The Rotary Club of Topeka

10/19/2026

Thanks to my good friend Vince Frye who took these excellent photos! I rushed in last week and grabbed Vince because I had a dog emergency and the Vet wanted him at the office right then! It had a happy ending and I will just say it involved my Manchester Terrier (it is their job) catching and eating a mouse that may have been eating mouse poison!

The Speaker was Sarah Dunekack, the President and CEO of Junior Achievement of Kansas. She Spoke about their role in schools, how to get involved and the Business Hall of Fame.

Sam Carkhuff, our very successful head of Polio Plus, made a personal pledge to encourage the club.

We had several guests:

Susan Cochran, a guest of Susan Alexander

Caleb Rice, a member of the South Rotary Club.

Bob Reynolds, a guest of Blake Sutton.

David Knoll, visiting his brothers Dick and Steve.

10/06/2026

This meeting was a combination of Leanna's delightful fun games and a tremendously educational and eye opening program. That is un unbeatable combination!

Kevin Holland, the managing partner of the excellent engineering firm of Cook Flatt and Strobel, gave the presentation about the twenty - five year attempt to make the Kansas River usable for fun and the area near the bridges over the River a highlight of Topeka.

Kevin said Engineers are not good speakers but if that is true he is the exception. He did a beautiful job with a difficult, many faceted, attempt to make Topeka the last State Capital with a River running through it to maximize the positive uses of the River. He did a very professional job of explaining why it has taken so long and what the nearly impossible problems are that have blocked the completion of the area of the River being both used for recreation and for new life being brought to the area of north and south Topeka near the River.

Karen Hiller also spoke about the City's involvement in the project.

Dick Knoll announced that his brother Steve is now a Chaplin with the first responders in Lawrence. Congratulations Steve! That is very necessary and needed work.

The question I think was " What do people not know about you? Bette, Stan, and Stephanie had some very interesting answers. These games are fun!!

We had several guests Ashley Spaar, Nick Arnold a guest of Chelsey Godinez, and KellyPotter a guest of Elaine Swartz.

10/01/2026

There's still time to sign up for the Rotary Clubs of Eastern Kansas - District 5710 District Conference - see link in the post to sign up NOW!

Our district conference, with our sister district (5680), will be happening this month; we hope you can join us, 23-24 October, in the little apple (Manhattan)…we will also have a Polio Walk on World Polio Day…get registered now at:

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/zumtaqj

Hope to see you there!!! 💙💛

09/30/2026

What a truly fun meeting last week and more learning about our fellow Rotarians!! Thanks Leanna for these very creative meeting ideas and thanks Zach for being an organizer of the details at the meeting.

The first question was to choose a Rotarian who had helped you or one who exemplified a good Rotarian. Steve knoll kicked things off by selecting Stephanie in thanks for her great Social Planning. Stephanie then chose Joanie for being so helpful to her when Stephanie was new to Rotary. Joanie selected Jim for his steadiness and loyalty for his long time attendance. Jim chose David as a friend and Dave selected Marge for her hard work for the club.

There were then three questions for each table to quickly discuss and report answers. The questions were:
-What are you most proud of that is not on your resume?
-If you had $1,000 to give, how could you best help Topeka?
-What advice would you give to your 18 year old self.

Representatives from the tables reported many fascinating ideas!!

Andy Thompkins gave a wonderful report on what an exciting year this will be for The Topeka Symphony and I think most of us wanted to rush to get tickets.

Larry Dimmitt gave a very informative report on Rotary International Global Grants and how our Zoo project will be affected.

We had two guests: Curtis Casy, a former member of our club in the '70's and Chevas Drake.

09/17/2026

We were glad to welcome Dr. Tiffany Anderson, Superintendent of Topeka Public Schools 501 at our meeting today. She shared some insight into the district and its students, including an 86% graduation rate and more than 2,000 district employees. We also learned about the many college and career-ready opportunities available to students.

501 was featured on CBS Evening News and shared some of their wonderful accomplishments! Check out the link below to learn more!

https://youtu.be/c-oeXH3vNZg?si=NAvkJtyaxL-hHm9N

We also heard from Tracy, who is working with our local school districts and meeting with students to explore how they can get involved with Rotary—and how we can support them. We’re looking forward to seeing where those conversations lead!

