Spring Membership Round Up

Denny and Evie Chapman, Kiwanis Membership Chairs

Greenfield Kiwanis hosted 23 prospective members at their spring membership round up.  The  round up was chaired by Denny and Evie Chapman.   The prospects an explanation of what Kiwanis is and does from Dan Riley, Susie Billings, and Tom Billings.  Carol Landes, Jill Null, Jim Hall, Dave Willis, Nancy Ferdon, and Denny Chapman spoke about the personal value of their Kiwanis membership. 

Dan Riley told of the history of Kiwanis International, the projects, and six permanent objects.  He summed it up by saying that Kiwanis is global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at time.

Susie Billings explained the club organization, officers, dues, and affiliated youth organizations.  The club sponsors the Greenfield-Central Key Club, Greenfield Central Junior High Builders Club, the Maxwell Intermediate K-Kids, and the Greenfield Intermediate K-Kids.  She also explained that there are no penalties for missing meetings or mandatory meal charges.

Tom Billings explained the club fund raising projects and projects that are supported.  Fund raising projects are Christmas Poinsettias, Easter Carrots, Butler Concessions, Plaza Entertainment Concessions,  and Christmas Santa House.   Children/Youth programs supported include Riley Children’s Hospital,  3 Senior Scholarships of $1,000 each, 4-H, Boys and Girls Club, Children’s Theatre and Nameless Creek Youth Camp.  Other local charities include the Hancock County Food Pantry, Arts Council, Women Helping Women, Spelling Bee, Mental Health, Butler Soup Kitchen, Senior Services, Meals on Wheels and Sister City. 

New members will be initiated on June 5.  Anyone interested in Kiwanis membership is invited to attend any meeting on Tuesday evening at 5:45 p.m., at the Ponderosa Steakhouse, 1585 North State Street, Greenfield.

Youth Clubs Annual Reports

Builders Club    
 L-R: Makenzie Horning, Doug Apple, Rachel Sherman, and Ellie Roberts

Greenfield K-Kids         
 Back Row: Sherry Clayton, Angie Bishop, Michelle Grant
 Front Row:    Katie Grant, Trenton Roberts, Cole Gwin, Emily Grant
                       and Allison Gwin

Key Club            
 Back Row: McKenzie McGaffey, Jordan Dicken, Nicole Morley

 Front Row: Clara Starket, Ashley Connelly and Pat Parker

Maxwell K-Kids
 L-R: Kim Hamer, Jadon Yeager, Mackenzie Hatcher,
                 and Lyndsay Ortwein

The Greenfield Kiwanis youth sponsored school clubs made their annual reports to the Kiwanians on Tuesday night.  The students are part of four organizations with a combined membership of over 100. 

The Greenfield Central Key Club has 22 members sponsored by Julie Morley and Pat Parker.  Projects over the past year included painting the Riley Old Home fence, collecting money for UNICEF at Halloween, Birthday bags for the food pantry, Mental Health gift lift and teacher appreciation week.  

The Greenfield Central Junior High Builders Club is sponsored by Doug Apple.  They also helped paint the Riley Old Home fence, raised money through a dance, helped with the Women Helping Women dinner, and a teacher appreciation month.  The club successfully raised over 1,000 pounds of food for the food drive in December.

The Maxwell Intermediate K-Kids sponsors are Kim Hamer and Lyndsay Ortwein.  This past year they had programs for recycling, collected blankets for the hospital, collected cereal box tops for a school fund raiser, and collected food for the food drive as admission to movie day.

The Greenfield Intermediate K-Kids sponsored by Sherry Clayton, Angie Bishop and Michelle Grant were involved in several projects with a local nursing home.  The students created seasonal decorations and gave them to the home’s residents.  The students visited with the residents when they delivered the decorations.

Garden of Eatin

Chris Dobbins Guill, the founder of  “The Garden of Eatin” with Judy Crist, Program Chair of Kiwanis and a member of the board of the Butler Soyup Kitchen.

Chris Dobbins Guill, the founder of  “The Garden of Eatin”, a non-profit organization promoting health and wellbeing for those in need, spoke to Kiwanis about the garden project.   

