- Good afternoon. Welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club's weekly celebration of service. I'm Steve Wicks.
- I'm honored to serve as your president this year. Please silence your electronic devices. Lots of parking
- problems today. I apologize. Unfortunately, on very rainy days, there are a number of students who just
- come to campus and park at the AMU.
- This day in history, March 3rd, 1931, Star Spangled Banner officially became the U.S. National Anthem
- by congressional resolution. I'd like to remind members about two items. First, we plan our programs
- months in advance, and we don't willingly make last-minute changes. Secondly, as a service club, we
- typically avoid hot political topics.
- However, the U.S. is now heavily involved in a rapidly unfolding Middle East conflict. Wide range of
- possibilities as to how this unfolds and where it ends. U.S. is a constitutional republic. I urge club
- members to communicate their thoughts to our elected federal officials. Secondly, there are roughly
- 200 rotary clubs in the Middle East.
- So as we attempt to get our arms around this evolving situation and all the things happening and things
- to think about, let's remember to also keep Rotarians in our thoughts. Bill Brown will deliver today's
- reflection. Thank you, President Steve. Good afternoon, fellow Rotarians.
- I want to reflect on something that is so fundamental that we rarely pause to consider it until it's
- not there, and that is water. The importance of water struck me when my wife called the other day. Grimly,
- she said, the plumber said we can't use any water or flush anything down the drain until our septic
- tank is pumped out. What are we going to do tonight?
- Pumping the septic tank was on my long overdue list, and I had finally called the week before to schedule
- it with Royal Flush. They told me to call back after the snow melted. I would have settled for a straight
- flush. While our inconvenience was temporary, the lack of access to safe water supply is an everyday
- reality for
- billions of people worldwide. The numbers are staggering. 2.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking
- water, nearly one in three people in the world. Over 4 billion people in half the world face severe
- water scarcity at least once a month each year. Since 1990, more than half the large lakes have lost
- significant water. Most major aquifers
- are declining and huge wetlands have vanished over the past few decades. These figures are not future
- projections. This is happening now. Focusing closer to home, a 2022 national study ranked Indiana as
- a state with the most miles of rivers and streams classified as impaired for swimming and water contact
- recreation. 24,000
- 395 miles of water in Indiana. Rural households in Indiana are more likely to lack safe, reliable drinking
- water. Small towns struggle to maintain aging pipes, treatment plants, and wells. Many face steep rate
- increases. If it's a multi-billion dollar upgrade is hard for Bloomington, imagine how hard it would
- be for a town the size of Nashville with 150th our population
- trying to share that bill amongst themselves. But rotary clubs, including this one, have partnered across
- continents to drill wells, protect springs, bring clean drinking water close to people's homes. In addition,
- rotary-supported projects have installed wells, rainwater systems, and basic sanitations in schools,
- turning tens of thousands of dollars into safe water for communities.
- Such projects succeed because they don't just move water, they move people. Water is health. Every day
- contaminated water and poor sanitation contribute to disease that kills thousands of children. By one
- estimate, one child dies every 20 seconds from this illness. Behind every number is a family, a community,
- a future cut short. Water is education.
- When children, especially girls, no longer spend hours collecting water, they can go to school, they
- can learn, and they can imagine a different life. Water is economic opportunity. A household with water
- at home can start a small business, keep livestock, or simply spend more hours on productive work instead
- of walking miles to a distant source. Water is dignity, the ability to wash, to use the toilet safely,
- to care for one's home and family.
- These are basic human rights, yet billions of people still live without these basic rights. Water is
- resilience. As our climate changes, with droughts becoming longer and floods becoming more intense,
- water security becomes the foundation of everything else. Food security, energy security, public health,
- and community health and stability. Many regions are living beyond their hydrological means.
- using more water than nature can replenish. The groundwater we were depleting took thousands of years
- to accumulate. Glaciers and snowpack that fed rivers for generations are shrinking. In Monroe County,
- we are blessed with 10,000 acre feet of water in Lake Monroe. That seems like an endless supply to some,
- but the 2012 drought showed that even that may not be enough, especially
- as we have new pressures on our water supply buildings such as hyperscale data centers, toxic algae
- blooms, and other phenomena. When you turn on your tap this evening, that simple act represents
- an extraordinary privilege. Nearly three billion people do not enjoy that same confidence that when
- they open a tap, safe water comes out.
- As a Rotarian, consider supporting international projects that provide safe water to communities in
- need. As an Indiana voter, take a moment to contact our legislators and voice your support for bipartisan
- legislation like the Ohio River Restoration Program Act, which would make a valuable federal grants
- available to Indiana communities. By acting, you help ensure lasting solutions for water access locally
- and globally.
