January 23, 2015

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

Dr. Max Hammer of Blessing Bariatric Services is our scheduled speaker for this Friday's program. Might want to invite a guest.

Friday Last

We had a great power point program dealing with the Meth problem in our area presented by Adams County First Assistant States Attorney and Club member Gary Farha. He was assisted by Master Sgt. Pat Frazier from the Adams County Drug Task Force. Also attending were Quincy Police Department's Nick Hiland and Cody Cook of the Illinois State Police. Sgt. Frazier discussed the severity of the problem and mentioned that cartels in Mexico are now producing ICE Meth which is now showing up in our area. The problem is all about money according to Frazier with a good deal of the supplies now coming from the Kansas City area. We are seeing less cocaine usage but meth is escalating. Medical marijuana is also a problem as people are getting it from Colorado legally and bringing it to Illinois and Missouri. Meanwhile, if you seem to think that Adams County is really bad with meth use, it isn't any different than other areas according to Farha. The difference according to Farha and Frazier is that the officers in this area are more knowledgeable and aggressive in dealing with the problem. The program also featured pictures of people on meth before and after they use it. It is a dramatic difference. Despite the seriousness of the problem, there was some levity when pictures of selected Club members were shown before they "used" meth and then after. It was very comical, indeed. A great program, with a special thanks to Club member Gary Farha for handling it.

Youth of the Month

Sarah Meidl

The very busy meeting began with our Youth of the Month announcement. This month's winner was Sarah Meidl of Quincy Notre Dame High School. Sarah's parents are Dr's Susan and Eric Meidl. Quincy Notre Dame Principal Mark McDowell introduced Sarah. In doing so, he mentioned her rigorous class schedule, her participation in the school band, her sports involvement with the tennis team and the many extra-curricular activities that she is involved in. Sarah earned a remarkable composite score of 34 on her ACT exam and has a weighted GPA of 4.11 on a 4.0 scale. She recently found out that she has qualified as a National Merit Semifinalist. Sarah has accumulated 210 service hours blowing past the required 40 hours needed to graduate. Her plans are to attend Cornell University in Upstate New York in the fall. Thanks to John Johannes for chairing this event which is in its 29th year.

Character Champions

The Club also presented the Character Champion Awards to Senior Winston Smith of Southeastern High School, Jaci Higgins, a senior at Central High School, Max Venvertloh, a senior at Quincy Notre Dame High School and Kayla Gronewold, a senior at Unity High. Jalan Vance, an 8th grader at Central was also honored. Principal McDowell of QND and Superintendent Todd Fox of Southeastern and the Athletic Directors, Matt Long of Central, and Christina Meyer of Unity were also on hand for the ceremony along with the parents involved. This program began back in 2004 and was the brainchild of Club member Jim Benz .Chuck Venvertloh announced that the Club will also be presenting a $1,000 scholarship to one of the Character Champions honorees each year.

VIP Dates

1/22 - Jim Totsch turns 64

1/25 - Dick Wentura celebrates his 75th birthday

2/19 - Board meeting, 11:45 - The Pier Restaurant

2/20 - State of the City Address

2/27 - Law Officer of the Year program

3/20 - Gus Macker Kick-off

5/22-24 - 25th Annual Gus Macker Tournament

6/25-28 - Lincolnland District Convention

This & That

Jared Haugh gave a rousing prayer to get things going Friday.

Elvin Townsend begin the pledge with such expediency that the rest of the Club caught up with him with "to the flag" (3 words into the Pledge)

President Curt read three letters to the Club. Two were thank you notes from Transitions and DCFS for recent donations and one was an invitation from the Friends of the Trail for an upcoming event they are having (Sorry! Didn't catch all of it). Contact Cullan Duke for more details.

Curt also thanked Elvin Townsend for doing his annual polishing of our Exchange Club brass bell.

Principal McDowell, prior to his introduction of the Youth of the Month, took the time to thank the Club for our involvement in saving the Avenue of Lights in Quincy.

Way too busy for the 50-50 card draw so the pot remains at $774 much to the dismay of Brian Musholt who cleared his schedule to be with us again. Just kidding, Brian. Good to see Brian back with us.

On a sad note, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family of Mark Wiewel, a former Exchange Club member, on the loss of his wife Karen last week.

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 third Thursday 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

Belongs to President Curt Moore, who after hearing of all the service hours our Youth of the Month had accumulated, said

- "save some of those for the Avenue of Lights"

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

Wheelbarrow of Booze

Before the Avenue of Lights and Smoke on the River and Gus Macker, the Club's big fund raiser was the "Steak and Ale". This fund raiser started out as the Wheelbarrow of Booze (or Boozebuggy) but was later changed to "Steak and Ale" to be a little more PC.

For the newer members (and by that I mean anyone that has joined the club in the last 25 years), the concept of the fundraiser was that every member would donate a fifth of hooch (none of that rot-gut, bottom shelf stuff, thank you very much) and sell raffle tickets. The club was organized into teams headed up by "team captains". Team members were "encouraged" to sell their quota of tickets and various fun (and not so much) activities were held each week for the teams that fell behind as an incentive for them to catch up to the rest of the group.

The event would culminate with a steak fry put on by Bill Hageman and his crew in April, where the winners would be announced. Typically, the winner would receive 50 or so bottles of booze in a wheelbarrow to haul it (or the winner) home. Second and third place winners would receive a lesser quantity of the adult beverages.

It was a low-cost fundraiser (our only costs were the wheelbarrow and getting the tickets printed) that brought in $5-$10 thousand each year. While selling tickets can be a pain, the team approach and Bill Hageman steak at the end usually made it worthwhile.

Wanting to have less of an emphasis on a project that relied so heavily on alcohol, finding it harder and harder to get members excited about selling raffle tickets and the opportunity for this new-fangled project about three-person basketball teams playing on Maine Street finally led to the demise of the Steak and Ale project in the early 1990's. That new project worked out pretty well for the club, and as we approach the 25th anniversary of Gus Macker in Quincy, we'll start reminiscing about all of the good times putting on that event.