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Kiwanis Club of Winter Haven
January 2, 2010 |
Sunshine Foundation – the Original “make a wish” Organization
Rich Mergo brought us up to date on one of our former projects. Rich is Director of Development for the Sunshine Foundation based in Davenport. Since founded in 1976 the Foundation has granted 34,000 dream 
requests. These are all expense covered wishes for terminally ill children and the families. The families are boarded in theme cottages right there at Sunshine Village. From that location they are taken to any area attractions they desire. The organization is best known in the North East (particularly PA and NJ) yet it sits right in our back yard. They most recently started an airport greeter program and have greatly increased landscaping at the Village. The first cottage was completed and the first family boarded in 1990.
A few years back our local area Kiwanis Clubs participated in providing outdoor benches and tables for the facility and were rewarded with a DCM meeting and meal. At the time we toured the very children appealing theme cottages. Screening for qualification involves family and physician input. The Sunshine Foundation usually has about 200 requests on its waiting list. By Tom Dryden
Winter Haven High School Key Club
Key Club Pre
sident Shanaria Pesaurd with Craig Clevenger the Key Club advisor. Shanaria tells our members about the projects they are working on and have completed. Craig attended the Lake Region High School and was a member of the Key Club from May 1999 thru May 2001. He is the geometry teacher for the Winter Haven High School.
Lt. Gov. Brian Knowles and Florida District Foundation Trustee Tim Hart
Lt. Gov. Brian Knowles joined us today on one of his scheduled visits and talked to the club about our foundations and our need for membership growth. Membership growth is the lives blood for Kiwanis and gives 
us the ability to raise money and provide services to our community. Brian talked about Kiwanis’s last worldwide service project which was IDD. Kiwanis International will announce its next worldwide project in June at the Convention in Las Vegas.
Tim Hart was re-elected to the Florida District Foundation Trustee position which he has held for a number of years. He went over the things that the foundation does. Such as providing our club with funds for the Winter Haven Kiwanis Park. With the help of the foundation the club donated $5,000.00 to the city for the park and helped pay for the Kiwanis Park sign and landscaping. Tim presented sustaining members pins to Joe Schroeder, John Risher, Ed Ethington and Lewis Wright. He encouraged members to donate $25.00 or more the District Foundation each year to help fund this important program. By Joe Schroeder
Another Great Year For The Ding-A-Lings.
Bob Conley organized and scheduled our members for this year’s Salvation Army fund raiser. Bob has chaired this event for five or six years and has been an outstanding chairman.
We provided bell ringers at the Southgate Publix Market on Saturday, Dec. 5th. and again on the 12th. Members were scheduled for two hour periods and we were to have members at each door. Bob reported that on the evening before the 12th. he was notified by Lamar from the Salvation Army that we could have only one bell ringer at the store so he had to scramble to reschedule the workers. This cut down on the money we were able to collect.
The following ding-a-lings worked:
Bob Conley, Larry Forsythe, Les Adams, Karen Phillips, Stan & Doris Muir, Alan Klose, Betty Putney, Amanda Nichols and Georgia Fisher.
Thanks to the efforts of Craig Clevenger the Winter Haven High School Key Club was able to provided the following members:
Gabril Taylor, Danielle Wallace, Ashley 
Smith, Monica Pyle, Danelle Abrams, Chantrice Andre, Shaneeria Persaud and Lauren Floyd.
The Key Clubbers were on time and did a great job. We thank you for your service and hope to be able to work with you on future projects.
Bob will be able to report on the money we collected at the next meeting. Great job Bob.
Hartland for Children
Hartland for Children, the lead agency for community based care, provides foster care, adoptive and case management services to 1,800 children in Hardee, Highlands and Polk Counties who have experienced abuse and/or neglect.
Danette 
Travis a Development Specialist for Hartland for Children said they were looking for toys to support an estimated 1,000 local children who are living in foster homes or placed with someone other than their families.
President Michelle Forsythe and Secretary Kelly Casey presented Danette with 50 Teddy Bears for the children they support. These bears had been purchased by the club and had been passed out to a number of agencies supporting children. By Joe Schroeder
Lake Region Key Club
Service Leadership Chairman Les Adams presented Samantha Crum, Nicole Carter and Monica Cotree,
members of the Lake Region Key Club. They reported on their club activities and invited our members to a Christmas Party on Thursday, December 17th at 2:15PM in Jean O'Donnell's class room. Mark your calendar and come meet a great bunch of kids. They will have refreshments and you will have a good time.
Ruby K Awards
Ruby K Awards
are provided by Kiwanis International for members who have recruited multiple members into our club. They are awarded to members in five year increments. There is a five member, ten member and fifteen member recruiting awards.
Club Secretary Kelly Casey presented Ruby 
K to Les Adams, Suzie Moraco and to himself Kelly Casey for recruiting five members. He presented Ruby K pins to Membership Chairman Bill Doty for recruiting his fifteenth and twentieth member.
Lake Region Key Club Christmas Party held on Dec. 17.
Our club was
invited to the Christmas party and in attendance were Jean O'Donnell, Patrick O'Donnell, Michelle Forsythe, Kelly Casey, Ed Ethington, Les Adams, and Carroll Teeter with his wife Lucy.
The Key Club had a short meeting and it was followed refreshments of cookies, chips, 
cake, finger sandwiches, and soda's. What is aparty without games. They played Big Booty and for the older generation the Limbo. Kelly Casey was a finalist in the Limbo but the girls won in the end. A good time was had by all.
