Featured Kiwanian:
Chad Bachman

Jessica Gieger recieves the Student of the Month Award.

Bobbi Taff recieves the Terrific Kid Award.

Ethen Howard

September Terrific Kid at Hiawatha Elementary School

Pictured with Ethen is Eric Oldam, Kiwanis Member.

Featured Kiwanian

Janice Smith is this month's Featured Kiwanian.

Janice was randomly chosen from the members who had 100% attendance for the month of September. Janice also recently completed her term as Secretary. Congrats Janice!

Student of the Month

Cariann Kunkel was chosen as the September Student of the Month.

Cariann is pictured with Terry Smith.

August Student of the Month...Sara Lewis

Featured Kiwanian

This year we are featuring a Kiwanis Member that has shown great attendance over the past month. Those receiving 100% attendance will be randomly chosen and recognized on the blog.

August's Perfect Attendance Winner:

BRAD EDWARDS

August 2011

August 5 Meeting: Hallee Edwards spoke today about the Universal Service Fund (USF) and rural broadband internet access. She explained that proposed changes to the USF would decrease money available for internet access in rural areas and encouraged contact with members of congress about this issue. There were no guests at today's meeting.

July 2011

July 1 Meeting: At today's meeting, Nathan Simpson spoke about his two trips to Joplin, MO to help with the relief efforts. One of these trips was to bring supplies and the second was with the youth group. On this trip they spent three days cleaning up houses. Elizabeth Paton and Tom Babb were present as guests.

July 8 Meeting:

July 15 Meeting:

July 22 Meeting

July 29 Meeting: Today's guest speaker, Kathy Lindstrom, spoke about the school bank and store project at Hiawatha High School. The goal of this project is to help teach students a sense of responsibility with their money. Roger Aberle was a guest at today's meeting.

August Featured Kiwanian-Mike Schmitt

Mike Schmitt, a local lawyer, is the featured Kiwanian for the month of August.

Mike and his wife Marianne have 2 sons and are expecting their first grandchild in August.

Mike, his wife and both boys all graduated from Kansas State University. In Mike's spare time he enjoys attending athletic events at KSU, traveling and reading.

Having the opportunity to get to know and work with the many different individuals that Kiwanis has in it's membership is important to me.

July Featured Kiwanian

Fonda Lafrenz is the July Featured Kiwanian.

Fonda and her husband moved to Hiawatha in 2005. Fonda has 3 children, 2 step children and 11 grandchildren. Fonda is a semi-retired Nurse Practitioner.

Fonda enjoys the civil projects that Kiwanis does in the Hiawatha community and helping the youth.

In her spare time Fonda enjoys reading, sewing and being with her family.

June 2011

June 3 Meeting: Doug Weinberg introduced today's guest speaker, Bernie Libel from Libel Hearing Aid. Bernie spoke about hearing loss and the multitude of options for treatment. There were no visitors at today's meeting.

June 10 Meeting:

June 17 Meeting: At Today's meeting, Joey May, Keith Erdley and Phillip Lane spoke about the "Stand in the Gap" program. The goal of this program is to continue the Backpack Buddies program that the school provides during the school year.

June 24 Meeting:

June Featured Kiwanian

Libby Troxel-Erbert moved to Hiawatha in 2004 to begin her career as an Insurance Advisor for Farmer Insurance Group and Bookkeeping for Barrand Agency Inc.

Libby enjoys the fellowship that Kiwanis offers as well as the community involvement.

In Libby's spare time, she enjoys decorating her home, cooking, playing the piano and hunting with her husband.

April & May Terrific Kids

April Terrific Kid: Lucas Salcedo (not pictured) was the April Terrific Kid.

May Terrific Kid: Mindy and Megan Graves were chosen as the May Terrific Kids.

May Student of the Month: Rhodes Brook was chosen as the Student of the Month for May at HMS.

All 3 students were chosen by the staff at Hiawatha Elementary School for their positive attitudes, good character and responsible citizenship.

Eric Oldham presented them with a t-shirt, pencil and bumper sticker!

April Student of the Month

Jessica Geiger is the April Student of the Month at the Hiawatha Middle School.

