Our Nebraska-Iowa Kiwanis District celebrated its Century Birthday on January 6 this year. We have plenty of reasons to celebrate. We have benefitted countless youth and community members.  

We have 175 individual clubs, divided into 6 Regions, made up of 24 divisions that encompass much of both states. There are approximately 5,400 Kiwanis members working toward the goal of "Serving the Children of the World."

We need to take time to heartily celebrate our past service and accomplishments, but there is still plenty to do in our communities.

Len Froyen Shares Gratitude

Wednesday, November 27, 2019 - One of the most interesting people in the locality, Len Froyen, authored a book entitled “Gratitude: Affirming One Another through Stories” which gave insight on the topic. Len said that everyone wants to write a good story and everyone is a story. Our relationships with others and being accepted by them as well, makes a great quality of life. We come in contact with many good people and we need to take time to pause and contemplate about what their voices say and the wisdom it brings. We should take some quiet time and dwell on the ultimate virtue of gratitude. We can never take too much for granted on the higher plateau of gratitude. Written by Lynn Barnes

Sustainable Development Goals Support Our Planet's Survival

November 20, 2019 - As the planet’s population grows and uses available resources, we have to use what we have wisely and to the best use. Dr. Leigh Zeitz, professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Northern Iowa, presented us with a discussion of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. These goals aim to find global solutions to create a world that has no pollution, no world hunger, no abject poverty, good health, quality education for all, gender equality, and 11 more problems in today's world to reach a total of 17 goals. One hundred and ninety-one countries of the 193 countries on the planet signed this proposal to address these goals and strive to reach the outcome by 2030.

The Sustainable Development Goals provide a good framework for working hard to make the world a sustainable place. This could provide a forward-looking structure for organizing and selecting the service projects that our club chooses to do. We should organize our program using this framework and give our work to improve the world more direction.

Productive Business Meeting Today!

 GREAT MINDS
AT WORK

We had a productive business meeting today.  Many issues were considered and multitudes of problems were solved.

"Now if only we could find some more sponsors, we would be able to help more kids in the Cedar Valley"

We have divided the work between four committees.  Here is the list of members for each of the committees. Contact these teams if you have any specific questions or suggestions for furthering our club's goals.

These Two Men Take Care of Cedar Falls

Wednesday, October 23, 2019 - The 2 men that have the most fun jobs in Cedar Falls are Park Supervisor Brett Morris and Park Construction Manager Kevin Cross.  They are in charge of all of Cedar Falls 42 Parks and Recreation areas within the city limits.  They are in charge of all the golf parks, buildings, maintenance, cemeteries, trees, lawns, and flower beds.  It is their job to make sure that the area residents have the best quality of life possible with all the scenery and recreational areas and make sure they are well maintained.  You can tell that they really enjoy their job of serving the community.  Written by Lynn Barnes

Sheriff Tony Thompson Shares the Enforcement Scene in CV.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - Just short of offering “Get Out of Jail Free Cards” to our Kiwanis Club, Blackhawk County Sheriff and Top Law Enforcement Officer, Tony Thompson, offered an insider’s view of what happens at the County Jailhouse. Sheriff Thompson is in charge of so much that protects and serves the county residents, we were all shocked about the multitude of concerns under his watch -  not to mention all the matters at the Jail. It's amazing how his job requires him to work with judges and bailiffs.  He and his officers are busy serving subpoenas, evictions, handling gun permits and investigating car accidents.  It was a great eye-opener on how our Top Cop does his job in Blackhawk County.  Written by Lynn Barnes

Mike Butler Shares Plans for Cedar Falls Veterans' Memorial Park

Wednesday, October 9, 2019 - Cedar Falls has a large community of veterans who served honorably in all branches of the US military.  Many area residents gave the ultimate sacrifice in life or limbs for or freedoms. But when the battles are over, the veterans' personal wars begin as they try to assimilate back into civilian life.   

