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Jefferson, Iowa

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Club Officers and Directors 2009-2010

President:   Gretchen Rowedder Club Service & President-Elect:  Dean Dozier
Secretary:   Steve Schwaller Vocational Service:   Karen Younie
Treasurer:   David Morain Community Service:   David Pedersen
  Past-President:   Norm Fandel  International Service:   Tim Christensen
At Large Board Member:   Jacque Andrew Information Management Coordinator:  Don Labate
Foundation Treasurer:  Sam Harding Assistant District Governor:  Sam Harding


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Membership Committees 2009-2010

ROTARY CLUB OF JEFFERSON
2009 - 2010
Membership Committees

PRESIDENT - Gretchen Rowedder
Steve Schwaller - Secretary
David Morain - Treasurer
 Jacque Andrew - At Large Board Member

CLUB SERVICE & PRESIDENT-ELECT - Dean Dozier, President-Elect
Programs Finance Committee Membership/Attendance Task Force
Rick Morain, Chair (Aug.)
David Hoyt, Chair Ruth Freeman, Chair
Bruce Bahnson Roger Custer Karen Bossard
Tim Christensen Craig Hertel Kyle Orris
Jim Daubendiek Doug Rieder
Norm Fandel Steve Schwaller
Tim Heisterkamp Club Bulletin
Sid Jones Sam Harding, Chair New Member Mentors
Amy Milligan John Gerken Larry Fie, Chair
David Pedersen Bruce Bahnson Craig Hertel
Doug Rieder Russ Terhar Rick Morain
Gary Von Ahsen    
To Be Determined Technology & Communications Club Historian
Don Labate, Chair & IMC Don Orris, Chair
Jim Daubendiek Jim Copeland
Fellowship Activities Dean Dozier Sam Harding
Dave Morain, Chair Kyle Orris Don Labate
Karen Bossard Aaron Schroeder  
Ruth Freeman   Sergeant at Arms
Mike Mumma Public Relations Mike Mumma, Chair
Dr. Chad Schwander Jacque Andrew, Chair Bruce Bahnson
VOCATIONAL SERVICE - Karen Younie, President Nominee
Vocation at Work/   Vocational Awareness/
Business Recognition Career Development
Sid Jones, Chair   Tammy Ford, Chair
Dianne Blackmer Jim Ober
Roger Fray Harlan Helgren
Craig Hertel Robert Schmidt
Amy Milligan Sid Jones
Jim Poe
COMMUNITY SERVICE - David Pedersen, Director
Fund Raising/Rotary Auction Community Development Community Hands-On Project
Jim Copeland, Chair Including Habitat for Humanity Chris Durlam, Chair
Jacque Andrew Dave Simonson, Chair Jim Daubendiek
Sam Harding Gary Von Ahsen Roger Fray
Harlan Helgren Mike Holden John Gerken
Tim Heisterkamp Father Don Ries Mike Holden
Don Orris Jim Poe
JMike Palmer Rita Pedersen Partners In Service, Interact
Karen Polking Mark Rossow Jim Copeland, Chair
Nancy Stroburg Elmer Eggimann David Hoyt
Gary Von Ahsen Aaron Schroeder
Karen Younie
Bell Tower Festival Parade Kindergarten Clinic
Kyle Orris, Chair Karen Younie, Chair Human Development - Literacy
Roger Custer Tim Christensen Nancy Stroburg, Chair
Norm Fandel David Pedersen Dianne Blackmer
Don Labate Fr. Don Reis Rick Morain
Jim Ober Dr. Chad Schwander Fr. Don Reis
Mark Rossow   Dr. Kyle Stalder
Dave Simonson
Russ Terhar
Karen Younie  
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE - Tim Christensen, Director
Rotary Foundation World Community Service Rotary Volunteers
Mike Mumma, Chair Green Ivy School Mike Palmer, Chair
Dean Dozier Gary Von Ahsen, Chair Tim Heisterkamp
Ruth Freeman Dr. Constantine Panakos Dr. Constantine Panakos
John Gerken Kathy Savits Robert Schmidt
Dave Simonson Russ Terhar
Simplified Grant Committee
Karen Younie, Chair Service To Youth
Jacque Andrew Aaron Schroder, Chair
Chris Durlam Karen Polking
Larry Fie David Hoyt
Mike Holden

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Club Announcements
 

2008 Auction Catalog Hot Off The Presses

Click here to view or download a copy:  Catalog 2008.pdf
The Auction is November 14th at 5:30 p.m.

 

Jefferson Rotary announces the 2008 Professional of the Year

 As part of the festivities included in its annual Celebration Dinner, the Jefferson Rotary Club has honored each year’s recipient of its Professional of the Year award since 2004.  However, the timeline for presenting this year’s award to its regular club meeting on June 23, and the reason for the change related directly to the appropriateness of the award.  The award was established to recognize “a person in our community who through devotion and dedication to their profession has helped make Jefferson a nicer place to live.”  With these criteria and in line with this year’s international Rotary theme of “Rotary Shares,” the club believes that this year’s recipient exemplifies this virtue in all facets of his life.

