April's Programs Brings MUCH MORE than Showers

Wednesday, April 3 - 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  

Wednesday, April 10 - Pollinator Habitats: They Involve More Than You Think, Robert Pruitt, Executive Director of the  Cedar Valley Arboretum & Botanic Gardens, will present on the importance of pollinator habitats in urban environments. Habitat loss and pesticides threaten native pollinators and, in turn, human quality of life. But we can be part of the solution! Mr. Pruitt will tell us how.

Wednesday, April 17 - Building Support for Mental Health, Tom Eachus, Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center and Mike Lind, Executive Director of Unity Point.

Did you know that 1-in-4 adults will suffer from a mental illness in their lifetime? The Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Center is a part of Unity Point Health and we are trying to make this organization more visible in the community as an asset to a major health care need.

Wednesday, April 24 - What's Happening at the University of Northern Iowa? Dr. Mark Nook, President of UNI, will give us an update on happenings at UNI. UNI is a key component of the Cedar Falls economy, supporting economic innovation and growth and quality of life. He will explain that as UNI is preparing for its 150th anniversary in 2026, they are looking to lay the foundation for a strong university in the decades that follow.  The future vision at UNI is not about today.  It reaches decade upon decade into the future.

Stephanie Houk Sheetz Shares the Vision for Cedar Falls' Future

Wednesday, March 27 - Stephanie Houk Sheetz, the Director of Cedar Falls Community Development, had a gigantic overview of the future plans for our fair city. The forthcoming construction projects are riveting! 

There are some major changes in the way we travel around the city and the county but these are the necessary inconveniences that accompany progress.

Stephanie shared her visions of West 1st Street and also on the opposite side to the south at the corner of Highway 58 and Ridgeway Avenue which we won’t recognize the same area in the near future. Millions of dollars will be spent to enhance our daily commutes and make traffic flow more efficiently.

Thank you for joining us, Stephanie.

Written by Lynn Barnes.

Amy Davison Shares the Present and Future of Hartman Reserve

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 - Amy Davison, who is a Director of Blackhawk County Conservation Board and Hartman Reserve, explained the many opportunities that are available in the Hartman Reserve and the surrounding areas.

Hartman Reserve is a huge land investment of over 9,000 acres of the most beautiful parts of the county!  There are many opportunities of the great outdoors that area sportsmen have available to them because of their endeavors.  It takes 22-full time and 2-part time employees to maintain all the hiking trails and the special parks available for our citizens' recreational enjoyment.

Our Kiwanis Rough Risers club has been a great supporter of Hartman Reserve over the years. We have storage building, patios, bridges, stairs, bookcases, and a variety of other projects to support Hartman.  We have helped with events like the annual Maple Syrup Festival.

Hartman Reserve is an important part of the Cedar Valley and we thank Amy and her team for making it available.

Written by Lynn Barnes and Leigh Zeitz

Dr. Freedman Shares What it Means to Forgive.

Wednesday, March 13, 2019 - Our bodies have over 7 trillion separate nerves, and there are some people we encounter, who occasionally manage to push the right buttons to get on every single one of them!

UNI Professor of Educational Psychology, Dr. Suzanne Freedman, explained how to cope with different types of individual dramas by smoothing out the tone of our lives through forgiveness. When unpleasantness happens and our emotions run rampant, we can reach our anger breaking point. Forgiveness puts that speed bump between our brains and our mouths!

Dr. Freedman explained the “General Guidelines Regarding Forgiveness” and what it is not. Dr. Freedman shared her thesis on what the Overall Benefits of Forgiveness is all about and how it will improve our lives and physical well-being by providing transforming forgiveness.
Written by Lynn Barnes