Bulletin #2
January 14, 2026

"If you don't step forward, you always stay in the same place." -Club President Ron Auxier

Sergeants Happy Bucks cleaned up today:

  • Josh for the Care Portal being the Black Bowls recipient
  • Matt for Midwest Data Systems moving into the old Reilly's appliance location at Messanie and Belt
  • Mary Beth for winning music bingo
  • Tammy Killin for it being a great day
  • Erik for garnering the new nickname "cornbread" (not corn pop)
  • Marci for having dinner with Kirby Saturday night 
  • Shelly for for being happy to get away from the office during tax season
  • Dana for being on the mend from being sick and a happy start to retirement
  • Ron for the University of Kansas dominance in basketball

We also heard from 3 members about their lives and Rotary stories. 

Dana Matt:

Dana is the immediate Past President of Eastside Rotary and recently retired from banking. She was initially invited to Rotary by Matt Porter, who didn't show up to the meeting she was invited to :) Dana has 2 grown children. She and her husband Pete enjoy the outdoors, and can often be found fishing, truck pulling, and camping. 

Tammy Killin:

Tammy is not a St. Joseph native, but hails from a combination of Union Star, Wathena, and Mound City. She still claims St. Joseph on airplane rides when talking to folks.  Her husband is Brett, and they have 3 children and 1 grandchild.

Tammy's career began with Progressive Community Services, followed by some counseling, and then the Executive Director of the YWCA, and now the Executive Director of the YMCA. She is the immediate Past President of downtown Rotary (Club 32). 

Notably, the YMCA's new aquatic center and gymnasium project is expected to break ground in march. The aquatic center will be phase 1, and is mostly fully funded, but phase 2 for the gym is still needing more funding. This will be a great asset to our community. 

Ralph Schank:

Ralph hails from a farm near Amazonia, and graduated from Savannah High School around 1978, and MWSU in 1982. He joined Eastside Rotary in 1986, which was the year that Kirby Brooner was President and Hod Symes was District Governor. 

Ralph then went back to school in 2000 and attended NWMSU to earn his MBA, alongside Amy Spaeth. 

Ron married his high school sweetheart Lisa, and is proud of his 40 years as a Rotarian. He currently serves as our club's Director of International Service. 
 
Shoes Cheerleader Amy Spaeth shared that the club is up to around 750 pairs of shoes (if you count the 70 that Tim Curry has to get turned in)... only 681 officially in the warehouse. But, she says that her warehouse manager Conrad was getting bored with not enough shoes coming in lately. So, we have some work to do! 
Can we get an "all time high" this year? 
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph met today at the beautiful Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art.

There were around 28 Rotarians in attendance, and no guests. 

Today is Rotarian Barb Burns' 75th birthday! Happy birthday to Barb. 

The spread this week was an interesting winter stew of tomato-based beef products, with sweetener of some kind. Jim Ingle and I sat together and thought it was different. We also had cornbread, salad, and a baked potato bar (this seemed to be popular). 
 
Membership Director Shelly Hulet presented Tammy Rivera with her Blue Badge at this week's meeting. 
 
Black Bowls donations for this quarter (1/1/26 through 3/31/26) go to the Care Portal. which connects churches with people in need to make a difference. Contributions to Black Bowls may be made at meetings with cash or check, or online at our club's Square site. 


Meals on Wheels deliveries for 1/15 are to be handled by Susan Campbell with Don Gladhart and Heather Shearin with Shelly Hulet. 

Deliveries for 1/22 are Ron Auxier with Mary Beth Revels and Barb Burns with Matt Porter.
 
Shelly reported that the fun committee had a turnout of 20 Rotarians and 17 guests at last Thursday's music bingo. Wes Revels was the grand prize winner. 
 
Upcoming Key Rotary Dates:
 
  • Wednesday, January 21:  Rotary Club of Saint Joseph regular meeting at the AKMA at Noon followed at 1 p.m. by a club board meeting
     
  • Wednesday, January 28:  KCI Rotary hosts Larry Lunsford at their meeting... And regular Rotary Club of Saint Joseph weekly meeting at Noon at AKMA
     
  • February TBA:  Fun committee's monthly club social
     
  • February 18:  First wave Rotary Blend candle orders due (Shoes for Orphan Souls fundraiser)
     
  • Friday, March 6, 2026:  43rd Annual Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser at Ashland United Methodist Church (sponsorship forms have been sent out by Oakley- tickets available soon)
     
  • Friday, 4/24 and Saturday, 4/25:  District Conference at the Rotary Youth Camp (Shoes for Orphan Souls Roll Call on 4/25)
Erik presented several Paul Harris fellowships at this week's meeting:
  • Matt Porter PHF+4
  • Mary Beth Revels PHF+5
  • Susan Campbell PHF+5
  • Shelly Hulet PHF+7
  • Don Gladhart PHF+7
  • Amy Spaeth PHF+8
If you add all of these up, that's a total of $42,000 in contributions to the Rotary Foundation's Annual Fund... Nice work!

 
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