Des Moines Sertoma Club

UPDATE, 6/7: Michelle Wilson from the Iowa Dept. of Natural Resources will be the June 9 speaker. The presentation on club strategic planning will be rescheduled for later this summer.

Summer's almost here, but the sun is always shining at the Des Moines Sertoma Club!

We look forward to another great month of service and fun, starting at our June 2 meeting with Dean Kayser of Kayser Hearing Aid and Audiology.

June 9 will be a meeting devoted to internal club strategic planning and business.

On June 16 we host John Muenzenberger, the Senior Business Manager for Soybean Output Traits at Pioneer Hi- Bred International. John will describe Pioneer's recent research and innovation in the use of a new high oleic soybean trait, producing soybean oil with nutritional benefits. Healthy French fries!

A familiar face will wrap up the June lunch calendar when Tom Coates, Executive Director of Consumer Credit of Des Moines, visits as Rudy Trusheim's guest June 23. Mr. Coates is familiar to many of us from his television appearances. He will bring an important perspective of excessive borrowing and controlling personal debt.

Our annual Inaugural Dinner is slated for June 26 at Hyperion field club. Incoming Iowa District President Ron Meithke will join us for the installation of our 2009-2010 slate of officers. Music by Saturn V jazz combo. Be there!

The weather is suddenly bright and beautiful -- but Service to Mankind is always in season at the Des Moines Sertoma Club.

The club kicked off its Summer 2009 Fantasy Baseball Camp with an April 28 dinner at the Cub Club at Principal Park, where the coach and several campers joined us. The 11th edition of our baseball skills camp with the Iowa Cubs for hearing-impaired boys and girls ages 7-14 will be held July 13 through July 17. As always, we need volunteers and contributions to make this a wonderful experience for some great kids. And if you know of a child who should attend, be sure to let us know! For contribution information, contact John Badger ((515) 224-0596); for information on attending the camp, contact Paulette Taylor ((515) 224-6408).

May 2009 Sertoma Events

We kick off our May 2009 luncheon calendar with a May 5 visit form Jeff Jungman, chief compliance officer for Bankers Trust. With the intense and increasing scrutiny of the banking industry from regulators, that can't be an easy job. It should be a great presentation.
JoEllen Wolterman of Iowa Hearing Aid Centers is our May 12 speaker. An experienced audiologist, Ms. Wolterman speaks directly to our mission of assisting the hearing-impaired.

Jerry Collins, who has taught at Ruby Van Meter School for 25 years, will visit us May 19 to tell us about the latest news at our favorite school. The club has long ties with this wonderful institution for special-needs kids, and we're proud to support it.

So proud, in fact, that our evening meeting will be our annual fund-raising pitch tournament for Ruby Van Meter School on May 26 at Calvin Manor, 4210 Hickman Road, Des Moines. Contestants play only for the glory, as every penny raised goes to the school, but that only seems to make the games that much more serious. Registration is at 5:15, play starts at 5:30. Sponsor a player, or better yet, test your pitch mettle yourself! See Rick Howe for more info ((515)-278-4200).

Service to Mankind - the need's always there, but helping out is always a pleasure with the Des Moines Sertoma Club. Contact Joe Kristan to be our guest at a meeting and learn more.

Things may be rough in the economy, but the Des Moines Sertoma Club just keeps going. We have a busy March in store:

Sertoman Joe Kristan leads off the March speaker schedule. Joe will talk on March 3 about how we ended up with the federal and Iowa tax systems we have, and some of the many ways they are absurd. He will also field tax questions and, if he's in a good mood, maybe even have some pointers to help you on your own returns.

Des Moines Register Deputy Editorial-page Editor Linda Lantor Fandel will chat with us March 10 about providing Iowa kids a "world-class schools."

Our own Rick Howe will be responsible for the March 17 session; check back here for details.

Brian Brown, Drake Relays Director, will visit on March 24th to tell us about this year's 100th running of the Relays.

Our evening meeting this month takes us to Wells Fargo Arena on March 31 to see the Iowa Chops AHL hockey team take on the Houston Aeros. See Joe Kristan for your tickets.