- So take action now. Don't wait until a crisis hits, as I did. Whether supporting global water projects
- or advocating for local water legislation starting today is the key. It's true that you can pay now,
- or believe me, you can pay a lot more later. Water is life. Let us choose to be stewards of this essential
- resource, both here and around the world.
- ensuring that every person has the opportunity to thrive. Together, we can make a difference.
- Thank you. Thank you, Bill. Heidi Schultz has our guest today. Good afternoon. I'm so pleased to welcome
- the following guests to our Rotary meeting today. Becky Wan, guest of Steve Engel. Danya Jabari, guest
- of Art Omic.
- Tracy Goodman and Nikki Bell, guests of Hank Walter. Leslie, do we have any guests online? We do not,
- all Rotarians today. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks, Heidi. Today, Raj Shinawi's birthday. To share
- from your party's side, right now I have a listing and we
- Let's try that again. Today is Raj Shadawi's birthday. My birthday is on the 5th and Bob Zulsberg celebrating
- a birthday on the 6th. And one anniversary to celebrate, John Armstrong, four years on the 8th. Just
- a few announcements. Please register for the district conference, May 8th and 9th at the Galt House
- in Louisville. Friday evening, lots of fun adventures.
- You can choose between a trip to the Peerless Distillery. You can imagine what's going to happen there.
- A tour of the Louisville Slugger Museum. Interactive visit to Flame Run Studio and Gallery where you
- create your own blown grass, glass, not grass. And a guided tour of Churchill Downs Racetrack and Kentucky
- Derby Museum. So those are all choices for Friday night social activities. Saturday is a work day.
- But please register for the Rotary District Conference if you are interested. You can learn more at
- rotaryallstars.com and the link should be in the roundabout. Several Rotarians volunteering tomorrow
- on Wheels Meals on Wheels. I think they might need one or two more. Diana Hoffman sitting in the back.
- If you're planning to go or interested in going, please check with Diana. Rotary Toast Committee.
- has selected Lori Burns McRobbie as this year's honoree. And Lori Burns McRobbie has named Middleway
- House as her charity recipient. So, Rotary toasts in November, and people are already gearing up. And
- then finally, congratulations to our past president, Alan Barker, who is filling in for Tyler over there.
- Alan has been named our district governor for the 28-29 year.
- Okay, if you could queue up the, tee up the. Nope. Can you get to the beginning? Nope. No. All right.
- You guys had a sneak peek, sorry about that. So international theme today. Nope, back to the.
- Okay, our club has lots of people from all over the world. We're very proud of our member, many members
- from other countries. One of the things that makes this club very special. So today's membership quiz,
- five Rotarians, one of whom is originally from the US, right? So your choices will be Gerona Rotich,
- professor from the School of Public Health.
- past president Jim Cryway, president-elect Sam Udak, Kelly School of Business professor Erica Kovacs,
- and our own Elan Barker. So those of you who think Professor Girono Rotich is from the US originally,
- put up your hands. Okay, no votes for Girono. Second, Jim Cryway, past president and one of our more
- seasoned members,
- All right, lots of votes for you, Jim. You're doing very well. Next choice, President-elect Sam Udak.
- Put up your hands if you think Sam is the one. All right, fair number of votes. Fourth choice, Kelly
- School of Professor Erica Kovacs. If you think Erica is originally from the US, put up your hand. Ah, one vote.
- And finally, past president and future district governor, Alain Barker. If you think Alain is originally
- from the US, put up your hand. Ah, okay, one vote, okay. Alain, you and Erica are tied. Good job. Okay,
- well, if you picked Gerona Rotich, you're incorrect. Gerona was originally from Kenya. She's probably in,
- in near recent years, one of our most traveled members. Here's a picture from a couple of months ago,
- it's Washington, D.C. and Girono meeting the U.S. ambassador from Kenya, or the Kenyan ambassador to the U.S.
- Second choice, Jim Cryway, our past president. Jim Cryway, originally from Ontario. So if you voted
- for Jim, you're wrong.
- All right, those of you who voted for Sam Udak, you've got it right. Sam is from South Bend, Indiana.
- Erica Kovacs, Erica is originally from Brazil. She actually came to the US as a Rotary Youth Exchange
- student in our club. She's very active in our Family Services Committee, particularly the Youth Exchange.
- program. She did a lot of work with our last youth exchange student. And a last choice, Alain Barker.
- As you can see where he's pointing, Alain is from South Africa. Yes, his daughter Catherine doesn't
- seem particularly impressed that Alain is from South Africa. But she has moved to the East Coast where
- she doesn't have to be as close to her dad. Anyway, so good job.
- Rotary seven areas of focus. You've seen this slide before. The next one, Bill Brown teed up wonderfully.
- March is water, sanitation, and hygiene month for Rotary. Last one, Happy Dollar proceeds. We're going
- to have time for Happy Dollars today. Proceeds in March and April will be given to the Bloomington Rotary
- Foundation. Now we have a minute for a Paul Harris presentation.
