The weekly Lansing Rotary meeting of Friday, September 15, 2023 was a noticeably full room with very few available seats. Perhaps there was an especially special guest today … but who could that be? President Nick called the meeting to order and recited the 4 way test, followed by Joe Garcia’s reflection. It was a beautiful message that incorporated our speaker, and shared that her parents played a key role in starting the Cristo Rey Church and Community Center! A fact that this Editarian was unaware of! Reflection was followed by our patriotic song, God Bless America, and then introduction of guests. This is only my first year of attending Rotary (and this was my first attempt at being Editarian), but this was the largest group of guests that I’ve ever seen in my short tenure. Again, could this be a particularly special, special guest?
Health of the club was in good order.
Rotarian Jason Brunette from Martin shared announcements. First up is an upcoming “Fall Cut-Back and Clean-Up” on Saturday, September 30th from 10am until noon, meeting at 112 S. Washington Square.
Next is that New Member Orientation will be Thursday, September 28 at 3:30pm at Lansing Brewing Company, just before the Social Gathering. Finally, the International Committee meeting following rotary had been cancelled.
Dr. Steve Robinson had the honor of introducing Joe Lulloff, Professor of Saxophone / Area Chair of Woodwinds at MSU’s College of Music. Dr. Robinson shared that MSU is known as a saxophone school, and that Joe is Steve’s son’s professor, and has become a great friend. In addition to Steve being a great fan of Joe, so is Branford Marsalis, who said that Joe’s “knowledge of music, along with his ability to embrace music normally considered outside the sphere, makes him a joy to listen to”. Rotarian Steve also shared a favorite quote of his from Charlie Haden, which reminds him of Joe and is, “If you strive to become a good human being with the qualities of generosity, humility and having reverence for life … just maybe you’ll become a great musician”. Joe treated us to some truly beautiful saxophone music, which was an absolute delight. He shared that he has quite a sweet tooth, with his favorites being key lime pie, salted caramel gelato, and chocolate lava cake. He named one of the pieces that he shared with us, Key Lime Pie … it was as sweet as its name!
Our Chair of the Month / Day was Sarah Garcia from AF Group. Sarah explained how when she was new to the area, she continued to run into our special guest through a variety of community and volunteer activities, and immediately saw her heart for service. Sarah introduced our special guest, the one-and-only Lupe Izzo (now it makes sense why we had such a full room with so many guests!!!!)
Lupe started off by stating that in her family, Tom and Raquel are the public speakers, but everyone in attendance would agree that she was a natural and powerfully moving! Tom Izzo also attended his wife's presentation.
Lupe said that she was born in Crystal City, Texas, but was raised in East Lansing by her parents, who were proud migrant workers. Lupe has 8 brothers and 3 sisters, and she is the middle sibling. Her parents instilled at an early age the importance of education. She attended St. Thomas Aquinas, then East Lansing Middle School, and East Lansing High School. Her parents were civil rights activists alongside Ceazar Chaves and Martin Luther King. As Joe Garcia shared earlier, Lupe talked about her parents founding Cristo Rey Church and Community Center. After high school, Lupe studied business at MSU, and then worked for Rainsoft Water Treatment Systems for 20-years, before leaving the workforce to start a family and focus on helping others.
Lupe spoke about how in 2018 / 2019, huge challenges were presented to the University through horrible events and negative national attention. Lupe was moved to help determine how MSU could move forward, and at that time partnered with Playmakers to create the Izzo Legacy 5k Walk / Run / Roll. Also closely involved was the Greater Lansing Food Bank (which is the only charity allowed to be highlighted within the Breslin Center … something I did not know). She talked about dear friends involved, namely former Mayors Tony Benevides and David Hollister, as well as Camille Abood. In addition to the Izzo Legacy, Lupe chaired the United Way, played key roles with Laurie Baumer and Ele’s Place, in addition to Sgt. Mark Alley, Kellie Dean, and Justin Sheehan and the Lansing Promise, as well as Volunteers of American and Holy Cross. The Izzo Legacy event has raised $450,000 (with 100% of money raised going toward the non-profit participants and the endowment). It is the largest mid-Michigan 5k event. The Governor’s Service and Philanthropist Award has recognized these amazing efforts.
Lupe very memorably said that through her family, she has met many influential and powerful people. But her real heroes are those who step up and help others. Her parents gave her the gift of faith and giving back. She also believes that we can all do a better job of taking care of one another. She feels that her life has never been just hers, and should be shared with helping others.
There were a long list of great questions, including:
- Who is a player that had an especially significant impact on her (Derrick Nix)
- How her brother Sal is doing (very well)
- How the “new addition” to the family is (wonderful, Isabelle is 7 weeks old and will be in the box with Lupe, Rocky, and Matt during basketball season)
- A thank you for her support of the Davie’s Project
- A thank you for her overall support for our community from Rotarian Justin Sheehan
- How does she choose the charities that she supports from Rotarian Laurie Baumer (the charities choose her)
- How does she stay so positive, and how does she take care of herself from Rotarian Michelle Reyneart (she takes a breath and reminds herself that this too shall pass, she eats lots of fruits and vegetables as the daughter of a farmer, she loves to walk, and she enjoys time with her grandchild)
It was a truly beautiful presentation, and I’m glad it was so well attended!
For next week’s meeting, we will be going on a field trip to the new Farm Bureau with Don Simon, Chief Executive Officer as our speaker.
Ben Bakken's email is: ben.bakken@tristartrust.com