District Governor

Name: Matt Nistler

Home Club
Minnesota State University, Mankato

Division:
North Star Division

Major and Year in School:
Accounting and Finance

Description and your favorite part of your position:
My Favorite part of being Governor is all the people I get to meet. I love visiting clubs all over the district and seeing the differences between clubs.

Favorite Service project:
My Favorite project is Rake the Town, it’s a project where we team up with the Builders’ club and rake the lawns of households that cannot rake it themselves. It’s a great project because we get to help people, and also bond with the Builders’ club. Also it’s a great time for Circle K members to bond and get to know each other better as well.

Favorite Circle K Memory:
My favorite Circle K memory would have to be District Convention in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. I got to meet a lot of awesome people and I got to hang out with a friend that now is one of my best buddies. That convention was awesome for me, and it makes me excited for every District event throughout the year.

Random Fact about yourself:
I drive a Jeep Wrangler named Eleanor.

District Secretary

Name:
Kristin Thomas

Home Club
MSU, Mankato

Division:
North Star Division

Major and Year in School:
Speech Pathology-1st year grad

Description and your favorite part of your position:
I collect all the monthly reports and total the points in the Milkyway system, keep track of the service hours our district does and take minutes at all district board meetings and district events. My favorite part of my position is getting to see what the clubs are up to each month but reading their reports.

Favorite Service project:
My favorite service project so far would have to be painting the monkey exhibit at the Birmingham zoo during LSSP 2009. The monkeys came and leapt on the edge and followed our paint brushes!

Favorite Circle K Memory:
Any Kiwanis family convention, meeting new people, not getting any sleep and just having fun learning about our organization and leadership training.

Random Fact about yourself:
I love to travel! I have been to 8 countries and 17 states, and hope to make it to many more!

Bulletin Editor

Name:
Mark Nyquist

Home Club
Winona

Division:
North Star Division

Major and Year in School:
Management Information Systems

What do you want the CKI members to know about your position:
I make the Buffalo Chips newsletter, which is the newsletter for the district. I also maintain the district website. My favorite part about my position is creating the newsletter and seeing all of the fun projects clubs do.

Favorite Service project:
Bingo at the nursing home.

Favorite Circle K Memory:
Playing broom ball at Divisional Rally.

Random Fact About Yourself:I love visiting new places, I have been to 7 different countries including Egypt and Argentina.

Lieutenant Governor Rolling Plains Division

Name:
Leah Burch

Home Club
Concordia Moorhead

Division:
Rolling Plains Division

Major and Year in School:
Spanish and pre-med at Concordia College in Moorhead

Description and your favorite part of your position:
I absolutely love meeting all the new people and being able to know that I am making a difference and helping people. I love recruiting people and telling them all about Circle K and passing my excitement on to them!

Favorite Service project:
Well, since I go to school in Moorhead, one of my favorite things to volunteer doing, of course, is sandbagging! I also really enjoy helping with Pancake breakfasts and wrapping Christmas gifts for nursing home residents ☺

Favorite Circle K Memory:
My favorite time is the annual Special Olympics Christmas party. We help put on a huge potluck dinner and we all get to dress up as elves and Santa comes and brings presents! It is so wonderful seeing how happy everyone is that we are helping make their holiday a great one.

Random Fact about yourself:
Well.. I am very strange and random at times (I think the whole board can testify to that :P). For starters, I have to sort my candy (like skittles, M&M’s, etc.) out by color before I eat them and I eat the one with the most colors until I have bunches of one of each color… and I often walk with my head down because I’m trying to avoid walking on the cracks. Oh, and I like wearing my one piece spandex suits as often as possible ☺

Lieutenant Governor Dakota Star Division

Name:
Brooke O'Bryan

Home Club
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology

Division:
Dakota Star

Major and Year in School:
Metallurgical Engineering

Description and your favorite part of your position:
To act as an intermediary for clubs in my division to the district, keep clubs informed of upcoming events and encourage them to attend, maintain relations with Kiwanis and key clubs in my division, work on growing my division, remain an active member in my home club. I’m most looking forward to encouraging the other club in my division to grow and hopefully get some roots started for new organizations.

Favorite Service project:
Trick or Treat for Canned Goods

Favorite Circle K Memory:
Playing broomball at DCON.

Random Fact about yourself:
I love dogs, but I’m more of a cat person.

Lieutenant Governor North Star Division

Name:
Melanie Walter

Home Club
Winona State University

Division:
North Star

Major and Year in School:
Mathematics: Secondary Mathematics Education

Description and your favorite part of your position:
I am excited to be a resource to all the clubs in my division and to help serve as another connection between them and the District Board. I can’t wait to talk with all of you more and visit with more Circle K members throughout the year! If you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me! This is going to be a great year!

Favorite Service project:
Holiday Wish List Project - We wanted to make the holiday season a little bit better for local nursing home residents who really do not get any visitors during the holidays. So, we contacted the staff at the Lake Winona Manor Nursing Home in Winona, MN to obtain a “wish list” from the 10 residents they deemed in the most need of some extra holiday cheer. Our group then used this list to purchase holiday gifts for each of these residents. The project was a lot of fun, and we could tell that the residents truly did appreciate our efforts.

Favorite Circle K Memory:
Being able to bring seven members to DCON 2009 after successfully reactivating the Winona club that year was a really proud moment for me.

Random Fact about yourself:
I am really organized, and I like to keep things clean. So, I may have once vacuumed out my desk drawer…