A Capital Project

Over the 99+ years that the Pioneers have existed there have been many projects that have been created and implemented throughout the world. There have been times when a project loses momentum and then disappears from view. One of these, the electric map of the United States was resurrected about 3 years ago by a Heartland Council member named Ray Fugger (as in Cougar) who retired from AT&T as a Control Systems Technician in 1991.

Ray was given a sample of a map and decided that he would like to try to make one. The principle was simple. Complete an electrical circuit by touching a probe to a state and then complete the circuit by touching a companion probe to the state capital. The challenge was then to print the graphics and obtain the components for the completed product. In retirement, Ray often finds himself inheriting projects especially at St. Pius church where you’ll find him immersed in the thick of things requiring some manual labor or electrical prowess. This project needed some expertise in mitering wooden borders and holding all of the pieces together.

After he completed his first, he asked the question, “Who would want one of these?”. The Heartland Council decided to bring his sample to the convention of the Nebraska Association of Teachers of Science at Camp Calvin Crest in 2007. From there we accumulated a list of interested teachers. The following year the list grew to 44 and now we knew we had a project on hand. Ray found out where to get the materials for the best price, submitted a budget and after approval he went to work.

The first 7 were handed out in 2008, then there some issues with Ray’s health and for awhile he didn’t know when he would get to the rest. Enlisting the help of fellow Pioneer Steve Dawkins, who also worked at the manufacturing facility, dug in to help and slowly but surely the maps were completed this year and the question became, “How do we get the maps to the teachers?”. There was no budget for mailing them which would have cost about $35 per map and about half of them were to be scattered all around Nebraska, a fact that precluded personally delivering them. Then the light bulb came on. Why not take them to the 2010 Conference for handing out?

As the Heartland Pioneer table was being set up on September 23rd, we found out from Kirsten Smith, the NATS chairperson, that only 5 of the teachers on our list would attend the 2010 conference, and some of these were local. Faced with bringing the maps back to his home,on the following day Ray, Kirsten and Jerry Golmanavich came up with a plan. We could deliver the local ones and with Kirsten’s help we could ask some of the teachers living near the addresses if they would carry the maps! All agreed that this idea would work.

So, Kirsten would gather the “volunteers” and provide the destinations for the maps at the dinner function that Saturday night. We could then determine how to distribute the rest of the more local teachers after the conference. Since the conference, we decided that Ray would take the 6 more remote schools and I would take the 7 schools in Omaha, per se.

We’re done now, and there are no plans to make any more, so we hope the recipients will cherish the ones that you have and feel free to share with the other teachers at your school.

Jerry Golmanavich

Past President

Heartland Council, Pioneers

Heartlandpioneers.com

P.O. Box 541233

Omaha, NE 68154