To announce the winner, President Ruth Freeman turned over the floor to Rotarian Rick Morain who commented, “This year’s recipient has been the Voice of Greene County sports for 30 years, and the chronicler of that subject in the local paper for the last 14.  His encyclopedic knowledge of Jefferson, Jefferson-Scranton, and Jefferson-Scranton/Paton Churdan athletes and teams is amazing, as well as his detailed recollection of college and professional athletics.”  Rick also noted, “We’d need a high-speed calculator to compute the number of youth sports games he has attended, reported, announced, or handled play-by-play, on radio, cable, or in the paper.  When he discovers the occasional off-night—and there aren’t many of those—he climbs into Old Blue, his faithful recliner, and watches a game on TV.”

Rick continued to list all of the organizations and events in the community that the recipient has been part of as well as all the things he does to help keep the Jefferson Rotary Club the fun organization that it is.  The recipient has been a past president of the Jefferson Chamber of Commerce, past chair of the entire Bell Tower Festival and the Greene County Cancer Society chapter along with serving on the Jefferson Community Chest Board.  The recipient has also been awarded the Iowa Broadcaster’s Association’s highest award at the 1996 Iowa Boy’s State Basketball Tournament.

It was perhaps the following comments that Rick attributed to longtime JSPC Football Coach Bill Kibby that best sum up why this year’s recipient is so deserving, “He’s outstanding to work with.  He’s very positive and easy to get along with, even in the bad years.  In addition to his sports reporting, he also does the public address announcing for our freshman and sophomore games, and announces the track meets.  We can always depend on him.  He’s very deserving of this award.  I don’t know how he does all the stuff he does.  He must have a very understanding wife, since he’s on the road so much.  Talk about coaches putting in long hours!  He’s very highly thought of by the other schools we play, and the other schools in the county.  He could have gone big time if he wanted.  We’re glad he didn’t!

The award ceremony had to be changed because a Jefferson-Scranton softball game on the evening of the Celebration Dinner was scheduled, and the recipient was committed to providing the play-by-play announcing for the videotaping of the game for replay on the local cable access station.  That’s just so typical of the recipient’s dedication to his profession that has benefited so many folks in Jefferson and the surrounding communities for many years.

The Jefferson Rotary Club is extremely proud to name Doug Rieder as the 2008 Professional of the Year, and it congratulates Doug, his family, and his many friends for helping make Jefferson a better place to live for all of us.

Doug is pictured above receiving his award from President Ruth Freeman.

 

Jefferson Rotary Club Practices “Rotary Shares” At The Bell Tower Festival

The City of Jefferson was once again host to thousands of people as it played host to the 29th Annual Bell Tower Festival from June 13 through June 15, 2008.  The Jefferson Rotary Club took the opportunity to practice the 2007-2008 Rotary year theme as it “Shared” in helping to make this wonderful community event another overwhelming success.

The highlight of each year’s festival is, of course, the parade which draws hundreds of entries and thousands of spectators along the route.  The Jefferson Rotary Club has been in charge of organizing and staging the parade for many years, and this year’s chairman, Don Orris, and his hard working fellow Rotarians made the parade another great spectacle.

The parade featured a little something for everyone from dozens of antique tractors and horses to fire trucks and classic cars.  The Jefferson-Scranton High School and Middle School bands combined into a “super-sized” band to entertain onlookers as they marched along.  A large number of floats made the parade very interesting for everyone, and, of course, the Isiserettes Drill & Drum Corps made its annual appearance to pump up the crowd with its exciting routines.

As always, the club sponsored a contest for the best decorated floats with winners chosen in two divisions, Commercial and Non-Commercial.  With the large number of outstanding floats this year, the judges definitely had a difficult job to pick the winners.  With a very entertaining idea, the Commercial Division winner was the Genesis Development entry.    In the Non-Commercial Division, this year’s winner was once again the entry from the Jefferson Public Library, thus returning to its winning ways after a one year absence from the winner’s circle with another beautifully decorated and innovative float.  In addition to these two awards, the Bell Tower Festival Organizing Committee presented an award for the Best Use of the Festival Theme with that award also going to Genesis Development.

The Jefferson Rotary Club thanks everyone who helped make the parade and the entire Bell Tower Festival another outstanding event this year.

 

Senator Charles Grassley Addresses The Club

At its regular weekly meeting on February 18, 2008, the Jefferson Rotary Club was honored to welcome Iowa’s Senior United States Senator Charles Grassley as its guest speaker.  President Ruth Freeman conducted the regular business meeting, and then turned the floor over to Rotarian Rick Morain, who had the honor of introducing Senator Grassley.  Following some initial remarks, the Senator spent nearly 45 minutes answering questions from the Rotarians and guests in attendance.

