Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Future Dates
04/15 Grace Golf Outing at Rozella for Jeremy Mohr
04/18 Eric Lane – Fellowship Missions
04/20 Grace Wind Ensemble
04/25 Lakeland Youth Chorale
04/26 Candlelight Vigil for child abuse victims
05/02 Joan Younce – Purdue Health & Human Res.
05/05 Octagon breakfast for BYC
05/05 District Meeting in West Lafayette
05/12 Respect for Law
05/20 Car Show
05/23 Optimist Singers
06/06 Remnant Trust
06/07 Golf Outing at Stonehenge
06/13 Jim Reeve – Roy Rogers
06/20 Triathlon welcome bags
06/23 Triathlon
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
>>>>OPENING
84 Optimists & 5 guests attended our meeting. Paula Ibach was the guest of Bob Ibach; Scott Tucker was the guest of Deb Miller; Dr. Akash Jain was the guest of Dr. KT Kishan; Denny Strain was the guest of Jim Bricker; & Kellie Malcom was the guest of Josh Gordon.
Door Greeters: Bart Templeton & Dr. KT Kishan..
Prayer was offered by Coach Doug Ogle.
Pledge was given to the American Flag.
Promise yourself was said in unison.
Martin Becker led us as we sang “Hail to Optimism.”
Birthday Honorees: Doug Jones, Art Gakstatter, Jim Bricker, Patty Donkers, & Mark Nunez. Martin Becker led us in the birthday song with our usual results.
>>>> INFORMATION
Sheriff of Attendance: Bill Landrigan and Harry Gigous greeted Dr. KT Kishan and Mark Nunez.
Trace Hansen reported 375 kids skated during Spring Break Skate. He thanked the club & we thank him for putting this on.
City of Lakes Cruise In on May 20th: John Elliott is passing out a sign-up sheet for volunteers. More people need to sign up to work. Please give your $25 to John Teevan. We are asking businesses to sponsor at the $100, $200, or $500 levels. Give the big checks to Ann Sweet. We have almost $7k of our overall goal of $10k. John Elliott presented us with a $2,300 check from the Esther Pfleiderer Charitable Trust. $1,000 is for our Cruise In, $1,000 is for our Golf Outing, and $300 is for ourOratorical Contest.
Everett Nifong reported that teams are signing up for our June 7th Golf Outing at Stonehenge. Brochures are out. Cost is $400 for a foursome (includes golf, cart, lunch, & driving range). Sponsorships are available at the Bronze $100, Silver $475, & Gold $1000 levels. Prize/Goody Bag items are also needed. Again, Everett says whatever you need is in the “bro-chures for-sure.”
Past Gov. Ron Donkers reminded us that our Triathlon is on June 23rd, the FOUTH Saturday of June. This year’s registrations are down. We will focus on local athletes to try to bring in more participants. We may have the last group swim half the usual distance.
Scott Whitaker announced Respect for Law will be May 12th from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Applications and information is on our website. We will have applications at our next meeting. Ages are from 6 to 16 years old.
Past Presidents Joel Wihebrink, John Elliott, and Jeff Owens are looking for people to serve as President Elect, Vice President, and Board Members.
Past Gov. Ron Donkers invited us to the District Meeting in West Lafayette on May 5th. Let him or Treasurer Jennifer Dorman know if you are going.
Chad Goon and Ryan Goon invited us to the Octagon fundraiser breakfast at Baker Youth Club for BYCon May 5th from 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Cost is $6 at the door or $5 in advance. Kids ages 6 & under are $2.50.
Fred Nieter asked us to donate books to the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA). The books need to be appropriate for ages 3 to 12 years old. Fred also invited us to the Candlelight Vigil for victims of child abuse. It will be April 26th from 8:30 p.m. to 9:10 p.m. on the east side of the Courthouse.
Martin Becker invited us to the Grace College Community Wind Ensemble’s April 20th concert. It is at 7:30 p.m. at Rodeheaver. Featured are a “new” Sousa number & music from “Schindler’s List”.
We saw a Video explaining if builders used 5% more American made products it would add 220,000 more jobs to our economy.
Please pray for our Troops and Families: 2nd Lt Evan Bradley – Army
Sergeants-at-Arms: Bob Jackson, James Nesbitt and Luke Becknell entertained us.
President John Sullivan told us about the time Lyle Enyeart used his expertise to determine the state of origin of a couple of ducks.
Scott Whitaker was wearing some warm pants right out of the dryer on this cold morning.
Those whose children and grandchildren were on honor role were recognized. Keegan Tom has been on honor role or high honors for 7 quarters straight.
It was noticed that Patty Donkers did not perform last night with the Redhead Express.
Past Gov. Ron “Sven” Donkers and Merl Heckaman were recognized for their respective newspaper coverage.
Luke Becknell is celebrating his 36th anniversary. He & Deb must have had their parents sign for them.
Lt. Gov. Sam Whitaker is glad his surgeon was taught by Deputy Harry Gigous.
Lyle Enyeart is looking for his 1st government check.
Dr. Steve Hollar’s son is becoming a great golfer.
Program:
Co-President Scott Tucker told us of the history and growth of Maple Leaf Farms. His grandfather, Donald Wentzel started MLF in 1958. That year he processed 280,000 ducks.
In 1968, when Scott’s father, Terry Tucker, took over leadership, they processed 1 million ducks. From the 1970s on they have worked hard on vertical integration of the business. They now have their own feed mills, biosecure breeding farms, hatcheries, roast duck products, and down bedding products.
Scott and his brother, John took over leadership in 2001. John does the sales and marketing. Scott does the operations. At this time MLF processes 10 to 12 million ducks per year. The total in the U.S. is 18 to 20 million per year. The big market is Asia. MLF is expanding into China in a big way. By the end of 2013 they will have about 10% of the commercial duck production in China. Past Gov. Ron Donkerstestified of seeing the branding of “Maple Leaf Farms, Indiana” on a restaurant menu when he was in China.