The days are getting longer, and maybe winter really will end soon. It's time to come out of your den and get moving with the Des Moines Sertoma Club!

Our own Russ Currier is our February 3 luncheon speaker. Russ, formerly a top state public health official, is only technically retired. He'll give us the scoop on "Personal Health Risks: What you should worry about and what you should not worry about." What, me worry?

We'll get in touch with a special part of Iowa history on February 10. The Executive Director of the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center, Joe Nolte, will be our guest.

David Nadler, the former General Manager of Positive Impact Media, Inc., operator of KZZQ, 99.5 FM, is our February 17 speaker. We'll learn about what it's like being a little guy in a world of giants.

We wrap up the shortest month with our monthly evening outing on February 25 at Knapp Center, where the Drake Bulldog men host Southern Illinois. Will the Salukis be thirsting for revenge for their first loss to Drake at Carbondale in a generation? Which Bulldogs team will show up - the one that looked like it would dominate the Valley, but then was crushed by Northern Iowa? Join us and find out!

The Des Moines Sertoma Club looks forward to a fun year of serving the community through hearing and speech education and work with the Ruby Van Meter School.

We will start our year with a special meeting focused on boosting our membership on January 6. Bring an open mind and your thoughts on how we can get more folks involved in our good work. In these tough economic times, Sertoma is needed more than ever.

Our lunch speaker for January 13 is Al Gross from Bankers Trust Private Banking. We'll hear about private banking, and maybe get some investment tips for interesting times.

Deborah Brewer, the Executive Director of the Des Moines YWCA, visits us January 20 to bring us the latest news about what this important institution is doing for our community.

Our first evening outing for 2007 will be a trip to the Wells Fargo Arena to see the NBA D-League Iowa Energy take on Tulsa. Last year's game was a blast, and we look forward to another fun evening.

Upcoming events:

Drake Mens Basketball outing: the SIU Salukis come to Knapp Center February 25 to seek revenge for their first loss in Carbondale to the Bulldogs since 1996.

Sertoma will return to Wells Fargo Center to see the American Hockey League's Iowa Chops take on the Houston Aeros on March 31.

See you on Tuesdays at noon, 801 Grand, 40th floor!

As the year draws to a close, the Des Moines Sertoma Club is just getting warmed up. We start our December with a rare day-night Sertoma doubleheader!

We start our busy December 2 by David Nadler, "Chief Brain Trainer" for Learning RX. Their website says:

LearningRx learning centers provide cognitive skills training that empowers anyone of any age to learn faster and easier. Tutoring and other programs reinforce WHAT students must learn (information). LearningRx learning centers identify and strengthen the skills behind HOW students learn. We provide testing and life-changing training for students of all ages who desire to learn and read better for life.

We then reconvene in the evening at the Knapp Center to see the Drake women's basketball team take on Coppin State. Contact Joe Kristan if you still need tickets, or pick them up at the Tuesday afternoon meeting.

Our December 9 meeting will be something different. We will have a special presention on building club membership. Des Moines Sertoma has a good thing going, and it's only polite to share.

On December 15 the club will man the Salvation Army kettles on the Des Moines Skywalk system.

We top off our December with our annual holiday dinner on December 16, where we will present our Service to Mankind award to an area resident who has gone beyond the call of duty in serving the community.

Des Moines Sertoma: Serving Mankind in Des Moines since 1921, and going strong into 2009! Join us!

However the elections turn out, you will win with the Des Moines Sertoma Club!

Our first November meeting happens to fall on Election Day. Our featured speaker November 4 is Mentalist Bill Mogolov, presenter of the "Magic of M" show. Maybe he knows what happened to the hanging chads...

We welcome Joel Severinghaus, International Trade Analyst from the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, November 11 He will talk about "The effect of today's credit markets on Iowa Ag Exports." As finance and Ag are two key industries in Iowa, this is a must-see.

Watch this space to see who our November 18 speaker is; Max Thompson is making the arrangements. Update! Our speaker will be Max Thompson himself, discussing "History and Understanding Today's Global Society."

