CURRENT NEWS

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Stories/Jokes
From the Smith County Pioneer

Edited for length: A man was eating in a cafe and noticed a beautiful lady at the next table. Suddenly she sneezed and her glass eye came flying toward him. He grabbed it out of the air and took it over to her. "Thank you so much. You were so nice, let me pay for your dinner and take you out for a night on the town." After a wonderful evening, the man asked her if she was that nice to every man she meet?
"No," she replied, "You just happened to catch my eye!"

October Meetings: Dean Landman, Chair

- - October 25th - Sara  Hale, Opportunities for sponsoring CCDHH (Deaf Oratorical Contests ________________________________________________________________________________________________

November Meetings: Gordon Schmid, Chair

Nov. 1  Dennis  Readee  YMCA  Topeka Youth Football coordinator
Nov. 8  Amanda Vogelsberg   Topeka Jr. League 
                     "Diverse friends trained as volunteers to improve all children's self-esteem"
Nov 15 Wayne Pancoast, Topeka Boy Scout Executive
Nov. 22 - David Bruns, District Court of Appeals

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Minutes - Downtown Optimists, September 27th

In addition to the installation of the new officers for 2013-2014. the speaker was Terry Cook, CEO of
Visit Topeka. He pointed out that it is important of the health of a community that the people are proud of the community and will brag about it. He also pointed out the many good things about Topeka that many don't notice.

The new officers will be posted on this website as soon as all or most of the positions have been filled.
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Minutes - Downtown Optimists, October 4th

The club was provided with a lesson in Kansas History as well as plans for maintaining the log cabin, where the Official Kansas Song, "Home on the Range", was written. ElDean Holthus. The log cabin was built by Dr. Brewster Higley on the bank of the West Beaver Creek in Smith County. For many years, the cabin was used as a chicken house and was falling into disrepair. Repairs were made to keep it from falling down, but the character of the original cabin was lost. Recently, the farm of the Rust's was put into a trust to provide funds for repairing and maintaining the cabin as it was built for future generations. The rededication of the refurbished cabin will be dedicated next fall.

Minutes - Downtown Optimists, October 11th

Jim Bender, pastor of Faith Lutheran Church in Topeka showed pictures and discussed his family's trip to Guinea, West Africa. His wife, Sally, commented on some of the pictures and answered questions. The family made the mission trip to Guinea this past summer, taking medical supplies along and helping with some of the dispensing of drugs and pills, which consisted of Tylenol and vitamins. Many of the children are under nourished.  While mostly considered Muslim, many practice Voodooism.

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Minutes - Downtown Optimists, October 18th

Tricia Waggoner, Highway Archaeologist, for the Kansas Historical Society, presented information about the excavation that was done northwest of Topeka for a new interchange on US-24 at Menoken Road. It was suspected and then confirmed that the Kanza Indians had lived at that location in the mid 1800's. By removing the topsoil, which had been disturbed by farming, the location of a number of lodges were found. The location was determined by the discolor of the soil where the lodge posts were as well as the fire pits and storage pits. Also found were items made in Europe which the tribe received in trade.