Jessica was chosen by the staff at HMS for her positive attitude, good character and responsible citizenship!

Terry Smith presents her with a Subway gift card, Arrow Twin Theater movie pass and certificate!

May 2011

May 6 Meeting: At today's meeting , we had our four scholarship winners present to officially receive their scholarships. These winners were Brandon Keller, Kent Robert, Paul Steuve and Samantha Wilga. Other visitors were members of the winner's families: Kathy and Duane Robert, Elsie and Barb Steuve and Lisa Keller.

Today's program was on the Kansas Kiwanis Foundation Project, Victory Juntion. Terry Smith Presented Ian from Edwardsville to talk about this project. We watched a short movie explaining the purpose of Victory Junction and the impact that it has on children's lives.

May 13 Meeting: Today's meeting was a committee workday. There were no visitors at today's meeting.

May 20 Meeting: Today, Libby Troxel-Erbert introduced fellow Kiwanian Stacy Liechti from the Hiawatha Chamber of Commerce as the speaker. Staci spoke about upcoming Chamber events including a golf tournament on June 5th and Summerfest on June 25th. There were no visitors today.

May 27 Meeting:

May Featured Kiwanian

Hallee Edwards, Public Relations and Community Development Coordinator at Rainbow Communications is the Featured Kiwanian for the month of May. Hallee and her husband, Brad live in Hiawatha and have 2 puppies, Pepper & Roxie.

Hallee enjoys traveling, playing with her puppies, painting flowers and spending time with her family.

Hallee enjoys meeting every Friday at noon for Kiwanis. She enjoys the speakers and getting to know the other members.

April 2011

April 1 Meeting: At today's meeting, we had several guests. Susan Bryant was visiting today and we had 4 Sabetha Kiwanians joining us today also. Bea opened the meeting by sharing several April Fools jokes. Terry Smith introduced today's speaker, Mike Grimm from the City of Hiawatha. Mike explained the current city sewer problems and the steps that the city is taking to solve those problems. He also stated that all houses in the city of Hiawatha will be getting inspected during the next several months.

April 8 Meeting:

April 15 Meeting:

April 22 Meeting: Today we had 2 visitors from the Sabetha Kiwanis Club. Rev. Randy Quinn was in charge of spiritual aims for today's program. Instead of a sermon, he introduced Debi Farnen who is the Youth Director at the Methodist Church and the Young Adult Librarian at Morrill Public Library. She spoke about the work that she is doing with the youth of the community.

April 29 Meeting: For today's meeting, we had a membership day. Roger Aberle attended as a prospective new member. Lt. Governor Doug Clark spoke today about what it means to be a Kiwanian and explained the projects and groups that Kiwanis supports. We also had a guest from Sabetha here for an interclub.

Kiwanis Recognizes Kids

Eric Oldham, Kiwanis Member, presents Isabella Eppens, 4th grader, the Teriffic Kid Award for the month of March.

Terry Smith, Kiwanis Member, presents Brenden Steele with the Student of the Month Award at the middle school.

April Featured Kiwanian

Joe Koechner, owner of and pharmacist at KexRx is April's featured Kiwanian. Joe and his wife Chanda live in Hiawatha and have 4 children. Joe enjoys running and playing with his children in his spare time.

Joe enjoys the fellowship during the weekly Kiwanis meetings and the opportunities Kiwanis offers to serve the community.

March 2011

March 25 Meeting: Sheriff John Merchant presented a slide show on the S.A.F.E. (Seatbelts Are For Everyone) program that the Hiawatha Kiwanis Foundation donated funds for. Harold Wolgast, a member of the Downtown Topeka Kiwanis Club was a guest.

March 18 Meeting: Beckham Smith introduced Hiawatha Middle School instructor, Julie Splichal, who presented a program with the assistance of her 16 Science Olympiad students. They graciously thanked Hiawatha Kiwanis Foundation for the donation that not only provided them with funds to participate, but to qualify to compete at the state level in Wichita on April 2nd. Guest Troy Kolb also told our group that he and other members of the community have worked on a weekly basis with this group of students since school started and has since a huge growth in their reasoning skills that has been necessary to be able to achieve their 6th place win at Regionals.

