November 21, 2014

All the news that's fit to print...and a lot that isn't

Jeff Dorsey, Editor

Paul Clarkson - Editor Emeritus John Tripp - Editor Emeritus

Club Meets at Noon each Friday at Stoney Creek Inn, 3809 Broadway in Quincy
2012-2013 Lincolnland District Exchange Clubs Best Bulletin Award Winner

This Friday

It is our annual preseason basketball program with QND Coach Bob Sheffield and QHS Coach Andy Douglas joining us to discuss their upcoming season. It should also be interesting to hear their thoughts on QHS playing QND in all sports in the years ahead. Bring a prospective member and join us for Quincy's finest hour!

Friday Last

Historian Reg Ankron talked about John Wood and Mike Elbe, president of John Wood Community College, talked about the learning institution named after Mr. Wood.

Mr. Ankrom, retired Superintendent of Ameren CIPS, has served as the Executive Director of the Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County. History is his love and he revealed a few stories about John Wood. Wood's name was actually submitted for Governor of Illinois by Abraham Lincoln. Wood ran for Governor and served in that capacity from 1860 to 1861. He was basically raised by his father after his mother left the family when he was just 5 years old. She remarried and had five children out of wedlock while residing in New York State. The Wood family donated the land at what is now Woodland Cemetery in Quincy, where he is buried. His only request when he died was to have an imprint of the cabin he grew up in at 3rd and Delaware on his tombstone.

Mike Elbe, who introduced our speaker, took the time to update us on John Wood Community College which is celebrating its 40th year of existence. The first graduating class featured 26 graduates and last year 570 students received a diploma. The facility at 48th and Harrison is the envy of many Community Colleges. JWCC actually has 5 outreach centers as well. They include the Kincherf Center in Quincy, facilities in Mt. Sterling and Pittsfield, the Workforce Development Center on Koch's Lane and the Orr Ag Center in Perry, Illinois.

Student of the Month

Madison Cowman

Prior to the presentations of Mr. Ankrom and Mr. Elbe, the Club conducted the November

Student of the Month Ceremony. This month's winner was Madison Cowman, a Senior at Quincy Senior High School. Madison is currently ranked #1 in her class of 463 students and possesses a GPA of 4.5333 on a 4.0 scale. She is a member of the QHS Marching Band, Beta Club and National Honor Society and is also a member of the QHS girls' soccer team. She is also active in her church events at Columbus Road Baptist Church. After high school she plans on attending Grace College in Indiana majoring in communications and public relations. Madison is the daughter of Lisa and Bob Cowman of Quincy. Special thanks to Mike Llewellyn who introduced QHS Councilor Jessica Beaston who actually announced Madison as the winner. Also in attendance was QHS Principal Danielle Edgar and Madison's father, Bob.

VIP Dates

Another slow week with no birthdays or anniversaries

11/18 - Flags meeting - 6 p.m. at Niemanns

11/20 - Board meeting - 11:45 at the Pier

11/28 - No meeting - Have a Great Thanksgiving!

12/5 - Give-a-Kid-a-Chance Dinner

12/6 - Lincolnland District XC Mid-Year Conference

12/12 - Hearing Impaired Christmas Program

12/12 - Spouse Christmas Party - Drakes

This & That

Jared Haugh handled the prayer to begin our festivities and Art Awerkamp initiated the Pledge of Allegiance with a patriotic "I".

Jared Haugh performed the duties as Tail-Twister featuring some comments on the "will the real Dennis Koch please stand up" in the Herald Whig.

Jared Haugh conducted the 50-50 Card draw worth $605. Perry Terwelp had the correct ticket but drew a 6 of Clubs.

Jared Haugh ate lunch with the Club. Do you see a pattern here? Leave it up to Art to screw up a complete performance by Jared.

President Curt summed up the feelings of many when he said, "I never felt more proud of being an Exchange Club member than I did looking at the Field of Honor flags last week".

Curt thanked Art Awerkamp and his committee of Dennis Koch, Brian Koch, Joel Koch, Eric Thomas, Doug Greenwell and Steve Green for their hard work of the Field of Honor project.

Art Awerkamp also took a few minutes to thank the sponsors and everyone for helping with the project and to the media for their fabulous coverage of it. He also mentioned the many stories shared by the veterans who stopped by including one veteran who after serving in Vietnam years ago was spat on upon his arrival back home. The veteran also said that Art's thank you to him was the first he had ever received since he came home. How sad is that.

A special thanks to Eric Thomas and Media Development for their aerial view of the Field of Honor. That tribute from the air was shared to the members as well during the meeting. If you missed it or want to see it again you can see it here.

Field of Honor - Veteran's Home Flags Fly Over

We began the collecting of our annual tip for Jennifer, our weekly waitress. For new members to the Club, we usually collect at least $10 from each member. If you attend all 50 meetings during the year, that comes to 20 cents a meeting.

Charlie Ledbetter can use some help with the "Give a Kid a Chance" Christmas Dinner and Santa visit on December 5th at the Senior Center. We can also use someone to assist Santa by being Time Out Teddy that night as Joel Koch is not available.

