Kiwanis Club of Woodland Hills
So here we are and it is already April! We have been busy...A BBQ at Pacific Lodge, Two Pancake Breakfasts for Relay's for Life (Woodland Hills and Agoura) and one to come in May. Judging exhibits at Woodlake Elementary, and so much more. Cake Nights every month with the boys at Pacific Lodge. We keep busy! Meetings have been well attended and Jack has given us some great speakers. Don keeps bringing prospective members which we REALLY appreciate. We need to build our membership so we can do more and continue what we do! May has us celebrating our 57th Anniversary!! OH MY!! (See the calendar)
Oh my! where have the months gone!?! We are in our 4th month of the Kiwanis year already! We have enjoyed what we have done so far...Great attendance at meeting..Great speakers...Wonderful Holiday Party, a nice visit to the Woodland Park Retirement facility, Holidays with the boys at Pacific Lodge...Our January Cake Night was a blast! Dennis had his dinner all over him!! Ask him or Mark about it. We are planning another Cook out (or in) with them in March! We are making plans to go twice this year to Ronald McDonald House to serve a meal to the families staying there...A visit there includes more than just cooking and serving! Visits with the families, activities for the kids!...Watch for more news... Our Boys and Girls Club Committee is starting up to get involved with them...Look at the Calendar!!!!
October - A new Kiwanis year! Let's start BIG! Invite someone you meet for the first time to a service project or a meeting!
This month is almost over and we were busy! Two Great meetings this month. Lt. Governor Nick shared his vision for his two year term ahead. It will be NEW and EXCITING! It takes us all to commit to making Kiwanis a household name in the Valley!! Become a part of it! On Saturday the 17th we had a crew at Pacific Lodge cooking lunch for the boys in our Neimeyer Cottage. John, Jen, Gary, Carolyn, Mike, Jack, Ron and Dennis were all present. WE all had fun and enjoyed our visit ... and they boys especially were glad we were there. It is so great to be able to leave a positive mark on the minds of these young men. On Sunday the 18th John, Gary, Carl and Dennis with Willie from the Warner Center Club took down the flags along Ventura Blvd. Then on Wednesday, CAKE NIGHT at Neimeyer, John and Dennis were in attendance...Some of the boys were down on the field playing a league flag football game against young men from another facility. While there Dennis visited our own Ashley in her new post as supervisor (hope I got the title right) of the new Transition Cottage which is operating in Sauble Cottage, behind Neimeyer. The cottage is intended for boys who are nearing 18 and becoming ready for emancipation. They will spend time learning the skills needed to be successful in the "outside" world...a hard task for us all. Presently there are 4 young men residing there. The plan is to move 12 boys there for the program. NOTE: Sauble is in need of furniture in the living room area and elsewhere. So if you have an item or items, get hold of Ashley and see if they need it.
Speaking of Carolyn!!! She is our newest member! WELCOME TO THE GROUP!!
We also had a visit from a prospective member, Pierre. We are hoping he joins us also. And Mimi who visited with Don at our previous meeting meeting, we hope, is considering joining too....
September 24 - 24 Kiwanians and guests joined in the annual celebration at the McManus home recognizing the end of our great year with Patty at the helm of the club! After visiting and a wonderful dinner soon-to-be past Lt. Governor Craig promoted Patty and her cabinet to past officers. (Thanks Craig) Patty thanked the club and her officers and made a special presentation of "Kiwanian of the Year" to Gary! A very special person! Patty wrote a cute poem to express our appreciation for what Gary does for this Club...Congrats to Gary!!! Then, Patty, along with incoming President Dennis surprised Kurt by presenting him with his Legion of Honor Recognition. LOH recognizes Kiwanians with 25 years or more in Kiwanis and service to the community! Congrats Kurt!! After being presented with a thank you gift from the club, Patty used the next few minutes to express her thanks to the club for a great year....Following that, Lt. Governor-designate Nick recognized Incoming President Dennis and the Officers and Directors for the upcoming year. (Thanks Nick) To close the meeting, Dennis spent a few minutes expressing his goals for the next year of heavy recruiting to increase the size of the club so we can provide more and better service! We are all encouraged to talk to someone we DON'T know about the wonders of Kiwanis and giving back to the community and especially why our club is the best choice!
