CONTRIBUTED PHOTO Matins Kiwanis President Don Feld, left, and program chair Frank Moran welcome Casey Wendt, social worker involved with Pathway to Hope at the Salvation Army.

Matins Kiwanis met Thursday morning at 6:30 a.m. in the Salvation Army building and were greeted by Glen Christen. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Frank Moran gave the Invocation and the buffet breakfast was served. Token Fines were paid by Tammie Frederick, Moran and Don Feld with Happy Dollars coming from Moran, Feld, Frederick and Alan Hilleman and free breakfasts won by Feld and Keith Bloomquist. Andy Schwandt presented Michael Sills the Mr. Clean Gloves Award for his help cleaning up after the last Funnel Cake outing. Schwandt also alerted the club to the next Funnel Cake outing in Dysart on June 3.

Scholarships of $750 each were awarded to Michelle Ankrum and Frank Iole. Ankrum will be attending Wartburg next year and majoring in elementary education and Iole will attend the University of Iowa focusing on a biomedical degree.

The guest speaker Casey Wendt was introduced by Moran. Wendt is a social worker at the Salvation Army and has been involved with the Pathway of Hope. The Pathway of Hope is a program that focuses on families with children that others believe have the potential to get out of the grips of poverty by applying themselves rather than leaning on the government to get by. Wendt customizes each opportunity by showing the families what it takes to change their mindset of “just accepting the status quo as never-ending.” Positive changes do happen by not just “throwing money at the problem,” but by applying simple baby steps of budgeting and applying a proper work ethic to start the momentum. Questions were raised and answered and the meeting was adjourned by President Feld.