Our guest speaker this week was McDonough County Sheriff Rick Van Brooker.
The Sheriff talked about how his department is doing drug investigations in the county and they are now more focused on getting into rural areas. He said that Lt. Justin Lundgren helped re-start a program and "it's been very successful."
The Sheriff reports his office is building relationships with city and law enforcement officials throughout the county. He says "the people involved do a fantastic job for all the communities. Criminals are being busted and prosecuted
for heroin, crack cocaine and other drugs. The meth epidemic ran a seven year cycle and has now plummeted although it's still out there. The main drug in schools is marijuana and prescription drugs." When asked about the effect the closing of Illinois State Police District 14 in Macomb would have, he said "it would be devastating to our department." However, the sheriff said he has since been informed that the building is not being closed because telecommunications can't be moved but there will be fewer troopers due to state funding cutbacks.
Due to many of our members planning to attend the Volunteer Now dinner on Tuesday, May 11, it was decided to cancel our meeting that week. No Kiwanis meeting on Tuesday, May 11. However, it was suggested that Kiwanis members attend the Volunteer Now dinner together instead. The Annual Volunteer Now Fundraiser Dinner is from 5:30PM - 8:00PM at Wesley United Methodist Church.
Tickets are $15 and available in the VolunteerNOW office, by calling 836-3754 or by email.
A very BIG THANK YOU goes out to all the Kiwanis members and volunteers who helped to make our 61st annual Pancake Day April 22 a success. We served over 1,300 diners between 5:30AM and 7:00PM. The busiest hour was at 5PM with 345. Nearly 300 were served over the lunch hour. Treasurer Tim Moss reports we had gross receipts of $13,751 compared to $12,163 last year. Debbie said 90 students helped out and she was very impressed with the hard working WIU students who were there. We also received a check for $1,225 from Alpha Gamma Rho that sold every ticket that we gave them. In appreciation of the support we received from the WIU fraternities, it was decided we would treat them to a pizza party. We'll arrange to have pizza delivered to them in the next couple of weeks as a small token of our appreciation.
See a photo montage from this years Pancake Day here
The first reading of nominations for 2010-2011 Kiwanis officers and directors was announced by Pat Stout. Names placed in nomination were:
President - Pat Stout
President-elect - Waneen Stout
Secretary - Tim Moss
Treasurer(s) - Jack Elfrink and Chris Jones
Board of Directors - Joe Vandemark, Ken Harp, Rick Bulger, Owen Thompson and Mary Haney to replace Waneen. The second reading will be next week with a final vote to follow.
We received a $50 donation from Hy Vee for supplying them with Kiwanis peanuts for them to give away as part of an upcoming store promotion.
Upcoming dates:
* Kiwanis/McDonough County Junior Olympics will be Saturday, May 8, at Hanson Field. Set up is at noon for a 1:00 start and we hope to finish by 4:00. Debbie says we will have bottled water, courtesy of Hy Vee and snacks, thanks to the Salvation Army, for the participants. The new afternoon time was selected to avoid
conflicts with Little League and Soccer games and we've already received confirmation from several local and area schools. The WIU Athletic Department will supply stopwatches and Dave Miller will bring the starting gun. Members are needed for sign-in, timing events and overall coordination.
* June 12 the Galesburg Kiwanis Club will host a golf tournament. 12:30 shotgun start followed by dinner. Cost is $45 per person.
* June 14, the Macomb Area Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Development will be having their golf outing and we've been invited to participate and sponsor a hole.
* June 22, the Chicago White Sox is teaming up again with the I-I District for the 5th annual "Kiwanis Grand Slam" for a game against the Atlanta Braves. All Kiwanis members and their families get a special deal on tickets.
Happy "Pancake Day" Buck$ this week from Pat, Tim, Jay and Joe who are happy Pancake Day is over and our guest speaker Sheriff Rick Van Brooker who was happy to be one of the booster sponsors. He gives his tickets to his employees.
Mary Haney won the 50/50 Drawing and donated her share back to the club.
Click here to see a digitally enhanced picture of our proposed new Chandler Park playground.
Click here to see an artists rendering of how the proposed bricks will be displayed in front of the playground.
Check out previous Builder newsletters by clicking on a date below.
