Editarian Report for December 4, 2022

President Courtney welcomed Rotarians to the first meeting in December with the recitation of the Four-Way Test.

 

Anne Cauley welcomed today’s speakers and guests, and gave her reflection, which focused on cultural diversity. She asked what languages we speak, what our religion is, what holidays we celebrate, what our racial identification and ethnic identity are, what our culture is and why cultural diversity is so important.

 

“Our culture is what shapes us, isn’t it?” she asked. Culture shapes our behavior and our identity. It’s our way of living and refers to our shared language, beliefs, values, norms, behaviors and material objects that are handed down from one generation to the next.

 

The term “culturally diverse” is often used interchangeably with the concept of multiculturalism. Sociologist Dr. Caleb Rosado specializes in diversity and multiculturalism. He describes seven important actions involved in the definition of multiculturalism:

 

• Recognition of the abundant diversity of cultures;

• Respect for the differences;

• Acknowledging the validity of different cultural expressions and contributions;

• Valuing what other cultures have to offer;

• Encouraging the contribution of diverse groups;

• Empowering people to strengthen themselves and others to achieve their maximum potential by being critical of their own biases; and

• Celebrating rather than just tolerating the differences in order to bring about unity through diversity

 

Human diversity is a gift. Appreciating and celebrating diversity can help us all lead happier and more productive lives

 

Anne’s reflection was followed by an invocation:

 

May the God who created a world of diversity and vibrancy go with us as we embrace life in all its fullness. May the Son, who teaches us to care for stranger and foreigners, go with us as we try to be good neighbors in our communities. May the Spirit who breaks down our barriers and celebrates community go with us as we find the courage to create a place of welcome for all.

 

Our patriotic song was America the Beautiful, with John Dale Smith on piano.

 

Tammy Hannah passed the mic around for introductions.

 

John Cauley introduced Judi Harris, who is just wrapping up her third week as executive director at American Red Cross Michigan Region. Previously, she was program director at St. Vincent Catholic Charities in Lansing. She has a bachelor’s degree from San Francisco State University in French and international relations. She has a master’s degree in health education from Trinity College (Washington, D.C.). She worked for the Red Cross in the early 2000s.

 

Rich Howard introduced his friend and colleague Maria Churchill. She is employed by the Disability Network through a collaboration, and she is assigned to The Davies Project. Rich indicated his gratitude for the Delta Dental Foundation for supporting the collaboration.

 

Calvin Jones visited from the Delta-Waverly Rotary Club. He is also director of government and community relations at the Lansing Board of Water & Light. He dropped in with a guest, who introduced himself as Dr. Vernon Woodley, a new member of the Board of Water & Light, serving as diversity, equity and inclusion specialist. He started at the Board in August. He is a sociologist by training and a professor at Eastern Illinois University.

 

Michelle Lantz introduced one of today’s speakers’ daughter, Charlise Timms, a seventh grader in East Lansing.

 

President Courtney reported that Pam Miklavcic is scheduled for surgery Tuesday to have her thyroid removed before moving ahead with foot surgery. Pam is reportedly more frustrated over the foot surgery delay than with the thyroid removal. She asked that we keep Pam in our thoughts.

 

President Courtney also reported that Kelli Ellsworth Etchison received the Salute to Diversity award from Corp! Magazine, and Pat Munshaw received one of 10 statewide Governor Service Awards, honoring her for volunteering in many capacities, particularly the administration of COVID vaccinations.

 

Congratulations, Kelli and Pat – we’re so proud of you both!

 

 

Meghan Martin reported that 60 percent of Rotarians with November birthdays participated in the birthday fundraiser, generating $550. Her question of those with birthdays came to her at Lansing Brewing Company in October when someone talked about the Wizard of Oz. She admitted that she loves all things Oz; her dad raised her by reading the original Oz books to her. Her obsession caused her to name her cat Ruby, another cat is Munchkin and her dog is Monkey. Her question for November Rotarians was, “If you could be any character from Oz, either the movie or the books, who would you be and why?”

