Blackhawk Golden ‘K’ General Meeting
Minutes
June 24th, 2026
President Richard Johnson presided, and called the meeting to order with a ring of the bell at 9:30AM.
An Executive Board meeting occurred today.
Richard Johnson led with the singing of America, the National Anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance.
Invocation: Bob Knudson, mentioning the rain and the children.
Raffle: Linda Bontly oversaw the ticket sales and drawing this week.
The weekly pot was $14 and the big (Joker) pot was $178.
Richard Johnson drew a ticket from the bucket. Congratulations to the winner, Maury Frey.
The deck of cards has 41/53 cards remaining. Maury Frey drew the 9♦.
Richard Johnson thanks greeters Dave Calverley and Bob Knudson, invocator Bob Knudson, rafflemaster Linda Bontly, and server Bob Knudson.
Happy Box: Maury Frey announced he is happy because he won the raffle, and is donating the proceeds to the high school community closets!
Jokes: Joker Steve Skelly had a good joke about a ghost.
Joker Roger Willeford had a good joke about how great it is that it is now summer. When Spring was here, I was so excited I wet my plants.
Member Health: Linda Bontly had a status update on the Cramers, whose daughter Emily is having skull surgery.
Other Announcements: Maury Frey spoke upon ‘Thank you’ to Ryan Lewis for the new microphone.
Tom Neumann spoke upon announcement: The Camp Wawbeek club trip is tomorrow. There will be three drivers, each with three passengers. We will meet at Culver’s in Wisconsin Dells.
Tom Neumann and spoke upon announcement: Elections are delayed.
Steve Skelly spoke upon announcement: Buddy benches are on indefinite delay.
Ray Szczepaniak spoke upon announcement: The Mid-year Appeal will arrive next week.
Committee Reports: Tom Neumann announced the Book Mobile dedication is July 7th! Please attend(!) and wear yellow.
Ryan Lewis introduced the day’s speaker, JoAnn Long. JoAnn is a keelboat captain for the University of Wisconsin. She volunteer teaches sailing at the University of Lake Mendota two times a week. She has been an instructor at the Hoofer Sailing Club since 2007. She will speak upon the Hoofer Sailing Club in Madison.
In 2000, JoAnn and her husband were walking on State Street in Madison, looking at the sailboats. Larry took JoAnn to a booth that offered, “Special, $100 for sailing lessons” and a check exchanged hands.
By 2007, JoAnn was a board member, and was asked, “Would you be interested in teaching?”
JoAnn now takes a motorboat to a 33’ boat, with five students this year, for three hours on the water, two nights weekly. An average week involves another few hours with students, discussing the day over dinner, and arriving home by midnight.
The boats JoAnn captains can support ten people. She extends an invitation for ten people to join her on the water, up to two times this year!
Kiwanis member Jenny Turco asked, “Why ‘Hoofers?’” JoAnn replied, “We generally ‘dig our feet in.’”
Instructors have access to all of the boats! You don’t have to own a boat. JoAnn said, “Boat owners’ second best day is buying their boat! The first, is selling it” (audience laughs).
Hoofers Sailing Club currently has 1,064 members. Some are good, and some are improving.
Hoofers is from Norway.
Many boats exist. JoAnn showed photos of a sloop named “Badger” which is a five-man, many racing boats (for which Madison are in the top 20 collegiate teams nationwide), some “Bites” which were donated by a professor and require a weight of 150 pounds of less, some “Scows” which will plane, wind surfers and others.
JoAnn touched upon UW Rescue, who are always present. They will pick up a stranded or etcetera sailor (often including wind surfers).
Kiting is lake entertainment popular in the winter.
“Small” keel boats are light. The 33’ boats allow for 20-22 people and require special permission because they can be dangerous.
The UW takes sailboat donations, post evaluation.
It is $1,000 per season to park on a mooring ball (or, forego the boat, and join the club!).
A spray is a 36’ boat. She has slept on one 40+ nights over the years. Her standard vessel is known as the Queen of the Fleet.
As weather goes, 18mph wind is a ‘blue flag’, which precludes the first stage of testing, light skippers. Following earning light skipper, heavy skipper and then full skipper are the certifications for sailing.
Kiwanian Tom Neumann inquired, “Do the boats generally have diesel power?” JoAnn responded, “Yes, auxiliary engines are present.”
JoAnn narrates, “A ‘spinnaker’ practice every Thursday night. The third sail, the jib, gets dropped.”
Kiwanis member John Sarnow asked, “How are the sails suspended?” JoAnn answered, “Similar to an American flag, the boat has halyards (the lines used to hoist or lower the sails).”
JoAnn currently has a student circumnavigating the world.
Kiwanian John Janes asked, “How fast are the boats?” JoAnn, “They are around 7-8mph, which feels fast on the water.”
Boats sometimes require service. The club received a boat that needed a new floor, which was all rotten. Members repaired it.
The University has rules prohibiting alcohol on boats, and sailors must wear life jackets. The club requires waivers for everyone.
Guests are encouraged! Only one Hoofers Sailing Club member is necessary per vessel.
Previously a group formed the ‘Spray buffet,’ a gathering to watch the fireworks where members spanned boats with a tablecloth. Everyone brought a dish to pass.
