Janesville Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
October 15^th, 2025

Richard Johnson presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.Richard Johnson led with the singing of America, the National Anthem and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Invocation: Ron Shuler, mentioning members away, and the children.

Raffle: John Janes oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $10 and the big (Joker) pot was $33.
Ray Szczepaniak drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 885.  Congratulations to the winner, Maury Frey.
The deck of cards has 51/53 cards remaining.  Maury Frey drew the J♥.

Richard Johnson thanks greeters Ray Szczepaniak and (multi-tasking) John Janes, invocator Ron Shuler, rafflemaster John Janes, and server Bob Knudson.

Happy Box: Maury Frey announced he is happy because he won the raffle, and is donating the winnings to the Alzheimer’s Walk.

Jokes: Joker Steve Skelly had a good joke about a pirate who lost his leg to a shark, later his hand to gangrene, and then his eye (to an itch, after his new hook hand).
Joker Ryan Lewis had a good joke about a genie who would grant one reasonable wish.
Joker Gregg Dickinson had a good joke about the hokey pokey.

Member Health: Linda Bontly had a status update on Bruce Jorenby, who is in surgery rehabilitation tomorrow, in Edgerton.
Linda Bontly had a status update on Carl and Luci Cramer, who are back in Seattle after their daughter’s surgery results had complications.

Other Announcements: John Janes spoke upon the Truck on Ice.  Seneca Foods and Silha are now sponsors and on the banner!
Steve Skelly spoke upon the Truck on Ice sweatshirts.  Only $18!
Steve Skelly spoke upon the Key Club a Rock University.  They are participating in a Trunk or Treat at Riverside Park on Saturday, October 18^th.  A request was put forward to fund their candy, for which a member graciously volunteered.

Gregg Dickinson introduced the day’s speaker, Dawn Fiedler.  Dawn is a specialist in protecting youth in a digital world.  She is an Elkhorn Rotarian, and currently is their President Elect (she will be their president in the coming year).  At one of their meetings, she became a part of Join the Movement, a charity with the mission to stop human trafficking.
Dawn related that Wisconsin was until recently ranked third in the nation for human trafficking.
January 11^th is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.

Dawn asked members, who knows who is the top country in the world for organ harvesting.  As was correctly guessed by a member, China is the first, followed by India which is soon to be Mexico.
Dawn attempted to explain just how critical human trafficking is.  “Drugs are difficult to source.  A human is always available.”  Dawn worked with a woman who earned her captors $10,000 weekly.

Dawn worked with 179 victims in the last three years.
2023 saw a 300% increase in the number of online enticement reports filed.
Dawn developed the Social Media Toolkit, a structure for approaching your children about resisting sexting. It is one of numerous resources available free of charge.

Kiwanis member John Sarnow asked, “How many people are affected worldwide?”  Dawn replied, “The U. S. has 1.1M people currently being trafficked.  That is approximately 3.3 people for every 1,000.  There are 50 million people worldwide.”
Kiwanian Tom Neumann asked, “What is your opinion of children having cell phones?”  Dawn responded, “Children shouldn’t have phones at school, or at night.  Buy an alarm clock!  No phones at night means no kids going to social media tired and with their guard down.”

Numerous other great questions were asked and answered, and the presentation was informative.

Gregg Dickinson thanked Dawn Fiedler for speaking and presented her with a Kiwanis Parker pen.

Richard Johnson adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 11AM.

On this day:
1520 King Henry VIII of England orders the installation of bowling lanes in his palace at Whitehall
1582 Gregorian calendar is introduced in Spain, Portugal, and the Papal States after skipping 10 days from October 4 to sync the calendar to the solar year and compensate for the drift that has occurred due to the Julian calendar having too many leap days
1827 Charles Darwin is admitted to Christ’s College, Cambridge
1881 “American Angler,” the first American fishing magazine, is published
1919 Fourteen horses begin a 300-mile race from Vermont to Massachusetts for a $1,000 prize
1924 US President Calvin Coolidge declares the Statue of Liberty a national monument
1933 20th Amendment to the US Constitution goes into effect, changing the start of a presidential term from March to January
1937 Ernest Hemingway’s novel “To Have and Have Not” is published
1945 Baseball attendance hits a record 10.28 million, with the Tigers’ 1.28 million being the highest
1951 “I Love Lucy,” starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, debuts on CBS television
1955 Country music radio show “Grand Ole Opry” is first broadcast on television in a live hour-long show by ABC
1959 A final conference on the Antarctic Treaty convenes in Washington, D.C., and, after six weeks of negotiations, the treaty is signed by 12 countries, preserving the continent for free scientific study.
1966 Lyndon B. Johnson signs a bill creating the US Department of Transportation
1971 Start of the 2,500-year celebration of Iran, commemorating the founding of the Persian Empire
1971 World’s first arcade video game, Computer Space, developed by Syzygy, is first demonstrated at the MOA Show in the US
1973 American country singer-songwriter Dolly Parton releases her single “Jolene,” the title track of her forthcoming album, and tops the country charts in US and Canada
1984 Central Intelligence Agency Information Act passes
1985 Shuttle Columbia carries Spacelab into orbit
1986 In the longest postseason game, Mets beat Astros 7-6 in 16 innings and win NL pennant
1991 Oh-My-God particle, the most powerful cosmic ray ever detected by the Fly’s Eye camera at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, measures 320 EeV, 40 million times more powerful than any terrestrial particle accelerator
1997 The US launches the nuclear-powered Cassini spacecraft to Saturn
National Cheese Curd Day was created by Culver’s, a fast-food restaurant that started in Wisconsin that is located mainly in the Midwest, that as of 2020 has restaurants in 25 states. One of their most popular menu items, their cheese curds, are made with white and yellow Cheddar cheese. The fresh cheese curds—which they source from LaGrander’s Hillside Dairy in Stanley, Wisconsin—are breaded with their signature blend of herbs and spices and then deep-fried. Culver’s sold over 17.7 million orders of cheese curds in 2015, and over 28 million orders in 2018. During the month of October, when they hold National Cheese Curd Day, they offer chances for people to win cheese curds and other prizes. They’ve even given away a year’s supply of cheese curds as their grand prize.

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