 

Meghan said she’d be Dorothy, because she always wanted the ability to teleport and doing it in ruby slippers is classy. John Person said he would also be Dorothy, aside from the gender-bending aspect of it, because her message is that she had the power all along to accomplish her goal; her courage to speak truth to power (the Wizard); and she recognized that she could achieve her objective without help or permission from others.

 

Thanks to November Rotarians for their contributions!

 

Rotarians sang Happy Birthday to November birthday celebrants, accompanied by John Dale Smith on piano, who then oh so cleverly segued to the first chord of Somewhere Over the Rainbow.

 

President Courtney reminded everyone that next week is our holiday party with Gardner International School kids. Rotarians have given a lot of support to the December campaign for holiday giving, raising nearly $10,000 so far. She encouraged continued giving, which will support water activities among other cool activities for Gardner Elementary. If you haven’t already donated, the link is in the Dec. 2 Rotogram.

 

Diane Sanborn gave a PowerPoint presentation from the Friends of Durant Park, which was one of the local grants awarded by our club. Diane reported that the project started about 2.5 years ago and had received many grants. She began writing grants in January. The Rotary grant was $5,000. The project also raised $5,000 from Consumer’s Energy, $1,000 from Rathbun Agency, $5,000 from Christman, $5,000 from the CORE Good Foundation, $5,000 from the City of Lansing, $11,904 from the MotorCities National Heritage Area and, through Patronicity (thanks to Sue Mills who told Diane about it), more than $10,000 was raised, generating an additional $10,000 in matching funds from MEDC. These funds allowed the project to build the stage over the course of two weeks. She gave some background on Billy Durant, who built and donated the park. He bought the block where the park currently resides for $100,000 and spent $50,000 to have a professional landscaper landscape it. The park was, at one time, a fountain. She thanked Board of Water & Light for their donation of a picnic table with a solar charging device in it. She showed photos of various aspects of the park. LCC will help erect a plaque on the stage. The total project cost was $59,521. Thank you, Diane, for bringing this amazing project to life!

 

For her new member presentation, Tammy Hannah talked about growing up in Chesaning, Mich., and attending Saginaw Valley State University for her degree in Occupational Therapy. Prior to graduating, she was required to complete a 12-week clinical internship. The school determined student placement in internships by having them reach into a hat and randomly draw the name of their work site. She was Student No. 8, and drew Origami Rehabilitation, Mason, Mich. It would be an hour’s commute one way for 12 weeks, and she believed she could handle it. She immediately learned how lucky she was to choose Origami. In her second week on the job, she got to know the executive director, who offered her a job following graduation as Origami’s first full-time therapist. It was a new organization, and she wanted a job with a paycheck. Two years later, she met Eric Hannah. In 2006, she made her home in Lansing. She and Eric married in 2008 and started their family a year later. She has two daughters, Avery (13) and Callie (11), who keep them busy with year-round practices and tournaments. Her daughters are thriving. Although she worked her way up to become president and CEO at Origami, she decided to enroll in a 22-month rigorous executive MBA program. Five days prior to the world shutting down due to COVID, she received her degree. She is a lifelong disability advocate and is very passionate about human service. Her brother grew up with cerebral palsy. She watched him and saw life from a different perspective. She wants to help others break down barriers to self-sufficiency, which is in her DNA. She sees many service-oriented, community-minded servant leaders here. She thanked John Cauley for being her sponsor. Thanks to his persistence, she said her village is much larger now due to her Rotary connections.

 

Sue Hansen reported that Rebecca Bahar Cook is the CEO of Capital Fundraising Associates. In this role, she enjoys teaching groups about fundraising best practices, provides training to many statewide nonprofits, associations and candidate-training organizations. Additionally, she served on the Ingham County Board of Commissioners from 2006 to 2016. Other areas of Rebecca’s community service include serving on the board of directors for the Capital Area Michigan Works Administrative Board, Lansing Economic Area Partnership Board, Tri-County Office on Aging Board and the Ingham County Land Bank Board. Currently, she is on the Allen Neighborhood Center Board and often volunteers at Congregation Shaarey Zedek.