Sprays have a “center board,” a lead fin that can extend and retract down four feet or more.
Starboard, right is green. Both are five letters, an easy way to remember nautical directions. Port is left, the bow is forward and aft, stern.
JoAnn’s presentation was well received and appreciated.
Ryan Lewis thanked JoAnn Long 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:
451 10th recorded perihelion passage of Halley’s Comet
1374 Sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and begin to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion
1497 John Cabot became the first European to set foot in North America since the Vikings
1527 Paracelsus publicly burns standard medical textbooks at the University of Basel, as a protest against the current teaching and practice of medicine
1717 First Freemasons’ Grand Lodge founded in London
1750 Jesuit priests hold the first Mass at the Little Chapel in Tadoussac, New France; built in 1747, now the oldest surviving church in North America
1778 David Rittenhouse observes a total solar eclipse in Philadelphia
1853 US President Franklin Pierce signs the Gadsden Purchase, buying 29,670 square miles (76,800 square km) from Mexico for $10 million, now southern Arizona and southern New Mexico
1889 Butch Cassidy commits his first bank robbery with Warner and two McCarty brothers at the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride; they steal about $21,000, equivalent to about $735,000 today
1901 First exhibition by Pablo Picasso, aged 19, opens in Paris
1902 Target Corporation is founded by American businessman George Dayton as Goodfellow Dry Goods in Minneapolis
1911 French couturier Paul Poiret holds his famous “The 1002nd Night” costume ball to launch “Parfums de Rosine,” the first signature scent linked to a fashion house
1916 Mary Pickford becomes the first female film star to receive a million-dollar contract
1922 American Professional Football Association renamed the National Football League
1922 Charter NFL club Chicago Staleys renamed Chicago Bears by team founder, owner and head coach George Halas
1930 Ground is broken for construction of Cleveland Stadium, home of MLB Indians, 1932 to 1993, and NFL Browns, 1946-95
1936 Rookie outfielder Joe DiMaggio ties 3 MLB records in New York’s 10-run 5th inning against the White Sox, hitting 2 home runs for 8 total bases; Yankees beat Chicago, 18-4
1938 500 ton meteorite lands near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1941 US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) grants 1st commercial TV licenses to New York City experimental stations W2XBS, as WNBT (NBC), and W2XAB, as WCBW (CBS)
1946 11.72″ (29.77 cm) of rainfall at Mellen, Wisconsin (state 24-hr record)
1947 Flying saucers sighted over Mount Rainier by pilot Ken Arnold
1947 Future Baseball Hall of Fame infielder Jackie Robinson steals home for first of 19 times in his career as the Brooklyn Dodgers beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 4-2
1949 “Hopalong Cassidy” becomes 1st network western (NBC)
1956 WISC TV channel 3 in Madison, WI (CBS) begins broadcasting
1961 Tony Sheridan, backed by the Beatles, records “If You Love Me Baby” (aka “Take Out Some Insurance On Me, Baby”) in Hamburg, Germany
1963 First demonstration of a home video recorder at BBC Studios in London
1968 Deadline for redeeming silver certificate dollars for silver bullion
1970 “Catch 22” opens in movie theaters
1975 Moon tremor perceived (hit by Taurid meteors)
1981 “For Your Eyes Only”, 12th James Bond, starring Roger Moore and 1st drected by John Glen premieres in London
1982 1st French: spationaute Jean-Loup Chrétien and 2 Soviet cosmonauts, lift off aboard Soyuz T-6 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, USSR
1983 7th NASA Space Shuttle Mission: Challenger 2 lands at Edwards AFB
1985 18th NASA Space Shuttle Mission (51-G): Discovery 5 returns to Earth
1985 Challenger moves to Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center (Florida) for mating of STS 51-F
Towering T-Rexes and frozen-in-time mummies are intimidating enough when on display at museums, but just think what it would be like if they left their perches today and roamed free. It is Museum Comes To Life Day, after all. It could happen. A less terrifying and (possibly) more educational interpretation of the day assumes that it is dedicated to bringing the past alive figuratively, with reenactors in period dress and the demonstration of trades and crafts from yesteryear. It is unknown how the holiday came to be, but there is a Museum Comes to Life event held at the Idaho State Historical Museum each September, which some sources point to as an inspiration for Museum Comes To Life Day. Whether taken literally or figuratively, Museum Comes To Life Day is sure to produce plenty of excitement and learning!
According to the creators of today’s celebration, Thomas and Ruth Roy of Wellcat Holidays, if one treats themselves to the stimulation of the five senses today—taste, touch, scent, sight, and sound—they will “experience the elevation known to many mystics as the elusive sixth sense.” What is this elusive sixth sense? It is a sense that goes beyond the others, where experiences and sensations take place through thoughts and the mind, not through the body. The ability to see future or distant events is one example of having a sixth sense. There is much skepticism surrounding its existence, but many believe it to be real. Some think everyone has it or at least has the potential for it if they would only get in tune with their paranormal abilities. Others say it is only experienced by the likes of psychics, mediums, and shamans, who need to go into a certain mental state to experience it.
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).
rev. 10-21-2025
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