Des Moines Sertoma Club

The glaciers have retreated and green shoots are shooting up. Like the daffodils, Sertoma always is there in the springtime!

We start our April schedule by welcoming Vickie Barth, Director of Nursing at DMAAC, on Tuesday, April 6. She will discuss the looming shortage of nurses and the status of nursing education programs. The Des Moines Sertoma Club has a long history of assisting nursing education, and this should be an excellent way to reconnect with this important community service issue.

We host Laurie Phelan, President of Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (I-JAG), at our Tuesday, April 20 meeting. I-JAG “is a program to specifically reduce the number of students who are at risk of dropping out and help them to become productive youth.”

April 20 will be a day-night doubleheader for Des Moines Sertoma; in the evening we have our annual Fantasy Baseball Kickoff at the Cub Club in Principal Park. The program, in which local coaches and I-Cub players teach baseball skills to deaf and hard-of-hearing youth, is one of our flagship programs, and the kickoff is always a fun program.

Meeting Schedule Reminder: The club meets for lunch at the Des Moines Club (34th floor) on the First and Third Tuesday of each month. We also have one evening meeting each month. While the traditional date for the evening meeting is the last Tuesday of the month, it varies to accommodate athletic events and other scheduling issues. If you want to double-check the meeting schedule for the month, just visit www.dmsertoma.org, where the current schedule is always posted.

A continuing tradition of Service to Mankind, a great club, and the best speakers in town -- join us!

Sertoma hits the road May 1 for the spring clean-up of our club’s designated stretch of I-235! Fortunately we don’t have to go too far down the road –- we cover a stretch from 31st street to MLK. This project on one of the busiest stretches of roadway in the state is a great way to help the community and to have fun with your fellow Sertomans. You never know what you’ll find – we’ve seen everything from cash to meth lab remnants – what will you find? Find out May 1-- meet at the church parking lot on 31st just north of I-235 at 7:45 a.m. If you haven’t done so already, contact Craig Randall to let him know that you are going to help out.

We then go indoors May 4 to hear from Polk County Supervisor John Mauro at our lunch meeting. Such up-close meetings with important public figures are one of the great benefits of Sertoma membership.

Our May 18 lunch meeting hits one of Sertoma’s key service areas –- hearing and speech – when we host Kathryn Baumann-Reese, Administrator with the Deaf Services Commission of Iowa. We’ll see how this agency is meeting the needs of Iowa’s deaf and hard of hearing in this age of tight budgets.

We mix fun and service on May 25 at our annual benefit Pitch Tournament for the Ruby Van Meter School Booster Club. Every penny raised in this fun tournament goes to make possible the outside activities of the kids at the area’s school for special-needs kids. If you can be there, play. You don’t have to know how to play Pitch; our own Jack Sink will patiently reach you all you need to know! If you can’t be there, sponsor a player and help us raise $500 for the RVM kids – a bargain at $15 -- and every penny goes to the RVM Booster Club.

Service to Mankind is what Sertoma is about -- and great speakers and fun, too. Join the fun!