DATELINE: Tuesday, August 26, 2003. President Erika Kirtdoll opened the meeting and gave the invocation before leading us in the pledge of allegiance.

INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: Jazmine Kyles introduced her guest Becky Bookout. President Kirtdoll introduced Tosca Rifenberg who is a prospective new member. Welcome Ladies to the Niles Noon Optimist Club!

BIRTHDAYS/ANNIVERSARIES: David Morse and his wife Kim celebrated their wedding anniversary on Friday, August 22^nd. Rudy Kappe and his wife, Karin, will celebrate their wedding anniversary on August 31^st. Maurice Nelson celebrated a birthday on August 23^rd. Happy Anniversary to David and Rudy. Happy Birthday to Maurie!! . . . And Many More!

BRAGS: Craig Krassow bragged that his son’s girlfriend was crowned Queen of the Cass County Fair. Add to that, Craig’s daughter was crowned Queen of the Berrien County Fair! Wow!, Craig is surrounded by royalty! Congratulations to the young ladies! Treasurer Dana Trowbridge bragged on the help that Osceola Skinner gave him by handling his treasurer’s duties during last week’s meeting. Dana also bragged that he had attended the Bristol NASCAR Race last week. It was a lot of fun, but why did they boo the winner? Robert Rhynard bragged that he and his wife "got rid of" their 18 year old son. Seems young Mr. Rhynard is off to college even though he recently had surgery on his ear. His ear may be plugged up, but he is surviving on campus. President Kirtdoll bragged that her tennis team has 12 varsity players and 14 Junior Varsity players as well as two freshmen. This is the largest team they have ever had and they are looking forward to a great year.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Robert Rhynard announced that the Niles Triathlon, which is our own race, will be held this Saturday, August 30^th. Everyone is required to be at the Barron Lake Fire Department location by 6:30 a.m. to help with our major fundraiser of the year. Also, on Friday, August 29^th we will need people to help with getting the location ready. Meet the crew at 9 am on Friday to help with these efforts. The Niles Triathlon helps us to raise thousands of dollars for our youth fund. Please come out to support these efforts! President Kirtdoll announced that there would be no lunch meetings on September 2^nd because of Labor Day festivities or on September 30^th. On September 30^th we will be holding our annual banquet right here at Orchard Hills. All Optimists should plan on attending. She said that Optimists should check their email this week for more information.

50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Dana Trowbridge conducted the 50/50 raffle. Rick Schpok took home the $14 pot! Congratulations Rick!

GUEST SPEAKERS: John Armitage introduced our guest speakers today from the Berrien County Health Department’s Nurse Family Partnership program. With us today was Donna Payne the Supervisor, Resource Development Coordinator Alyse Merrow and Nurse Holly Stell. They talked to us about the program and told us that they were getting a lot of community support from the Benton Harbor Area Schools, Western Michigan University and the U.S. Department of Justice among others. The program works with young mothers and seeks to address the prevention of future social problems and the future needs of the family. This program has proven very successful. In this program, nurses work with young mothers and their infant children for 2 ½ years to make sure that all is well. They build a relationship with each young mother and teach them about things like nutrition, child development, taking care of young ones and a host of other things. The goal of the program is to also improve the health of the infant and mother during pregnancy and improve the health and development of the child after birth as well as to promote the families’ economic self-sufficiency. The key program components are to serve the first-time, low income mothers and their children. Home visitors are nurses that are specially trained. They visit the home either weekly or bi-weekly from pregnancy through the child’s second birthday. Nurses handle no more than 25 mothers at a time. They hope to build a strength-based, family-centered and guideline driven program with the mothers. The mothers actually get to design part of the program themselves. The Nurse-Family Partnership program has proven to be effective. The nurses shared some of the results of clinical trials for this program. Some of those results were as follows:

1. 75% fewer verifiable reports of child abuse or neglect through the child’s 15^th birthday
2. More than two years greater interval between the birth of the first and second child
3. 30 fewer months use of welfare after the birth of the first child
4. 56% fewer days of consuming alcohol by the 15 year old child
5. 25% fewer cigarettes smoked by the 15 year old child
6. 44% fewer behavioral problems among mothers due to alcohol or substance abuse
7. 81% fewer arrests and convictions among mothers
8. 56% fewer arrests among the 15 year old children

Berrien County is the only county to have such a program now. But it is widely used in other states and the hope is that it can be used in more areas within Michigan. Funding for this program in Berrien County comes from the United Way of Southwest Michigan, the Michigan Gateway Community Foundation, the Michigan Department of Community Health, the Frederick S. Upton Foundation, the Children’s Trust Fund and the Berrien County Foundation. The cost of the program is about $3,300 per family per year. For every dollar spent, $4 is saved. The cost of the program is recovered by the time the child is four years old and the savings will continue to increase over time. We would like to offer our thanks to the nurses of the Nurse-Family Partnership program for being with us today and telling us a little about their program.

CLOSING CREED: Rick Schpok led the group in reciting the Closing Creed at the end of the meeting.

"Get mad. Then get over it" Colin Powell, U.S. Army General and statesman

"Example moves the world more than doctrine." Henry Miller, (1891-1980), Writer

"The future belongs to those who fuse intelligence with faith, and who with courage and determination grope their way forward from chance to choice, from blind adaptation to creative evolution." Charles E. Merriam (1874-1953) Civic reformer and politician

TODAY IN HISTORY: August 26^th

1896: Armenians in Constantinople revolt against the Ottoman Empire, leading to a three-day massacre of more than 6,000 Armenians.

1847: Liberia, the colony established in West Africa for freed U.S. slaves, is proclaimed an independent republic under the presidency of Joseph Roberts.

1883: The small volcanic island of Krakatoa in Indonesia begins to erupt. The eruptions, which nearly destroy the island, cause tidal waves that kill thousands of people on the larger islands of Java and Sumatra.

1920: Eight days after Tennessee became the final state to ratify the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the amendment is formally adopted, giving American women the right to vote.

1839: U.S. Coast Guard officers board L'Amistad, a ship anchored off Long Island. They find the African slaves on the ship have revolted against their captors and taken control of the vessel.

Lee De Forest, radio pioneer (1873)
Geraldine Ferraro, politician (1935)
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, French chemist (1743)
Guillaume Apollinaire, poet and critic (1880)
Robert Walpole, British prime minister (1676)
Ben Bradlee, newspaper editor (1921)

A lawyer defending a man accused of burglary tried this creative defense:

"My client merely inserted his arm into the window and removed a few trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to see how you can punish the whole individual for an offense committed by his limb."

"Well put," the judge replied. "Using your logic, I sentence the defendant's arm to one year's imprisonment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses."

The defendant smiled. And, with his lawyer's assistance, he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench and walked out.

I was born on this day in 1904. I wrote The Berlin Stories, which was the inspiration for the films I Am a Camera and Cabaret.

Anglo-American writer Christopher Isherwood published The Berlin Stories in 1946. The play I Am a Camera (1951; film 1955) and the musical Cabaret (1966; film 1972) were adapted from this book.