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President Jack called the meeting to order at 12:29. Jenn Dubey gave the invocation, appropriately focused on God’s wonderful creations. John Dale Smith accompanied the Club for God Bless America.
Craig Stiles was prepared to assist with the introduction of visitors and guests. Unusually, there were none, other than the guest who came with today’s speaker and was seated at the head table. Pat Munshaw gave the remembrance report and let us know that the health of the Club was good.
President Jack gave us a quick report on what is paid to District and International, retracting his previous comments which were, as he readily admitted, ‘not thoroughly researched’. With Kelly Rossman, Steve Rosnowski and Dave Marvin all present, Jack did an admirable job of providing material for an upcoming June meeting, but I digress. We pay about $9000 per year to the District and $15,000 to International, which includes $6 per member for the Rotary magazine.
Ken Beachler thanked President Jack for his report and asked what we receive in return for our payments. Perhaps that will be the subject of a future Presidential report. Ken then introduced our guest soloist, Emma Kron. Emma is a graduate of Okemos High School, currently home for the holidays. A most engaging entertainer, Emma shared the humorous Kindergarten Boyfriend from Heathers and I’m in Love with a Wonderful Guy from South Pacific.
President Jack then introduced Manny Garcia, Chair of the Month and Chair of the Day. Manny introduced Liz Roxberry, Executive Director of the Fenner Nature Conservancy. Rather than read her prepared biography, he shared one of Liz’s hidden talents – she is a hot air balloon pilot.
Liz began by explaining that the Fenner Nature Conservancy is a non-profit that manages Fenner Nature Center. In a somewhat unusual arrangement, the Center is owned by the City of Lansing, who turned the management over to the Conservancy as they struggled to figure out how to preserve the Center during economic hard times. Fenner Nature Center includes 5 miles of trails, a visitor center, unique geology and 3 ponds (unfortunately, not natural). There is a robust event schedule including three festivals – the Maple Syrup Festival, Earth Day Extravaganza and the Apple Butter Festival. They receive 65,000 visitors annually and have only 2 full time staff. Obviously, not everything happens without a lot of help from hundreds of volunteers; over 1500 engage annually. The center is open daily from dawn until dusk. Lots of wildlife – deer, turkey, pileated woodpeckers.
With the help of a grant from our club, the Visitors Center has recently been remodeled for inclusiveness. Staff discovered that there were many groups that weren’t able to take advantage of Fenner’s resources for a variety of reasons. That launched an initiative to make the facility more accessible. There are a number of new interactive stations in the visitor center. These new stations do not include any direction for the visitor and the staff and volunteers enjoy observing what activities transpire. There are exhibits that address two levels of learning, but these are not referred to as being for children versus adults. This encourages everyone to participate at the level that is comfortable for them. The exhibits were designed to be interchangeable at a very low cost.
There are several options for extended learning beyond the Visitors Center. There are two accessible paved loop trails, as well as a sensory trail that features signage to point out where you might listen (to feeding birds or a bubbling brook), smell, etc. This signage is universal, so no reading skills are required.
These exhibits have been on a soft open for a few weeks. A formal ribbon cutting will be on 4/22 at noon. Everyone is invited to attend this event.
So what is next? In 2017, the conservancy is committing to conservation year. They will be establishing a Bluebird NestWatch Program in partnership with Consumers Energy. This involves a revamped bluebird trail and opportunities for families and individuals to assist with monitoring and tasks such as removal of sparrows’ nests.
Plans are also underway for the Giddings Butterfly House – and 8 x 8 monarch house that will be part of Monarch JV national migratory tracking program. There will be training for those who want to participate. Activities will include things like larval counts and parasite studies with a release at the end of the season. Monarchs will be tagged before the release, usually in September, and will allow others to track where our monarchs go while they are out of this area. The house is to be delivered in April. Liz is currently working now on securing the necessary food resources.
There is also a youth leadership program for ages 12 – 1 which is free and meets weekly. This group focuses on issues of importance for next generation of conservationists. Finding that some Lansing area children are actually afraid to be in the woods, the youth work with them to encourage tree climbing and digting in the mud. The youth sill also be working on a sustainability house, built out of recycled materials (pallets) and meeting no building codes. It will be designed for use after a disaster as temporary housing. The youth will be handling the construction of the 120 square foot structure, which will be retrofitted with alternative energies. They are breaking ground in May and will build throughout summer. President Jack presented Liz with a Rotary coin containing our Four Way Test, and announced that we would make a donation to a clean water project. Our meeting next week is at the Lansing Center when our speaker will be Danielle Robinson, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility for Jackson National Life.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:31 p.m.
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