A good crowd and a great meeting...what Kiwanian could ask for more. THERESA VITELLO greeted us warmly at the front door with TREASURER, JOHN BENSON there to take whatever money we wanted to give him. PRESIDENT WENDY AGUILAR opened our meeting with what no bell? Have we lost it? Could it be stolen or just misplaced? BECKY SCHOLL led us in singing and JO MCLAIN prayed for us.

KARL CORPRON announced that Designs Lmt on the corner of 5th and Yakima Avenue our ready to take our orders for shirts. The Club has paid the set up charge and it is up to you to take a shirt, jacket, etc or order one from them and pay the $8.50 embroidery charge. Now we can all be Downtown Yakima Kiwanians! Who will be the first?

MARGARET FILKINS then announced that Wellness House will be having their Golf Tournament to raise funds. $75 per golfer or $300 per team. There are also spots for sponsors. Friday, May 2, at the Elks.

KIWANIS ROGANUNDA WORKDAY sign ups were passed around. Workday is May 17.

Also coming in May is the Blue Jeans Basketball Tournament where we will volunteer to help out on May 5,6,and 7

And don't forget ROCK THE GAP on May 31 at the Greenway. SPENCER HATTEN AND spouse, Leslie, are heading up the silent auction and are looking for baskets. They had 37 last year and it was a great success. Let Spencer know what you can donate. He is looking for baskets with a value of at least $100.

PRESIDENT WENDY also announced that there will be a dessert auction also at Rock the Gap. They are looking for restaurants to donate the desserts and then the crowd will bid on them. And with less desserts than tables it should be exciting!

Also a big thank you from Spencer for SONGFEST and all those workers that made it a great success. And to Argus Insurance who footed the bill for the tickets and the prgrams. There was a total of 133 service hours for the sold out performance.

KIRSTEN DANIELSON, chairperson for RTG then shared that out of 58 tables, 54 are sold. Zirkle Fruit has purchased 5 tables. Since the event will be sold out of tables by the time it gets here, there will be $20 tickets available for after dinner to come and enjoy the bands (no dinner but a free drink and a glass). A new sponsor announced last week is the Yakima Bears who will be sponsoring the Bear, I mean Beer Tent! Thank you KL WOMBACHER.

GENE ROSTVOLD announced a meeting regarding upper Kiwanis Park with the city partks department. They are hoping to finalize the plans to get the playing fields on schedule. It may mean taking out the old pond which will add much needed space and eliminate a sometimes eye sore.

TWO HIXSON AWARDS: BETH KLINGELE AND JAY CARROLL were then honored with the latest Hixson Awards from our club. They both have continued to go above and beyond to help our club. Thank you Beth and Jay!

SGT. CAMI LEONARD then did a good job of making us pay and having a good time while we were at it. We all sang to DON DAVIDSON who was enjoying his birthday. RICH LEWIS won but lost the 50-50 and it grows again for next week. GENE ROSTVOLD won Bingo two weeks in a row. Some people are just lucky!

Becky then introduced our speaker Lee Maras (who is also looking at possibly joining us!) Lee is in charge of Safety and Security for the Yakima School District. He is a former Principal at Davis and at Cle Ellum. He grew up in Roslyn and came from Croatian immigrants who were coal miners in Roslyn. He shared the many challenges that the school district has in keeping the children and staff safe. He expressed how times had changed and living safely is much different now than it was when we were all younger. School personnel are trained in safety procedures. An example is that it is almost impossible to keep guns out of the schools but the personnel can be trained to minimize the situations. He explained how Davis and Eisenhower High Schools are major security risks with all the doors into the schools. The only sure way to change the security is to build or remodel the schools but levies need to be passed to do that. Immigration and poverty combined causes problems for children. Throughout our history it has been the same. It is no different now.

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