The Garden of Eatin started as a half-acre garden plot of Guill’s property to supply the Kenneth Butler Memorial Soup Kitchen and the Hancock County Food Pantry with freshly grown and frozen produce.  The garden has expanded to an acre this year.  Volunteers plant, tend, harvest and preserve the produce from the plot.  Donors provide the equipment and supplies needed.  

Guill was previously employed as a nutritionist and believes that a garden provides the food insecure with the better quality of food as well as providing for some activity in the gardening process.  

Further information or volunteer opportunities can be found at thegardenofeatin.org. 

State of the Hospital

Steven Smith, Rob Matt and Susie Broome discuss the hospital.

Rob Matt, Vice President of Hancock Regional Hospital spoke to Kiwanis about the current state of Hancock Regional Hospital and the current events in hospitals in general.  Matt spoke of several current trends:

·         Delivery of high quality health care at a lower cost.

·         Hospitals need to become institutions that help people stay out of the hospital by keeping them healthier.

·         The need to tighten the connection between all the patient treatments using common platforms that adhere to national standards for all patients’ records and billings.

·         Regional cooperation among suburban hospitals

During questions Matt also addressed the process for recruiting and retaining medical professionals, the community benefit survey, the use of hospitalists, and future information access from the hospitals portal. 

Further information can be found on the hospital website at http://www.hancockregionalhospital.org  .

Hancock County in the Civil War

Joe Skvarenina, Hancock County Historian told the Greenfield Kiwanis about Hancock County’s role in the Civil War.  The County Historian is appointed by the Indiana Historical Society. 

Skvarenina related that Hancock County had 209 residents die in the Civil War.  The county was generally pro-union but there were some confederate sympathizers.  Among the Hancock county residents serving was James Whitcomb Riley’s father. Reuben. 

Captain Reuben Riley raised a group of volunteers to fight for the Union.  Riley was Captain of Company I, 8^th Regiment, Greenfield Infantry, that participated in the battle of Rich Mountain Virginia.  During that battle Captain Riley received a severe concussion.  He was honorably discharged in 1863.

Skvarenina is the author of several books about Hancock County History including his latest book, Civil War Era in Hancock County Indian, coauthored with Sue Barker and Elayne Stewart. 

Kevin Harvey speaks about Estate Planning

Kevin Harvey of Allen, Wellman, and McNew Attorney is shown with April Woods Kiwanis program chair for April.

Kevin Harvey of Allen, Wellman, and McNew Attorneys, spoke to Kiwanis about basic estate planning.  Kevin has been with the firm for fifteen years and handles wills, trusts and estate planning. 

Harvey stressed that it is important to plan for situations we do not think are imminent.  He noted that none of us know what could occur tomorrow.  He outline the five important documents every basic estate plan should include.

1.       A Last Will and Testament that names the person or persons who will administer the estate and sets forth distribution and guardianship of minor children.

2.       A Power of Attorney empowers another person to manage out estate during any period in which we are mentally or physically incapacitated.

3.       Appointment of a Health Care Representative designates who will make health care decisions when we are unable to.

4.       Living Will.  A living will allows us to make decisions about how we wish for life support to be used.

5.       Declaration of Standby Guardian allows parents of minor children to designate a person to serve as guardian of minor children in the event of the parents incapacity or death. 

Mr. Harvey illustrated his points with stories that demonstrated the problems that occur when these documents are not in place at a time of need. 

Llama Club addresses Kiwanis

Abby Ellenburg and Delanie Melton spoke to Kiwanis about their Llama Club and 4-H projects.  The club lost twenty-three alpacas in a fire that burnt down the Melton’s barn.  Animals from all over the Midwest were donated to get the club started again.  Some animals had to be purchased.  Purdue University Vet School gelded the males donated at no cost.  The club will have enough animals to show for the 2012 season thanks to the generosity of the community. 

The club needs halters, leads, brushes and food.   To raise money for this the club is planning an Italian dinner at the fairgrounds from 4 to 7 p.m. on May 6. 

Pictured from left:  Karen Kleine, Kiwanis President; Abby Ellenburg and Delanie Melton.