Janesville Blackhawk Golden Kiwanis

Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
September 30^th, 2026

President Richard Johnson presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:00AM.
Today is the officers’ induction ceremony and catered breakfast.

Richard Johnson led with the singing of America, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Invocation: Dave Calverley, mentioning the children.

Richard Johnson announced that Jan Willeford and Barb Cummings are guests today.

Breakfast followed, an array of options catered by Knutes.

Master of Ceremonies Carl Cramer started off the induction ceremony.  He began by speaking of Kiwanis’ first president, George F. Hixson, the only leader to serve two terms.

Carl explained it was a great honor to receive a ‘Hixson Award,’ something the club bestows on a member less than yearly.  He then asked Kiwanis member Ryan Lewis to approach.

Ryan Lewis was presented the Hixson Award.

President Richard Johnson extended his thanks to all members, and mentioned how great it is to accomplish the Tree Sale, Truck on Ice, and everything else that we do.

Carl Cramer inducted the new Kiwanis Board of Directors:
A ‘Thank You’ to Linda Bontly, completing a three year Director term and that of Assistant to the Treasurer.
April Wright is now a Kiwanis Director.
Greg Turco, previously the Treasurer, is now the President Elect.
Jim Farrell is now the Treasurer, and is given his pin.
Paul Neitzel continues his role as Secretary.

President Elect Greg Turco comes forward, and is now formally installed.

President Tom Neumann now comes forward, and is elected to the highest office the club can instill.  He is the face of the club.  Thank you for dedicating yourself to Kiwanis.

Tom Neumann speaks.  Goals for the new year include:
increasing membership,
more interclub meetings,
increase in fundraising efforts including Scoopie Nights,
creation of a 501c3,
opening a club high interest savings account and additionally using certificates of deposit,
increasing the outreach of the Programs Committee including e.g. the businesses on Wright Road,
varying meeting locations such as the library, Elks’, the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, or maybe City Hall,
and other items.

Richard Johnson joins Tom Neumann.  The passing of the gavel occurs.

Photos of the new Executive Board, Directors, and all Hixson awardees are taken.

Bob Knudson give a closing benediction, including thanks for the good weather and good people.

The meeting is adjourned, with a ring of the bell at 10:03AM.

On this day:
1659 Robinson Crusoe is shipwrecked (according to Daniel Defoe’s famous novel)
1841 Samuel Slocum patents the stapler
1846 Anesthetic ether is used for the first time by American dentist Dr. William Morton to extract a tooth
1867 Midway Islands are formally declared a US possession
1870 French physicist Jean Perrin, who received the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1926 for his studies of the Brownian motion of minute particles, was born
1868 “Little Women” novel by Louisa May Alcott is published in America by Roberts Brothers of Boston, Massachusetts
1877 First US amateur swim meet (New York Athletic Club)
1880 American amateur astronomer Henry Draper takes the first photograph of the Orion Nebula
1895 Stephen Crane’s novel “The Red Badge of Courage” is published to wide acclaim
1904 White Sox lefty Doc White pitches his fifth shutout in 18 days
1920 Times Square Theater opens at 217 W 42nd St, New York City
1922 Yankees clinch their second pennant, beating Boston 3-1
1924 American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright Truman Capote, who was perhaps best known for the novel In Cold Blood (1965), was born
1927 Yankees slugger Babe Ruth smacks his MLB record 60th home run off Tom Zachary in the 8th inning of New York’s 4-2 win over the Washington Senators at Yankee Stadium
1929 First manned rocket plane flight by automaker Fritz von Opel
1935 The Boulder Dam (later the Hoover Dam), astride the border of Arizona and Nevada, is dedicated by US President Franklin D. Roosevelt
1939 In the first televised college football game, Fordham defeats Waynesburg 34-7 at Randall’s Island, NY
1950 first Congress of the International Astronautical Federation opens in Paris
1953 Auguste and Jacques Piccard dive in their bathyscaphe Trieste to a record depth of 3,150 meters in the Tyrrhenian Sea
1954 USS Nautilus, the first nuclear submarine, is commissioned by the US Navy
1955 American actor James Dean, who became a symbol of the confused, restless, and idealistic youth of the 1950s, died in an automobile crash as he drove to a car rally in Salinas, California
1960 “The Flintstones,” the first animated sitcom created by Hanna-Barbera, premieres on ABC in the US
1960 On Howdy Doody’s last show, the traditionally silent clown, Clarabell the Clown, finally speaks his first and only words, whispering “Goodbye, kids”
1963 56th Postmaster General: John A. Gronouski of Wisconsin takes office
1968 First Boeing 747 jumbo jet rolls out
1968 Motown releases the Supremes’ single “Love Child”
1970 New American Bible is published
1975 The Hughes (later McDonnell-Douglas, now Boeing) AH-64 Apache makes its first flight
1977 Apollo program’s ALSEP experiment packages left on the Moon are shut down due to US budget cuts
1980 Ethernet specifications are published by Xerox in collaboration with Intel and Digital Equipment Corporation
1982 The Boston bar-based sitcom Cheers —where everybody knows your name—premiered on NBC. A mixture of comedy and soap-opera romance, the show ran for 11 seasons
1985 Island Records releases “Rain Dogs,” the ninth studio album by singer-songwriter Tom Waits; the album features guitarist Marc Ribot, guest appearances from Keith Richards, and one of Waits’s most covered songs, “Downtown Train”
1988 IBM announces the shipment of its 3 millionth PS/2 personal computer
1988 Louise Ritter wins the high jump gold medal at the Seoul Olympics with a jump of 6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)
1989 NASA closes down tracking stations in Hawaii and Ascension
1990 The Dalai Lama unveils the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights monument in Ontario, Canada’s capital city of Ottawa
1994 Space Shuttle STS-68 (Endeavour 7) launches into orbit
1997 Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 4
1999 Japan’s worst nuclear accident at a uranium reprocessing facility occurs in Tōkai-mura, northeast of Tokyo
National Women’s Health and Fitness Day focuses on the importance of regular physical activity and health awareness for women, and is the largest annual event of its kind in the country—with 500 local groups and 50,000 to 75,000 women participating each year. Events are held “at senior centers, hospitals, health clubs, park and recreation districts, local health and service organizations, schools, retirement communities, houses of worship, and other community locations.” Activities such as walking events, health screenings and workshops, and exercise demonstrations take place. It is a “sister” event to National Senior Health and Fitness Day, which takes place each May, and it takes place during National Women’s Health and Fitness Week.
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World School Milk Day celebrates school milk programs and their role in children’s nutrition and education. Held on the last Wednesday of September, the observance highlights the benefits and success of providing milk at school, as well as the importance of helping students understand where milk comes from and how it fits into a balanced diet. The International Dairy Federation describes activities such as school visits, games, milk-product distribution, and nutrition seminars.
The first World School Milk Day took place in September 2000. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched the observance, choosing a school day near the end of September. School milk programs themselves have a longer history in some countries. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Provision of Meals Act 1906 recognized school food—including milk—as a way to help prevent poor nutrition among children. Foulgers Dairy provides additional background on that history.
Schools and milk providers are free to mark the day in their own way. Activities may include lessons about milk and dairy foods, visits or demonstrations connected to dairy farming, milk-themed artwork, competitions, and educational games. The day can be observed by a whole school, a classroom, or a smaller group, making it an opportunity to connect school meals with nutrition education.

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

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