Tag Archives: fond du lac

STEM Academy Reports Progress & Success

Monday Morning

We had a nice turnout of 18 members and eight guests at Monday’s meeting back at the Retlaw Hotel. Joining us were our guest speaker, Steve Peterson along with three students of the FDL STEM Academy and four of their parents. Bonnie Baerwald announced that the Club Satellite meeting on July 3rd will be BackYard Bar & Grill at 12:15PM. Everyone’s welcome to attend. Charlene reminded everyone that our Annual Summer Picnic is this week Wednesday. Glen Treml had a “Happy Buck” for another grandchild on the way in November. John Cooper was the 50/50 Raffle drawing winner. John drew the Nine of Spades so he wasn’t a winner. The drawing on July 7th will have 19 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $456. In a second drawing Vickie Goldapske and Sharon Kollman each won a Walleye Weekend Miller Lite Polo. Congrats to all the winners.

Fond du Lac STEM Academy – Steve Peterson

Steve Peterson, CEO of Mid-States Aluminum, joined us on Monday as a representative of the Board of the FDL STEM Academy/Institute.

The Fond du Lac STEM Academy is the result of a partnership established between the Mercury Marine Corporation and the Fond du Lac School District. This partnership is far more than the traditional concept of a corporate partnership in which a the company provides resources for the school but has little actual involvement in the operations of the school. The mission for the Fond du Lac STEM Academy as stated in the charter grant application is: To develop innovative, passionate learners by providing a rigorous and challenging project-based curriculum grounded in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Our goal is to encourage ingenuity and creativity using real-world, hands on experiences. All students will develop strong team skills including collaboration, critical thinking, and flexibility, along with individual skills of self-reflection, persistence, pride, and resiliency. These skill sets will create future, highly employable citizens, armed with the 21st-century tools necessary for local, national, and global marketplaces.The STEM Academy is located at Franklin School and has a capacity of 100 students, with 80 students enrolled for the 2014-15 school starting in September. The STEM Academy includes grades 3, 4 and 5.

The STEM Institute started in 2013 and is also housed at Franklin School. The Institute has capacity for 150 students and has an enrollment of 100 students for the 2014-15 school year. The STEM Institute covers grades 6, 7 and 8. While there is nothing currently in place to continue this STEM concept at the High School level, the STEM advisory board is looking for ways to continue this learning philosophy at that level.

The three students that came along on Monday morning each gave a brief testimonial on why they like STEM and what some of their experiences have been.

Kiwanians Experience Flight for Life Adrenaline Rush

Monday Morning

We had a nice turnout of 14 members and one guest on Monday for our tour of the Flight for Life operation at the Fond du Lac County Airport. Dave Lefeber brought donuts and juice so everyone was happy, including the flight crews from Flight for Life. The next 50/50 Raffle drawing will be on Monday and will have 20 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $440. We’re starting to talk real money so get your ticket(s) early.

Flight for Life

Flight for Life transported their first patient in January 1984 from Eagle River Hospital to the then Milwaukee Regional Medical Complex. Since then they have expanded to two remote bases in McHenry, IL and Fond du Lac and have transported well over 33,000 patients. They just celebrated their 30 year anniversary in the fall of 2013.

When we arrived at the Flight for Life hanger on Monday they were going through a pilot shift change at 6:30 and medical crew change at 7:00. We were fortunate to hear from both the medical crew members as they were going off shift or coming on shift. The typical crew on any given flight is the pilot, a nurse and a paramedic. It is possible for a flight crew to have two nurses on a flight with no paramedic but it’s never able to have two paramedics and no nurse. The paramedics normally sit in the second seat of the cockpit and help the pilot with things like navigation and radio operations on the way to a scene. Once the patient is in the helicopter both the medical personnel are available to care for that patient and the pilot may be on his own.

All three of the flight crew work 12 hour shifts, typically three shifts per week. The pilots have to have a minimum of 2,000 hours experience as a helicopter pilot to be considered for Flight for Life while the nurses have to be an RN or higher and the medics are paramedic trained. Nurses and paramedics are required to have a minimum of three year’s experience in critical care or trauma work to be considered for Flight for Life. They also need to be able to work well under pressure. Of the 13 pilots on staff only two are non-military trained.

Fortunate for us, we were able to experience an actual call for the Flight for Life to respond to an accident on Hwy 41 and Cty B. Once the call came in, the crew did their assigned duties and were able to get in the air in less than ten minutes.

You Can Probably Guess What the Kiwanians Are Up To

If you are looking for an update and are looking for the Kiwanians, you probably know that there is only one place to find us. We are out making our community better of course. With the Memorial Day holiday and the Walleye Weekend fundraiser the Kiwanis of Fabulous Fond du Lac are staying very busy during the end of May and beginning of June. We are thankful for all the support we get on a regular basis from the community, and we hope that you are pleased with the ways the Kiwanis of Fabulous Fond du Lac are serving the community to make it a better place to live. Come out to Walleye Weekend to support us and check back in a few weeks when the schedule gets back to normal.