March 28, 2024

Club news

Kiwanis

The weekly Kiwanis meeting was held 12:05 p.m. Tuesday, July 11, at the Windrow meeting room with 23 members and two guests. President Chris Eaton presided, Terry Freeman gave the prayer and Ed Ritter was the finemaster.

The program was given by Stormy Wilson and Andrea Skellenger with Greater Regional Medical Center. They discussed the physical and occupational therapy departments at the hospital and all the rehab and programs available for people with physical recovery to help them get back to doing regular activities after illness or surgery.

Club members were thanked for helping June 27 with Open Table. The Kiwanis Club also helped with organizing the Fourth of July parade and putting up and taking down flags on the Fourth. The club was also in the parade passing out candy.

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Crest Area for Life

Crest Area for Life met 7 p.m. June 27 at the Holy Spirit Parish hall. President Terry Madison opened the meeting with the Right to Life prayer.

Meg Crawford gave the secretary’s report. Motion was made by Pat Pokorny, second by Steve Hunt to approve the minutes and they were passed. The treasurer’s report was given and the Mother’s Day ads were paid. Motion was made by Rich Madison, second by Betty Baker to approve the report and the motion passed.

Velma Riegel gave the new baby report. She has sent one letter. We discussed the difficulty of sending letters since people rarely submit baby announcements to the newspapers anymore.

The political report included discussion of several recent cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Old business included ads for Father’s Day that were run in the Creston and Afton papers. Plans for the Fourth of July and Union County Fair were discussed. Members will have a decorated vehicle in both parades with pencils and stickers to be handed out. Times and specifics about the fair booth were noted. The booth will have preborn baby models showing stages of development and will also have other educational materials and supplies. Pokorny and Riegel will be setting up the display and Terry will take it down. Crawford noted Lora Pellman offered to make the table banner for the booth. Plans are progressing for the sign on North Cherry Street Road. Several people have volunteered to help install it.

New business included Rich gave the LC Clinic report. Training for volunteers is planned for July 29 and 30 at the Stuart and Creston offices. The Baby Bottle Boomerang fundraiser has been successful.

There will be no meeting in July. Next meeting will be 7 p.m. Aug. 22. The meeting adjourned at 7:40 p.m.

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Ladies Lakeshore Auxiliary

Ladies Lakeshore Auxiliary met July 12.

Canasta winners were Janet Kessler, first; Sharon Gile, second; and Cheri Lilly, third.

Mary Kline won the door prize.

Kline will host cards and chatter Wednesday, July 19.

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Afton Federated Garden Club

Members of Afton Federated Garden Club met 1:30 p.m. July 7 at the home of Jane Nicolas of Prescott. President Shirley Wallace called the meeting to order with members repeating the Pledge of Allegiance and Club Collect. Roll call was answered by 14 members.

Minutes of the May meeting and June tour were read by Monica Huddleson. Motion to accept them as read was made by Bev Rowe and seconded by Ginny Quick. Rowe gave the treasurer’s report. Motion to accept it was made by Donna Thomas and seconded by Marilyn Larimore.  Wallace presented bills for club T-shirts and reimbursement for District Garden Club attendance. Judy Weese made a motion, seconded by Audrey McDowell that First National Bank resume sending the monthly bank statements to the treasurer for the rest of 2017.

Ten AFGC members attended the District Awards program in Indianola. The club awards were Blue Ribbon Club, Advanced Rating and a thank-you for educating the public. Next year, AFGC will be in charge of the table decorations at the district meeting.

Wallace attended the State Federated Garden Club meeting in Fort Dodge. AFGC received the Membership Award and Yellow Award for the wreath project at the state meeting. Wallace announced there is a new state president, Juliene Bramer, and a new national president, Nancy Hargroves. Hargroves has a campaign to Plant America with a program where groups can apply for a grant. Next year the state meeting will be in Mason City.

Rowe gave the results of the plant sale. Members discussed whether to have another one next year, and all agreed to have it. Tentative date is May 11, 2018. One suggestion for 2018 is to have signs to display. Wallace discussed a “thank-you” to Charles Huddleson for cutting and sanding the garden stakes that were sold. Iris Smith made a motion to give Charles a Casey’s gift certificate. Weese seconded the motion and all agreed.

Members talked about the annual club tour and all agreed it was great with thanks to Bev, Audrey and those who helped her plan.

Wallace handed out new AFGC T-shirts.

McDowell, Thomas and Rowe met in Lorimor and replanted the AFGC planters. After, they met with Mayor Kent Forbes, and he signed the proclamation honoring National Garden Club Week. The Walbergs in Lorimor volunteered to water the planters.

Union County Fair floriculture display is 1 p.m. Friday July 21. Five members volunteered to meet at 7 a.m. to set up for the event. Check in time for entries is from 8-11 a.m. The judge will be Sandy Gossman, and Carolyn Hubatka is in charge of advertising for the show. Two new sections were added that aren’t in the fair book. There will be youth and adult group classes with the same options as the floriculture classes in the fair book.

Ideas for a theme and guest speaker for the Oct. 13 annual fall luncheon were discussed. Members decided on a theme and will look into finding a speaker.

AFGC discussed increasing their annual donation to the scholarship programs, but was tabled until the next meeting. Rowe shared Winterset Sunshine Garden Club will no longer be federated after 2017, but will still be a club.

Jane Lawhead made and Jane Nicholas seconded a motion to adjourn. All recited the Conservation Pledge.

Hubatka gave an informative presentation on water quality and conservation. She said planting a rain garden catches run-off water, collecting rain water in a barrel to water a garden and planting native plants are ways to conserve water. She also told members to keep chemical use to a minimum as the run-off ends up in the lakes and rivers. Never fertilize trees before March or after October.

Lawhead served lunch. The next meeting will be 1:30 p.m. Aug. 11 at the home of Marilyn Larimore. Iris Smith will give the awards report from the Union County Floriculture show. Larimore will be the hostess and give the program on garden design.

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CARSPA

Creston Area Retired School Personnel Association (CARSPA) held its meeting July 11 in the Del Richardson Conference Room at Greater Regional Medical Center in Creston.

Following breakfast, 11 members enjoyed an informative presentation by Jane Briley on “Iowa Mormon Trails - A Self-Guiding Tour of the Iowa Mormon Trail Across Iowa.”

Twelve southern Iowa counties are home to the Mormon Trails. This well-marked trail, formed by the wheels of thousands of pioneer covered wagons, is part of the first recognized national historic trail in the U.S. Beginning in February 1846, Brigham Young lead his followers from Nauvoo, Illinois, across Iowa on the way to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. The trek from Nauvoo to Kanesville (Council Bluffs) tested the endurance of humans, animals and equipment. Briley talked about communities along the trail and how they contributed to the Iowa Mormon Pioneer Trail experience. She added the Prairie Trails Museum in Corydon has great Mormon artifacts to see.

A business meeting followed.

New and former Creston area retired school personnel are invited to join the group. The primary focus is to monitor how the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System is being managed. Members are also entitled to obtain various benefits, such as dental and vision plans, long term care/home health care insurance, Medicare supplement insurance and others. If anyone is interested in joining CARSPA, call Diane Burgmaier at 641-337-5771 or Angie Ford at 641-337-5594 for additional information.

There will be no meeting in August. The next meeting will be Sept. 12. Chris Fosselman will speak on behalf of The Learning Center of Southwest Iowa.