- Mike Baker, do you want to come on up? 40 minutes in the line out there, so I wasn't sure I was going
- to make it. So first of all, I want to welcome my Rotarian fellow members of the club and any guests.
- I'm really confident. Congratulations to our district governor-elect. The way you've handled the AV
- gives us a lot of confidence. So I did want to say happy birthday to Raj. Happy 50th, Raj. So anyway,
- we'll move forward. Good afternoon, fellow Rotarians. Today I have the pleasure of introducing two of
- our members for a Paul Harris recognition.
- Joy Kahn-Harder and Liz Cook-Perwin, would you please come forward? Glad you found parking. You know,
- we recently saw a video a week or so ago about the donations to Rory International and where they go.
- seven-way focus of rotary here, and obviously water is one of them with both sanitation and wells. So
- that's where money goes when you contribute to Rotary International. Both Liz and Joy have supported
- our club for years. They've worked on different committees within our club, but also have served the
- community in many ways. Liz currently is the government community relations manager for Duke Energy,
- But in her past, she's worked for Smithville and the Bloomington Chamber, served on the Bloomington
- Rory Foundation Board, and has been involved on numerous other boards, including the Ellsville Chamber
- and the Owen County Chamber, and the Bloomington Economic Development Corporation. So I'm thinking maybe
- we should nominate you to help figure out where we're going to get a hotel for the Convention Center.
- That would probably be a fun project. So this will be Liz's Paul Harris Fellow Plus Three.
- Joy, on the other hand, is the voice and face of our Zoom, except for today. Another longtime member
- of the club, she has been involved in many of our communities and service projects professionally in
- her past. She was executive director of Bell Trace from 2004 to 2019, social work service at Metalwood,
- retirement community, and currently is self-employed at an LLC named Anchored Passages. You may not
- know this,
- But Joy is a elder care professional providing counseling and guidance and end of life guidance. Today,
- Joy will be also recognized for her Paul Harris plus three. Both of these women are shining examples
- of why Rotary was smart in 1986 to allow women to join Rotary. That's right. They're both great people.
- They're fun to be around.
- And I'm glad that I know both of these two people. So today, we're going to give you this pin. Where
- do you want to? OK. OK. Here we go. Hopefully, that'll stay on. Congratulations. Thank you. You too.
- Rotarians, would you please rise?
- join me in recognizing these people. I'm going to have lunch. We have just a couple of minutes for a
- short happy dollars. Is there anyone who's happy today?
- Oh, I'm not sure I can make it add up, but I am very happy. I am grateful for Indiana University for
- providing me with such meaningful entertainment. Over the past seven days, I attended two brilliant
- films at the IU Cinema, three
- brilliant performances at the Jacobs School, including last night with the Latin jazz ensemble that
- you missed. And you are sorry. And I also, the rest is to congratulate Alan. I knew I was going to do
- something for Happy Dollars. I wasn't sure what it was until I got here. And our president,
- presented me with this copy of his son-in-law's book, Justin Bailey and Anthropology of Wandering. I
- was his teacher at Ivy Tech. He went on to graduate from IU. And the gentleman visiting us, I said,
- what's your PhD in? And he said, anthropology. So all praise to Justin Bailey and our other IU and Ivy
- Tech graduates. Thank you.
- Hi, we are David and I are just one glad to be back. We've been in six weeks in Mexico. So it's nice
- to be back in person. But our happy dollars while we were there, we got our Mexican residency. So we
- were really pleased with that. Thank you. Sandy. Sandy.
- Congrats to Joy and Liz. I am very excited to announce that on April 12, we are going to have a VIP
- event at the Country Club, which will feature VIP women, some from our club, that will be doing a speaking
- presentation of a Maya Angelou poem, and it will be a fabulous event. And Joy Harder will be one of
- our fabulous speakers, Sylvia McNair, and also the wonderful Beverly Callender Anderson.
- I think we need to cut that short. Thank you, Michael. So I won the honor of introducing today's speaker.
- Peter Schultz, originally from Metro Detroit, Michigan, played football for the IU Hoosiers from 2019
- to 2022, playing on both the Gator and Outbolt Bowl teams.
- Peter was a two-time All Big Ten academic team selection. He coached his business fraternity,
- Alpha Kappa Psi, in the 2022 Little 500. A year later, Peter became a writer for Alpha Kappa Psi, where
- he posted one of the fastest individual trial times and rode in the race itself. After graduating from
- IU in 2023, Peter worked in the raw materials division of New Course Steel in Salt Lake City, Utah.
- In January of 2025, he returned to Indiana and accepted the role of race director for the Little 500.
- Since becoming race director, Peter and his team has set a record for the number of women's teams attempting
- to qualify and have increased the number of men's teams involved as well. In his free time, Peter loves
- to travel, run, work out, rock climb, and he enjoys anything that has anything to do with music.