Vietnam War Navy Veteran Mike Butler presented a way that citizens can keep their veterans' memories alive by buying commemorative bricks at the Cedar Falls Veterans Memorial Park on Waterloo Road for $50 each. These brick will both remind us of their loved ones who have served in the military to defend our freedoms and help defray the cost of maintenance of the park.  We thank all of our veterans for their military service.
Written by Lynn Barnes

Brian Gabel Shares the Behind the Scenes Stories of Sports Broadcasting

Wednesday, September 11, 2019 - When it comes to all the fan hoopla involved in making watching collegiate sports games a fun experience, the man in charge of that is Brian Gabel, the General Manager of Learfield Sports.  

Brian joined us today and explained the necessary behind-the-scenes activities that had to happen to pull off any sporting event.  He has a virtual army of experts at his dispatch. Each person, specializing in their particular talents, works together in unison with the precision of a Marine Corps Marching Band. People at the game or enjoying it by radio/TV benefit from Brian's team. These game productions and promotions have gone off so well for so long, that it is easy to take all this for granted.

Thank you for joining us, Brian.  We greatly appreciate your joining us for breakfast and all of the work to make our sports lives a little bit better.    
Written by Lynn Barnes

Andy Finegan Unveils the Workings of Habitat for Humanity

Wednesday, August 28, 2019 - Demand far exceeds the supply for the custom-made or rehabilitated homes constructed by the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity.  Andy Finnegan, the Community Engagement Director for Habitat, provided a quick but thorough overview of how the mostly volunteer organization functions. Composed of residential carpentry and construction trade professionals and an army of volunteers,  they are able to provide homes for those who need them. Even though some of the workers barely know how to swing a hammer, the team is able to construct single-family dwellings for families needing a place to call home.  

Currently, 260 Cedar Valley families are waiting to acquire the homes that generally take 2-5 weeks to build. These families don't get their homes for free. They usually help build the home and then repay the mortgage through an affordable repayment plan.

Habitat generally builds a home composed of 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, a 1-stall garage with a paved driveway. They especially design them so that they look like the homes belong in a neighborhood. 

They also offer a local Restore for Humanity of donated construction materials to generate funds to help defer project payments.

Andy (and Habitat for Humanity), you are making a difference in the world and we commend you!

Written by Lynn Barnes

Carol Lilly Reports on the Haps on CF Main Street

Wednesday, August 21, 2019 - Carol Lilly, Executive Director of the Cedar Falls Community Main Street and Downtown District, is the guiding hand of fostering rigorous economic activity in the downtown area.  Carol has the overview of 29 city blocks in the downtown area which covers 160 properties.  She fosters new business enhancements and development in this area, while still holding the historic image and the overall character of the business district.  

The economic retail impact last year of the downtown area was well over 47 million dollars including the 194 new residents who have moved in and made this their new home. This important organization is reliant on volunteerism and people's hospitality to keep downtown Cedar Falls a great place to live, work and do business.

Thank you for all you do to make Cedar Falls a better place, Carol.
Written by Lynn Barnes

Nick, Marv, and Dean share their Tales of Yore for the Rough Risers

Today we had a different format for our program. We decided that it would be interesting to hear about the Cedar Falls "Days of Yore" from founding members who helped it become a reality.

Watch this 42-minute video where our storytellers are Nick Teig, Marv Heller, and Dean Dreyer. 

Kiwanis Rough Risers' Tales of Yore

What do you think?  Do you know other stories about the Rough Risers?

Cedar Valley Angels

Wednesday, July 31, 2019 - Cedar Valley Angels' president and founder, Dick Kimball, and a foster family mother, Kelsey Schmitz, gave a lecture to the Kiwanis Club on the life of adopted children and the commitment of foster parents.  

Based upon the Love Box Program, that had its beginning in Houston, they use a methodology of living as positive role models to impact children’s lives. Typically, two foster parents develop a relationship with a child while the CV Angels provide a support group of 6-10 other adults to provide help for the child and the parent. There are more foster children in Blackhawk County then there are foster parents to develop relationships.  They are need of helpers and funding.

Thank you for the difference you are making in many peoples' lives and thank you for spending your morning with us.

Written by Leigh Zeitz and Lynn Barnes

Rough Risers Support Kiwanis Children's Fund

"To develop resources that transform the goodwill and vision of Kiwanians into programs that serve the children of the world" is the mission statement of Kiwanis International's Children's Fund.  Since 1940, the Kiwanis Children's Fund has been turning members' generosity into projects that reach children all over the world.

