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.