- Please welcome Peter Schultz as he brings us up to date regarding the world's greatest college weekend.
- Thanks a lot, Steve, and thank you all for having me. It's a great honor to be here. I really appreciate
- the opportunity to come and speak to you guys. My presentation and as I, there it is.
- And my presentation is titled The Life of Little 500. And I hope just to go through the history and
- current happenings and things to look out for and see how the races really run. First, a little bit,
- just a little bit more background on myself. As Steve said, I love the outdoors and love being active.
- The bottom two is me and my team when I rode in the Little 500 years ago. And then also I got
- In my college football career, as illustrious as it may sound, I got a total of two plays in and that's
- one of them. And on one of the two plays, we scored a touchdown and I personally did well against Purdue.
- So I take that and run with it. And the way I came off the field, you would have thought I single-handedly
- won World War II.
- Just for some background, the history of Little 500, I was talking to some of the young bucks over here
- telling me about the 10th Street Stadium. And it sounds like we had a couple of riders that rode in
- it. But the Little 500 was originally inspired by an informal dorm race on bikes. And this race is spotted
- by Howdy Wilcox, who at the time was the president of the IU Foundation. And the IU Foundation is kind
- of the endowment arm of the university.
- And although it's technically speaking a nonprofit, it's financially supports different goals of the
- university. So more about Howdy Wilcox. You can see him on the left and his dad is on the right. His
- dad won the Indy 500 in 1919. And so the little 500 is based off the Indy 500 just with bikes. So that's
- kind of where the inspiration came from. So in Howdy Wilcox,
- was he was tasked with leading the IU Foundation by Herman B. Wells, who we all know and love. And he
- wanted to create a connection between the students and the IU Foundation for future benefactors. So
- he created the IU Student Foundation. And to this day, our mission at first, it was to raise money for
- student scholarships. Today, we pick an initiative
- for students that the students lead the campaign, and it's supposed to help students. So two years ago,
- we did the local food bank. The last couple of years, we've done mental health resources on campus.
- And this year, it's going to be for basic needs on campus. So the philanthropic campaign is called Students
- Helping Students because it's literally students helping students.
- And as I said, originally in 2023, we had 599 student donors in 2024 and 2025. The initiative went towards
- the mental wellness house on campus. And last year we had 1,198 student donors. So essentially we're
- doubling it and the campaign's growing, the impact's growing. And each team has a quota based on how
- many riders registered for their team. And if they hit reach that in that quotas to hit
- a certain amount of donors that donate in that team's name. The minimum amount of donation is $5. We
- do not necessarily care about the amount. It's more towards to have as many students participate as
- we possibly can to help branch that gap that Howdy Wilcox's mission or Howdy Wilcox's goal was and his
- mission. So in our first year, we had 2017 skip their SHS patch.
- Last year we had 55 teams get their SHS patch and this patch is just on their jersey and it symbolizes
- that they care about their fellow students and they're racing for a bigger cause than themselves.
- And then, so the IU Student Foundation against the organization that puts on the race. And the organization
- structure starts at the top with the IUS staff. I'm one of those and I'm the race director. My boss
- is the IUSF staff director, who's Emily Carrico. And then my colleagues, Emily Tipton, who's our office
- Office coordinator, excuse me and Amy daily on who heads our student philanthropy Reporting to us is
- the writers council in the steering committee the steering committee runs they run all the races They
- run the fundraising the writers council run. They recruit other writers. They develop other writers
- They have they put all the writers for rookie week because we don't just throw people on a track and
- say good luck that would I Would get fired really quick if that was the case
- and we try to engage our community and yeah, just anything involving recruiting, student philanthropy
- and developing the field and beneath the Steering Committee and the Writer's Council are writers and
- general members who are general members, our volunteer force that volunteer at all of our races and
- also at all of our events. It's not just races either. We have a women's reception every year. This
- past Saturday we had IU Sing
- which is the biggest a cappella competition on the campus where all the a cappella groups compete in
- the top and the top performers get a chance to perform at the little 500 where they can perform the
- national anthem or back home again in Indiana. So the first race of the little 500 was in 1951. Um,
- I don't remember it. Maybe some of you do, but, um, it was won by the South hall Buccaneers, which is
- present day Collins house. And,
- One team of note to me that I think is really cool, Alpha Phi Alpha was the first all-black team we
- had in that first race. And this was 13 years before the Civil Rights Act in 1964. So the race has always
- been pushing boundaries philanthropically and racially and also physically. So I think that was really,
- really cool.
- I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up the first real race that happened, which was in 1988, when the women
- finally were able to participate in the Little 500. Previously, and even after that, too, the women,
- they had a Mini Little 500, which was a tricycle race. The women that participated in it loved it. Some
- might say it was patronizing, but the women that participated loved it, but some strong women came together
- from Kappa Alpha Theta in 1987. They attempted to qualify.
