Rough Risers Popping Kettle Corn at Walmart

Kiwanis Rough Risers are at it again.  We are popping Kettlecorn at Walmart and planning to donate our proceeds to the Cedar Falls Public Library.  Is that really Steve Harding?

Mayor Jon Crews Visits Us at Joe's Country Grill

Rough Risers Make Money Selling Melons or Recycling Newspaper?

Spring, 1991 - Serving the community is not limited to building shelters or reading books to students in schools. We have always been on the search for ways to raise money that we can then donate to programs/projects in the Cedar Valley.

One of the founders, Lynn Schwandt, always had ideas on fundraising; some good and some a disaster!  One of these ideas involved selling watermelon by the slice during the Sturgis Falls Celebration. This was a good idea on the surface but it took a lot of manpower. Cutting and selling the melons wasn't too difficult, but watermelons were not too portable. Someone had to keep watch over the huge water tank full of melons all night to keep them from being stolen. Even after we figured out how to handle all of the logistical problems, the actual sales of watermelon slices were also in the tank!

The best idea that Lynn Schwandt ever came up for fundraising was recycling newspapers for making attic insulation and at a highly lucrative price of $10 a ton. Fellow members had drawn plan permits and all pitched in to build a newspaper receptacle to gather the forthcoming windfall. 

It garnered much local media attention and was it extremely successful. We even had the newspaper bin as our float at the Sturgis Falls Celebration. We put it on John Deery’s Car Lot on the corner of University and Main in Cedar Falls. It was such a gigantic hit, that we were even considering building another one to double our efforts! 

But, all good things run their course of longevity; the price for used newspaper started to decline in recycled newspapers due to oversupply. We decided to retire newspaper booths and turn our attention towards other fundraisers like selling Kettlecorn. 

C.F. Kiwanis Club Donates Funds for Ice House Lighting

This article is actually about the "Other" Kiwanis Club in Cedar Falls, but Steve Harding soon became an active member in the Rough Risers.

Camp Fire celebrates its 78th birthday with a service project joining our Rough Risers club in collecting newspapers to raise funds for the Camp Fire Bird Summer Camp and donating money to youth activities in the Cedar Valley.

Camp Fire Families Save Papers for Rough Risers

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We are most successful when we work together. Camp Fire girls to the rescue! Recognizing that the Rough Risers suffered a great loss when our newspaper bin was set ablaze last year (September 16, 1986), the Camp Fire families have volunteered to collect newspapers for our Kiwanis club so that we can raise funds to support the youth in Cedar Valley.

Rough Risers Restore Railroad Bridge on South Main

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The Rough Risers contributed 200 hours of volunteer work and a donation of more than $1.700 over three years to restore one of three train bridges on South Main.  This bridge was originally designed for trains to cross the river but now it will be used for walkers and bike riders as part of the El Dorado recreational trail.  The photo above includes Mayor Doug Sharp and Rough Risers President, Dean Primrose. (Unfortunately, this article was not properly scanned by the Courier and some of the text on the right is missing.) 

Rough Risers Complete Bridge Renovation

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The reliable Rough Risers have completed their commitment to renovate the old railroad bridges along the abandoned right of way for the El Dorado Trail. (See the final paragraph.)

Another Kiwanis Newspaper Bin Set Afire

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The Kiwanis paper recycling bin in College Square was set ablaze. This was the final bin for this fundraising program. The junior high students who committed the incident were identified and restitution was made.
NOTE: It should be noted that Nick Teig was misquoted in this article.  Nick said "a Million pounds of newspapers" and the reporter identified it as "a million tons."  This million pounds (only 500 tons) was a "big thing" and buttons were even created to celebrate this benchmark.

Rough Risers Commit to Support the El Dorado Trail

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The Rough Risers supported the development of the El Dorado Trail by committing to donate $750 and 100 hours of labor to renovate the railroad bridge east of Main Street and North of Oregon Street.   This was completed by November 18, 1986.

Rough Risers Fund to Build Ice House Museum Balcony

In the summer of 1985, the Kiwanis Rough Risers donated $1000 and volunteered 100 hours of their time to help motivate other service clubs, businesses, and individuals to give financial support towards building a balcony for the Cedar Falls Ice House Museum. 

Join the Rough Risers and Hartman Reserve Go on a Walk - together.

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This year, 1985, is the second year when the Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers join with the Hartman Reserve staff to share the many historical buildings in Cedar Falls.  The adventure will begin and end at the Ice House.

Rough Risers Donate Cedar Falls Library's First Computer

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Always on the cutting edge, the Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers donated an Apple IIe to the Cedar Falls Public Library. This was the library's first computer and it was available for public use.

Kiwanis Rough Risers Receive Our 1984 Charter.

The original Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers Charter was given on June 4,1980 with 18 members.

The first few years were a hard struggle to maintain minimum Kiwanis Chapter membership levels which we temporarily dipped below and had the first Kiwanis Rough Risers Chapter Charter revoked from the International Headquarters.  We put up a fight and got back to membership levels and have not looked back since!

Written by Lynn Barnes

Rough Risers Newpaper Bin Catches on Fire!!

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We were trying to raise funds by recycling newspapers, but someone had another idea about how to use those newspapers.  There was over $400 lost in damage.  This was the second bin that was burned down this summer.

Service Clubs Join Rough Risers to Renovate Trail

Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers Charter Their Club

A group of men in the Cedar Valley wanted a new type of service club to give to give back to the citizens, a better community. They decided that the Kiwanis service organization matched with their goals so they decided to start a chapter.

On June 4, 1980, a charter was issued for Cedar Falls Kiwanis Rough Risers. We had not actually met as a club yet, but this was issued anyway. We had 25 members. Most of these members being educators, they realized that if they met at 6:30 AM, they could have an hour meeting with enough time left to get to school on time for first period - hence the name "Rough Risers."

Below is a photo taken at the Rough Risers' Charter Night on July 2 at the Cedar Falls Woman's Club House.  We were fortunate to be joined by many members of the Kiwanis Club of Cedar Falls (not in photo.)

Members are all enthusiastic in helping serve our communities, kids, and our schools.  We all give generously in our time and talents toward that goal. Lifetime friendships with like-minded individuals along with just having fun is an added benefit.

This was the original Kiwanis Rough Risers Chapter Charter issued to the Club on June 4, 1980. The ceremony was held at the Cedar Falls Women’s Club with all the new members, spouses, and dignitaries on July 2, 1980.

Even Before the Charter . . . Kiwanis Club of CF Bulletin:June 6

Even before the Kiwanis Rough Risers had their first meeting or earned their first charter, the Cedar Falls Kiwanis (evening) Club wrote about us in their weekly bulletin.  This is their June 6, 1980, bulletin where they were nice enough to list the 21 members who were interested in attending the Rough Risers' initial meeting on July 2nd, 1980.

You may recognize more names but I see some of the members who are still part of the Rough Risers in 2018: Dean Dreyer, Marvin Heller, Rober Nelson, and Nick Tieg.  The list a few other ex-members - Jerry Skykhuis, Gilbert Hewitt, and Dave Christensen.

Which do you know? Add a story about some of these past members in the comments section below.

You will see that they continued to report on our beginning over the next few weeks.  They will be included in some following posts.

Written by Leigh Zeitz