We had several guests join us, including David Knoll, Dick and Steve’s brother. Our Fun Buck announcements gave us plenty of entertainment, as David, Dick, and Steve paid to get up in front of the group and roast each other. 😂💰

09/14/2026

We all got to see and hear the new Superintendent of Washburn Rural School District Dr. Katie Collier. Zach did an excellent job of introducing her and telling us about her background.

She brought with her the Washburn Rural Director of Communications Jessica Roberts.

Tod introduced the Washburn ECO BODS and we learned how much of an impact they are having at Washburn and we are going to assist them by making them our table money recipients for the next two months!

The Reverend Doreen Rice, the Rector of St. Davids Episcopal Church was introduced by President Leanna as a new member.

Carl told us all about the wonderful evening planned in early October by the Peace and Justice Organization and Marlene the President of the Sales and Marketing Club, has an opening for a team for their Golf Tournament.

09/09/2026

Leanna opened another excellent meeting last Thursday with a very educational program and an International element! Becky and Kinzie were our greeters.

Kerrice Mapes from Arts Connect and the Founder of the 785 Magazine was the Speaker. Originally 785 was a print magazine but now it is digital and connected with Arts Connect. The Goal originally and now is to provide a full service calendar of what is going on in Topeka in any part of The Arts and it is digital and contains all the information you need. It is free and is always up to date. Anyone who wanted an events listed can reach the digital calendar by contacting Arts Contact.

For years the public has wanted a central calendar for the arts so people will know what is going on in Topeka and now we have it!

Blake and Ben announced an event for Rotarians to be involved with in December -- The KTWU live on TV fundraiser. We will be asked to answer the phones on the TV program.

Wayne announced his third grandchild!

Leanna introduced Vince Gonzales, a new member.

Glenda Duboise has received the honor of being chosen a a Woman of Excellence by the YWCA of Northeast Kansas.

We had a number of guests: The McNaughts from Brisbane, Australia,. They are close friends of Lois and Larry Dimmitt. The Steinfelds from California and she is the sculptor of the works outside the Garden Building and also the work in front of the Giraffe building.Joanie brought her husband Roger. Sarah Fizzel the director of Arts Connect and Nick Premeir.

09/01/2026

What a great meeting last Thursday! It was an important cause -- helping to fill Hygiene Packs for Blessing Boxes in Topeka plus it was a lot of fun to fill the packs!

Leanna opened the meeting as usual with a lovely Rotary positive thought for the day and then asked the group question: What have you down lately to Pay it Forward? Pat, Kade and Grace had excellent responses.

Stephanie introduced the program: Stephanie Miller and Debbie Dick operate 63 Blessing boxes around Topeka. The individual, groups, neighbors and friends work together to fill along with help from Debbie and Stephanie. If you are interested in contributing or getting more information the Website is Blessing.org and all money goes to food.

Lee and Susan were Greeters and Helen Van Etten was introduced as a new member. Carol Christensen was a a welcome guest who came to help fill the Hygiene Bags.

All of the members filled the bags from items placed on a very long table and kept going through the line till all the ingredients were in bags! The Club filled 192 bags -- Whoopee!!

Lee's wonderful Veggies (particularly beautiful tomatoes) were a treat for members.

08/31/2026

Special Bulletin!

On Thursday our Club filled 192 Hygiene Kits for Blessing Boxes! A great cause and a lot of fun!! Thanks Stephanie!!

08/20/2026

We were thrilled to have Cheri Faunce, Executive Director of the YWCA Northeast Kansas join us to share updates on the incredible progress they’ve made in our community, including exciting developments at their main campus. We also welcomed a number of great guests today and hope to see them back at future meetings!

📢 Reminder: Next week during our regular meeting we’re teaming up with Bee The Blessing for our service project to assemble hygiene kits to be distributed throughout our community — mark your calendars and plan to join us!

💬 Connection Question of the Day: “What’s something you’ve always wanted to try, but haven’t yet?” We got some fantastic answers from Lee and Ashley — and shoutout to Lauren, who’s got her eye on roller derby! 🛼

Thanks to everyone who came out today. See you next week!