwanis Key Leader Program on September 23-25th at Camp Wawbeek in Wisconsin Dells. Those six Key Clubbers joined us on Monday morning and gave us a summary of what they did and what they thought of the Key Leader Program. These six young adults showed us their agenda booklets, worksheets and other materials that they received at their weekend program. According to one of the speakers the Key Leader program went from about 8:00AM to midnight. When they arrived at Camp Wawbeek they were all introduced to one another, had dinner and then were divided into neighborhood groups. The five main points stressed in the Key Leader Program are: service leadership, integrity, growth, respect and community and pursuit of excellence. While they did a lot of classroom type work they also had the opportunity to develop teamwork and trust by participating in a ropes course at Camp Wawbeek. All six of the Key Clubbers found the Key Leader Program to be beneficial and thanked us for providing them the opportunity to attend. From a District perspective, the Key Leader Program is current Governor Fred Dietze’s Governor’s Project for the current year. Governor Fred is strongly encouraging District Kiwanis Clubs to sponsor a student(s) from either a Key Club or a Circle K Club to provide these future leaders with this valuable leadership experience.

Bob Wondra’s Return to Vietnam – November 7 Meeting
Bob Wondra along with his wife, Marie, joined us on Monday morning to tell us about a recent trip they made back to Vietnam, 42 years after Bob was wounded in the Vietnam War. Bob brought a video of their trip in October 2010 that he played while he and Marie talked about their trip back to Vietnam. While Marie admitted that she didn’t really want to go on this trip she knew that Bob really wanted her to go. And from how she talked about what she saw, it sounded like she was really glad she did go. It took Bob and Marie three days to actually get to Vietnam with only four hours of sleep during the trip. The group of 16 travelers, all from Wisconsin, landed in Hanoi, which was the last place that Bob thought he’d ever visit. While in Hanoi, the group was able to see remnants of the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” along with a small museum at the site. Bob and Marie shared a number of facts about Vietnam that were most interesting; such as they have over 27 million motorcycles in the country, people don’t walk there, they motorcycle, the average monthly family income is about $2,000, which provides for a very comfortable living and even though they are a communistic country their citizens have a great deal of freedom to own property, businesses and practice their own religion. One final interesting factoid was that the country has only one casino and it can only be used by foreign tourists. Thanks Marlin for arranging this very interesting program.

FDL Library Express Opening
Congratulations to the FDL Public Library which is opening its new express location in Johnson Crossing Shopping Center next Thursday. Be sure to support the Fond du Lac Public Library by making use of this convenient resource.