The "Manhattan Optimist Club Bulletin": Vol. 2025 #22: 3-26-25

VOLUME 2025     MARCH 26, 2025      NUMBER 22

President Greg McCune welcomed the membership and guests, then Greg Wurst shared a reflection. The flag salute followed.

Thad Hall outlined the Manhattan High School Student of the Month Program. The program recognizes Manhattan High School seniors who make a difference in their community through volunteerism and leadership of activities that have a positive impact on the MHS or Manhattan community. The goal of the program is to inspire and encourage youth to get involved in their community in an effort to benefit others. Applicants submit a résumé and are judged by a committee. Six recipients are chosen during the year, and each receives $100 to donate to the organization of their choice and are eligible for a $1,000 scholarship as the overall yearly winner. Ashlyn Dobson was introduced as the Manhattan High School Student of the Month.

Ashlyn thanked the group for selecting her. She is originally from southwest Nebraska and moved here with her parents when her father, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, took a position in Manhattan. Since she came from a small town with a small school with few activity opportunities, she is thankful for all the opportunities the schools in Manhattan have given her, such as running. Following an injury, she started managing the MHS Cross Country Team and found a passion in supporting runner's efforts. She volunteered to help raise funds for the Cross Country Team by working at other races and she expanded her volunteer time to many other races and enjoyed the running community. She also joined other organizations at the high school that focused on helping people and found her passion in her volunteer service to others. As she got older and more experienced in the workings of the organizations, she began to hold leadership positions, such as the president of the MHS National Honor Society. She wanted to show students at MHS that volunteer service was so much more than simply cleaning up a park or other typical service activities. She became president of the Interact Club, the high school version of the Rotary Club, where she established opportunities for other MHS students to volunteer with community organizations and to create their own projects. She continued her passion of volunteering along with other Interact Club members, with Be Able, the Flint Hills Discovery Center, and the Manhattan Public Library as well as other organizations. She wanted to facilitate creation of a spark in fellow students to develop the same kind of passion for volunteer service as she experienced. The Interact Club does other kinds of activities also; this April they are hosting a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) night at the Manhattan Public Library to invite young students in to explore STEM activities.

As she leaves high school and goes to college, she hopes, more that anything, she has made a difference in her school and our community. As she goes to college with her high school and community experiences, she hopes to continue her work into the future and is confident her passion will last a lifetime. She plans to study linguistics and identity linguistic disparity in society and make the world a more inclusive place. She plans to attend college at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Ashlyn Dobson is donating her $100 from the Optimist to Be Able.

Mike Fincham introduced Brad Streeter, Owner/Operator of the iconic Vista Drive-in. Mike noted Brad has been a friend and neighbor since our Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees), days. Brad graduated from Wamego High School in 1967 and graduated from KSU with a BS in Business in 1971. He has been involved with the Vista Drive-in since its inception in 1964. He has been active in 4-H, the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce, and the Kansas Restaurant and Hospitality Association. Brad was married to Karen for 49 years before her tragic death and was later blessed to meet and marry Jenne Andrews in 2020.. Brad has three sons and Jenne has two daughters and a son. Together they share eight grandchildren. They love to travel, play games with friends, and are active in the Manhattan Catbackers. Brad's topic today is “Vista Drive-in: the history.”

Brad's journey into the food business began with his uncle who owned a Dairy Queen in Coffeeville, Kansas. His uncle recognized that when soda is in a bottle (this is the 1950's) and it is accidentally left in the freezer to chill quickly, too long and, when you pop the cap it freezes as the pressure is released. He also noted that kids loved the frozen soda. He was an inventor and he took an old ice cream machine and figured out a way to pressurize it and make a frozen soft drink; it was liquid in the machine, you open the spigot and it would freeze as it went into the cup, which became known as the Icee machine. Brad's father got the Kansas and Nebraska sales territory for Icee machine sales and pulled a 16 foot Comet trailer equipped with an Icee machine around trying to sell Icee machines. At this time in the late 1950's and early 1960's you could buy a Coke machine for $750 or an Ice machine for $3,500 which made the Icee machine a tough sell. He then began to attend fairs etc. They got the concession at the old Municipal Pool (City Park) and came to the realization you could make a lot more money selling Icees to people than selling Icee machines.

