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?