DATELINE: Tuesday, May 20, 2003. President Erika Kirtdoll opened the meeting and Michel Listenberger gave the invocation and led us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: President Kirtdoll introduced guest, Jack Arbanas. Welcome to a meeting of the Niles Noon Optimists Jack.

BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: Bill Haslett celebrates an anniversary on May 22nd. Happy Anniversary Bill!

SECOND READING: President Kirtdoll conducted a Second Reading for membership for Todd Wakevainen. He is in the consulting field and is president and vice president of Big Brothers/Big Sisters. He is a member of the South Bend Civic Theatre, the MACAE board and is on the Niles Main Street Initiative board. He is currently helping to coordinate the upcoming Garage Barrage for downtown Niles.

BRAGS: Dave Morse bragged on Marsh Pedzinski’s daughter who is this year’s Niles High School Valedictorian. Congratulations Ms. Pedzinski! She also coaches Optimist soccer. John Willis bragged on everyone who helped out with this year’s Optimist soccer program including those who mowed fields, recruited sponsors, coached, refereed or showed up at games. John said this was the most trouble-free season they had had in years. Michel Listenberger bragged on the work that JOOI club members did last Saturday in planting flowers in the flower boxes. Past President Tom Majerek bragged on John Willis who not only helped get the tents set up for the Optimist Performing Arts Festival, but also came out to help when the tents got blown apart in the wind. He also bragged on Dana Trowbridge’s resourcefulness after he locked his keys in the car. President Kirtdoll bragged on her soccer team which had a tie game last Saturday. They almost won their first game of the season. They have one more game to go this Thursday.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Kirtdoll announced that she attended the Niles High School Awards Ceremony and that the Optimists awarded scholarships to Nick Herrmann and Taryn Coleman. Scholarship money is derived from the proceeds of the Dragon Boat Challenge. Dave Morse announced that he had flyers to deliver to schools for the Optimist Tri-Star Baseball competitions on Saturday May 31^st from 9am to 11am at FOP Park. We will need many volunteers for this event. Members are asked to bring a stop watch if they have one. Robert Todd announced that guest speakers were needed for July and beyond. John Willis announced that the race at Madeline Bertrand Park on May 24^th has been cancelled. He also announced that Thursday is the last day of Optimist soccer for this year. Past President Tom Majerek announced that this year’s Optimist Golf Outing will be teamed with the Berrien Springs Optimist Club and will be held on June 14^th. Volunteers are needed. The Garage Barrage will also be held June 14^th. A sign-up sheet for volunteers was passed around.

50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Jack Arbanas took home the $13 pot! Congratulations Jack.

GUEST SPEAKER: Lloyd Phillips introduced today’s guest speaker as Mike Ellis of the Niles Veterans’ Memorial Committee. Mike and Lloyd talked to us about the proposed new memorial park. He explained why Riverfront Park was chosen as the site. They said that Riverfront Park is a very good central location and that it has great accessibility and ample parking for the memorial site. Riverfront Park is also very highly visible and that the serene surroundings are very compatible with the feel they would like to have for the Veterans Memorial Park. Mike explained what the memorial park and the monument would look like. He brought several drawings and visual conceptions of the park and monument. The memorial park will have its own sort of mini-landscaping and have benches where people can sit and reflect. It fits in nicely with the surroundings and contributes to the peace in Riverfront Park rather than distracting from it. The Veterans Memorial is being built for two reasons: to give residents a place where they can remember those who have given of themselves to protect our country and to have a place for residents to show their appreciation of those who have served our country. Lloyd said that these two things are the glue that hold communities together. Mike said that indeed there was already a Veterans Memorial Park in what is now called Donovan’s Memorial Park. However, that park is not easily accessible, has no parking and is not central to the city. Not many people visit it because of its inaccessibility. The new Riverfront Park location for a Veterans Memorial Park has all the components to make people want to visit: it is accessible, safe to visit at night, has good parking and is a place that is visited often by the whole community. The new memorial will be shaped like a pentagon with a monument standing right in the middle. There will be shrubbery around the memorial. The shrubbery will not be so high that you can not still see the amphitheatre from the memorial. The monument will not obstruct the view of the amphitheatre either. Mike described the monument and memorial grounds extensively; from the 24 inch granite globe that will sit on top of the 21 foot high monument to the flags of the 4 branches of the military. He talked about the heart shaped gardens in the corner of each pentagon and how the POW and American flags will fly at the top. He explained about the paver’s bricks that will be laid in the memorial garden and how those bricks were chosen to match the bricks already laid in Riverfront Park. Mike told us also about their fundraising efforts. They received $25,000 in donations last week, but still have a ways to go before reaching the goal of $100,000 to fund the construction of the memorial. They are also selling bricks that can be engraved with names of loved ones and members of the military. They expect that Veterans Memorial Park will require very little maintenance. The money raised from the on-going brick sales will be placed into an escrow account through the City of Niles to insure continued upgrades and maintenance of the area. The American Legion has agreed to be responsible for the flags. They hope to get one of the garden clubs in the city to donate their time to the upkeep of the Memorial Park. Mike also said that we can see a model of the Veterans Monument in the store window of Signal Travel. We offer our thanks to Mike Ellis and Lloyd Phillips for enlightening us on the progress of the Niles Veterans Memorial Park.

CLOSING CREED: President Kirtdoll led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.

If you’d like to see previous issues of the Optizette visit our site at www.nilesoptimist.org or visit the international site at www.optimist.org. Don’t forget the Niles JOOI Club site is www.jooi.org .

"When a dog runs at you, whistle for him." Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), Writer

"A word too much always defeats its purpose." Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860), Philosopher

TODAY IN HISTORY: May 20

1506: Christopher Columbus dies in poverty in Spain.

1861: North Carolina votes to secede from the Union and join the Confederate States of America.

1927: U.S. aviator Charles Lindbergh takes off from New York in his single-engine aircraft Spirit of St. Louis heading to Paris, France; it is the first nonstop solo transatlantic flight.

1969: U.S. and South Vietnamese troops capture Hamburger Hill after one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War.

1980: In a referendum, the largely French-speaking province of Québec votes to remain part of Canada.

William George Fargo, businessman (1818)

Honore de Balzac, writer (1799)

John Stuart Mill, philosopher-economist (1806)

Moshe Dayan, Israeli general and statesman (1915)

Cher, singer and actor (1946)

A farmer is walking across his land when he comes upon an unopened bundle. A few feet away he is horrified to discover the body of a dead man. Immediately the farmer knew how the man met his death. How?

I was born on this day in 1908. In 1939 I starred in Frank Capra's film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.

The unopened package is the man’s parachute which failed to open.

Jimmy Stewart became one of cinema’s most memorable actors with his down-to-earth drawl and genuine, heartfelt portrayal of the common man. Of his 75 motion pictures, the most popular were those done with directors Frank Capra and Alfred Hitchcock.