DATELINE: Tuesday, April 22, 2003. Vice President Liz Capron opened the meeting and asked Lloyd Phillips to give the invocation and lead us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Our guest today was Bill Bruinsma. Welcome Bill to a meeting of the Niles Noon Optimists!

BIRTHDAYS: Jazmine Kyles celebrated her birthday this week. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAZMINE!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: The next timing race will be held in Three Rivers near the hospital on May 3^rd. Members should be there by 7:30 a.m. as the race starts at 8:00 a.m. Also, May’s guest speakers have all been scheduled and we are looking for guest speakers for the month of June and beyond. Please contact Robert Todd if you would like to schedule a guest speaker. The Optimist Youth Performing Arts Festival is scheduled for the weekend of May 9^th. The JOOI club will be manning the concession stand. Please make an effort to be available to help out and to attend the event.

50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Diane Bass was the lucky winner of the pot. Congratulations Diane!

STUDENTS OF THE MONTH: Principal Christine Banaszak of Brandywine High School introduced this month’s students of the month as Lacey Jane Hutchings and Justin Everett Sabecki. Lacey is the daughter of Darrell and Pamela Hutchings of Niles. She is a senior who is involved in varsity basketball, varsity volleyball and varsity track and field. She is also a member of the National Honor Society and the French National Honor Society. Lacey participates in marching band, pep band and the jazz band. She is a member of a youth group at her church and is a stage hand for her school’s musicals. She also tutors her peers, is involved in midget league basketball, and rakes leaves for the elderly as well as volunteering in her church nursery. She plans to enter a four-year university and has decided to major in nursing with a minor in mathematics. She may attend either Grand Valley or Baler University in Texas. Lacey enjoys reading, writing, athletics, traveling, volunteering and working in her church. Justin is the son of Lynn and Ken Sobecki. He is a junior and is involved in the Country Trailblazer’s 4-H Club in which he shows rabbits at the Cass County Youth Fair each year. He is on the varsity golf team, varsity basketball and the varsity baseball teams. He helps out with little league basketball and volunteers at a retirement home. He plans to attend a 4-year college, but doesn’t yet know what he’d like to major in except that he’s thinking about the pharmacy field. His hobbies include golf, baseball and basketball.

We offer our thanks to this month’s Students of the Month for being our guests today.

CLOSING CREED: Diane Bass led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.

"Think of your life as a canoe and your decisions and actions as your paddle. You’ll get where you’re going one stroke at a time with the decisions and actions that you make." D. J. "Eagle Bear" Vana, Motivational Speaker

"Every good thought you think is contributing its share to the ultimate result of your life." Grenville Kleiser (1868-1953), Writer

TODAY IN HISTORY: April 22

1864: Congress authorizes the use of the phrase, "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins.

1889: A gunshot signals the start of the government-sponsored Oklahoma Land Rush; thousands of Americans rush into the territory to claim land.

1915: At the Second Battle of Pyres during World War I, German troops release deadly chlorine gas on Allied troops; it is the first major use of chemical weapons.

1915: The New York Yankees debut their famous pinstripes and hat-in-the-ring logo.

1970: Earth Day, an event intended to increase public awareness of environmental issues and to promote conservation of the world's resources, was first celebrated.

1976: Barbara Walters signs a record $1 million contract with ABC and becomes the first female nightly news anchor in the United States.

Isabella I, queen of Castile (1451)

Immanuel Kant, philosopher (1724)

Vladimir Lenin, Soviet leader and theorist (1870)

Charles Mingus, jazz musician (1922)

Jack Nicholson, film director, writer, director and producer (1937)

I’m really, really tired, so I set my alarm clock for noon, wind it up, and go to bed when the evening news finishes at 10:30. How much sleep will I get?

I was born on this day in 1904. During the 1940s, I directed the development of the first atomic bombs at Los Alamos, New Mexico.

1 ½ hours. Wind up clocks are not 24-hour clocks so the alarm would have sounded at midnight.

After he directed the production of the atomic bomb at the Los Alamos laboratory, J. Robert Oppenheimer returned to his research and professorship in the field of theoretical physics. He continued to act as a government advisor, first as chairman of and later advisor to the Atomic Energy Commission. Oppenheimer’s opposition to the development of the hydrogen bomb cost him his government security clearance during the anti-Communist fervor of the 1950s, despite his previous leadership positions and performance.