Akton Club
Today we had the pinning ceremony and installation of officers for the new Lake Region Aktion Club. Debi Meade the Kiwanis Advisor to the club installed the officers. After the officers were 
installed Michelle Forsythe gave the Aktion Club pins to the remaining members. Debi Meade, Michelle Forsythe, Kelly Casey, and Les Adams were present along with eight Lake Region High School Key Club members. The new President Jose discussed some new business and closed the meeting by wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
Kiwanis Club of Winter Haven begins 10th year in Reading Program
December saw the Club kick off its 10th year of reading and book distribution to Pre-K Head Start children (ages 3 – 4 years). The program started by serving 3 Pre-K Head Start schools with about 90 students. At that time the program read and gave out books monthly for 3 months. Today we read and present books to over 200 youngsters in 6 Head Start schools each month during most of the school year.
This year we will distribute over 1,000 books at a total cost of just over $2,100.00. These are discounted dollars with a retail value of double that figure. We partner with Reading Is Fundamental, Inc. in that purchase.
In December we read at Auburndale, Wahneta, Snively, Garner, and Eagle Lake Elementary school sites as well as the Florence Villa Community Center. Readers were: Michelle Forsythe, Lila Ptak, Georgia Fisher, Betty Putney, Bob Conley and Tom Dryden. Our next readings are scheduled for mid-January.
Combining with the children interacting with adults from outside their sphere the primary objective is to have children early on see, from someone other than their teacher(s), that reading can be fun and enjoyable. By Tom Dryden
Update on the planned CSX Railroad Integrated Logistics Center (ILC)
This week our Club got a status report on the pending railroad center to be located in southeast Winter Haven. Ron Morrow, Director of Information for the project, says the initiative is again gaining steam since the 
Florida Legislature approved the Orlando area commuter line. This means a displacement of the Orlando area freight yard. Ron : “Those trains have to have somewhere to offload”. Permits have been pulled and the corporation is waiting on a final Army Corp of Engineering report. They have a deadline of 2 years for the Phase I (rail terminal) to be operational. That area will occupy 318 of the 1,250 acre plot. The balance of the acreage (Phase II) will be used for commercial warehousing to contain storage, distribution and fabrication vendors.
The rail terminal itself will leave a low profile footprint and cause minimal interruptions. Only 2 container trains in and 2 out per day will be the norm. That, plus 1 auto carrier train, will mean 5 trains a day through the area. The trains will stay for an average of 30 minutes or less per visit. State of the industry container handlers are all electric, quiet and pollution free. The auto carrier will serve a 125 mile radius and distribution from that point will be done mostly at night.
When both projects are up and running it will utilize about 2,000 employees locally and the impact will create about 6,500 jobs to the state. By Tom Dryden
So You Want To Be A Novelist ?
For anyone amon
gst us who thought they might want to “jot off” a book to be published they might better think again. That was one of the messages deliver to our members today by Heidi Katros, local (and published) romantic novel author.
A lot of her early attempts to get her work(s) published and on the bookshelf were met with a lot of trial, error and frustration. Publishing houses want a lot of information in addition to the fully typed and complete manuscript:
o An established and viable author’s website.
o The author’s marketing strategies.
o The author’s Performa statement.
o Indications that the author is committed beyond his/her current effort.
One approach is to get an agent. She advised this be done very carefully and with an open eye. Many do not offer much in the way of real assistance. The industry is rapidly moving to e-publishing with everything being done electronically. In today’s market usually accepted manuscripts are published and printed on demand (POD). This saves considerable time, costs, effort and paper. Poetry and/or family history initiatives are better done at a local printer. Almost no book publishers will accept these very low potential sale submissions.
From the reader’s perspective electronic reading is already becoming the wave of the future. Kindle (Amazon) and Sony’s Book Reader are already offering thousands of book titles as well as most major newspapers and magazines. These are readily available for instant down load and generally much less expensive than paper printed purchase. The price of the electronic readers themselves is coming down as more and more competition creeps into the marketplace. By Tom Dryden
Kiwanis Classified Ads
We are now offering space for classified ads from club members. The money received from these ads will go to help cover the cost of this web site and newsletters. Classified ads will be posted monthly. Cost of ads will be $5.00 per month or $50.00 per year. This is a good place for business card ads as well.
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the back page
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Officers: President Immediate Past President President-elect Vice President Secretary Treasurer Birthdays This Month Jan 5: Joyce A Brown Jan 30: Scott Edds Jan 2: Tony G Jackson(Tony) Jan 1: Stanley A Muir(Stan) Jan 29: John F Risher(John) Jan 15: Erin Sutyla(Erin) Jan 29: James N Webb(Jim) Jan 1: Irving W Wheeler(Irv) Spouse Birthdays Jan 20: Susie Casey Anniversaries Jan 17: Roger D Crabill and Recie(Roger) |
Coming Up: January 3: Happy Birthday Phillip Calvin January 5: Trash Mtn. Project - Brett Durbin & Mike Barrett January 5: Happy Birthday Joyce Brown January 12: Our Children Rehab Center - Sharon January 15: Happy Birthday Erin Sutyla January 19: Not in Our House - Tom Freijo January 21: Happy Birthday Barbara Heath January 26: Guardian Ad Litem - Diane Thayer Schmeltz January 29: Happy Brthday John Risher & Jim Webb |
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