- And they narrowly missed, but they caused enough of a ruckus that they got the women's race started
- the next year and they filled the field. They went door to door, handed out flyers and recruited other
- teams to compete against. And I think that's a per, I think that's particularly a strong point because
- they didn't end up winning that 1988 race. They got second to Wilkie sprint. Um, but I think without
- them, of course, they, uh, uh, they were the.
- They were the Jackie Robinson a lot of ways, a little 500 and broke a lot of barriers. And today Kappa
- Alpha Theta is the winningest women's team. So going forward in the race today, we have 583 registered
- riders. 320 of them are women. This year we have 41 men's teams registered and 36 women's teams, which
- tied a record that we set last year for the women. And then this is the, this is the,
- It's an electric event. We have 15,000 people that come every year, uh, for each race. And last year,
- the women's race came down to a seven team sprint at the end. Um, it's a hundred laps for the women,
- 200 laps for the men. And I get questions all the time. Why is there that discrepancy? That's a great
- valid question. It went up to vote a few years back amongst the women's field that they wanted to raise
- it to 200 laps, like the men's and like the Indy 500 is, uh, which is what the race was originally based
- off of. And.
- 90% of the women said they didn't want to race it to 200 laps, and I don't blame them. As we've got
- about a four or five team race for this one. Theta in front right now with Bailey Capella as they head
- into turn two. It's Capella. It's Libby Lewis, one and two. Novice not too far behind.
- Yeah, it's pretty fun, pretty electric event. Obviously I have a football background and when I first
- saw the race,
- I knew exactly what I wanted to do when football ended because I wanted to be, stay a part of a team
- and stay and stay athletic. And it's just the perfect event for it. And it's one of the few,
- the opportunities to perform in front of a crowd like that are few and fleeting. So it's really fun
- to be a part of it to this day. Now to qualify, um, it's has nothing to do with the race. It makes no
- sense and it's beautiful and it's perfect.
- So to qualify, even though the men's race is 200 laps, the women's race is 100 laps, the qualifications
- is only four laps. I get questions about it all the time, but it's one of my favorite days of the year.
- Seeing how intense all the riders are, it's really inspiring and really fun to be a part of. But it's
- four laps around the track. You need at least two riders, maximum of four riders, because there's an
- exchange between each lap.
- And 33 teams qualify in each field and you get three attempts. But I also have a video of Qualls from,
- we have a docu-series that highlights three teams every year from both fields, three teams from both
- fields. And the docu-series does a really good job of depicting the drama of Qualls and between the
- teams. So here's a cool clip there. And these are from the two top men's teams last year from Qualls.
- Nas is back on the bike. It's a clean brother to brother exchange. Now Nas makes the final turn for
- SAE. Nas crosses the finish line and SAE clocks in at a 2-2-4. Let's go boys! Come on! Come on! Woo!
- We'll celebrate too. I love it. I love it.
- after SAE's phenomenal run, another race front runner in BKB, ready to qualify. BKB has never won quality
- before, but could this be the year? Paul Lee is zooming through this first lap, skipping into turn two.
- This could be one of our faster laps we have all day. Lee with the nice exchange off to Wagner as BKB
- could challenge SAE here if they go quick enough.
- first big goal that we want for Coles to win. Getting first place would be amazing. It's a pretty big
- task and no team's ever done it before. As Villarreal makes the final turn, could BKB do it? Did he
- get there in time? He did! A 2.23 for BKB. With a time of 2.23, BKB will be on the pole
- for the first time ever. But yeah, I love that clip. To my knowledge, they probably don't keep it from
- me, but there's no real beef there, but there's definitely a healthy competition between all the riders
- that is really intense.
- But then in addition to quals, we have our spring series events, which includes Missing Out, which is
- like cycling musical chairs. Team Pursuit, where a minimum of three riders compete for 15 laps around
- the track. There's two on the track at a time. They start at each corner, and they race each other.
- And then the top two times at the end of the day compete in the final. And then Individual Time Trials,
- which is a four-lap sprint around the track against the clock. Then we have our fall series events,
- which includes Cyclocross, which is a course around the tailgate fields.
- Which is always really fun in the peak of in the peak foliage Which is 12 laps and they have to you
- can see the hay bales. We put up obstacles for them They're scarecrows hay bales just odd things that
- to make it fun But then we also have street sprints, which is a 200 meter sprint from on 7th Street
- from the IMU down to show Walter Fountain Which has done the next day typically and then we also wake
- night weeknight race series throughout the fall which consists of a vets only race and
- Rookies only race and missing out with both of them. And then Bloomington Classic, which is a little
- 500 Madison style race. Madison style is exactly what the little 500 is. It's a relay. There's no set
- amount of laps for each rider. And each rider just has to touch the bike. And there's usually a set
- amount of exchanges that you have to partake in. And then we have rookie requirements, which we don't,
- again, we don't just send riders out there.
