May 19, 2014, Club Bulletin,# 509
Program for May 19, 2014: Mike Johannsen Update on Muscatine County Community Services
Invocation: Tom Ward
Rotary News: Charlie Lewis asked us to honor Kip Fisher's 90th Birthday by each putting a $1 on the table for Polio Plus, in addition we sang Happy Birthday to Kip!! New member orientation will be June 12th from 6-7:30 PM at the McAvoy Center at MCC. Pam Collins reminded us that this is Fine Free Week at the Library!! Rick Ray reminded us of the Annual Civic Dinner on May 24 at Geneva. Board members have tickets to the event. Rick also has big news in that he and his family will be moving to Pekin,Illinois on June 22, 2014.
Happy News: Keith is happy that his daughter graduated from UNI on Saturday. Harvey Allbee is proud of his 3rd granddaughter who graduated from Cornell. Todd Poci was pleased with the Pearl City Picnic Bar BQ fundraiser. The beginning of something bigger! Doug Schnoebelen was proud that the STEM Festival was very successful with over 500 participants and great community business support! Jay McKee's 3.0 Senior Luncheon Committee was thanked for an outstanding luncheon last week.
Mary Odell and Mary Wildermuth were recognized for each bringing in a new member this year...both have brought in 2 new members!! Both received the new Rotary recognition pin that is solid blue and goes underneath the membership pin!!
Rotary Program: Bill Lindsay was introduced by Harvey Allbee as a good friend and local railroad history buff!! There are now 7 major railroads in Muscatine County while in 1916 there were over 2000. One could only go 17 miles before running into a railroad. The Rock Island line was the largest and began in 1855. The Milwaukee line was suppose to cost $80 million to build and when completed actually cost over $240 million dollars. The railroad from Muscatine to Iowa City lasted about 6 months. Bill mentioned many other specific details about the various railroads and the cities they ran through and to. Bill's collection of railroad memorabilia will be on exhibit at the Muscatine Art Center from June 29th through January of 2015. The exhibit will open during the Art Center's big summer event and ice cream social. Bill will be providing a program on his exhibit in the coming months. Watch for future details.