Today’s meeting began with 19 members in attendance, a guest (Angie Cuneaz) for one last time, and two speakers from Hurley Hospital’s Child Life Services Dept., Laura and Kathleen (sorry I didn’t get their last names). Since the Board approved Angie’s membership application last week, she was inducted as our newest member this morning. Welcome, Angie, and my apology for fining you immediately upon your induction for not yet having done anything for the club! Someone (who will remain unnamed) abruptly fined me for forgetting about the free tickets you gave to several club members for last Friday’s performance of “Anything Goes” at The Whiting. The tickets were much appreciated by those who attended the play – thanks again! And congratulations to Stephanie for becoming the club’s first “Queen”! Let’s see how fast we can get that crown from her, because I have a feeling it is going to cost us dearly in the meantime! 🙂

As usual, someone forgot that this was a breakfast meeting, but Dave managed to arrive just in time for the food to be served, so we wound up ending the meeting with 21 members and 2 speakers. Fines abounded, but came to a sudden end after a couple “lame” fines by J-Lo, both having something to do with prosthetic devices and getting a “leg up” on one of our prior members. It was only fitting that neither fine “had a leg to stand on” and failed miserably. Hey – I thought that was pretty good! Mic won the 50/50, so he will sell tickets next week to collect his $13 winnings unless he can talk Pete into it, since he insisted that he also had the winning ticket (go figure).

Kathleen, an intern with Hurley Child Life Services, was our primary speaker this a.m., with back-up from her supervisor, Laura. Kathleen is nearing the end of her 480 hour internship, and will hopefully soon become the newest Child Life Specialist at Hurley. She thanked our club for the coloring books and crayons that we help provide to all the children who pass through the pediatrics unit at Hurley, as well as for the “alligator wagon” we recently purchased for the children (thanks largely to Matt’s efforts). This is a special hand-built wagon the children love to ride in while receiving their chemo treatments. It has an attachment on the back that allows the IV pole to be attached to the wagon so they can enjoy a ride through the hallways during treatment. What a great idea!

Hurley’s Child Life Services staff of five specializes in providing “coping and comfort” to the entire family of children with cancer, but also assists in other areas of the hospital, mainly where children are involved. These include the burn unit and the emergency room. Hurley is one of only a few hospitals in MI with some of these specialized pediatric units, it has the only emergency room in mid-Michigan dedicated solely to children, and has one of only six doctors in the state that specialize in child abuse situations. Children and families come from all over MI to Hurley for some of the special services it offers. Along with its extremely dedicated pediatrics staff, it is a blessing to our community to have this type of facility available locally. Laura indicated that, aside from additional staff, their largest and most continual need is for toys for the playrooms. Although the Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) no longer funds any administrative costs for this area of the hospital, it helps provide toys, teddy bears, and other items to help the children cope with their situation. All of the teddy bears (and some of the toys) end up going home with the children at the end of their treatment, so there is a continual need for replacements. This is an area where our club has helped in the past, along with our contributions to the CMN.
Our “Thanks” go to Kathleen and Laura for sharing their story with us this morning!

Reminders

• Boys and Girls Club Vehicle City Challenge 10:00 AM until 3:00 PM March 14th at Boys and Girls Club on N. Averill Rd.
• Big Brothers & Big Sisters Bowling 7:00 February 19th at Galaxy Lanes on Hill Rd. in Grand Blanc

In Optimism!

Walt Widder

We had a great turnout for this meeting, with 28 members present plus one guest. Stephanie introduced Angie Cuneaz to our club for a second time, but this time as our guest instead of our speaker. Angie just recently visited our club as a speaker, but she liked us so much that she decided to come back to visit — AND to turn in her application for membership! Since the Board met Thursday evening, we were able to vote on her membership application quickly, but I won’t divulge our decision here. I will just say that we look forward to hopefully welcoming her as our newest club member very soon! “Thank You”, Stephanie, for setting an example for all of us — one of our newest club members, our first female member, and already bringing a potential member to join us! GREAT JOB!!! [I just hope Angie can pass our stringent requirements for club membership]! My guess is it will be a slam-dunk! 🙂

The meeting started off with three of our members forgetting that we meet for breakfast instead of lunch! I think Floyd mumbled something about not being able to roll out of bed in time. Judge Joe — well it IS usually a lunch meeting for him, so he’s forgiven. But I’m not sure what Dr. Jack’s excuse was. At least he made up for his tardiness by collecting a record $29.85 in fines for the morning! I’m not quite sure how that works when the maximum fine is supposed to be $1/member — 28 members — hmmm. Oh well – maybe we need to change the title from tail-twister to arm-twister? Or maybe we just need 28 members at EVERY meeting! Wow!! That is the most fine money for one meeting in 4 years since I became Treasurer! At any rate, there were so many side conversations going on while the fines were being levied that I couldn’t hear ANY of them, but Dr. Jack must have heard every one of them! Guess that’s the way it SHOULD be!

Reverend Lynn won half of a $39 50/50 pot this morning — now let’s see if he remembers to sell tickets next week to collect his winnings! Our guest informed us all that she had several free tickets for The Whiting on 2/13 for the play “Anything Goes”. I hope everyone that was able to go and wanted free tickets heard Angie’s offer. Sorry these minutes obviously didn’t go out in time to inform anyone that wasn’t at the meeting! BUT, ya shoulda been there — and “Thank You” Angie! Sure wish I had been able to go, as Greg saw the play on Broadway and said it was “Great”!