- Rookie requirements include skill checks races track hours and then we in the fall we do group rides
- to make sure that people know the rules of the road and we always send reminders and make sure people
- are people are being safe and And have proper etiquette both on the track and on the road Which I was
- told some of you guys may oversee some road construction a lot of great projects going on riders want
- to make sure that they're that you guys are appreciated and they also wanted to let me know that
- There may be a few potholes around Lake Lemon. If you guys could just look into that. I don't know who
- it is. I'm just the messenger. But this is my last slide I have for you guys before I open up for questions.
- But this is just some of the training that our riders do. It's really impressive. They are real athletes.
- The 341 miles, that's on one ride.
- That route right there is called the Nashville 90, where riders will do a loop to Nashville, down south
- of Lake Monroe, then back to Bloomington's 90 miles. He did it four times. The bottom left is a more
- typical, if you guys aren't familiar with Strava, it's a great training account, or straight, it's like
- a social media for athletes and endurance athletes, where you can share your rides and it tracks your
- rides for you and your runs, whatever it is.
- post-grad admittedly I don't ride as much as I would like to but you know you got to get you got to
- get it in so I run but this over here is that's the more typical training schedule where riders will
- get 300 to 400 miles in a week now you don't need to do that to be a little five rider but if you want
- to be one of the top teams that's pretty pretty typical and all of it comes together here we're on race day
- You get to hand the champions the trophy and all their hard work comes to fruition. But at the end of
- the day, my team, we qualified fourth. We got 17th in the race, but we won our own race, which is just
- as beautiful in itself. Yeah. You guys have any questions? I'd love to hear them. Thanks for
- your presentation. I have two questions.
- semi-related. One of them is about your fundraising. You select a charity, and some of them seem really
- great. I'm curious as to what your measures are. How many people do you serve on campus with your helpful
- food or whatever your charity is that year? And the second thing is, and I don't mean to be a wet blanket,
- maybe I do, little five is great. And what the athletes do is great.
- But there's this whole other side to Little Five that we live with in this community. And what does
- the IU Student Foundation feel their responsibility is to the rest of what we think of as Little Five?
- I'm going to start with that second question, just because what I think you're getting at is kind of
- like the party scene around it. That has nothing to do with us. That has nothing to do with us.
- Um, we, our whole mission is philanthropic. Our whole mission is to raise money for the different, um,
- different organizations that we raise, that we have raised money for on campus. And, um, it's certainly,
- I mean, I'm not, we're not oblivious to it, obviously. Um, but as far as we, we don't, I mean, we don't,
- we don't sell
- We don't sell alcohol in the stadium for our event. We just don't associate with it, really. As far
- as our responsibility towards it, yeah, the best thing I can say is that's not our mission at all. We
- don't encourage that. We encourage you all to come to the race.
- encourage students and anyone's generosity to contribute to helping basic needs of students on campus.
- As far as picking an organization, that is not my role. We do our best to adhere to student needs and
- listen to what the students feel is impactful. And my colleague, Amy DeLeon, heads that. So I can't
- answer directly to that question. Sorry to have a politician answer for both of your questions.
- You can say what you want about me. I am self-aware. And that's probably not the answers you were looking
- for. But yeah, that's a great question. We try to adhere to students' needs. And the first thing is
- that it's got to be on campus supporting students. And then our goal is to have students support students.
- I got a couple of questions. Have you seen Breaking Away? Is it Pope from Chicago?
- He's a South Sider. He's a South Sider. Has everybody here seen Breaking Away? Okay, well, you haven't
- seen it? No, I have. I have. Yeah. The Pope's from, yeah. If you hadn't heard, the Pope is from Chicago.
- Sorry. So as a long, long, long time resident of Bottom Road,
- where most of these riders ride all the time. I will say that over about the last 10 or 15 years, the
- courtesy and awareness of cars and trucks and farm equipment has been great. It's been much improved.
- Rather than a two-hour wait, sometimes going up some of the hills, they really do a good job of trying
- to get in single file best they can. So that's good. We appreciate that. We harp on it. And also, the
- law is you have to be
- You can't have any more than two wide. Obviously, like if it's an empty road, you might go more. But,
- you know, when the cars come in, you know, we always try to be we preach communication and yelling car
- back and making sure that, you know, the roads are meant to be shared. So I appreciate that. On presentation
- today, I, you know, the 78 or 1979 movie, the cutters was made for that name was made for the movie
- and there was no community team really in the race. Is there any thoughts about adding
- one or two, I'm thinking maybe North or South high school just to see if they could qualify and add
- a little bit of fun to that. I mean, I'm sure I'm not the first one to bring up this issue and, but
- I'm just a little curve ball to the proceedings. Um, you know, it's written in our rules that it's meant
- for IU Bloomington students pretty clearly. Um, so I don't know that would kind of go against the mission
- of the race, I think in a lot of ways. Um,
- And also like the answer to the question is no, to be frank. Um, I think I like on a personal note,
- I think it would be fun and really cool, but, um, just with the, with the nature of like the purpose
- of the race and like where the funding goes to, I think, um, I think as fun as it would be, it would
- go against kind of the fabric of the race in some ways, but I think that is a fun idea.
