Janesville Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
July 23^rd, 2025

Roger Willeford presiding, called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.
34 members were in attendance today.

The meeting was led with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of America, the National Anthem.

Invocation: Bob Knudson, mentioning good health, good food, and the children.

Raffle: Ryan Lewis oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $14 and the big (Joker) pot was $327.
Jenny Turco drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 840.  Congratulations to the winner, Bob Knudson.
The deck of cards has 27/53 cards remaining.  Bob Knudson drew the 6♣.
A second drawing occurred, for four giant zucchinis, or a banana.  Number 831 was drawn, and Nancy Wright graciously accepted the banana.  The zucchinis later found a home.

Roger Willeford thanks greeters Tom Neumann and Steve Skelly, invocator Bob Knudson, rafflemaster Ryan Lewis, and server Bob Knudson.

Happy Box: Luci Cramer announced she is happy about several things, including our speaker.
Bob Knudson announced he is happy because he won the raffle, and is donating the proceeds to Project 16:49.

Jokes: Carl Cramer had a good joke about a stage designer who lost his job.
Ray Szczepaniak had a good joke about dog walkers.
Ryan Lewis had a good joke about the pope receiving good and bad news.

Member Health: Linda Bontly had a status update on Jim Hay.  He is out of the hospital, and diagnosed with cellulitis.

Other Announcements: Tom Neumann spoke upon the upcoming club golf outing.  It is August 21^st.  Players pay their green fees, and carts are included.  Lunch for any member will follow, at Mac’s.

Luci Cramer introduced the day’s speaker, Steve Skelly.  Steve is a well known, newer Kiwanian.  He heads up Aldo Leopold Buddy Benches, is a resident (weekly) joker, and known for the Kiwanis golden tumblers.  Steve has spent a great deal of time working with the Catholic church to hopefully see Brother Joseph Dutton receive sainthood.  Part of Dutton’s story was featured in a number of pages in a Hawaiian Airlines article, which found its way to other magazines across the country.  Some details Steve recounted follow.
A few years ago, Steve finally had the opportunity, albeit in sad circumstances, to search an old Beloit parish’s basement archives, and located a piece he treasures, “1/3/1982 – Joseph Dutton, Do Not Destroy.”
Dutton was a patriot and a flag aficionado.  He gave flags as gifts to many people he liked.
Joseph was a Janesville native.  He attended a Baptist and a Congregational church locally, and an Episcopalian out East.
Joseph worked at the Sutherland Book Store in downtown Janesville.  The now empty lot down town, where a theatre recently stood, is known to be of importance to Dutton.  Steve hopes to some day have a plaque placed there.
Joseph joined “the Wide Awakes,” at age 13, which later became known as the Republican Party.
He was Milton College educated, and later sent them a flag from Hawaii, which they have on display to this day.
Joseph joined the military after being dragged kicking and screaming by his father to learn their order.  After the Civil War, Joseph Dutton assisted in re-interring over 6,000 bodies, original buried in the land along the railroad.  The bodies would be searched, and if identifying materials were found, their families would be contacted, or they were moved to one of two national cemeteries.  During that work, Joseph had many sleepless nights.
He left the military to work at what he later found to be a distillery.  In the five years with them, he drank a casket of whiskey yearly.
At age 40, in an effort to clean himself up, he decided to align with the Catholic faith, and moved to a silent monastery.  While a life a service was for the better, the restrictions upon communication led Joseph to move after 20 months, to a Hawaiian mission, which was at the time much less civilized.
Joseph Dutton spent the remainder of his life in Hawaii, his mission to “work off his sins,” for which he refused any compensation, nor did he take Catholic vows.
Joseph chose to assist a local priest, Father Damien, in caring for those afflicted with Hanson’s Disease, colloquially (and in Hawaii, disdainfully) known as leprosy.
The ‘leper colonies’ of the time were chiefly to load suspected disease bearers on a ship, and throw them overboard near the colonies, one of which was a peninsula, where they would then be forced to swim to (or drown).
The peninsula was arid, undeveloped land, and there was a lack of any supporting infrastructure or supplies.
Brother Dutton for a year lived under one of the few trees in his area, where now part of his body is lain.
The pair of missionaries spent many years gathering support for the colonies.  One such example is the donation of 1,000, which are part of what lined the area in later years.
Kalaupapa has several who suffered from the disease continuing to live there.  The individuals are aged 90+, the eldest is 105 years old.
Some days Joseph Dutton would spend 20 hours bandaging the afflicted.
Joseph never contracted Hanson’s Disease, which was later found to more frequently attack people genetically predisposed.  Father Damien died with it.
Joseph’s life was in service to many, and numerous people seek his sainthood.  Brother Dutton’s legacy was compassion, and caring for a community.

Luci Cramer thanked Steve Skelly for speaking.

Roger Willeford adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 11AM.

Reminders: There is an executive board meeting next week.

Minutes by Ryan Lewis.
Credit: Dave Figi, photographs.

Note: Kiwanis and its members are not responsible for errors or omissions.  We are open to discussion if you would like to request an alteration.