Bell-ringing efforts are appreciated

The Noon Kiwanis Club of Beaver Dam is pleased to have helped the Salvation Army during the recent Red Kettle Bell Ringing Campaign.  

86 percent of that money stays in Dodge County for aid given to the needy. The other 14 percent goes to Salvation Army projects (which are available to local residents): mothers and young daughters camp, alcoholic treatment center, vouchers for all sherriff's cars for travelers and others in distress, and disaster services (which has recently helped our county).  

Our Kiwanis Club does not receive any money for this. We are happy to be the coordinator and provide this service to the community for the Salvation Army.

There are many people to thank. First of all, we wish to thank Beaver Dam Piggly Wiggly, Rechek's Food Pride, ShopKo, and Wal-Mart for providing sites for the kettles. Thanks to the Daily Citizen and radio station WBEV for providing numerous reports, publicity, and stories or interest. Thanks to Jeff Berg and Masterprint for providing printing and addressing, along with Dave Fister and Richards Insurance for providing the postage and help with the mailings. We also thank Jamie Henning and the staff at the American National Bank for help with our collections, and Chuck Cruz for moving our shelter to and from Wal-Mart.

We want to thank the following businesses or organizations who provided ringers for one or more locations for at least one day:  AAUW,  Apache Stainless Equipment Corp., Beaver Dam Community Hospital, Daily Citizen, EPD (Electrical Power Distribution) Classes of Moraine Park Technical College, Grace Presbyterian Church, Green Valley Enterprises, Harvest Evangelical Free Church, HOG Chapter & Mischler's Harley Davidson, Kohl's Department Store, M&I  Bank,  Medical Associates of Beaver Dam,  Moraine Park Technical College,   Murray Funeral Home, National Exchange Bank and Trust, Noon Kiwanis Club, Richards Insurance, Rotary Club, Trinity Church United Methodist and Weichert Realtors.

We also thank the following businesses who had small kettles on their counters for five weeks:  Arby's, B.P. station, Casey's,  Chang Jiang Buffet, Chill Zone,  China Palace, Citgo (Park Avenue), Country Kitchen,  Cousin's Subs, Coyote, Culver's (2), Dos Gringos, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Papa Murphy's, Park Plaza Pizza, Ponderosa (2),  Quizno's, Schultz's Cheese Haus,  Spring Garden, Taco Bell and Walker's.

 We wish to thank the hundreds of very important individual volunteers who rang bells at five locations on Friday and Saturday for five weeks. One after another, ringers kept relating that they enjoyed the experience, that they had a smile on their face, and that it made them feel good to do something for someone else during the Christmas holiday season.   That was one of our goals.  Please consider volunteering to ring bells for the Salvation Army next year.

And finally, thanks for the generosity of the people in the Beaver Dam/Dodge County area who donated $30,230.69 to a wonderful cause, the Salvation Army.

—  Karl H. Nienhuis

for The Noon Kiwanis Club of Beaver Dam

For the record,  Obama is No. 43

 I very much enjoyed watching the inauguration of President Barack Obama on Tuesday and thought he delivered a very good speech.

 I wish him well and hope he is very successful for the sake of all of us. 

I also thought that President and Mrs. Bush were very gracious during the entire transition period and on inauguration day.  I was quite surprised, however, given the extensive pre-delivery review that I'm sure President Obama's speech received, that he said that he was the 44th person to take the oath of office as president. He was, in fact, the forty-third person to do so, since President Grover Cleveland was both president 22 and 24.  Thus, Obama is only the 43rd different individual to serve as president.

  Pastor Rick Warren made a similar but different error in giving his invocation when he said that this was the forty-fourth peaceful transition of power to take place in the United States.  Since there was no transition to George Washington, our first president, there have actually been 43 transitions since President Washington left office.

  Picky? Probably — but I wanted to point out a curious anomaly caused by the unusual circumstance of President Cleveland having served two non-consecutive terms of office as president.

— Gary Cox

Beaver Dam