- So years ago, my husband and I were asked to be yellow flag holders standing around the track. Do you
- want to come back? No. But I'm just wondering, I just wonder if they still do that, right? It was a
- fun experience. Yeah, we have volunteers. We have judges. And we're also bringing back alumni races
- this year. And we're looking for volunteers for that, too. So if you're interested in volunteering,
- feel free to reach out to me. And I'm sure we
- guys can get my contacts. So do we have any questions online? No, we do not. Has the the bikes changed
- any over the years that are raced? Yes, phenomenal question. So when I wrote or right before I wrote,
- we wrote Schwinn's. And then previously, I know they wrote Road Masters for a while. And I think Schwinn
- was the first
- I should know this off the top of my head, but I don't. But Schwinn was the first, I believe, bike brand
- that we used. And then in 2023, the year I raised, we switched to state, and we still use state bicycles.
- And the states have been pretty popular. They're well-made bikes for the event. I think it's great that
- the whole student is helping students' mission and that you raised money for student services and programs.
- I'm just curious.
- Maybe I missed it. Like how much do you raise in a typical year? That's a great question. Each year
- we've raised about 60 grand. So is it required that the student teams have sponsors before they qualify
- or do they have to get them afterwards? So I believe you're referring to like the sponsors on the jerseys.
- Yeah, that goes through the student foundation, not through the team specifically. And we have our sponsors
- and we'll put them on a jersey and we have our sponsorship process. If any of you guys are looking to
- sponsor the race too, please reach out to me. I have two questions. The first is getting back to the
- bikes. So there was one women's team last year. They only had two riders, one of whom was very tall,
- the other one was
- pretty short. So on a team like that, when they have people of different sizes, how do they do they
- adjust the bikes during the race? Do they have different sized bikes? That's the first question. The
- second and this gets back to Lynn's party question. Can you talk about the range of teams that are entered
- in the race? You know, everyone knows about the traditional fraternities and the dorm floors
- and independence, but just some of the others, like I think the
- the army ROTC had a team or the Christian fraternity or sorority. So if you could answer those two questions.
- Yeah, absolutely, Steve. So I'll do your second one first as well. So the range of teams is anyone can
- race. Anyone can start a team. It can be your friend group. It can be a club. The ski club has a team.
- Multiple religious organizations have a team.
- Obviously, the fraternity and sororities make up a big part of it, but there's a lot of independent
- teams. The back-to-back defending men's champion is a team called Black Heat Bulls, and they are just
- an independent bike team. Like that's what they come together to do. And they have a full, they like
- to describe themselves as an organization where their alumni are really involved and they give back
- to their organization. And then there's other independent teams like 3PH stands for Three Park School
- of Gains. They're another
- independent bike team. The Cutters, famously in Breaking Away, the Cutters are an independent team.
- So it really is a really wide range. I was in a business fraternity, which is technically considered
- an independent team, because it's not a part of the Panhellenic organization. So that's considered an
- independent team. So your business fraternities, Teeter and Forest still, and Collins still are dorms
- that have teams.
- So it really is a wide range. And I'm so sorry, can you remind me of the first question again, Steve?
- Just bike sizes and the size of different riders and how do they handle that? So each team gets two
- bikes and they get a bike deposit. They can return and get the bike deposit back after the race concludes.
- But each team gets two bikes and we've already distributed them to each team. So you typically,
- You want to have two bikes regardless in case something happens. And then I'll use my team when I race
- as an example. So out of the four of us, I'm about 6'1". I usually tell people 6'2". And so a couple
- of my teammates were like 6'4", 6'5". Then one of my teammates was 5'8". So we had two bikes. We had
- a 54 centimeter and 58. The 54 was for our 5'8 team mate. And then we just
- hit middle ground between me and my two teammates that are six, four, six, five. Would you consider
- Kilroy's as a sponsor? Uh, no. Can you tell like one of those stories that you hear, you know, the one
- you tell later on, just like a funny story from something you've done a little. Something like in the
- race or like either way.
- Um, just like any funny story, like related to the race. I'll tell you what, what's on the top of my
- mind is, um, you know, I graduate, some of the students that I work with now, um, I raised again, so
- I was a senior when they were freshmen. So a lot of them know me, but the younger ones don't really
- know who I am. And, um, being in a recent alum, it's very interesting to hear what age people, the students
- think I am.
