Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
August 12th, 2026
President Elect Tom Neumann presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.
Tom Neumann led with the singing of America, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Invocation: Dave Calverley, mentioning thanks for the support and help for what we do and the children.
Raffle: Dale Henning oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $10 and the big (Joker) pot was $264.
Hamish Martin drew a ticket from the bucket, ticket number 064. Congratulations to the winner, Ray Szczepaniak.
The deck of cards has 34/53 cards remaining. Ray Szczepaniak drew the 4♦.
Tom Neumann thanks greeters Ray Cummings and Roger Willeford, invocator Dave Calverley, rafflemaster Dale Henning, and server Glenn Disrude.
Happy Box: Ray Szczepaniak announced he is happy because the Mid-year Appeal was successful, with $4,735. Ray is adding his $10 raffle winnings to it.
Luci Cramer is happy because she is turning 80, and her extended family is having a reunion in the Wisconsin Dells.
Tom Neumann announced that Hamish Martin is with us today, back for two weeks.
Jokes: Joker Steve Skelly had a good joke about an artist shoes gallery called him. “A patron called the works will appreciate, and told us he’d buy all fifteen! The bad news is, he was your doctor.”
Joker Carl Cramer had a good joke about a panicked man visiting the doctor’s office. The doctor enters the examination room. “Doctor, I think I’m shrinking!” “Call down, sir, you’ll have to be a little patient.”
Member Health: Ray Cummings had a status update on Dan Heerey, who is in Slinger, WI having a difficult time. He hopes to be back with his brother in The Woods.
Other Announcements: Tom Neumann spoke upon the September 9th meeting’s location being Oakhill Chapel.
Tom Neumann spoke upon the Senior Fair, occurring on September 11th, and the Buckley Picnic, following the September 16th, which will be a pot luck for desserts, and catered by a new company. Spouses and guests are a $16 fee.
Committee Reports: John Janes announced a blood drive soon. The need of blood is great.
John Janes announced Kiwanis will be participating in the Pistons and Props Air Show. The truck will be there. m
April Wright introduced the day’s speaker, Liz Collins and her helper Deb. Liz Collins is the founder of Longevity with Liz. Originally from Florida, Liz has lived in Fort Atkinson for many years. She has worked in nursing and nursing education throughout Milwaukee and Madison, including serving as a clinical instructor at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Liz recently completed the Mayo Clinic Wellness Coach Training Program and is also a Certified Tiny Habits® Coach. Through Longevity with Liz, she brings her nursing experience to the wellness side of healthcare, helping people turn their knowledge into practical, healthy habits that last.
Liz is the Parish Nurse for St. Peters Episcopal in Fort Atkinson.
She is working towards her national board certification in health and wellness.
Liz is a proponent of healthy habits. She favors the A.C.E. system, which stands for Alignment Identity, Calendar & Cues, and Environment.
A.C.E. is the concept of knowing who we are to shape what we do, having timing and triggers to make habits stick and designing your surroundings to support success.
Liz finds inspiration in many sources. Some are James Clear’s Atomic Habits, who says, “Every action is a vote for the person you want to become,” and Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg, PhD, who meets with Liz weekly.
Liz cited an example of why setting and maintaining goals is important, “For New Year’s resolutions, January 19th is named Quitter’s Day” because a number of studies demonstrate people fail to meet their own expectations.
A brainstorming activity was completed for a system of accomplishing new goals. The ‘A, B, C’ system involves identifying an anchor habit you already have, attaching an additional behavior to it, and celebrating when both have been completed.
Deb handed out sheets early in the meeting and later collected ABC submissions for a raffle. A habit tracker was given to three Kiwanis members: Luci Cramer, Jim Farrell and April Wright.
Kiwanis member Jim Farrell asked a question, “Should routines be altered to avoid stagnation?” Liz replied, “It is important to be flexible.” She added a good resource is Dr. Katy Milkman, who has a YouTube channel where she provides additional recommendations.
Liz’s presentation was well received and appreciated.
April Wright thanked Liz Collins for speaking and presented her with a Kiwanis Parker pen.
Tom Neumann adjourned the meeting with a ring of the bell at 10:45AM.