March 11 Meeting: Today's speaker was Kiwanian John Severin, Superintendent of schools for Hiawatha. He explained to the club how the school did their budget planning for the coming year and how members of the community could participate. Again toady, there were now visitors at the meeting.

March 4 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Club Secretary, Janice Smith, gave the report from the board meeting. Mike Schmitt introduced today's speaker, David Elsbury, from KANZA Mental Health. David explained the current state funding situation and how that would impact mental health services in Brown County.

Naikipeeha Washburn is the February Terrific Kid at the Hiawatha Elementary School. Naikipeeha was presented her certificate, t-shirt, pencil and bumper sticker by Eric Oldham, Kiwanis Member.

The Student of the Month for February is Alysun Shamburg. Alysun received a Subway gift certificate and a movie pass to the Arrow Twin Theaters.

Pat Loyd is March's Featured Kiwanian. Pat has been a member of the Hiawatha Kiwanis Club since the 1980s. Her and her husband Don live in Hiawatha. They have 3 children, 5 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild. Pat is very active in the community as a member of the Hiawatha Music Club, 4 bridge clubs and of the 1st United Methodist Church. Pat has been a choir member for 54 years.

Frozen February

February 18 Meeting: Bee Strobel and Janice Smith presented today's program with 'words of wisdom'. There were no visitors today.

February 18 Meeting: Today's meeting featured Dot Leaky and her husband speaking about Kiwanis' partnership with UNICEF for project Eliminate. This project will help stop neonatal tetanus deaths. These deaths occur in at least 40 countries worldwide and can be prevented with the proper vaccination.

February 11 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Club secretary Janice
Smith shared the minutes from the February 7th Kiwanis Board Meeting. Gretchen shared a bit of Valentine's Day trivia.

February 4 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Local club members shared what was happening with their various organizations.

January Kids Recognized

Garrett Binns was the Student of the Month for January at the Hiawatha Middle School. Garrett was presented his award by Terry Smith.

Alexis Watka-Langley was presented the Terrific Kid Award by Eric Oldam.

Both students were chosen for their positive attitude, good character, and responsible citizenship.

February Featured Kiwanian--John Severin

John Severin is the Featured Kiwanian for the month of February. John and his wife Karen live in Robinson and have 4 grown children and 6 grandchildren. John is the superintendent of schools for USD 415.

John enjoys being a part of the many things Kiwanis does for the children of the community. John plays an instrumental part in the Pancake Feed Fundraiser each year.

In John's free time, he enjoys gardening, woodworking, fishing and hunting.

December Kids Recognized

Terrific Kid

Silas Garlington, a 4th grader was chosen as the Kiwanis Terrific Kid for the month of December. Eric Oldham presents Silas with his t-shirt, pencil, bumper sticker and certificate.

Student of the Month

Joseph Kunkle was chosen as the December Kiwanis Student of the Month. Terry Smith presented Joseph with a gift certificate to Subway and the Arrow Twin Movie Theatre.

Snowy January

January 7 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Mike Twombly spoke about the upcoming launch of the local television station created by Rainbow Communications.

January 14 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Today we discussed the future direction of the Hiawatha Kiwanis and how we can best serve our community.

January 21 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Eric Oldham gave a presentation about the first classes to take advantage of the one room school opportunity at the Ag Museum. All 4 of Hiawatha's second grade classes participated. Students and teahers alike had a great time at this educational, fun-filled day.

January 28 Meeting: There were no visitors at today's meeting. Mike Twombly talked about the new local TV station through Rainbow NEK. Several clips from the new channel were shown and her reminded everyone that they were still looking for submissions. Also, should you want a program listing for this channel, please visit the Rainbow website: http://www.rainbowtel.net/

January Featured Kiwanian--Gretchen Randall

Gretchen Randall is the Featured Kiwanian for the month of January. Gretchen and her 3 beautiful daughters live in Hiawatha. She is the office manager at Heartland Realty and enjoys playing with her girls, singing, shopping and cheering on the KU Jayhawks and St. Louis Cardinals.

Gretchen enjoys the networking with other Kiwanis members and doing service projects to help the children of the community.