Every where he went traveling to sell the machines, he had to eat at restaurants, so he stole all the good ideas from them. He and his wife, a home economics teacher, sat down and put together a plan for a fast food restaurant; at the time, few of them existed. They spent a lot effort to name the restaurant. They came down to two options: Icee Isle and Vista. In 1962 they started the process of purchasing land and building a restaurant. The land they purchased was across the street from the current location (currently Lewis Toyota rental car location), but they could not get the kind of entry they needed from the City. They bought their current location and dug out the hill and filled in the first location. They made a trade with the Country Club for a small piece of property so they could have a good entry point. They built the building and opened in June of 1964. A month after they opened, the highway was blocked off for construction for two or three months, but eventually they ended up doing ok. Brad's first job was clearing out trees on the hill so they could survey the land, before they built the building and opened.

Brad and Karen married in 1970 and when they graduated from KSU, they bought the business from Brad's parents. They had lots of ups and downs, and as Brad stated, “You are only as good as the last burger.” Meaning, people remember their last visit; “If you do a good job they'll tell one person and if you do a bad job, they'll tell ten!” Karen passed away and COVID hit; Brad had been working seven days a week for years and years. His son said to stay home and today was only the second time he had worn a Vista shirt since then. He now comes in and has coffee with his friends and visits. As he looks back at the 60 years they have been in business, and there are so many people who have met their spouses working at Vista, or bring their first dates to Vista. They have had kids and grand kids who have worked for them. Brad said they have been absolutely blessed by the Manhattan Community and it has been a blast.

Brad thanked everyone for having him speak and handed out coupons for free Vistaburgers to each member present.

Brad Streeter, our presenter, Ashlyn Dobson, Student of the Month, and Diane Havenstein, guest.

President McCune announced the Manhattan Optimist were awarded the Distinguished Service Club award at the Greater Manhattan Community Foundation's annual Philanthropy banquet. Twenty Optimist members attended the banquet, including current and immediate past presidents Greg McCune and Bill Wisdom, who accepted the award, and Greg McCune thanked all 100 members of the Optimist club for their tireless work in support of youth programs in our community.

Jim Franke noted the Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction is this Saturday and sign-up sheets are on the table if you have not signed up or need to check your job and arrival time. There are still some openings to be filled.

President McCune also mentioned the final stages of judging the essays co-written by members of the IPS class are nearly complete and the winners will be announced to the class on April 7th. We will have the students here on April 23rd at the noon meeting to read their essays.

He also announced everyone should have received an email about the creation of a Club directory and the instructions for submitting material for it. This is optional, but everyone is encouraged to submit at least some information. The directory will not be published on the website.

Our marketing campaign will start next week. We have three radio ads that have been produced so far and two short videos. The radio ads will start on Eagle radio and the videos are on YouTube. This is part of our new member recruiting/branding campaign.

Greg also mentioned March birthdays: Dale Shipps, Dan O'Neill, Howard Erickson, Julie Brummett, and Gene Klingler. Brad Claussen noted Gene's temporary driver's license picture and Gene received a birthday song since today was his birthday.

Todd Chyba announced Grow Green Match Day was coming up on April 22nd 7:00 am to 6:00pm. In person donations of $25 to $1,000 can be matched and donations can be made at Colony Square Atrium at 555 Poyntz Ave. Donations can be made online also. For further information follow this link: Save the Date: Grow Green Match Day | Greater Manhattan Community Foundation

Sharon Fincham shared the impact of a Student of the Month award. A student, who had received the award a couple of year's ago and whose house burned down most regretted losing two items in the fire and one was her award. Sharon arranged for it to be replaced, but is shows the value recipients place on the award.

SAVE THESE DATES: Spaghetti Dinner and Silent Auction March 29th.

Adjourned with the Optimist Creed

APRIL 2: MORNING MEETING: Program: Frank Bergman & Marlatt Elementary Student of the Month Presentations

APRIL 9: NOON MEETING: Program: Student of the Month & Jeff Sackrider, Wamego Telecommunications Co: Topic: “WTC Service Expansion West”

APRIL 16: MORNING MEETING: Program: Jared Trembley, Planning Manager Flint Hills MPO: Topic: “EV Preparation, Connect 2050, Growth of Bike- Pedestrian Trails”

APRIL 23: NOON MEETING: Ed Klimek: Topic: “Interpersonal Skills Essay Contest Awards Presentation”