DATELINE: Tuesday, November 5, 2002. President Kirtdoll opened the meeting and asked Rev. Emmett Kadwell to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: There were no guests today.

BRAGS: Rudy Kappe bragged on the way Michigan beat the Michigan State team this past weekend. Way to go team!! Past President Tom Majerek bragged on President Kirtdoll and Robert Todd who found a great place for us to meet for our lunch meetings each week. He also bragged that due to a slight error made by our president, that Emmett Smith (not Emmett Kadwell) was able to join our meeting today. Dennis Middleton bragged on the citizens of the fourth ward and how more than 347 of them had already come out to vote with just half the day gone.

FOR ALL THE MARBLES: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Lyle McMullen won a chance at the pot. L L L L L L L He did not pull the Joker. He pulled the Two of § . Try your luck again the next time Lyle, there’s bound to be a winner.

DRAWING FOR TWO TICKETS FOR A NOTRE DAME GAME: Because of the generosity of Andrew Plym, the club was able to award one lucky winner two tickets to Monday’s Notre Dame Football game. Although President Kirtdoll initially won the tickets, she has other commitments. Therefore; a second drawing was held and lo and behold Osceola Skinner won the Notre Dame tickets. Osceola thanked President Kirtdoll for not being able to attend. These are great seats at center field. Enjoy the game Osceola!!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Dennis Middleton announced that there were two more races to time this year. The first is the week before Thanksgiving at Battel Center. That race is called "The Turkey Trot". The second race is the "Jingle Bell Run" held the first week of December at the South Bend Football Hall of Fame across from The Chocolate Factory. John Willis announced a new race commitment for next year in the month of August. Seems we will be timing the South Bend Children’s Triathlon the first week of August next year. About 400 kids participate in this event. This makes August the busiest month of the year with a race every weekend. Robert Todd announced that we need to schedule guest speakers for the month of January and beyond. Please contact him to schedule a guest speaker. President Kirtdoll announced that this month’s Board Meeting will be held this Monday, November 11^th at 6 pm in the usual location downtown. She also announced the results for the Optimist Activity Forms we have been completing. We have chairmen’s for most of this year’s activities; however, there are a few openings for chairmen of certain committees. Please contact President Kirtdoll if you can help out. President Kirtdoll also announced that we have two new membership applications for Carol Milburn and Susan Armstrong of Big Brothers Big Sisters. The president conducted the First Readings for both young ladies. And finally, the president also announced that Thank you letters and team pictures had gone out to all of our sponsors for this year’s Dragon Boat race. Thank you Madam President!

PRESENTATION: President Kirtdoll presented Past President Tom Majerek with a beautifully framed Life Membership Award. Congratulations Tom!!!

GUEST SPEAKER: Liz Capron was today’s guest speaker. She spoke to the group about her recent kidney and pancreas transplant. About two months ago Liz underwent surgery for a transplant that she has been waiting on for two years. It has actually been four years since she found out that she would actually need the transplant. She has been plagued with Type 1 diabetes since she was 8 years old. Type 1 diabetes usually surfaces in children and is carried throughout their lifetime. Type 2 diabetes is similar except it normal does not show up until after a person has entered their twenties and can be caused be being overweight. You can not eliminate Type 1 diabetes but you can eliminate Type 2. Liz said that in diabetes your blood sugar level fluctuates or stays very high. Normal blood sugar levels are between 80 and 120. Liz’s blood sugar normally ran between 200 and 300. She said that as a kid it was very hard to deal with her diabetes because it was so hard to understand that she just couldn’t eat what the other kids ate. She could never have a cupcake or piece of cake. She could Trick or Treat at Halloween, but she couldn’t eat the candy. When other kids had ice cream she had to settle for carrot sticks or something like that. Liz said there were times as a kid when she sneaked and had sweets anyway. She also said that when she was eight years old people told her that there would be a cure for her and if course, there never has been. Diabetes was a major part of her life. Liz talked about her cousin who also had diabetes due to kidney problems and how her cousin died five years ago still waiting on a kidney transplant. She told us about what happens when your kidneys are failing and how that causes you to feel and look. Liz said that she was so thankful to be allowed to have a transplant. Of course she had to go through many tests before she could be put on a transplant list. Her kidneys had to be failing more than 80% to be considered. While she waited on the transplant list she had to remain relatively healthy and she did, except for a short time last year when she suffered a heart attack. She said that about the time that she was resigning herself to be fitted for a splint for kidney dialysis, the call came for her to receive a new kidney and pancreas. She got the call just in time. Liz told us that on the drive up to Northwestern Hospital in Chicago that she half listened to what was going on around her but that she was numb and all she could think of was that her family was happy and excited for her and yet there was a family somewhere who had lost a loved one. She said that in fact that one donor had changed the lives of at least four people and their families. That one donor allowed for at least two kidney transplants and a partial liver transplant as well as another transplant. Liz then told us about the preparation for her surgery when she was at the hospital and how caring and nice the nurses were. She told us that the surgery took more than 8 hours and that she will be taking anti-rejection drugs for the rest of her life. She told us that afterwards she was very sore and stayed in the hospital for 7 days and then they released her to a little bare bones apartment to do some more healing before she came home. Liz said that she is so happy to have had the transplant because she feels so much better. She said that she has eaten some chocolate every single day since leaving the hospital and it has been wonderful. Our thanks to Liz Capron for telling us about her surgery and stay in the hospital. We wish her much success in the future.

"Peace will come wherever it is sincerely invited. Love will overflow every sanctuary given it. Truth will grow where the fertilizer that nourishes it is also truth." Alice Walker, Writer

"Do what you can to show you care about other people, and you will make our world a better place." Rosalyn Carter, Former First Lady

TODAY IN HISTORY: November 5

1793: The revolutionary government in France abolishes Christianity.

1796: Spain declares war on Britain.

1877: Nez Perce Chief Joseph surrenders to the U.S. Army with the words "I will fight no more forever."

1921: The WJZ radio station in Newark, New Jersey, broadcasts the first radio play-by-play coverage of the World Series, between the New York Giants and the New York Yankees.

1947: Harry S. Truman makes the first televised presidential address.

2001: A Florida man becomes the first American to die from inhalation anthrax since 1974. In the weeks that follow, several more cases of anthrax are traced to contaminated letters.

2001: Slugger Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants sets the single-season record for home runs with his 71st and 72nd. Bonds hits number 73 two days later in the season's final game.

In a deserted barn, a dead man is found hanging from a central rafter, with a wet patch underneath him. The rope around his neck is five feet long and his feet are four feet off the ground. The walls are fifteen feet away. There is nothing else in the building, no ladders or boxes. How did the man manage to hang himself?