The Sertoma Club of North Indianapolis and the Sertoma Club of Downtown Indianapolis will merge effective July 1, 2008. The new Club will be named the Sertoma Club of North Downtown Indianapolis. Check back at a later date for a newer and better website.
The Sertoma Club of North Indianapolis was chartered in 1946 as part of the Co-Operative Clubs which were founded in Kansas City in 1912. Also in 1946, a club was chartered in Windsor, Ontario and the Co-Operative Clubs became an international organization.
A contest was held in 1948 to come up with a more suitable name to eliminate the confusion between the Co-Operative Clubs and consumer cooperatives. Noble W. Hiatt, President of the North Indianapolis Club, submitted the name Sertoma, a combination of the letters from SERvice TOMAnkind. The choice for a national name was narrowed to seven selections and the name SERTOMA was selected. Therefore, our club is the home of the name SERTOMA, an honor for which we are truly proud.
In 1985, women were first admitted to Sertoma Clubs and comprise a vital part of the current membership. An all-female Sertoma Club was chartered in Tampa, Florida in 1985.
On November 15, 1960, the Sertoma Foundation was formed to strengthen the partnership between the international organization and our clubs. In 1963, after a long search for an international sponsorship, Sertoma clubs were encouraged to help the more than 24 million Americans who have speech and hearing disorders. This sponsorship continues to be of utmost relevance, as there are currently 50 million Americans with speech and hearing disorders. To learn more about the international organization, visit the Sertoma web site at http://www.sertoma.org.
The Sertoma Club of North Indianapolis has had a close relationship with Easter Seals Crossroads Rahabilitation Center for over 50 years. In that time the Club has donated more than $1,000,000 worth of equipment, supplies, material, and cash. The funds were primarily raised through our yearly project of providing volunteers for the Hardcourt Tennis Tournament in Indianapois every summer. We just completed our 31st year associated with the tournament in July of 2007.
Easter Seals Crossroads nominated the Sertoma Club of North Indianapolis for the "Outstanding Civic Organization Award", a category of the 2002 Philanthropy Awards, which we won. To learn more about Easter Seals Crossroads, visit their web site at http://crossroads.easterseals.com.
The Sertoma Club of North Indianapolis meets weekly on Thursday from 12:10 PM to 1:00 PM at the Scottish Rite Cathedral at 650 North Meridian Street in downtown Indianapolis. Free parking is available in the West Lot for visitors. You can find out more about the historic Scottish Rite Cathedral at their web site at http://www.aasr-indy.org.
If you are a visitor to this site and are interested in more information about our club, contact Rick Craig at 317-679-1514. If you would like to visit us for a free lunch and a meeting, you are welcome to come to any of our meetings on Thursdays. Just check the Events Calendar section of this website for upcoming meetings and programs.
2008-09 OFFICERS AND BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President: Reynold Berry
Vice President: Robert Simpson
Secretary: Rick Craig
Treasurer: Tip Sweany
Sgt. at Arms: Jeff Eshowsky
Chairman of the Board: Tom Ferverda
2 Year Directors
Justin Leverton
Dick Otto
Kevin Short
1 Year Directors
Chuck Corbin
David Klingeman
Ray Main
Here are some additional web sites of groups we are associated with or provide funds for.
The Club was privileged to have State Representative Larry Buell visit us on September 27 to share some of his knowledge about the current problems in our state. Representative Buell has been in the state legislature for 25 years and is a former Marion County Treasurer. Mr. Buell stated that the current property tax problem has caused the most unrest in the electorate that he has seen in his political life. He has been on the Ways and Means Committee for almost all his career. Indiana provides over 1.6 billion dollars in property tax relief to local governments. Forecasters had predicted that the property taxes would increase about 24% but when the actual figures were arrived at, it was far greater. Larry outlined the reasons that this “Perfect Storm” scenario occurred. (1) local government spending had increased about 10%; (2) the full effect of the elimination of the tax on inventory was realized; (3) not enough had been budgeted to cover the shortfall in child welfare costs; and (4) lack of payment for the care of juvenile prisoners finally had to be paid current. The current status of the property taxes is that everyone paid their 2006 amount for 2007. The entire property base will be reassessed. This reassessment includes commercial property which did not increase at all. In the meantime, the Commission of Tax and Financial Policy has been formed to come up with solutions. They have already interviewed taxpayers. They have explored ways to supplement taxes if the property taxes are lowered or eliminated entirely. Representative Buell shared with us some figures to about taxes. For each 1 cent increase of sales tax, the state raises $878 million. A 1% increase in the State income tax raises $1.2 billion and a 1% increase in the corporate income tax raises $82 million. Property taxes currently fund $6 billion state wide. As you can see, no one solution is evident. Let’s hope the powers that be do not fix this problem with a band-aid which will cause us to have to deal with the problem again in the future.
The new Executive Director of the Indianapolis Children’s Choir, Don Steffey, spoke to the Club on September 20, 2007. The organization was founded about 22 years ago by Henry Leck who is still the Artistic Director of the organization. The choir has a yearly budget of over $1.3 million, half of which is raised by private donations. Currently there are over 1,500 children involved in the program and over 20,000 students have gone through the program in the 22 years.
When Mr. Leck formed the Choir, his goal was to give children a chance to perform that would not otherwise get that chance. The Choir recently performed at the Swimming and Diving Championships in Indianapolis. They learned the National Anthems of all participating countries and sang each anthem for the winners during the medal presentations. Also, each year the Choir goes on a singing tour in Europe. The Choir is composed of 3rd grade to 8th grade students. There is also a pre-school program and recently a teen choir called the Indianapolis Youth Coral was formed so students could continue on a program. Students have come from 17 counties in Indiana and over different public schools. In the coming year, the Choir and Henry Leck will receive the Governor’s Art Award for Indiana.
