Janesville Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
July 22^nd, 2026

President 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: Carl Cramer, mentioning in a world of chaos, help we Kiwanians to be stable in helping the children.

Raffle: John Janes oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $11 and the big (Joker) pot was $230.
Bob Block drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 6234.  Congratulations to the winner, Ryan Lewis.
The deck of cards has 37/53 cards remaining.  Ryan Lewis drew the Q♣.

Richard Johnson thanks greeter Bruce Jorenby, invocator Carl Cramer, rafflemaster John Janes, and server Bob Knudson.

John Janes announced that a guest is with us today, past member Wayne Olson and partner Judy.
Maury Frey announced that a guest is with us today, Laura Kenyon, who will join our club!

Jokes: Joker Steve Skelly had a good joke about the number one laxative salesman is the United States, but he was just a regular guy.

Member Health: Ray Cummings had a status update on Dan Heerey, who is moving to “the Woods” for recovery.

Other Announcements: Bob Knudson spoke upon updates coming to the membership book’s photos are needed.  The book will be at the front middle table for some monthly meetings.
Carl Cramer spoke upon five Kiwanis members who went to Oak Park last week recruiting, and fifteen people attended.

Committee Reports: Ray Szczepaniak announced the Mid-year Appeal ends next week.  Fifty percent of the surveys have been turned in.  This week, of the members that turned in their surveys or appeals, Ryan Lewis won the flower arrangement!

Jim Farrell introduced the day’s speaker, Bob Block.  Today, Bob will speak upon the Civil War Camp Randall.  Bob was a 34-year employee of a Wisconsin crime lab.  He submitted expert testimony in over 500 trials.  Bob is from Oregon, Wisconsin.

The previous state capital, burned down three days after the insurance expired.
The first state fair was in Janesville.

Some 70,000 of 91,000 Wisconsin Civil War soldiers were trained at Camp Randall.
The camp was not meant for prisoners of war. They were eventually moved to a camp in Chicago.

A story was told about the last civil war widow, a woman who married a 90yo man at 17 years old.
Calvary in Oregon, WI towing a cannon.

Fun fact, Iowa was the first domed stadium, years before any others.
“Bucky” received his name because lead miners went into tunnels in the side of hills. His name was chosen by contest.

Kiwanis member Mel Lemirande observed, “Regdab is what I knew they called him, which is badger spelled backwards.”

MIke Leckrone assembled 150 for the marching band and routinely had 120 on the field, during a losing streak.
In the third quarter, one of the many traditions include “Jump Around,” a song played and fans jumping. A story was relayed about skipping the tradition due to questions of bleachers’ structural stability, and the upset requiring engineers re-verifying the bleachers.

A tradition involves tuba players shouting some lyrics to a song they play, which upset the band director. The upset caused Mike Leckrone to re-evaluate his decision, and soon thereafter he was one of the tuba players participating.

The UW fight song was discussed, which has a 3rd verse, seldom sung.

Kiwanis member Jim Farrell asked about the removed confederate soldiers’ monument, to which Bob Block replied that it is in storage, and people are working to reinstate it.

Kiwanian John Sarnow inquired, “Where is the Veterans’ Museum?”  Bob responded, “Across from the state capital.  It is free(!) to visit.”

Jim Farrell thanked Bob Block for speaking and presented him with a Kiwanis Parker pen.

Richard Johnson adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 10:55AM.

Reminders: There is an executive board meeting next week.