- And then, and it's also interesting hearing the age of what some of my colleagues think I am, where
- I get confused as a student and then a real student will think I'm 35. So that's kind of what's on the
- top of my mind. I don't know if that's the kind of story you're looking for, but that's definitely been
- on my mind. So I don't have a question, but I have a little five story if anybody wants to hear it.
- And it's not involving bad behavior.
- I had a Mexican restaurant here in town and I had a kid that was on the cutters and he asked me to sponsor
- them. So I said, okay. And there was a company called the ad sheet in town that I advertised with them.
- We did a promotion where we gave away a bicycle and we had a radio remote with B97. The cutters won.
- They came to the restaurant as a team.
- The girl that won the bicycle was riding around in a car with a bunch of girls when it was announced
- on the radio and they all came over and went nuts. The kids were really well behaved, the adults were not.
- So are you limited on the number of teams for the race, or is it unlimited? It's an unlimited amount
- of teams that can attempt to qualify, but there's only 33 slots for each field. Where do the black key
- bowls originate because they're prominent in every race? That's a great question. So I want to make
- sure I get this story right.
- I don't know the exact timeline, but they originated in, I want to say sometime in the nineties at Ball
- State as a, as a team, not originally affiliated with the little 500. And then they grew over to, to
- Bloomington to IU. So, and then from there, their alumni have just been, they've been really strong
- and giving back and coaching and coaching guys and recruiting, and they have a really strong organized
- team there. Can you talk about in the race itself? You've got 33 riders. Certainly at the start of the
- race, they're bunched up into a peloton. The surface cinder is kind of a different surface than most
- people are used to riding on. What type of communication occurs inside that bunched up group of riders?
- That is a phenomenal question.
- Um, so there's a lot of, I mean, if someone's like getting close, you know, you yell, I'm overlapping
- this at the other, but, um, your tactics, you don't want to say, but you still want to like stay safe.
- Um, and then also teams will have tactics mid race where they might partner with other teams. So like
- last year, um, in the race SAE and so you saw SAE and BKB SAE Sigma Alpha Epsilon and the black key
- bowls. Um,
- They were competing, they were one and two at Qualls. In the race, they started colluding with each
- other, which happens. It's not illegal to an extent. Like if there's like, if someone's doing it the
- whole race, but they were clearly partnering with each other in the race because there was a crash and
- the cutters were involved in the crash and the cutters were the clear number there. There's a clear
- what they're a clear contender. And so BKB and SAE wanted to bury the cutters. So they started going
- off the front.
- and trying to gain an advantage. And then eventually BKB made a move and won. So there are a lot of,
- it is very tactical. It's not just, you know, a physical competition of who can go the fastest for the
- longest. You're so charming and adorable and funny. What's your name? I'm just wondering about the injuries.
- What's the percentage?
- Uh, I don't have a percentage, but we do at every single track practice that we have. Uh, we have our,
- um, I see our intercollegiate, uh, EMS team. So we have a medical team there ready to assist in any
- emergency on race day. We have an, we have an ambulance injuries do happen. Um, and you know, we have
- an insurance policy to try to help out anyone that gets injured. Um, but it's also a risk that you take
- and, um, you know, injuries.
- They happen, I mean, I went from football to cycling, so I know as well as anyone that injuries do happen.
- It's an inherent risk you take, but I would say our rate is low, but we have, you know, there might
- be one or two injuries that happen every year. I mean, they're, I mean, in cycling, the broken collarbone
- is really common. And, you know, luckily we haven't had
- too many, we haven't had like a life threatening injury or anything at the track. So I hope that never
- happens. But you know, you hear of things on the people going on the road, and there's inherent dangers
- on the road to and riders could be doing everything perfect. And you know, they might get hit by a car,
- things are there. So there's an inherent risk there. But to answer your question, I don't have the exact
- rate, but they do happen. And we just take all the precautions we can to keep people safe.
- Peter, thank you. Before you ask Connie for her number, she is here with her husband today. Thanks for
- a great presentation. In honor of your talk, a donation we made this quarter to Amethyst House. I'd
- like to thank today's volunteers, Katie Cerniak, Heidi Schultz, Leslie Kucinko, Bill Brown, Mike Baker,
- Ashley Wesley, Michael Shermas, Dave Meyer, and Alan Barker.
- So it was a surprise today that we were in the Georgian room. As far as I know, we're in the Frangipani
- room next week. We'll confirm that. So our next regular meeting, March 10th, Christy Popp will review
- immigration under Trump 2.0. What's the end game and how are we getting there? Please join us. Elad,
- if you'd put up the graphic for the four-way test, please stand if you're able.
- of the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third,
- will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth,
- is it fun?