Indianapolis Star columnist, Matthew Tully spoke to the Club on September 6, 2007. Matthew graduated from IU and began his career with the Gary Post Tribune. He worked for the Congressional Quarterly in the mid 90’s and came to the Star after Gannett took over.
Matthew stated that almost everything that happens can be traced back to politics. The summer months are usually slow for happenings in the political arena but this summer has been a hotbed of activity. There was the local property tax issue, a City Councilman was indicted, and another Councilman resigned because he did not live in the district he represented.
Here are several things to watch for in the six months. (1) City Council races; (2) Mayor’s race; (3) Dan Burton primary; (4) Julia Carson’s career; (5) Democratic Governor primary; (6) property tax discussions in the General Assembly; (7) the turn out in the general election in November; and (8) if there is a large turn out in the election, will there be problems with people being able to vote.
Rhoda Israelov spoke to the Club on August 30 about her role in the Executive Mentoring Program at Butler University. Her program was entitled, “Real Life, Real Business.” The philosophy she adopts is that she will learn about whatever it takes to help other people. Rhoda has been a teacher but most of her career was spent as a financial planner for E.F. Hutton. Dan and Yvonne Sheek were one of her clients and Dan brought her to share her program with us.
Rhoda started out wanting to help young people, especially young women become comfortable in the business world. She started at Butler University as an Executive in Residence. These retired business people mentor business students.
When a business student enters Butler, they are presented with a “Passport to Success.” They are also assigned to an academic advisor, a career mentor, and a business class teacher that follows them through their years in the program. The first year of study involves a class contest where their group creates a fictional business and explains how it works and how they would perform the start-up of the company. They are judges and special academic prizes are awarded to the winning group.
The second year, the group selects a business that they feel they could run and goes before academic committees and goes through all the processes of getting funding and explaining the business to others. After they are successful in obtaining the funds from the advisory group, they can even choose to run the business in the second semester.
The third year students are required to do two, 300 hour internships. The fourth year is focused on helping them help themselves find a job or a career in business.
Butler also has a program funded by Lilly Endowment called the Business Accelerator. This program was funded by a grant of 22 million dollars and is a for-profit business. The clients of this company are mid-size local companies and the program provides consultants, professors and students, to help them grow their businesses.
The Club was honored to welcome Jimmy Kennedy and his guests to the meeting on August 09. Jimmy accepted the Service to Mankind Award the Club awarded to Dr. Chuck Dietzen for 2006. Chairman Ferverda presented the award on behalf of the Club. Jimmy also accepted the District Award for Dr. Chuck in February. He was accompanied by his Mother, his Grandmother, his Aunt, and two of his cousins. Jimmy Kennedy was honored recently as the top middle school volunteer for the State of Indiana. He earned this honor in competition with over 20,000 other middle school students for his volunteer work. The banquet, The Spirit of Community Awards, was held in Washington D.C. and Peyton Manning was the keynote speaker. A middle school student and a high school student from each state were honored. Jimmy is a seventh grade student at Creekside Middle School in Carmel. He speaks to school groups and civic organizations about the joy of being a volunteer and how he has overcome adversity. Jimmy has cerebral palsy but in his work with Dr. Chuck, has progressed to where he doesn’t need his braces. He has been speaking about his life since the age of 5. Jimmy credits Dr. Chuck with showing him his abilities and not dwelling on his adversities. His main focus is stressing to groups that what you can do is much more important than what you can’t do. He has lived his life by putting his disabilities aside and doing what he wants to do. His visit made us all a little happier and our day a little brighter especially after our recent hard work at the tennis tournament. Jimmy said it best when asked what he feels when he volunteers, “I get a good feeling in my heart when I help someone. Jimmy’s Mother has written a book about their experiences. It is called My Perfect Son Has Cerebral Palsy. Anyone desiring a copy can go to www.mariekennedy.com and get one. It is the Club’s intent to make Jimmy an honorary member at the September Board Meeting. He is extended a welcome to visit at any time and share more things about his life.
We were visited by a special person on August 02 who spoke to the Club and showed slides from his tour of duty in Iraq. Lt. Col. Alex Murphy, a member of the Reserves, showed us behind the scenes images of his tour from August 2006 to August 2007. Alex is a former teacher and was a colleague of Tip Sweany and Don Heitman at School 110. Alex was also a judge’s magistrate for the prosecutor’s office. Alex was accompanied by his two sisters, Molly and Katie, and Judge Jerry Zore and Vickie Ransberger. Alex was a trainer at Camp Atterbury and decided to volunteer for active duty after training approximately 6,000 men and women to go overseas. He served in Iraq as a special liaison to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense. The slides that he showed were truly spectacular. They were a mix of historical sites and real people he dealt with while in Iraq. Several slides showed the crossed swords near the parade grounds where Saddam would review his troops. He also had slides from Uday and Qusay Hussain’s house. It was a coincidence that Alex was with us the same day that the Board approved a donation to the Lawrence Sertoma Club for a Welcome Home Party and Fundraiser to be held at Camp Sertoma on August 18. There will be a silent auction to raise money for the benefit of two injured soldiers, Army Sgt. First Class Jeffrey Mittman and Marine Lance Corporal Joshua Bleill. If you can attend this event, everyone would appreciate it. Alex is also a member of the East Sertoma Club.
Joline Ohmart, Washington Township Tax Assessor visited the Club on July 12. She spent quite a bit of time discussing how tax rates are determined and explaining why there were massive property tax increases this year. Figures were presented showing an actual property in Marion County. It was interesting to see what goes into determining how our taxes are figured. We thank Joline for her visit, especially at this trying time in her job.
