Tag Archives: fond du lac

Dr. Boos Helps the Helpless in Tanzania

Monday Morning

We had 16 members at Monday’s meeting along with our guest speaker, Dr. Eric Boos from UW-FDL “Happy Bucks” were offered by Gary Miller for his first bike trip of the season this past weekend in Dubuque, IA, Vickie Goldapske for her being sworn in on Monday night to the North Fond du Lac School Board, Chris Serres who was happy to be back from vacation (that was a lie) and Pete Vercouteren for a wonderful South Shore Chorale performance this past weekend. Dan Leeds was the 50/50 Raffle winner and he drew the six of Diamonds, not a winner. Next week’s 50/50 Raffle drawing will have 23 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $394.

Dr. Eric Boos

Dr. Eric Boos had been waiting to hear from an old teacher when the tattered postcard showed up with the unexpected postmark of Tanzania. Eric had to get out a map to locate the Eastern African nation. His teacher had written simply two lines: “We’re here. Why aren’t you?” “Count me in,” Eric wrote back. And so started a commitment that has taken him and his wife, Dr. Karene Boos, and their children to Tanzania countless times during the past 15 years. Their efforts helped create a $25 million Catholic college, a primary school, a metal fabrication shop for manufacturing equipment for children with disabilities and several women’s co-ops. They support two orphanages, an AIDS clinic and a physical therapy clinic, transforming the quality of life for hundreds of Tanzanians.

Their latest mission is to turn a ten-acre site on the edge of the Serengeti into a refuge for up to two hundred children with albinism, a genetic condition that affects the pigment of the skin, hair, and eyes. Although it’s difficult to know the exact numbers because so many live in secrecy, albinism is more prevalent in East Africa than anywhere else in the world. As many as 150,000 albinos may live in Tanzania. Eric describes albinism as Tanzania’s modern-day leprosy because of the stigma attached, but while albinos are hated and feared, their flesh comes with a grisly price tag. According to Eric’s research, a single finger from an albino can fetch the equivalent of about $1,300 U.S. dollars.

Kiwanians Discuss Recruitment at Annual Meeting

Monday Morning

We had 16 members at Monday’s Annual Club meeting and Elections. Bonnie Baerwald announced that the Children’s Museum is looking for a couple of volunteers to help with waterproofing the Garden Shed about 1:00PM to however long it takes to complete the waterproofing project on Sunday, May 18th at the Children’s Museum on Scott Street. Let Bonnie know if you can help. Bonnie also announced a Wild Goose Trail Clean Up on Saturday, May 10th. Check out the details under Kiwanis Happenings. A “Happy Buck” was offered by Gary Ring for finding out that Grandma Lois will have a grandson later this year. They found out at a “Reveal Party” this past weekend in Chicago. Pete Vercouteren was the 50/50 Raffle winner and he drew the seven of Clubs, not a winner. Next week’s 50/50 Raffle drawing will have 24 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $378.

Annual Club Meeting

Monday was our Club’s Annual Meeting and Election of Officers and Directors for the administrative year that begins on October 1, 2014. The Club Satellite members voted on Thursday, April 17th and the Host Club voted on Monday. The results of both votes were combined and the results are shown below. Congrats to all and thanks to everyone that agreed to run for an Office or Director seat.

Dan Leeds, Gary Ring and Pete Vercouteren then did a short program on how to think about increasing our Club’s membership, be it at the Host level or the Satellite level. Three questions were posed to the members:

Why do we come on Monday morning?
What’s our Club’s impact on the Community?
How do we do what we do successfully that positively impacts our Community?

A discussion was held on how we use the answers to these questions as we think about who we can ask if they’d like to be members of our Club.

2014-2015 Kiwanis of Fabulous Fond du Lac Club Officers and Directors:

President – Charlene Pettit

President-Elect – Gary Miller

Vice President – Dave Twohig

Treasurer – Chris Serres

Directors (incoming) – Dan Leeds, Jan Krug, Gary Ring

STEM Academy Team Plans Trip to Iowa

Monday Morning

We had 19 members at Monday’s meeting back at the Retlaw Hotel along with five speakers and guest Lois Towne. Joining us was Archie Barribeau along with three of his Odyssey of the Mind students and one of their Moms. Bonnie Baerwald announced that the Children’s Museum is looking for a couple of volunteers to help with a Garden Project with young children from 10:00AM – 1:00PM this Saturday. Let Bonnie know if you can help. Bonnie also announced a Wild Goose Trail Clean Up on Saturday, May 10th. We’ll start with breakfast at Pump N Pantry starting at 7:15AM and meet at the trail head about 8:00AM. “Happy Bucks” were offered by Charlene Pettit for someone turning her lost iPhone in to Verizon, Pete Vercouteren for a good mission trip to Biloxi and Del Waldschmidt for a successful Brewers start to the season. Del also was the 50/50 Raffle winner but he drew the three of Spades, not a winner. Next week’s 50/50 Raffle drawing will have 25 cards with five pay cards and a pot of at least $364.

Odyssey of the Mind Team – STEM Academy

Many hours of hard work have paid off as the STEM Academy‘s Odyssey of the Mind (OM) team earned an invitation to the World Finals at Iowa State University. The team of Mason McGrath, Miles Dennis, Sophie Schmidt, Jared Ott, Eleanor Sitter, Allison Riley, and Alexis Lord became Wisconsin Odyssey of the Mind State Champions on March 22 in Madison by placing first in Division I with their solution for the problem, “The Not-So-Haunted House.”

Students prepared for the competition by studying science, math, art, and the language arts to develop an eight-minute solution to the problem. The five-month process included the OM team researching special effects, learning about communication, researching music, studying language, practicing creative problem solving, writing a play, and creating building plans. In addition, students learned how to operate power tools safely. Students then combined all their acquired knowledge and skills to create a production.

The students will represent Fond du Lac and the state of Wisconsin at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa on May 26-31.