On this day:
1587 2nd English colony forms on Roanoke Island off North Carolina
1784 Born this day, German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel made the first measurement of the distance of a star other than the Sun, and his work allowed the first accurate determination of interstellar distances
1793 Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European to complete a transcontinental crossing of Canada
1796 Cleveland, Ohio, founded by General Moses Cleaveland. Originally called ‘Cleaveland’, the public adopted the current name after a newspaper editor noticed the name was too long to fit on the page.
1893 Katharine Lee Bates writes “America the Beautiful” in Colorado
1923 Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson is the first to reach 3,000 career strikeouts, recording five in a 3-1 win over the Cleveland Indians. Finishes his career with 3,508 strikeouts.
1933 Wiley Post completes the first solo flight around the world, taking 7 days and 19 hours; he covered 15,596 miles (25,099 km) in 7 days, 18 hours, 49 minutes
1934 Outside Chicago’s Biograph Theatre, “Public Enemy No. 1” John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents
1959 Ed Wood’s cult classic “Plan 9 from Outer Space,” often called one of the worst films ever, premieres starring Gregory Walcott and Bela Lugosi
1962 1st US Venus probe, Mariner 1, fails at lift-off
1983 Australian pilot Dick Smith completes the first solo helicopter flight around the world
1995 Space shuttle STS-70 (Discovery 20) lands
1997 “One Piece,” world’s best-selling manga and comic series, written and illustrated by Eiichiro Oda, first appears serialized in “Weekly Shōnen Jump” in Japan
Get ready to roar! On Lion’s Share Day, it’s perfectly okay to try to take more than your share of something. A “lion’s share” is an idiom meaning “the largest part of something divided amongst other people.” The expression comes from one of Aesop’s fables, where a lion asks animals to help him hunt, and then afterwards tells them reasons why he should get to keep all parts of the spoils.
There are a few similar versions of the fable. In one version, a lion goes hunting with a fox, a jackal, and a wolf. They kill a stag (male deer) and must make a decision on how to divide it. The lion tells the other animals to quarter it, giving the impression that it may be shared equally. But, he then says, “The first quarter is for me in my capacity as King of Beasts; the second is mine as arbiter; another share comes to me for my part in the chase; and as for the fourth quarter, well, as for that, I should like to see which of you will dare to lay a paw upon it.” As the fox walks away, he grumbles, “You may share the labours of the great, but you will not share the spoil.” This is the moral of the fable. Put simply, the moral is that one should not trust partnerships with those who are more powerful than them.
From the Italian panucci, penuche is made with brown sugar, milk, butter, and a dash of vanilla, and is celebrated today with National Penuche Fudge Day. It is similar to fudge but differs from it in that most fudge is made with white sugar, not brown sugar. Maple syrup is sometimes added to penuche, but the brown sugar in it already tends to bring out notes of maple syrup and butterscotch. Brown sugar is its signature ingredient, and when the sugar is caramelized it gives penuche its flavor as well as its tannish color. Nuts like pecans or walnuts are sometimes added to penuche to enhance its texture.
Prominent in New England, where it likely originated, penuche is also eaten in the South, where it is sometimes called brown sugar fudge candy. There’s an oft-repeated story that says its name came from Mark Penuche, who reputedly played for the Boston Bruins in 1924, and who loved maple syrup. While this may be true, it cannot be substantiated, and no Mark Penuche can be found on the Bruins’ 1924–1925 season roster. But what really matters is not how penuche got its name, but that penuche is eaten today, and this is done with gusto, because it’s National Penuche Fudge Day!
Pi Approximation Day celebrates the pi symbol (π) and its importance to mathematics. The symbol is a Greek letter, and it is used in mathematics to represent the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. The first digits of this ratio are 3.14159, and the number continues infinitely without a pattern, being an irrational number. It has been calculated to over one trillion digits after the decimal point. The symbol “π” was first used in 1706 by William Jones. It gained in popularity after being used by Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737.
Pi can be expressed as the fraction 22/7, which is an approximation of its actual value (hence the word “approximation” in the day’s title). Pi Approximation Day is particularly celebrated in countries that write their dates in the date/month format, where today’s date would be written as 22 July or 22/7. Those who write their dates in the month/date format are more likely to celebrate Pi Day. However, both holidays can be celebrated no matter where one lives. Pi Approximation Day may have first been celebrated at the Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Spoonerism Day – William Archibald Spooner was born on today’s date in 1844. He studied at Oxford University and went on to lecture there for 60 years, focusing on philosophy, divinity, and history. He also was an Anglican priest. An albino man of small stature with bad eyesight, he was sometimes absent-minded, but also had a strong intellect. Because of his intellect, his speech often did not keep up with his thought process. That, along with his bad eyesight, contributed to him often saying phrases that were different than the ones he intended. With these slips of the tongue, which became known as “spoonerisms,” the initial consonant sounds in some words are reversed. One of his most famous was “It is kisstomary to cuss the bride,” which he apparently said while performing a wedding ceremony for a couple. Spoonerisms are often said by accident, just as they were done by Spooner, but nowadays they are often said on purpose as well, for their humorous effect. No matter why they are said, we celebrate them today.
A bit of leisure time is critical for mental and physical health throughout the whole year, but there is something particularly romantic about it on a summer day. Maybe the extra allure comes from soaking in Vitamin D from the rays of the sun. Maybe it’s that there are so many more activities than can be done in warmer weather. Whatever it is, we kick off our flip flops today and enjoy some leisure time, whether that be by laying in a hammock, water skiing, grilling out, or partaking in another activity.

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

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