The Weekly Bulletin

May 21, 2018

 

Call to order: Ed Musterman, President

Invocation:  Mary Dewey

Pledge:

Introduction of Guests

None

 

Birthdays and Anniversaries

On May 30^th Shirley and Jim Beckett will celebrate 22 years of marriage.  They received a round of applause from the club members.

Mary Dewey reports that on May 29^th she will celebrate her birthdate and received best wishes from the club members.

 

Mystery Person  –

Ron Berg was the Mystery Person and presented the gift candy to Carl Scott for his volunteer efforts at a Columbia city employees work.

Greeter   –

C.O. Scheffer filled the members in on some of his many activities of the last week.  C.O. has two young sons and he is the softball coach for his oldest sons team which is also Travis and Jessica Kempfs son’s team. C.O.s youngest son is 4 and plays T-Ball so C.O. spends lots of hours on the ball field with his and a whole bunch of other kids.  Spending time with kids is an Optimist passion.

Announcements

• Sign In or Pay the Pig – Carl Scott paid the pig for members who’s name appeared in the paper recently.
• Welcome any new or returning members.- None
• Food Bank – Jim Murphy/Larry Fick  –

• Soap Box Derby – Rick McKernan.  Date is June 10^th.  Volunteers needed from 6:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. for 3 hour shifts.  Drivers needed from Optimists.
• Scholarships – All 6 scholarships were presented at the 4 public high schools.
• Bike Safety – Mary Dewey. Date is June 7, from 5:30 to 7:00 at Lange Middle School. – Volunteers needed.
• Board Meeting – 5/7/18.  Grant request from CHALIS approved at $3,000.  Evening meeting for June 27^th, 6:00 at the Food Bank.  Nadia and Kelly are heading up the agenda and more details will follow.
• Tree lot status. C.O., Ron Berg, Jim Murphy and Ed M. met before today’s meeting and planned next steps as we attempt to fill John’s Sapps shoes.  John has provided detailed instructions and made the task tremendously easier for the club.
• Announcements from the floor. None

 

 

Today’s Speaker

Matt Luechtman, CASA Program Coordinator, Columbia Public Schools

 

Matt entered the educational field because he was inspired by a younger brother who had a strong desire to serve others but had physical challenges that prevented him from achieving his dreams. The inspiration provided by his brother continues to fuel the passion Matt has for empowering others through education.

 

Matt started his quest to change teaching methods to provide individualized student education in St. Louis and because of his success there was recruited to build special education and gifted programs in Owensville.  As a measure of the success there he recounted that students in his program wrote a request, all on their own, that won a grant of $3,500,000.

 

He has been in education for 16 years and for 8 years with Columbia Public Schools.  Matt was recruited by CPS because MU and CPS teachers began traveling to Owensville to observe and learn from his programs and teaching methods.

 

Matt currently works out of Battle High School with Gifted Education students. Frequently, students are taught to the “middle”, that is they are not assisted to reach their full potential but rather to the “middle” of the student population.  At Battle there are 190 students in the Gifted program.  Along, with that program Matt is the sponsor of several other groups of student programs with particular interests and objectives.  Two of those groups are the Battle Volunteer Corps and the Youth Advisory Council which is open to all students.

 

In the last year CPS sought to re-invent the Columbia Aerospace and Aeronautic (CASA) program at CPS.  To that end, funds have been allocated to completely gut and rebuild the CASA facility on the Hickman High campus. The new facility has a planned opening in Jan 2019 and Matt says we are welcome to visit.  While CASA was established in 1988 and has hosted many national figures, in the last few years the program has declined.  Matt was brought in to reverse that trend and to re-introduce academic rigor to the program.  No students are turned away from entry to CASA but after a semester they are evaluated as to the suitability of the program for them and some leave.

 

UPCOMING SPEAKERS

June 4 – Merideth Donalson, Friends of Rock Bridge

June 11 – Amy Weeks, CAFNR – Jefferson Farms

June 18 – Detective Tracy Perkins, Boone Co Sheriffs Task Force to Protect Children

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adjourn with the Creed: 1:00

Optimistically Yours,