The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin": Vol. 2025 #32: 6-4-25

VOLUME 2025     JUNE 4     NUMBER 32

President Greg McCune welcomed all and Greg Wurst gave us an Optimistically spoken daily reflection that was followed by the flag salute.

ACHES & PAINS: Be kind always and remember to breathe in the fresh air and enjoy each day! Keep Patricia McCune and Ed Klimek your thoughts as they continue to recover.

PROGRAM: Mike Fincham introduced us to Katherine Hensler and Kitty Pursley, who enlightened us with a lot of Little Apple Splash information. They spoke to us about the 3rd Annual DocDogs Competition. This is a Non-Profit event for Animal Rescue. There are three competitions combined into one action packed, family-oriented show, June 13, 14 and 15, 2025 at Blue Earth Plaza!

BIG AIR: This part of the competition is the “long jump” for dogs. Each dog and their handler are a competition team, and each team competes head-to-head against the other teams to see who can jump the farthest distance.

EXTREME VERTICAL (EV): This is the “high jump” for dogs. A bumper is hung from an Extender Arm and placed 8 feet from the edge of the dock. Each team chooses their start height until they have two misses. Rounds continue with the bumper being raised in 2-inch increments per round until the dog that jumps the highest takes home the prize.

SPEED RETRIEVE: This is the “speed swim” for dogs. At the green light, the handler signals the dog to run down 20 feet of dock and jump into the water and swim to pull down a bumper that is 38 feet away and suspended 2-inches above the water. Each dog is racing against the clock and the fastest one wins!

Everyone is welcome. This is a 3 day family event FREE to the public, there will be vendors, face painting, demonstrations and there will loads of excitement. There will also be a launch party Thursday night, June 12th at 6:00pm at Aggieville Brewing – featuring Frankly Unacceptable, an unbelievable DocDog!

Katherine and her husband, in their free time, enjoy raising and training sport and working dogs. Kitty has owned dogs her entire life but her experience working with dogs began in 1980 when she became a Community Leader for the local 4H Club. Currently, Kitty has organized and brought the National Dock Diving Competition to Manhattan, again, this is the 3rd year for this event.

 

Today, they brought their competition dogs, Lala and Bodie with them and boy did they have a lot of energy! It should be a great event to go out and see!

CLUB STUFF/ANNOUNCEMENTS and UPCOMING EVENTS:

Larry Fox and Jim Morrison are both running for City Commissioner – good luck to both of you!

T-Ball begins, and we are set with Supervisors and umpires. Thank you to all who have signed up for these duties! (Monday, Tuesday and Thursday evenings)

Marketing Campaign is on Facebook and there have been Radio Ads. Look and Sound great, be sure to share on Facebook.

We’ve received 6 new member applications – keep up the great work!

GUESTS: Lee Modesitt was in attendance again this morning, welcome Lee. Hopefully he’ll become our next new member! Thanks for joining us this morning.

Meeting adjourned with the Optimist Creed

Remember next week will be at Optimist Park, Memorial Service, lunch provided/no charge and Jerry Banaka will honor past members.

JUNE 11: NOON MEETING: Program: Annual Flag Day Celebration at Optimist Park: Topic: “Flag Day Celebration (with catered lunch)”

JUNE 18: MORNING MEETING: Program: Trase McQueen, KSU Researcher on Memory and Aging: Topic: “Memory and Aging Research”

JUNE 25: NOON MEETING: Respect for the Law, RCPD Officer Recognition: Topic: “Respect for the Law”