May 2, 2011
May Meetings – Ron Brown, Chairman:
May 6 – Night at the Topeka Zoo
CURRENT NEWS:
President Ron Brown has announced that on May 6, our Club will NOT meet at noon, but instead will meet in the evening at the World Famous Topeka Zoo. The purpose of this meeting is to invite potential members to be our guests. Bill Kastens has graciously offered to provide the food for potential members. We will meet at the Zoo at 5:30 P.M.for dinner, which will be a fajita bar. At 6:30 P.M. there will be a short presentation for the potential members, following which we will be given a twilight tour of the Zoo by Zoo Director Brenden Wiley.
Cost to members and guests who may not be potential members will be $10.00. All guests are welcome whether potential members or not. So bring your children, grandchildren and anyone else who might enjoy the evening. One other possibility is holding a silent auction with the proceeds donated to the mentoring class at Lowman Hill Elementary School.
Ted Heim has prepared a report entitled; “ Update On Reading At The County Juvenile Detention Center”. It is available on the Club’s website at: http://www.edlnklgen.com/TopekaOptimists/. A copy of the report is included with this Newsletter on page 3.
Because the Top Of The Tower will be closed that week, there will be no meeting on July 8. Be sure to mark your calendars.
We have just learned that Bob Donaldson has been in the hospital and is now home. We send him our wishes for a full recovery. And keep Monica and Bill Kastens in your prayers. They are experiencing health problems.
Meeting of April 22, 2011:
Phil Oliver, representing the Easter Seals Capper Foundation, gave an excellent overview of the Foundation’s history and its present day mission. The mission: “To enhance the independence of people, from birth to age twenty-one, people with disabilities, particularly children and their families”. So that they can speak, learn, write, play, be mobile, work and function independently. To do this the Foundation provides services such as: physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy and training for professionals and family members and health care professionals.
To do this in 2010, the Foundation has a staff of 32, held 17 workshops, served 48 cities in 17 counties, served 2,180 people with 46, 382 hours of service. They also were aided by 276 volunteers who provided 6,133 hours of service. The Foundation received income of $3,600,000 and expended approximately $2,500,000. Oliver also noted that the Foundation provided $1,800,000 in charity and non-reimbursed care.
Currently the Foundation is offering a new program entitled: “Make The First Five Count”. The first five refers to the first five years of a child’s age, with five warning signs to watch for concerning the child’s areas of development. The five areas are: Cognitive, Sensory. Language, Social and Emotional; and Movement. So much learning and development occur during these years. Oliver commented “that the brain of a three year-old is twice as active as an adult brain”. Sometimes difficulties happen and often the Foundation can help.
Senator Arthur Capper, who served in the U.S. Senate from 1919 to 1949, set out on Christmas Day, 1920, with a Good Fellows Christmas Wagon with gifts for underprivileged children. Soon he started a Christmas Fund for children with disabilities.
In 1934 the Fund became the Capper Foundation For Crippled Children. In 1951 Senator Capper passed away and his will provided funds to purchase and construct the facility on West 10th Street. The Foundation provided both a school and residence for the children. However, in time, during the 1990’s, the Foundation became strictly an out-patient facility. Six years ago, the Foundation joined with the nationwide Easter Seals Organization and became Easter Seals Capper Foundation. The Foundation will recognize 90 years of operation with a celebration which runs through July 19 of this year.
We had no guests; birthdays noted were: Rod Obermeier on April 22 and Nancy Foster on April 24; there were jokes by Nancy Foster and Jerry Bessette and by our speaker, Phil Oliver. Marge Hogue won the drawing and shared $14 with the OI Foundation; Harold Burkdoll’s badge number was drawn for the “to be determined prize: but Harold was not present; and Bob Lewis took home the President’s Prize (surprise – it was candy).
Meeting of April 29, 2011:
Ralph Hipp, News Anchor at WIBW, Channel 13 in Topeka, spoke about his hobby of collecting autographed books from well known Americans. He calls his talk: “Ralph Hipp’s Brunch With Greatness”. As proof, Ralph brought a number of books and showed the authors’ autographs. He had a story to tell about each author and book and he showed them around the room. In some cases it was good thing he told us who the author was. It seemed like all these famous people majored in illegible writing. A good handwriting expert would have a field day. Those celebrities whose books and autographs Ralph showed included: Ben Vereen, who just recently made a return performance in Topeka; Bob Hope, who appeared a number of years ago at the ExpoCentre; Walter Cronkite, Ed McMahon, Bill Clinton, Richard Nixon, Captain Kangaroo (aka Bob Keeshan), Ted Sorensen, a speech writer for John F. Kennedy, and Ed Asner, who grew up in Kansas City, Kansas.
We had one guest, Patty Trotter, a guest of Tom Wigley; Nancy Foster shared $21.00 with the OI Foundation; Alice Weingarten’s badge number was drawn to receive a prize to be determined, however Alice was not present; and Patty Trotter, Tom Wigley’s guest, was fortunate enough to win the President’s Prize.