INTRODUCTION OF GUESTS: There were no guests other than the guest speaker.

BIRTHDAYS: Jazmine Kyles celebrated her birthday today. Happy Birthday Jazzy Girl!

BRAGS: Rudy Kappe bragged on his "sweet daughter-in-law" who recently survived breast cancer surgery. All our hopes and well wishes go out to her! Rudy also bragged that he and his wife visited Augusta, GA during the Masters last week. Rudy then bragged that the Soccer program has started with a full schedule and that the "Lord shifted the clouds" over the weekend to provide a total day of joy for the games. President Capron bragged that she has been working so hard she gave herself a day off on Friday. She needed it badly and the one day off felt like a whole week to her. She also bragged that she was able to clean her desk off also. (Putting everything in piles on the floor does count as cleaning off your desk). President Capron also bragged that Heidi Leneway’s soccer team lost by only two, but they did score four points. Of course one little Kindergartner did score for the other team, but hey – they’re just little soccer players and they are all having fun! Jazmine Kyles bragged that her soccer team had a very good Saturday game. Her kindergartners won 13 to 3!

ANNOUNCEMENTS: President Capron announced that Michigan District Third Quarter Meeting would be held in Ann Arbor on May 15^th. She suggested getting a group of lady members to accompany her and also have a "girl’s night out". Also the Michigan District Oratorical contest will be held on May 14^th and the Niles Noon Optimists will have a representative present. She also announced the next two races would be on May 1^st in Three Rivers and on May 2^nd at St. Patrick’s Park. Tom Majerek announced that the Optimist Youth Performing Arts Festival would be held in Riverfront Park on May 7^th and 8^th. He asked all members to come out and support the youth of our community. Optimist Tri-Star Baseball competition will be held on Saturday May 14^th. Chairman Dave Morse will need all our support to ensure the kids have a great time that day. Past President Erika Kirtdoll announced that Duck Race tickets have been distributed. We need people to start selling the tickets now. The will be offering a prize to the person who sells the most during each week. And don’t forget, the earlier you get them in the better, as you will be in the running for a Millennium Steak House certificate given away at the Thursday Night Concerts in Riverfront Park. Mike Listenberger announced that he will be working with President Capron and others to build a new club in Stevensville. If you have contacts in Stevensville, please talk to Mike and join in if you can help out. Robert Todd announced that the club could always use guest speakers. Please call him to schedule a speaker.

50/50 RAFFLE DRAWING: Secretary/Treasurer Erika Kirtdoll conducted the 50/50 raffle. Rudy Kappe took home the $7 pot! Congratulations Rudy – Next time the pot will be bigger for you!

GUEST SPEAKERS: Our guest speaker today was Mrs. Betty Bennit who talked to us about her experience as an "American Code Talker" during World War I. Betty said that the stories she was going to tell us may seem like ancient history to some of the young folks present, but that it is an important part of our American history and that the events are still fresh in her mind even after 63 years. She related to us that she had been sworn to secrecy for 25 years, as all code talkers were. It all started when she was a junior in college. On December 7, 1941 the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. All the students heard about it after a concert they were attending. It was a terrible time for everyone. Betty said that the very next day, most of the young men on campus were called to duty and some of the young women, like herself, were approached and invited to a secret meeting. They were not to tell anyone about it. There were about 15 girls at the meeting and the person there asked some of them to sign up for courses for encryption (code writing). Again, they were warned that they could tell no one, not even their parents. They could not even walk to future meetings together or ever speak about it to each other. When the encryption courses were finished many of them went on to Smith College to become Navy Wave women. Betty told us that the WAVE organization was the first real military unit for women. Betty loved learning and she loved doing the work. At Smith College they learned how to march, salute and a lot of navy lingo. She talked about the uniforms they wore and told us that battleships were named after states, cruisers were named after cities and that destroyers were named for heroes. The young ladies were allowed to tell their families that they were working in communications, but nothing more. They signed statements that said they could not do books, movies or tell their stories for the next 25 years. Betty told us how they helped during the war by working with diplomatic codes (machine codes) and how they interacted with listening posts throughout Europe and the high seas. She told us how they used machines, which later became the beginning of using computers and how these machines could make errors, but that they were less prone to errors. It became a game to "break the code of the day" before the machines could. Betty was actually posted in Washington from 1943 to 1946. She told us how these young ladies or "code talkers" had to learn to break not only Japanese code, but also Russian, Chinese and German code as well. She said that one of the biggest victories of the way was what happened at Midway; and that there never would have been such a victory without the information the code talkers were able to decipher. Betty said that in the end there were between 1,500 to 2,000 code talkers operating in the U.S. One of the most astonishing things that Betty told us is that the U.S. had had warnings that the Japanese would attack Pearl Harbor before it happened. But it seemed that information traveled much slower then and that maybe people just didn’t believe it could happen, until it did. (We had a similar experience with 911). Betty also showed us pictures of herself in uniform and other items. The Niles Noon Optimists offer their heartfelt appreciation to Betty Bennit for bringing us such an interesting and informative story about the American Code Talkers. Thank you Betty!!

CLOSING CREED: Rudy Kappe led the group in reciting the Optimist Pledge at the close of the meeting.