April 28, 2016 - Twenty-one members heard a presentation by EWU math professor Dr. Dale Garaway.  He spoke about the FIRST robotics competition that is held every year at EWU.  FIRST is an acronym: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.  It is a worldwide program and the US portion is linked to $30 million in scholarships.  There are several different levels of competition for kids from under age 9 to high school seniors.  It is a sports themed competition that focuses on STEM concepts (science, technology, engineering and math).  Themes include gracious professionalism and 'coopertition' - competing and cooperating.  Coopertition examples include teams that compete in one event later combining their efforts in another event or teams sharing ideas and materials even when competing.

April 21, 2016 - Our speaker was ill and could not attend.  In place of the speaker, the twenty-one attending members were asked to share what was on their 'bucket list'.  We also discussed our plans for April 30 Special Olympics lunch packing and the May 7 flower planting at the Cheney Care Center. 

April 14, 2016 - Twenty -two members were present.  Our speaker was Debbie Anderson, who owns Against the Grain gift/craft store and the Holiday Inn Express in Cheney.  The Holiday Inn is adding 46 guest rooms, a 2000 square foot meeting area and a catering kitchen.  They've been sold out 150 times a year; busiest times are March through September and Thursdays through Sundays.  One unique thing they have is a special hockey locker room for teams to store their gear.

We will lead the Special Olympics lunch packing on April 30; we elected our 2016-17 club officers.    

April 7, 2016 - Eighteen members heard a presentation from Mike Forness, executive director of the Spokane Ronald McDonald house.  It is designed to provide lodging for families of children receiving ongoing active hospital care when the families live over 40 miles or 40 minutes from Spokane.  They can accommodate up to 22 families at a time and usually have a waiting list of 15-20 families.  About 5-6% of their funding comes from McDonalds franchisees in the area ($1.3 million) and 9-10% of funding comes from customer donations at the canisters at McDonalds.  About 25% of canister donations go to McDonalds corporation to help fund $50,000 per house for expansion/creation.

The egg hunt was a success; Betz K-Kids are planning a car wash and the club set a date and time to plant flowers at the Care Center.