President Curt mentioned that Rich Howell took a fall and suffered two broken ribs. Thoughts go out to Rich for a speedy recovery.

Curt also congratulated Club members Brent Fischer, Chuck Venvertloh and Randy Frese on their recent election victories.

Like us on Facebook

The National Exchange Club is trying to increase its presence on social media sites. One way to do that is to "Like" a site on Facebook. If you go to these links and click "Like", it will help the club, district and National Exchange Club promote the programs of service of Exchange to others. If you are on Facebook, please support Exchange by clicking Like! Here's the links:

National Exchange Club

Lincolnland District Exchange Clubs

Quincy Exchange Club

Quincy Gus Macker Site

Smoke on the River Site

In This Issue

Club Information

Curt Moore - President

Jared Haugh - President-Elect

Brian Koch - Vice President

Chris Parker - Treasurer

Cullan Duke - Secretary

Chuck Venvertloh - Immediate Past President

Board of Directors:

Steve Labs - 2015

Joel Koch - 2015
David Adam - 2016
Alan Musholt - 2016

Josh Klitz - 2017

Cory Watson - 2017

Lincolnland District

President - Bill VanKeuren, Mattoon

Division 10 Director - Joel Koch, Quincy

Board meets second Monday every month 11:45 at the Pier Restaurant

Office of the Secretary:

Cullan Duke

PO Box 1173

Quincy IL 62306

National Exchange Club

President - Lou Molitor

Region 3 Vice President - Katie Smith

Line of the Week

Bruce Broemmel gets the honors after being asked to fill in for John Johannes to introduce the Student of the Month. Bruce made his way to the large podium and realized he could not be seen so he stood to the side of it and declared he didn't want to be a

- "talking podium."

Web Pages

Catch more news and Pictures for the club on our webpages at www.quincyexchangeclub.org and

www.smokeontheriver.net

Or on our Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/quincyexchange

Exchange Education

Americanism and Exchange

In a previous issue, we discussed the programs of service of Exchange. Following our first Field of Honor and Veterans Day, it's appropriate to look at one of those programs - Americanism - that is the program most dear to the majority of our club.

As you know, Exchange is the largest service organization located exclusively in the Untied States. While all of our service club brethren do great works, this is the one thing that sets us apart. Exchange has no international clubs and has the ability to focus on the U.S.A. So here's a look at what Exchange has done over it's first Century of Service:

In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt called on Exchange to help fight the Great Depression. Then National Secretary Herold Harter traveled over 40,000 miles, visiting Exchange Clubs throughout the country on the National Recovery Crusade. The effort was hailed as "one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of Exchange".

In 1941, FDR called on Exchange again, this time to back the war effort and the U.S. Savings Bond program.

Freedom Shrines - a collection of historically important documents - became a National Project in 1949, with the first shrine erected in Santa Monica, CA in 1950. Locally, we have erected dozens of Freedom Shrines, the most recent of which have been at the Quincy Mall, Kroc Center, John Wood Community College and the Mt. Sterling Middle School.

The Milestones of Freedom project (adopted in 1972) is an adjunct to the Freedom Shrine program and is intended to rekindle youthful interest in our American heritage. With all of the new public school buildings planned, we'll have plenty of opportunities to work with both the public and parochial schools to encourage young people to read and better understand the Freedom Shrine documents.

In the 1950's, Exchange was at the forefront in the push to have "Under God" added to the pledge of allegiance, and in 1964, One Nation Under God was adopted as a national project.

For the bicentennial in 1976, Proudly We Hail was adopted to encourage proper display of the American Flag and to recognize those who regularly fly it. After a long absence, our club brought back Proudly We Hail to our service projects in 2013.

In 1981, the Exchange Club of Galesburg submitted Give-a-Kid-a-Flag-to-Wave for consideration as a national project, which was overwhelmingly adopted at the 63rd convention in Las Vegas. Doing some quick math, we estimate that somewhere in the neighborhood of 250,000 flags have been distributed at the Dogwood parade since that time.

Following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on 9/11/2001, Colonial Flag Foundation created the first Healing Field in Sandy, Utah to visualize and comprehend the enormous human loss. Over the years, these fields have expanded beyond healing to moving tributes of honor and celebration. Our Field of Honor is a natural extension of that growth. Colonial Flag Foundation contributes a portion of their proceeds from every Healing Field and Field of Honor to the National Exchange Club Foundation.

Exchange Clubs across the country, as well as those here in Lincolnland, have developed their own projects to honor our men and women serving in the military and our veterans who have completed their service. For more than 10 years following 9/11, the Beardstown club met every Wednesday morning in the town square to "Rally 'Round the Flag" where inspirational words were uttered to remember those serving in the Middle East, and the North Chicago club has adopted Honor Flight as their club project, just to name a couple.

Flags for Soldiers, Freedom Galleries, Get Out The Vote, Constitution Day programs - Exchange leads the way when it comes to honoring America.