 

Rebecca earned her bachelor’s degree from Michigan State University in 1992. She is married to Todd Cook, and they have two children, Benjamin and Sara.

 

Congratulations to our next president-elect!

 

In introducing today’s Special Music, Michelle Lantz said that her mother was born in Ruma, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), and was displaced during the war. She and her family took what they could on their backs and in a little case and moved to Austria. Over the years she found herself in America. The cultures, traditions, baked goods, foods and stories that she brought with her stuck with Michelle and helped her get to the point where she is today as CEO of the Ingham County Food Bank. The Food Bank worked with Afghan refugees over the last year – an amazing program. She thanked Cristo Rey for helping them feed individuals in hotels throughout the years. She said we so often hear during this time of year things about Christmas, Hannukah and Kwanzaa. Our region is such a culturally diverse region with refugees from all over the world. Michelle thought it was important for us to be able to celebrate and learn about all the different cultures that we have here and the holidays that they celebrate towards the end of the year. She invited and introduced her three friends, Bidhan Redy, Shirin Kambin and Summer Issawi.

 

Bidhan presented today’s special music. He is an Okemos resident who has worked for the State of Michigan for 30 years. He is involved with the Indian Cultural Society and is a member of the Bharatiya Temple of Lansing, which serves Asian-Indian communities. He is also the treasurer for the Okemos Education Foundation. He strongly believes in giving back to the community. He talked about Diwali and brought performers with him for the special music portion of the program.

 

India celebrates many holidays, but the largest is Diwali, the Festival of Lights. It’s celebrated throughout all of India, in the United States and in many other countries. Diwali is interpreted as a story. Different parts of Indian have different stories, but the foundational concept is symbolically the same: The victory of good over evil. It’s not a two-hour event, but a five-day celebration. They start on Day 1 by cleaning the home, shopping for gold and kitchen utensils to help with good fortune. Day 2, people decorate their homes with clay lamps and create designs called rangoli, using colorful sand or powder. Day 3 is the main day of the festival – focusing on the goddess of wealth for blessings and good luck. They go to their temple. There’s a big temple in Haslett. Bidhan invited Rotarians to contact him if they would like to visit the temple. On Day 4, this is the new year. People visit with friends and relatives, often bearing gifts and celebrating the first day of the new year. The last day of Diwali is called Bhai Dooj. This is a tradition that is observed everywhere. A brother will go to their married sisters’ homes and promise to be there for and protect her. In return, the sisters will prepare a meal and blessings for the brother. Bidhan then introduced female dancers, who danced to the beat of drums. He then played a medley on drums, accompanied by another musician who sang and played the keyboard.

 

Shirin Kambin discussed Yalda, which signifies birth. It’s an Iranian festival of the winter solstice, which celebrates the triumph of light over dark and good over evil. Pomegranates, watermelon, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, poetry and storytelling are part of the sacred rituals. She invited everyone to celebrate and wished us a happy holiday.

 

Summer Issawi discussed Ramadan, observed by Muslims as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and community, as well as Eid-ul-Fitr (Festival of Breaking the Fast). Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It’s a holy month of fasting, extra worship, clarity and a special time for family. Fasting means no food, drink, water or intimacy during daylight hours for 29 to 30 days. Fasts are 12 to 16 hours a day. Fasting is believed to bring the faithful closer to God and reconnect them to the Qur’an. It’s a spiritual introspection, a time for rejuvenation and increased compassion for others. Worshippers are expected to offer extra prayers and do good deeds, resulting in God consciousness. There are mosques in East Lansing and Lansing for worship and where food is served daily during Ramadan. Ramadan mubarek! Eid Mubarek!

 

Lolo Robison's email is:  lolorobison@gmail.com