Club Activities


Below are pictures of the people and projects we support.

Purpose, Community Involvement, and History



Purpose
Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society is a 501(c)4 nonprofit corporation orangized for the purpose of studying the sciences of mineralogy, geology, and paleontolgy, and the arts of lapidary and gemology.

Community Involvement
Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society gives to the community through scholarships, food baskets, and support of the Van Allen Science Teaching Center (VAST), the Eastern Iowa Science Fair and the Connections program. Profit from our annual show and auction is distributed to University of Iowa and Cornell College for scholarships for geology students' required field camps and to the VAST Center to help fund their geology teaching kits, which are used by thousands of students in Eastern Iowa. Members donate food and gifts for three families, supplied by HACAP, at Christmas time. We provide prizes for junior and senior projects at the Eastern Iowa Science Fair, and make a small donation to the Fair. We also donate annually to the Connections program, which brings well-known nature speakers to Cedar Rapids to present programs for the public.

On separate occasions Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society has brought internationally-known dinosaur experts Pete Larson and Phil Currie to Cedar Rapids. Their programs were well attended by the public and attracted lots of children.

History
Cedar Valley Rocks & Minerals Society currently has about 200 members. The club had its beginning in 1951 at the home of Mr. & Mrs. Gerald Ozburn in Marion. Twenty-seven people were present at that first meeting.

Early shows were exhibits at the Science Fair from 1954-1958. Our first official show was held at Hawkeye Downs in April of 1965. The 1978 Midwest Federation Show was held in Cedar Rapids at Hawkeye Downs with our club as hosts. There were 48 competitive exhibits, 948 stamp cancellations, 236 attending the Awards Banquet and 231 campers on the grounds.

From 1983 to 1994 we held our shows at the IBEW Local 405 Meeting Hall in Cedar Rapids. From 1995 to 2003 our shows were at the Teamsters Hall on J St. SW. For our 40th show in 2004 we again hosted the Midwest Federation Show & Convention at Hawkeye Downs.

We returned our show to the Teamsters Union in 2005. Having outgrown the Teamsters Union, we moved our show back to Hawkeye Downs in 2011.