The Eliminate Project is a Children's Fund program where Kiwanis International and UNICEF have joined together to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus - Not reduce it - ELIMINATE it. Over 55 million lives in 14 countries are depending on Kiwanis to protect their futures.

The Eliminate project identifies $100,000,000 as the goal for making this goal a reality. Our Rough Risers Club has been supporting the Eliminate Project for a number of years and this year we were recognized for contributing over $25/member. We were recognized as a Silver-Level Today Club member.  You will see our virtual badge in the right-hand column on this webpage. 

We thank you, the Rough Risers members, for making your contributions and hope that we can continue to support this project until it reaches its goal. 

Sue Ney Initiated into Kiwanis Rough Risers

Wednesday, July 3 - We are pleased to announce that Sue Ney, sponsored by Sue Loy, was inducted as a  member into our Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers club. She has been an active participant in our club's activities since she over the past few months. Sue has been a school counselor for the Cedar Valley Catholic Schools and has been active in other service organizations. 

Welcome to our Club, Sue!

Girl Scouts

Wednesday, June 12 - Alicia Lewis and Holly Bark gave a sampling to explain why the Girl Scouts always sell their delicious cookies. They wanted to give a sweet first impression! And that is an understatement!  They are scrumptious!  16,000 of Northeast Iowa young ladies are going after merit badges learning new skills and the focus areas or STEM, Outdoors. essential Life Skills, and Entrepreneurship.  This training builds courage, confidence, and character to make the world a much better community.  We miss the Thin Mints that are sold only once a year for their fundraising efforts to pay for the 6 staff and volunteers.  A high point of the presentation was when they passed around plates of Girl Scout cookies. We told Alicia and Holly that the Mints are “Wafer” too long!   Written by Lynn Barnes

June Programs Promise Us Some Real Excitement

Wednesday, June 5 - Business Meeting 

Our club members get together to discuss what's happening now and make plans for the future. We talk about projects, kettlecorn, finances, marketing and a plethora of potential possibilities. Leigh Zeitz will share the latest developments for the Kiwanis Rough Risers website. 

Wednesday, June 12 - What's Happening in Girl Scouts, Alisa Lewis, Development Officer for the Cedar Valley of Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois, will share the latest developments in Girl Scouts. She will review their program, the many accomplishments of their members, and future plans for best addressing the needs of their scouts.

Wednesday, June 19 - Red Cross Happenings. Rod Hamer, Red Cross Volunteer (and Kiwanian), will tell us his stories of what it takes to assure care, shelter, and hope to those affected by natural disasters. It is always an exciting experience to hear Rod "tell his tales" about how he has helped facilitate bringing relief to flood victims throughout the country.

Wednesday, June 26 - Building a Future by Building in Cedar Falls, Karen Howard, Planning and Community Services Manager for Cedar Falls, shares the ongoing plans for developing Cedar Falls. She will discuss downtown develop as well as the College Hill Urban Revitalization Plan. She will be able to provide insight into their foresight about the future of Cedar Falls.  It is an ongoing process towards residential conservation, rehabilitation, and development or redevelopment in the area. 

We Made the National News.

While I was roaming the Web, I came across an article about how service groups engage the younger generation into their clubs.  I sent a note to the author, Tim Ebner of Associations Now, and we began to discuss the opportunities. This resulted in Tim asking to interview me on the phone last Monday. He wanted to find out about what our Kiwanis club is doing.  I shared how we run our club and the many community-conscious members we have who engage incommunity-based projects . I even shared our website so that he would be able to see the depth of our accomplishments.

Since then, he has incorporated our story in his latest blog posting for Associations Now, What Can Associations Learn from Social Clubs? It discusses today's social clubs that attract the younger generation and aligns it with what our Kiwanis Rough Risers club is doing.  The best part about the article is that there a number of links throughout the article that take you to a wide assortment of other resources (sometimes postings on our website) to further the discussion.

Give it a read, click the links, and leave some comments below.

Leigh Zeitz

Developing Our Website into a Digital Scrapbook

Our Kiwanis Rough Risers website has been online since January 2009.  It has been a wonderful communication tool for us to share what we have been doing for the past 10 years.

