Janesville Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
December 10^th, 2025

President Elect Tom Neumann presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.

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

Invocation: Ron Shuler, mentioning community, the weather 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 $116.
The day’s speaker drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 480.  Congratulations to the winner, Bob Knudson.
The deck of cards has 43/53 cards remaining.  Bob Knudson drew the 8♦.

Tom Neumann thanks greeters Bob Knudson and (Tom, himself), invocator Ron Shuler, rafflemaster John Janes, and server Glenn Disrude.

Happy Box: Bob Knudson announced he is happy because he won the raffle, and is donating the proceeds to the scholarships.

Jokes: Joker Steve Skelly had a good joke about a teacher.

Other Announcements: Maury Frey spoke upon the meeting room next week will be different.

Committee Reports: John Janes announced Bell Ringing for Salvation Army was a success!  The truck was in the Jolly Jingle parade, proudly displayed by Davis Citgo, a huge success!

Tom Neumann introduced the day’s speaker, the Janesville Business Academy.  Five students from Craig High School, and three instructors, one from each Janesville high school, were present to share with Kiwanians what they do and how they do it.  President Elect Tom Neumann and other board members presented the teachers with scholarship checks, $1,300 for each school.  The students then shared their individual future education goals, progress in their partner businesses, and general feelings on the Business Academy program and how it has given direction that affects their futures.

Some of that presentation included:
The students, thirty, meet at the One Parker Place building at 7:45am every morning, and stay there until 9:20am.
Vice President Jim Farrell asked, “Please tell us about the group’s projects.”  The group are involved in nine different businesses.  One is an AirBNB for which its team is improving marketing.  One business is a trucking company, one is the gym named Limitless, Northland Equipment, Barn on Prairie (the event venue aside Blackhawk Technical College), and four others.  Weekly progress emails are made to the companies.  The project generally includes a tour of the business’s operations.

Kiwanis member Tom Neumann asked, “Do you receive high school credit?”  “Yes” answered the students.
Jim Farrell asked, “What influence does social media have?”  “It is critical.  Barn on Prairie’s business is thanks to it.”
John Janes asked, “What other clubs, groups or events are you currently involved in?”  The students took turns mentioning things such as Interact Club (Rotary), and that Dresscember (clothing donations) is currently ongoing.
Many other topics were covered and the presentation was enjoyed by all.

Tom Neumann thanked the students for speaking.

Tom Neumann adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 9:40AM.

On this day:
1582 France begins use of Gregorian calendar
1768 The first of 100 weekly “numbers” of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which are bound into three volumes in 1771, is published in Edinburgh, Scotland
1799 The metric system is first adopted in France
1815 Ada Lovelace, who is often considered the first computer programmer, was born in what is today London
1817 Mississippi admitted as 20th state of the Union
1869 Women suffrage (right to vote) granted in Wyoming Territory (US 1st)
1884 “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain is first published in the UK and Canada, publication in the US follows in February 1885 due to a printing error
1898 Treaty of Paris which ended the Spanish–American War is signed by US President William McKinley; US acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam
1901 The first Nobel Prizes were distributed, marking the fifth anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who founded and endowed the awards through his will
1901 First Nobel Peace Prizes are awarded, first recipients are Red Cross co-founder Henry Dunant and peace activist Frédéric Passy
1901 First Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Wilhelm Röntgen for his discovery of X-rays
1902 German organic chemist Emil Fischer is award the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for his work on sugar and purine syntheses
1902 Opening of the Aswan Low Dam at the first cataract, the first dam across the Nile and the largest masonry dam in the world
1903 Nobel Prize for physics awarded to Pierre and Marie Curie for their study of spontaneous radiation
1904 Ivan Pavlov awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for work on the physiology of digestion, first Russian to win a Nobel Prize
Many other Nobels were awarded on this day
1911 Calbraith Rogers completes the first crossing of the US by airplane in 84 days
1948 UN General Assembly adopts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1962 David Lean’s film “Lawrence of Arabia”, based on life of T. E. Lawrence and starring Peter O’Toole, premieres at Odeon Leicester Square (Academy Awards Best Picture 1963)
1971 Lucasfilm Ltd. is founded as a film and television production company by George Lucas in San Francisco, California
1974 Helios 1 launched by US and Germany; later makes closest flyby of the Sun
1978 “Superman: The Movie”, directed by Richard Donner and starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, and Margot Kidder premieres at the Uptown Theater in Washington, D.C.
1993 “Doom” pioneering first-person shooter video game is uploaded onto the internet by id Software
1993 Dow Jones Industrial Average hits record 3740.67
1994 European Campaign against Racism “All different, All equal” begins
President Nelson Mandela signed a new constitution that completed a transition from a long period of white minority rule (apartheid) to full-fledged democracy in South Africa
1997 Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill begins living in a California redwood tree in Humboldt County to protest deforestation by the Pacific Lumber Company
Festival for the Souls of Dead Whales celebrates and memorializes all whales that have died. Some people thought that it was first celebrated by the Inuit of Alaska, where whaling has historically been important for human survival. It appears that Heather Mayell of National Geographic went to investigate, and could not find any evidence of the holiday in Alaska’s Inuit community. She did find that the Inuit have ceremonies related to whales that take place throughout the year but did not find any related to souls. She also found that well over half of the Inuit diet is whale meat.  It is most likely that the holiday was created by someone who was sympathetic to whales who have lost their lives because of whaling. By the mid-twentieth century, whale populations were becoming depleted.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted on December 10, 1948, and Human Rights Day commemorates this event and takes place on its anniversary. The day formally began in 1950, after the General Assembly passed resolution 423(V) on December 4th of that year, at the 317th Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly. The resolution invited all states and interested organizations to mark the day. Each year there is a different theme. Political conferences and meetings are common, as are exhibitions and cultural events related to human rights issues.

Minutes by Ryan Lewis.
Credit: Ray Szczepaniak, Ryan Lewis and various others, 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.