On this day:
3 Conjunction of Venus and Jupiter on August 12, 3 BC, a popular theory for the biblical “Star of Bethlehem”
1492 Christopher Columbus arrives in the Canary Islands on his first voyage to the New World
1658 First American police force forms in New Amsterdam
1813 Robert Southey, author of the original version of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” among other things, is appointed British Poet Laureate by King George III
1833 Chicago incorporates as a village, with a population of about 350 people
1851 American inventor Isaac Singer patents his famous sewing machine
1856 Anthony Faas of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is granted a second patent for improvements to the accordion (Patent No. 15511A)
1865 British surgeon Joseph Lister performs the first antiseptic surgery using carbolic spray on instruments and bandages
1877 To his amazement, Thomas Edison records himself reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb” on his newly completed cylinder phonograph, a device that records sound onto tinfoil cylinders
1879 First National Archery Association tournament in Chicago
1881 American filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille—who was a cinema legend known for using spectacle in such movies as The Ten Commandments (1956)—was born in Ashfield, Massachusetts
1898 Hawaii is formally annexed to US
1908 Ford Motor Company builds its first Model T car, which Henry Ford himself tests on a hunting trip to Wisconsin and northern Michigan
1927 Silent film “Wings,” starring Clara Bow and directed by William A. Wellman, premieres in NY as the first film and one of only two silent films to win an Academy Award for Best Picture
1936 After a 24-year absence, a baseball demonstration game is played between two American teams at the Berlin Olympics, with the World Champions beating the US Olympics 6-5
1943 Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge
1953 Ann Davison arrives in Miami in her 23-foot boat Felicity Ann, becoming the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic
1960 American Ralph Boston sets a long jump world record of 8.21 m at the US Olympic trials, surpassing Jesse Owens’ record
1960 Echo 1, the first communications satellite, is launched by NASA
1960 USAF Major Robert M. White takes the X-15 to an altitude of 41,600 meters
1964 Mickey Mantle switch-hits a home run for the record 10th and final time in a game, with one going 502 feet
1966 The last Beatles concert tour of North America begins with two shows at the International Amphitheatre in Chicago, Illinois
1974 Yankees Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford become the first teammates inducted into the Hall of Fame on the same day
1976 First Approach and Landing Test (ALT) of Orbiter Enterprise
1977 High Energy Astronomy Observatory 1 (HEAO) is launched into Earth’s orbit by NASA
1977 Space Shuttle Enterprise makes its first atmospheric test flight
1978 International Cometary Explorer (ICE) spacecraft launches to study solar wind
1981 Don Estridge unveils the company’s first personal computer, the IBM PC, at New York’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel, priced at $1,565 with 16 kilobytes of RAM, helping bring computing to the masses
1984 Harmon Killebrew, Rick Ferrell, Don Drysdale, Pee Wee Reese, and Luis Aparicio are inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York
1988 Movie “The Last Temptation of Christ” is released
1990 The most complete and best-preserved skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex was found on South Dakota’s Cheyenne River Sioux reservation, and it was nicknamed Sue, after Susan Hendrickson, the paleontologist who discovered the dinosaur fossil
1991 Heavy metal band Metallica releases its fifth album, “Metallica,” which debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart
Today we celebrate fans of America’s pastime, baseball. Baseball evolved from a British game called rounders and is similar to the game of cricket. It was first documented in 1838, and in 1845, Alexander Joy Cartwright wrote rules for the New York Knickerbockers. The Cincinnati Red Stockings, formed in 1869, were the first professional baseball team. The National League was formed in 1876, and the American League was formed in 1903. The first World Series was held that same year.
In the first part of the twentieth century, big names like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, and Ty Cobb took the field. African American players had their own major leagues from 1885 until 1951 and had their own stars, such as Satchell Paige. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play in the major leagues.
This day marks the release, 31 years ago in 1981, of the very first IBM Personal Computer (PC) model 5150.
Today is IBM PC Day. Developed in less than a year, using existing off-the-shelf components, it proved a runaway success in the small business market, and launched the era of the personal computer. The IBM PC used an operating system developed by Microsoft, helping to establish Microsoft’s dominance in the in the PC market.
Even though the term “personal computer” wasn’t first coined by IBM (it was used as early as 1972 in reference to the Xerox PARC Alto), the success and prevalence of the IBM product resulted in the term PC referring specifically to computers and components compatible to the IBM PC. This led to peripherals and components being advertised as ‘IBM format’, further cementing IBM as the industry standard.
International Youth Day 2026, per the United Nations, recognizes that while young people’s lives are shaped by different national and local realities, their aspirations are remarkably similar. Across countries and communities, young people seek dignity, opportunity, meaningful participation, decent work, quality education, and a sustainable future.
This year’s theme places particular attention on young people living in Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), and Small Island Developing States (SIDS), who often experience overlapping challenges linked to poverty, climate change, geographic isolation, limited economic opportunities, and unequal access to digital technologies. At the same time, these young people continue to demonstrate resilience, leadership, and innovation in advancing sustainable development within their communities and beyond.
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. This content may only be reproduced without alteration and with credit to the original author(s).
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