Stephanie opened the business meeting and provided a multi-page handout about our fund-raising events, some suggestions for changing/improving our $5000 raffle, and an idea for a potential new fund-raiser. The handout included way too much information to attempt to cover here, but suffice it to say that much thought and effort had already been discussed by eight committee members prior to this meeting, with Stephanie and Jeff presenting the committee’s ideas to the club-at-large. There was additional discussion from many of those 29 who were in attendance on 2/12. A sign-up sheet was distributed for anyone interested in serving on a committee (or committees) to improve the overall effectiveness and success of ALL of this club’s fund-raising efforts, and maybe come up with a couple new ideas. It was absolutely AWESOME to have 20 signatures on that sign-up sheet! A big “Thank You” to everyone who signed up!!

If we want to continue to have a club that can truly make a difference in the lives of our local youth, it will take each and every one of our members’ efforts in some way, and this appears to be a great start! We give away about $13,000 to $14,000 (on average) every year to various charities, and I think we all would like to see that grow. However, we have been raising only about $9400 to $11,000 annually for our Youth Work Fund through the $5000 raffle for the past several years, so we found it necessary to draw funds from our perpetual fund in 2014 to help support these programs. That trend can’t continue for many more years, so we need to step-up our fund-raising activities somehow. With some effort and OPTIMISM, there is no reason we can’t grow our club and continue be a wonderful part of the West Flint community. Let’s make his happen!

Reminders

• Board Meeting 6 PM February 12th at the Bridge
• Big Brothers & Big Sisters Bowling at 7:00 February 19th at Galaxy Lanes on Hill Rd. in Grand Blanc

In Optimism!

Walt Widder

Phil Shaltz was our speaker this morning. He painted a very enlightening (but also somewhat frightening) picture regarding the problem in Genesee County of the overwhelming need for diapers for under-privileged children. There are about 4500 children under 3 years old in Genesee County living below the poverty level. He explained that number remains constant because children in poverty who eventually grow out of the need for diapers are replaced by newborns (also in poverty) at about the same rate. It is estimated that the average baby needs about 8 diapers every day, meaning that it would take about 13 million diapers a year to keep 4500 babies in clean diapers around the clock! That’s a lot of diapers!!

The problem for low-income families is this — the Bridge card (federal assistance) can not be used to buy alcohol, tobacco, pet food/supplies – or diapers! Therefore, many families on federal assistance programs don’t have the $ to keep their children in clean diapers. Without clean diapers, children can’t be taken to day care centers, so someone must stay at home with the child, further reducing the chance for added income. Also, many low-income families don’t have clothes washers and dryers, so they use a local laundromat. However, laundromats don’t allow washing non-disposable diapers, so disposables are the only choice for many families living in poverty, and disposable diapers are very expensive. Due to the high cost, some families re-use disposable diapers, or simply don’t change diapers as needed. This often leads to problems such as the child being sick, or even abuse due to crying babies forced to set in soiled diapers all day or night.

Because of these issues, Phil started the Flint Diaper Bank several years ago to help distribute free diapers to the most needy families in Genesee County. This is a 501c-3 tax-free charity which operates solely on grants and gifts from the local community. Through a lot of hard work and commitment, the Diaper Bank now has a few large donors who, in addition to providing them with funds to buy diapers, also help in raising funds from the public to support the effort. The annual amount raised locally is about $150,000, with every dime spent on purchasing diapers, usually “seconds”, over-runs, and broken packages from the manufacturers and retailers. The Diaper Bank has NO administrative costs, in large part due to Phil’s tenaciousness and commitment.

ABC-12 and Elga Credit Union are two of their active supporters who have helped make the Diaper Bank a success. After many years and considerable effort, Phil has also teamed up with a company that re-packages the diapers provided by manufacturers and retailers into smaller packages of 25 diapers each, and the Eastern Michigan Food Bank distributes them through its distribution network. The Diaper Bank’s final cost per package of 25 is about $3.25, or $.13 per diaper, which is a fraction of the average retail cost. The Diaper Bank distributes about 1 million diapers annually, which is less than about 10% of the local need. However, it has a significant positive impact on those families that it reaches. Overall – a wonderful charity and great cause! Thanks, Kim, for having Phil speak this morning. I think we all learned something!

President Jack opened this a.m.’s meeting with 20 members present plus our speaker, Phil Shaltz, representing the Flint Diaper Bank. Kim Banat was our Speaker Chair, Joe Bushey served as our tail-twister and Floyd Olmsted sold 50/50 tickets (making sure that the winning streak continued for the former Breakfast Club members)!! As usual, fines began at the opening bell, not the least of which were against J-Lo and Joe Bushey for forgetting to set their alarms and trying to sneak in during the Pledge of Allegiance. The shame of it all! But Joe made sure he and J-Lo (and everyone else) paid their “fair share” of taxes — I mean fines. Just what is a “fair share” anyway? Sorry – I digress…

Reminders

• Fund Raising Breakfast Meeting 7:30 AM February 12th
• Board Meeting 6 PM February 12th at the Bridge
• Big Brothers & Big Sisters Bowling at 7:00 February 19th at Galaxy Lanes on Hill Rd. in Grand Blanc

Don’t forget to join us on 2/12 for an important meeting about our largest annual fund-raising event and how we can hopefully improve upon it! Jack announced that Stephanie will chair next week’s meeting, which will be an open meeting to discuss the future of our $5000 Raffle. The Board would like some feedback from the club. Please try to be there for this important meeting!

In Optimism!

Walt Widder