Good morning on this snowy spring morning! As we have been doing for the past several months in the absence of our regular club meetings, I will give you a summary of what we’ve been doing and what is coming up. Thank you for your continued support of our kids!
I didn’t do an update last month because the Board meeting notes provided the update. However, I want to highlight a couple of things from March and then get into the April report.
A big Hurrah!!! to all of you for the most successful spaghetti dinner in the history of our club. Many of you worked the kitchen, dining room, curbside pickup, signs, flyers, tickets, etc to benefit Riley Children’s Hospital. Your efforts have garnered over $1,800 for Riley Children’s Hospital. Well done Scott County Kiwanis Family members (Kiwanis Club, Key Clubs and Builders Club).
We have been busy supporting Child Abuse Prevention Month. The AHS Key Club, SMS Builders Club, VFES K-Kids and LES K-Kids all put out pinwheel gardens at their schools to promote our efforts to prevent child abuse and neglect in Scott County.
CRADLE Easter Egg Hunt: Thank you for the donations to CRADLE for their Egg Your Home Easter Egg Hunt fundraiser. They exceeded their goal this year and are planning on making this an annual event. Thank you especially to our K-Kids for donating supplies.
Welcome to Schneck Medical Center, our newest corporate member, inducted at our April Board meeting. We look forward to working with Schneck in serving our kids.
Thank you to the Scholarship Committee for evaluating the scholarship applications we received. The Indiana District will select their District winners this week. Thanks to Mike Chesser for printing the scholarship certificates. As soon as we hear back from District, we will print our forms and provide them to the schools for presentation. The awards days will be different this year. I will provide more details as we get closer.
The Y Summer Camp is more important than ever this year as our kids have struggled with their grades during the pandemic. The Summer Camp will provide free registration for 120 students in Scott County who need some extra support to maintain or improve their grades. The camp will include reading, tutoring, mentoring, STEM projects, special events, physical activity and healthy meals. Thanks to both school districts for supporting the summer camp with supplies, transportation, teachers, etc. Thanks to the United Way for donating $45K to sponsor kids to attend the camp. Thanks to our club for sponsoring kids and thanks in advance to the Schneck Foundation for sponsoring kids. The camp will start the end of May.
We held our first Board Meeting since November in April. We had a lot of business to catch up on. In spite of the pause during the pandemic, we have been very busy in the schools. Thanks to all our members who have volunteered to assist. We are working on guidelines for Club Meetings now. More details to come.
Congratulations to the AHS Key Club for holding thier Officer Installation and new member induction Ceremony at the high school. I was honored to attend and thank these outstanding students for their service to our community and their commitment to improving their leadership skills.
Thanks to our volunteers (Doris Marcum, Don & Millie Cooper, Kelly Shelhamer, Nick & Bunny South and Tim Mohon) for recognizing our third graders who improved their grades this grading period at the third grading period BUG Parties. They have struggled with their grades and the numbers of BUG Honor Roll members are down, but those who have improved and were recognized were just as excited as usual. We have one more round of BUG parties at the end of the school year and have been giving pep talks to the students to work hard to improve their grades.
We have been active in the Early Childhood Committee meetings. The focus at this time is working on goals and strategies. The area of discussion at the last meeting and will be discussed more, is the capacity for day care and pre school and how to increase the quality and capacity. We generally have about 1,100 to 1,300 kids from birth to age five. We do not have near that capacity to provide day care or pre school at this time. More to come.
Thanks to the SMS Builders Club and Darryl Smith for volunteering to help with the CASA Spring Cleaning. Trash was picked up, roses pruned, weeds pulled and mulch spread. We still need to go back to do a couple things, especially repair the ramp and stain it. Waiting for warmer weather??
We are supporting the United Way Golf Scramble as a hole sponsor. There is still a chance to enter a team if anyone is interested. We have two so far!!
The Refuge is making great progress. Construction is entering it’s final stage. Flooring is being finished, cabinets put in and painting is about done. The work on the porch and the brick laying will be about the last piece. A Director and Programming Director have been hired and will complete training in June. The license will be complete immediately afterwards. We are still looking at a July ribbon cutting and grand opening. The sustaining campaign is underway now. Need to raise $450K and have already raised $130K.
Coming up:
Our annual club Elections will be held electronically the week of 26-29 April. A reminder will be sent as elections open up for voting. Our slate of candidates are:President: Al RigglePresidend Elect: Tim MohonSecretary: Kim SmithTreasurer: Bunny SouthDirectors: Charlotte Boswell, Cheryl Dunn, Perry Hayes and Dave Church to fill the remaining term for Mike Murry.Voting will be open from 26-29 April and results announced on 30 April. Newly elected officers and directors will be installed at our Annual Meeting on 30 Sep 2021 to begin their terms on 1 Oct. Thank you to all those who have volunteered to serve our club as an officer or director.
Our next Pancake breakfast will be held on Saturday, 1 May from 7:00-10:00 at the Scottsburg United Methodist Church. Thanks to Guy Townsend and Darryl Smith for volunteering to put out the signs. Thanks to Mike Chesser for designing and printing our pancake flyers and to Walt Murray, Brent Swope, Perry Hayes, Dave Church, Don Cooper and others for distributing the flyers around town. Thanks to Kelly Dulaney, Lori Croadell, Sharon Parker and Karolee Tattersall for advertising on social media. Thanks to Walt Murray, Chris Wakeman, Ross St Clair Brent Swope, Scott Edwards, Perry Hayes, Angela Bray & the SHS Key Club, Nick South, Stephanie Zollman & the SMS Builders Club, Katie Tiemeyer & the AHS Key Club and others who have volunteered to assist with the pancake breakfast. Thanks to all those who have sold tickets. Please send in your ticket money to our PO Box 192 or bring it to the pancake breakfast.
Katie Tiemeyer has volunteered to be the faculty advisor for a new AMS Builders Club this fall. Darcy Goodin, Principal, agreed and we will make plans to charter a new club this fall.
Teriffic Kids Program: Tony Stidham, Interim Executive Director at the Y, has agreed to host a Teriffic Kids Program as part of the Y Summer Camp. I will work with Tony to implement the program which is designed to recognize and provide incentives to kids who have behavioral issues and set and reach goals to improve over the course of the summer camp. I believe this is the first Teriffic Kids Program our club has sponsored.
There will be a Pancake Breakfast Planning meeting on Thursday, 29 April at 6:00 PM at the Roadhouse USA. We have reserved the back room. All are invited to attend, but we really need the key workers (Chris Wakeman, Ross St Clair, Brent Swope, Scott Edwards, Perry Hayes, Angela Bray, Katie Tiemeyer and Stephanie Kelly). Walt Murray would like to go over some details before the pancake breakfast!
The next Board meeting will be on Thursday, 6 May at 12:00 noon at the Train Depot. We have three applications for membership to consider. All are invited. You may bring your lunch if desired.
Thanks for all you do to serve our kids!!
Al
“Serving the Kids in Scott County for 60 Years”
