Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
August 13th, 2025
Roger Willeford presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.
35 members were in attendance today.
The meeting was led with the singing of America, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Invocation: Ron Shuler, mentioning thanks for guidance to do good, and the children.
Raffle: John Janes oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $18 and the big (Joker) pot was $379.
April Wright drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 628. Congratulations to the winner, Ryan Lewis.
The deck of cards has 24/53 cards remaining. Ryan Lewis drew the 2♥.
Roger Willeford thanks greeters April Wright and Hamish Martin, invocator Ron Shuler, rafflemaster John Janes, and server Glenn Disrude.
A demonstration by Ryan Lewis was given for how to purchase Lions Chicken Roast tickets from their website, www.janesvillelions.org .
Happy Box: Ryan Lewis announced he is happy because he won the raffle, and is donating the proceeds to the Truck on Ice. He announced he brought cucumbers and squash for members to have.
Jokes: Steve Skelly had a good joke about Jesus being Irish.
Member Health: Linda Bontly had a status update on Don and Linda Hanneman, injured in a car accident. Linda is in a Rockford hospital receiving care. Don is recovering at room 332 of Cedar Crest.
Carl Cramer’s birthday is today! He is 86.
Other Announcements: Roger Willeford spoke upon the upcoming Buckley Picnic, golf outing and the Farmer’s Market.
Tom Neumann spoke upon the golf outing. Contests for scores, drives and longest putts will be had, with prizes.
Dave Thill spoke upon the Mid-year Appeal. It has received $3,492 to date.
Roger Willeford spoke upon a letter received from Hamish Martin. He regrets to inform us he is leaving Golden K. The Martins are selling their house and moving to Ireland. Hamish hopes to visit regularly. Well wishes were given.
Committee Reports: John Janes announced the Tree Sale order was made, with an adjustment from 3,000 to 2,600 tress ordered for the coming year.
Dave Thill introduced the day’s speaker, Connie Udell. Connie is the owner of Sol Fitness. She is a fitness trainer, and was for a time the personal fitness trainer for all of ABC Supply. Connie has a personal connection to Parkinson’s Disease, because her mother had it. She heads a community group named Rock Steady Boxing.
Parkinson’s Disease affects around one million people in the United States, and 60,000 new individuals are diagnosed yearly.
Parkinson’s is a problem with the level of dopamine in the brain, a chemical that passes on muscles’ impulses. Connie equated it to the pistons in an engine.
People with Parkinson’s may have one arm stay still when walking, or a lack of facial express (“they don’t smile” muscular issues). Other symptoms include: sometimes they act out dreams, they lose the sense of smell, their handwriting may become small or difficult to read, balance, quiet speaking due to the difficulty with vocal muscles, swallowing issues, and cognitive problems. Symptoms vary.
Rock Steady Boxing is a group that was started in Indianapolis. It now has over 800 chapters around the country.
The groups utilize a mix of movement practice, shouting, and good (dad) jokes.
Family members join in frequently, from all over.
The motto is, “the more you do, the more you can do.”
Classes are ninety minutes, and start with a cognition warm-up. We Kiwanians tried word soup, where each member said one word that was the first they thought of after the previous was said – ‘red,’ next person ‘rose,’ next person ‘flower,’ etcetera. The rule was if you didn’t have a word, you had to say “supercalafragalistic.” Kiwanians began, “Golden,” “K,” “Connie,” “Supercalafragalistic,” “Trump,” “Politics,” “…,” “Brewers.”
Voice warm-ups between Connie and the group: “A,” group, “A!” Connie, “E”, group, “E!” All vowels were completed, and then a letter was chosen for threepeats. “J! J! J!” “Ja!” “Ja!” “Ja!” “Je! Je! Je!”
Women did, “Me!, Me!, Me!, Me!, Me!” then men followed with, “Okay! Okay! Okay!…”
The action started after warm-ups. Volunteers John Janes and Bob Wilcox were given boxing gloves, and proceeded to jab/cross five times each, always the opposing side’s further hand, to avoid being clobbered. Difficulty increased, with the opposite side’s hands moving around while maintaining a boxing stance. The gentlemen had their workout!
John Janes and Bob Wilcox eventually had a balance competition, with gloves touching, for ten seconds on one foot. Everyone applauded their efforts.
The activities were clearly beneficial to all of the topics mentioned: cognitive, strength, movement, and laughter / conversation.
Dave Thill thanked Connie Udell for speaking and presented her with a Kiwanis yellow tumbler.
Roger Willeford adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 11AM.
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.
On this day:
1942 The Manhattan Project commences under the direction of US General Leslie Groves with the aim of developing an atomic bomb
1960 American markswoman Annie Oakley—who starred in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, where she was often called “Little Sure Shot”—was born.
1967 “Bonnie and Clyde” crime film directed by Arthur Penn and starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is released
2008 American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins three gold medals, all in world record time, in one day at the Beijing Olympics: 200 m IM (1:54.23), 200 m butterfly (1:52.03), and 4x200m freestyle relay (6:58.56)
This is International Left Handers Day