For our November evening meeting, we are trying a new innovation: having it in December! On Tuesday, December 2 we will watch the Drake women's basketball team take on Coppin State at the Knapp Center. We will have our first December lunch meeting that day too, so it could be somewhat confusing.

In another event of note this month, our own David Beery will help sing the national anthem for the Iowa Chops November 13! You won't want to miss this!

Mark your calendar for our December 16 Christmas lunch! Iowa Governor Steve Brown will be our speaker, and we will honor a distinguished local citizen with our Service to Mankind award.

Other upcoming Sertoma evening outings include an Iowa Energy basketball game January 27 and a Drake Men's basketball game against the mighty Salukis of Southern Illinois.

Sertoma - winner by a landslide! Contact Joe Kristan or any Sertoma member and get on the bandwagon!

The election season is heating up, but Sertoma is always on fire. We kick off our October 2008 calendar with a visit from Kim Schmett, a candidate for Congress in Iowa's third district, on October 7. Sertoma has a tradition of hosting a wide range of viewpoints; in recent years we've had visits from Ed Fallon and Chet Culver to Charles Grassley. This is a fine opportunity to take the measure of Congressman Boswell's opponent.

Our semi-annual I-235 cleanup project is Saturday Morning, October 11. Sertoma volunteers will assemble at the Macedonia Baptist Church parking lot on 31st street, just north of I-235, to clear a summer's worth of debris from alongside Iowa's busiest stretch of highway.

Drake Womens Basketball Coach Amy Stephens returns on October 14 to tell us about the 2008-2009 edition of the Drake women's basketball team.

Our October 21 meeting features Danielle Clark, a senior account executive with Iowa Energy NBA Development League team.

Election season is a great season to be a Sertoman. Join us!

We've had a huge summer at the Des Moines Sertoma Club! Our educational booth at the Iowa State Fair hosted 550 hearing screenings, gave away 14,000 pairs of earplugs, and distributed countless pieces of hearing safety educational materials. Our Fantasy Baseball Camp provided an unforgettable experience to 10 hearing-impaired kids; the grown-ups who helped out, including two Iowa Cubs pro baseball players, also had a great time. We had great speakers, and we topped off the month with a picnic dinner at historic Salisbury House.

But we have no time to rest on our laurels! We kick off autumn with a great lineup of luncheon speakers and great plans for continued Service To Mankind!

On September 2 Mike Salvador visits from Iowa Farm Bureau.

Dutch Geisinger of Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management visits September 9. That has been one busy organization this year, so it should be an excellent session.

We gave a visit from Dick Hewins, retired Roosevelt High teacher, on September 16. Oh, and he was also Olympian Lolo Jones' track coach. He represents the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in Iowa, and we look forward to learning more about that responsibility.

The September 23 speaker will be Polk County Republican Party Executive Director Ted Sporer. It's an interesting political season, and it should be fun to hear from somebody in the middle of the battle.

Our evening meeting on September 30 will be at Legends, 50th Street and Mills Civic Parkway in West Des Moines.

We're always moving the ball at Sertoma. Join us!

August sees an important educational event on our calendar: our hearing testing and education booth at the Iowa State Fair. Sertoma clubs from all over Iowa join forces with volunteer audiologists to provide free hearing tests and to distribute hearing education materials and earplugs to thousands of fairgoers. Stop by our booth on the East end of the Varied Industries Building during the fair from August 7 through August 17!

If you are manning the State Fair booth, you may you may click here for the booth schedule.

But that's only part of the excitement at the Des Moines Sertoma Club this month. We have a fine set of speakers lined up.

On August 5 we welcome Walter Wittoff from Iowa Student Loan Liquidity Corporation. This fine organization has a lot to offer; find out how the current challenging loan market affects their work.

Our own Craig Randall will provide a wrap-up of our Fantasy Baseball Camp for deaf and hard-of-hearing kids on August 12.

Scott Kleckner from FC Stone will join us on August 19 to talk about Carbon Credits, a hot topic in the current political campaign.

We wrap up a busy month with our annual evening picnic on August 26 at historic Salisbury House. So - haven't you missed out on enough fun? Join the Des Moines Sertoma Club today!