September 13 - Roy and Martha, Dennis, and Michael were all in attendance for this years Division 25 Pass the Torch. The meal was quite good, the fellowship was great. There was about 50 people in attendance including soon-to-be-Past Governor Dan Connally, who flew in this morning from his home in the Bay area, and Governor-Designate Roy Talley (a member of the Thousand Oaks Club). Also present was our Key Club-West Lt. Governor Chris Ratana. Emceed by the ever-so-talented Scot Spooner (a past Lt. Governor) the event took on a casual and positive air. Lt. Governor Craig Holman and First Lady Liz were thanked and honored by Dan and all present for his accomplishments this year in leading the Division to overall increased membership in the division. Craig thanked his cabinet and outgoing club presidents for all their support. Then Roy installed Nick Montano and his wife Lucia as our next Lt. Governor and First Lady. Governor Roy's theme this year is that it is now time to get our hands dirty! Get out there and do the community service we are in business for. Nick's emphasis follows suit. Additionally, Nick is really working to improve our involvement in our Key Clubs, our members of the future. And he encourages clubs to continue recruiting to increase our membership (My main theme for this year). Presidnet-Designate Dennis (fancy title) had the pleasure of passing on the Division "race car" to incoming Lt. Gov Nick as it completes it's trip around the Division. The Race Car was the mascot of 2009-10 Governor Dan's year. The division kicked off last year with a Soapbox Derby at the pass-the-torch and the car began it's trip to all the clubs in the division. John fisher did a great Job decorating the pig for this event (The pic is in the pic with Craig and Liz and Dan)...Thanks John.. Dennis got a lot of stares as he carried said pig-with-race-car through the lobby of the Hilton Hotel where this Pass-the-Torch took place. THANKS TO CRAIG FOR A GREAT YEAR!! And the Kiwanis Club of Woodland Hills strongly supports Nick for his them as Lt. Governor (A two year term!)
August 30 - The American Flags along Ventura Blvd. went back up today to recognize Labor Day, and to remember those who lost their lives in the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center on 9/11/01. This time the effort was greater. The volunteers replaced the brackets with new ones that were designed and created by Gary in his shop. Plus, they doubled the amount of flags raised to 100!! Thanks to Gary and John and Jack from our club and Willie, Ron and Richard from the Warner Center club who did all the work. Thanks to John and Willie for all they do to maintain the inventory, and to Richard for allowing us to store the flags and prep them in his Pre-School facility.
August 19 - Our monthly Cake Night was a great time...I am telling you, you need to come! Wednesday is their in-cottage dinner where the boys and staff cook their own dinner. I will tell you that the food is great and of an amazing variety!! We bring desert. I end up there until 7 or 8 o'clock almost every month! This month some of the boys were doing a car wash to earn money to go to Universal City! Jack and I both got a very expensive car wash that night! How can you say no?!?!? We were presented a really neat poster and card (huge card) as thanks for the baseball game and all we do for them. I get so emotional when they do that. Very touching! They will be at our next meeting on Sept 2nd....
After Dinner Jack and Jen and Gary and I attended the monthly meeting of the San Fernando Valley Kiwanis Club. They were meeting in a room at the Lodge Gym building. So we had an Interclub that night as well as our visit to the Cottage.
Then after the meeting, Jack and I went back and spent a little more time at the Cottage! The third Wednesday of each month is my favorite night of the month!! Join me next month!
August 18 - Woodland Hills Kiwanis and Pacific Lodge night at the Dodgers...We had a great time...John and his family and Dennis with family and friends took 15 seats and 15 tickets were provided to the boys and staff of Niemeyer Cottage...I know fun was had by all!! Well, we found out later the Lodge folks had a great time. Funny how things go sometimes! The 15 Lodge seats remained empty the entire game. John and I were worried about what might have happened! We found out the next night at Cake Night that the Lodge group were there!! After some confusion on the road (the two vehicles ended up entering at different parking gates) they got to the section we were in, but some how were seated in seats near the top of the section, above the tunnels. We were below the tunnels!! They could not see us and we could not see them. You'd think that in the electronic world the adults involved would have traded cell numbers!! LOL!! Well we blew it! But everyone had a great time!!! Next will be a Clipper or Kings game in the winter....
