April
26, 2018 – Tom Jenkins, the new fire chief for the city
spoke to 14 club members. The department has 9 employees plus 18
volunteers. It takes 9 people to have 2
firefighters on duty 24 hours a day; with the volunteers, 4 firefighters are
available. They need to have 4 fighters to send fighters into a fire: two to go
in and two to stay out. The majority of
their calls are for medical emergencies and about 30% of the medical calls are
to EWU.
We will plant flowers and have the pizza party at the
care center on May 19 at 10am. Betz
K-Kids are planning a car wash on June 9 to benefit Ronald McDonald House. Medical Lake Kiwanis are joining others to
host a bike rodeo on April 28 – maybe it will give us some ideas for creating
one for Cheney.April 19, 2018 – Member Dave Daugharty told usabout his exchange professor experience in Soviet Russia. The Blackhawk/Kiwanis golf event will be in the afternoon of June 12; it will be a 9 hole event with dinner. We will pack Special Olympics lunches on Saturday, May 5 at 8am at the wren Pierson building.
April
12, 2018 – Four guests from Spokane Valley Kiwanis and 15 Cheney
Kiwanis members heard Mayor Chris Grover talk about the benefits and challenges
of living in Cheney. Benefits include
safety and having a city light department that is in the top 25% of similar sized
departments in the US. Challenges include draw down of city water reservoirs in
summer due to irrigation and the heavy traffic volume on two-lane highway 904.
April
5, 2018 – Twelve members heard Spokane Airports CEO Larry
Krauter speak about Felts Field. It is a
historic field and is known worldwide to antique aircraft owners and
enthusiasts. Also, people from around
the world come to Felts to learn to operate Kodiak aircraft. When he became CEO the field had not been
properly maintained. Since then the turf
landing area has been redone and new concrete airplane parking has been
built. Every June Felts Field hosts an
annual Neighbor day for the public.
March
29, 2018 – Eric Dotson from Children’s Home Society of Washington
spoke to 18 club members. The
organization was created in 1896 to deal with orphan train children who were
left unselected in Seattle. Their goal
is to place children in forever homes and to help families through counseling,
early learning programs, etc. Their
funding comes from state and federal grants and private donations.
March
22, 2018 – Jim Patterson shared West Plains history with 15 club
members and one guest. In the 1920’s
large apple orchards were created near Hayford but their irrigation drew down drew
down Silver Lake by 50 feet and lead to peat fires that burned for several
years. A lawsuit ended the irrigation
and the orchards. There was also a large
dairy in the area. He also told us about the interurban and other train service
between Spokane and the West Plains.
March
15, 2018 – Kelly Neumann from the Hutton Settlement spoke to 12
club members. The settlement will be 100
years old in 2019 and is in need of some major upgrades. Originally it was a true orphanage but now residents
have a family but need a better home. 2007
all seniors have gone on to some form of higher education which Hutton can
fully fund. Hutton alumni can also
receive counseling, tutoring and some temporary housing. The Settlement does not receive any
government funding; they own 25 commercial properties and also fundraise for
their programs.
March
8, 2018 – Melissa Luna from Ronald McDonald House Spokane spoke
to 16 club members. The house has 22
overnight rooms and also provides 2 family rooms at Sacred Heart and they hope
to add more rooms at other medical facilities in the Spokane/Coeur d’Alene
area. She said they can use donations of
paper goods and toiletries. They hold 3
major fundraisers each year in addition to receiving donations made at area
McDonalds.
March
1, 2018 – Club member Bob Quinn spoke about weather and snow
pack. Our mountain snow pack is strong
(about 100 – 120% of normal). Global
warming is a reality and major ocean temperatures are 1-2degrees Celsius above
normal.