The topics have included a wide variety of content.  The most popular topic has involved spotlighting our weekly programs.  At the beginning of each month, I post a list of programs that we can expect to enjoy.  Weekly, we post a photo and a description of what our presenter shared.  I must admit that this has been regularly done only in the past five years with the assistance of Lynn Barnes and Dan Conklin. (Thanks, Guys)

These pages also share an on-going record of periodic events, annual donations to youth organizations, commercial sponsors of our club, kettlecorn poppings, service projects, new member initiations, conference involvement, and remembrances of members who have passed on.  (Click each topic to see a collection of postings in that area.)

A Digital Scrapbook

The more that I have developed our website, the more I have realized that it contains the ongoing narrative for our club. These are the stories that give our organization meaning.  These tales share our accomplishments and portray our beliefs and vision. The challenge is to capture this characterization as thoroughly as possible.

Recently, I have expanded the scope of our website to include postings that include historical events going back to our original charter in 1980.   We began by prospecting through physical scrapbooks over the years so that we can scan newspaper articles onto the pages of our chronicle (Thanks, Lynn and Stan).  

I wanted to expand our database of history so this summer, I subscribed to newspapers.com to enable me to search the archives of the Waterloo/Cedar Falls Courier for articles about the famous (sometimes infamous) Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers.  I have been fortunate enough to find over 35 articles spanning the past 39 years which I have included in our historical narrative. I learned a great deal in reviewing these historical documents. Here are some of the events I uncovered (along with links to their postings):

• Rough Risers donated Cedar Falls Library's first computer - Apple IIe (1985)
• Our Newspaper Recycling Bins were set Ablaze by Middle School Students (1982 & 1986)
• Camp Fire Members Recycled Paper with Rough Risers (1987)
• Rough Risers were Rechartered in 1984.
• Rough Risers Funded and Rebuilt the Ice House Balcony (1985)
• Rough Risers were the First to Offer $$ and Labor to Renovate the Train Bridge for the El Dorado Trail. (1986)

Along the way, I decided to identify the many historical postings that were uncovered through research with the label, History.  Click Here to see most of them.

BUT WAIT A MINUTE!!!  The search doesn't end here. The richest source of stories lies within your hearts.   You are the living proof that the Rough Risers make a difference in the community and we would love to hear your stories.  Here is what YOU can do to expand our historical record:

1. Read through our Digital Scrapbook
2. If you have more to add to a posting, enter them into the Comments box below. Tell the story as you remember it and add your name at the end. 
3. If you have further ideas that you want to share, send an email to Leigh Zeitz (zeitz@uni.edu) to tell him of your memories of the event.

This is where we can share our history so people will better know who we are and what we represent.  Help tell our story . . . 

Leigh Zeitz

Rough Risers are Interviewed for Cedar Falls Channel 15

What do Dean Dreyer, Sue Loy, and Lynn Barnes have in common?  

They were interviewed by Roy Justis for Channel 15.  It was a thoughtful and informative interview that shared what we do, why we do it, and how we get the job done.  

This 22-minute video is one that all of our members should enjoy and it provides a great opportunity for potential members to learn who we are.

Share your comments (click on Comments below) about this video so that we can get some discussion going.

Mike Roth Shares His Restoration Stories

Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - It is never a gut "wrench"-ing experience when Mike Roth, owner of Autobody Pros in Cedar Falls; restores your old automobile to like-new condition.  Mike joined us for breakfast and shared his journey with us as he traveled from a kid working in his garage to one of the leading car restoration aficionadoes in Iowa.

Mike can make a custom Hot Rod from the frame up or customize your favorite daily driver old “Flivver” to showroom ship shape.  Mike can take an old Yugo or even a 2001 Ferrari 360 Spider and make it like new again. Mike took shared a restoration story that began with a car in horrible condition and ended with a car that looked like it was fresh off the assembly line.  Getting parts is the real trick for some older cars.  Sometimes, Mike needs to go out of the United States to get hard-to-find rare parts, but it is worth it.  The job is in the finish and Mike stakes his reputation on each restoration.

Thank you for sharing your stories with us, Mike.  
Written by Lynn Barnes and Leigh Zeitz