March 31, 2014, Club Bulletin, # 502

Program for March 31, 2014: Mercy Hospital CEO Ron Reed...Affordable Care Act
Invocation by: Erika Cox

Rotary Announcements:  Judi Holdorf asked us to note the member interview form on our tables and encouraged Rotarian participation in this effort to get to know one another better!! Tony Joseph invited participation in the Chinese Sister City Art Exhibit at the Gallery on Second (former Marie Lindsay building) for Saturday, March 29, 2014 from 11-4 pm.

Happy News: Oh the membership was proud of the Cyclones... and some so sad for the Hawkeyes but the scholarship fund got richer do to the support of Marv Krieger, Dick Stanley, Scott Ingstad, Larry Hetzler, Bob Lande and Bev White!!  Scott Ingstad shared his consternation that the Hawkeyes were out...and decided he must root for the Cyclones!!  Mike Ruby shared that the Well Project in Haiti is progressing quite nicely with 5 of the 9 wells having been dug and the others to be begun soon!!

Rotary Program: Chris Ingstad and Dan Steele introduced by Bob Allbee presented an informative program on the Octagon Place.  Both Chris and Dan now work in this building once known as a local restaurant and earlier tauted as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The Octagon Place-House was built in 1855 on 320 acres of land. The house was designed by a renowned Buffalo, New York architect and owned by Samuel Sinnett. The home was a copy of one built in Scotland with a spiral staircase, 8 walls and 4 rooms on each of two floors. In 1912 a kitchen was added to the home. The belief of the hidden room for the Underground Railroad is substantiated by the trapdoor found in the kitchen where it is rumored that silver dollars or runaway slaves were hidden. Dan and Chris indicated that the hidden room's suspense was most likely an indoor well or cistern.    The Sinnett family passed the home onto their son Samuel Sinnett. At this time an auction was held with well over 2000 persons in attendance.  The home has been owned by Bob Sinnett, Lee Wainscott, Dr Schlichter and eventually Max and Betty Stanley who purchased it in 1981.  Today it is owned by the New Hope Foundation and houses several not for profit organizations including the New Hope Foundation, Iowans for Tax Relief and United Marriage Encounter.  Dan Steele operates OPI printing and chuckled hoping that the printing business would not be a nonprofit!!