August 13-15 was our California-Nevada-Hawaii District convention in San Diego. Dennis was the only member to attend. He reports to have had a great time and learned a lot more to help our club continue to strengthen our Club. He will share more as the year progresses. He encourages all our members to attend Conferences and Conventions as often as they can! They are a great time...education...fellowship...FUN!!!
July 25, 2009 - Another great PIG ROAST! We all had a great time and made some money for our charities!! We had about 200 people...A great DJ, Sandy of Cherry Sound Entertainment! (Her sister is a member of our Club!-Can you guess who?) Some wonderful prizes were donated to assist in the fund raising....Thansk to all who helped and especially Gary and Jen who allow us to party at their home!! Pics will be posted soon!!!
July 15, 2009 - The Key Club of Taft High School ran our meeting today! It was great to have them with us and we had a good turn out. Our Keynote speaker was Margo Dutton of the Northridge Kiwais. Margo is also the District Treasurer and plays an active part in The Districts Service Leadership Program (once known as Sponsored Youth). As a child, her life was touched by the Kiwanis in her community and she vowed to pay back as she could. Well she has and more with her continued dedication to the youth of our communities! We schedule and Interclub for the following Tuesday
July 7, 2009 - Visited this evening with the folks at Park Ventura Senior Home. Under Ron's leadership, and with Gary, Kurt, John and Dennis, we sat with the residents at various tables and carried on great conversations! These nice people have so much to share and love having people visit as we did. This is another of our great and rewarding projects that would be even better with more of our members participating. Please consider participating next time Ron sets up a visit!!
July 1, 2009 - Our regular meeting today featured our own President-Elect Dennis. He spoke about two main ideas....On is the future Legacy Project in the planning stages by our Division..The idea is to create a facility in the west valley managed by all the clubs in the Division that provides to-be-determined services. Ideas include a small shop of clothes for people hard on their luck that are suitable for interviewing for jobs, day care, other child and adult services...Any one who has sincere interest in the plannign and creation of this are seriously request to volunteer. Please let Patty or Dennis know so they can submit your name to the Lt. Governor...
Dennis began the next part of his program by sharing how important this club is to him. As a child he participated with his father in the clubs projects...Many members over the years had a profound influence on his life (thanks Milt)...Dennis' program was to share the presentation that got him all fired up to promote modernization of this club...Created by Steve Siemens, Past International President. Steve's showed how the newer generations think and what motivates them....essentially, we are not your grandpa's Kiwanis any more....The newer generations want to be involved in community service, but are not so interested, or able to participate in, weekly meetings. The cost of meals and the time spent at meetings can be prohibitive to them. They are plugged in, use email, the internet, texting, to communicate...Essentially Dennis' point is that it is incumbant upon all the members of this club to actively sell Kiwanis to the younger people we are in contact with...The club is preparing a new brochure that we can all have handy to give out...Dennis makes business cards with club info (meeting days, location, website address, contact email and phone number, and your name on them...Great for handing out and breaking the ice!
June 20, 2009...Members of our club visited Niemeyer Cottage and presented the new Bar-B-Que we bought for them! And we broke it in cooking up chicken and dogs and burgers! we had a great visit...again, our presence means so much to the boys, and we all have a great time! Plan on participating at the next one!
June 17, 2009 - Cake Night at Niemeyer Cottage! Our Monthly visit with Birthday cake!! Wednesday nights is in-cottage Dinner night at the cottage..The staff and the residents cook dinner in the cottage..and they love to have visitors come for dinner...Tonight Dennis stayed and helpe B-B-Q and set up and then ate a great dinner...chicken and ribs and lots of sides!! WOW!!