Topics included the Farm bill, Biofuels, the Economic Stimulus Package, the Savings Percentage Fall, the Mortgage Crisis, and the Economy’s Dependence on China, particularly for manufactured goods.  The Senator, long known for his straightforward answers, provided his insight on these issues as well as sharing his thoughts on the current working relationships in the Senate.  He was particularly proud of the fact that the Bipartisan approach he led as Chair of the Finance Committee has been maintained by his Democratic counterpart since the transition in leadership in 2006.  Overall, though, he noted that both the Senate and the House have become much more partisan than when he first began his service in Congress serving three terms in the House and now in his fifth term in the Senate.  While he is unsure how to reverse this trend, he believes that in the long term best interests of the country, bipartisan work needs to be at the core of the Congressional agenda.

Senator Grassley joined a long list of distinguished speakers who have addressed the Jefferson Rotary Club.  The list includes Governors, Lt. Governors, Legislators, Iowa Department Heads, Iowa Supreme Court Justices, leading businessman, professional athletes, teachers, and students to name just a few.  The club sincerely thanks Senator Grassley for taking the time from his busy schedule to address them, and also thanks him for his long and faithful service to the State of Iowa and its people.

 

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Club Highlights

Jefferson Rotary Awards Professional of the Year

 As part of its goals for the 2003-2004 Rotary year, the Jefferson Rotary Club established an award to be presented annually to “a person in our community who through devotion and dedication to their profession has helped make Jefferson a nicer place to live.”  With this standard in mind, the club seeks nominations for the award annually with all nominations being forwarded to the Board of Directors.  The Board reviews the various nominees and makes the final decision of the winner.  Presentation of the award is made at the Annual Jefferson Rotary Club Celebration Dinner near the end of the each Rotary year.

Since its inception, the award has truly come to recognize some outstanding Professionals who have certainly contributed greatly to our high standard of living in Jefferson.  The award is not limited to Rotarians (in fact, the first winner was a Kiwanian), and therefore the award has quickly become a well recognized and highly valued honor in the community.  The Jefferson Rotary Club is extremely proud to recognize the work of these outstanding folks whose contributions to our community are beyond measure, but most certainly are not beyond our notice.

Winners of the Jefferson Rotary Club Professional of the Year Award

2004          Mr. Dan Benitz, Vocational Education teacher, Jefferson-Scranton High School

2005          Mr. Rick Morain, Editor and Publisher, Jefferson Bee & Herald

2006          Mr. Don Orris, Owner, Don’s Ace Hardware

2007          Mr. Sam Harding, President, Shriver Construction Company

2008          Mr. Doug Rieder, Sports Editor, Jefferson Bee & Herald, and Editor, Glidden Graphic (see related story above)


 

Interact Club Prepares for a New School Year

 Yes, it is getting close to that magical time of year when America’s children return to school to continue their pursuit of knowledge.  That first day of school in the Jefferson-Scranton Community Schools will be August 21, 2008.  Along with returning to classes and studies, many of the community’s finest young people will be once again returning to their service to others as members of the Jefferson-Scranton Interact Club.

 Interact is service club for High School youth that is sponsored worldwide by Rotary International and its local clubs.  The Jefferson-Scranton Interact club is sponsored by the Jefferson Rotary Club and is open to all J-S students in grades 9-12 who wish to be in service to others.  It meets monthly and carries out many service projects throughout the year including maintaining a portion of US Highway 30 near Jefferson through the DOT’s Adopt a Highway program.  This year’s organizational meeting is scheduled for 8:00 am on September 3, 2008.

 The Jefferson Rotary Club is proud to once again sponsor this group of outstanding young people.  It wishes the J-S Interact Club all the best as it plans what is sure to be another outstanding year of service to mankind.

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Club Members

We'll add the names of members who want to be listed publicly here. Some members may want to have their name, but not their email address listed. To be added, click here: Please add me!

Name E-mail address Web Site address
Jacque Andrew jacque.andrew@gcmchealth.com www.gcmchealth.com
Bruce Bahnson bahnbruc@netins.net  
Karen Bossard karen.bossard@gcmchealth.com www.gcmchealth.com
Jim Copeland jim.copeland@copelandinsurance.org www.copelandinsurance.org
Chris Durlam jjmc@netins.net  
Elmer Eggimann eeggimann@hotmail.com  
Ruth Freeman rofreema@iastate.edu  
Sam Harding sam@shriverconstruction.com www.shriverconstruction.com
Tim Heisterkamp timothy.heisterkamp@investmentcenters.com  
Craig Hertel chertel@iastate.edu  
David A. Hoyt dhoyt14@aol.com  
Don Labate donlabate@netins.net  
Debra Larson s_rossow@netins.net
John Milligan chainsaw@netins.net  
Mike Mumma mummalaw@netins.net  
Mark Rossow s_rossow@netins.net www.sliningerrossowfuneralhome.com
Gretchen Rowedder angrow@netins.net  
Kathy Savits manager@gardenslifestyle.com www.gardenslifestyle.com
Nancy Stroburg stroburg@netins.net  
Gary Von Ahsen gary@tricojeff.com  

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Four Way Test

1.   Is it the TRUTH?

2.   Is it FAIR to all concerned?

3.   Will it build GOOD WILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

4.   Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

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Jefferson Rotary connects to the World

 

 

Site last modified January 2, 2010

developed by Don Labate