President Brewster called the meeting to order, Scott Duimstra gave the invocation referencing the wise words of Dr. Martin Luther King, and Mark Hooper led the assembled in an acapella patriotic song in the key of F.
Maria Lenz led the introduction of guests and visiting Rotarians; Pat Munshaw shared the health of the club is good.
Melissa Nay announced Jeff Crippen as the Social media #LansingRotary winner of the week, citing his tag to Crippen Cars as the deal-clincher. Get your businesses involved, people! And, don’t forget to see Cathy if you want tickets to see the Blackhorn Celtic Band on March 25th, which the EL Rotary Club is putting on to benefit the Weekend Survival Kit program.
Sarah Garcia welcomed everyone to the Accident Fund headquarters, which used to be a power plant for the Board of Water & Light. They transformed the brownfield/contaminated site into a LEED Gold Certified building on the registry of National Historic Places. They opened 7 years ago with 500 employees and now have about 800. Sarah then took advantage of her podium time to give her new member presentation. We learned that Ms. Garcia (pronounced Gar-sha) had been a guest of several Rotarians over the years - Scott Burgess, John Cauley, and her sponsor, Michelle Reynaert. Sarah grew up in Holt, MI, the only daughter of Jerry and Billie Dowell. Her father was a member of Holt Rotary; her parents ran Ashland Oil. She has two brothers, Bill and Alan. The loss of her father to a heart attack when she was two years old taught her loss and survival; her mother led by example, bouncing back stronger and going on to hold a few state and township roles before she bought Lamberts Bridal Shop in downtown Lansing, which was in business for almost 10 years. There, Sarah learned business management, merchandising, managing employees, and sales. She has an Associate degree in Merchandise Management and a Bachelor's degree in Human Resource Management. Sarah worked for Senator Miller, Senator Dingell, and Governor Granholm. She was 11 months into her role as the Deputy Director of IT & Operations when her mom passed away suddenly of a heart attack/brain bleed. Channeling all her mom taught her, she continued to move up and along in her professional career, serving as Deputy Cabinet Secretary, and Residence Manager. Her state seal signed by Governor Granholm says “you turned on and off the lights”. She started at AF in 2011 to help with the move and grand opening, going on to become the Community Relations Specialist. She’s recently promoted, building her department, and growing the impact of AF Group employees via Caring & Sharing, volunteer hours and more. Sarah has been married to her husband, Joe Garcia, for 18 years; she has 4 step-children, 4 grandchildren, and one spoiled yellow lab. She and Joe enjoy spending time in Pentwater, at the home her mother bought when Sarah was 7. She is proud to be a Rotarian and reminds us all to tell the ones you love how much they mean to you.
President Brewster presented Sarah with her Blue badge, and introduced Paul Dankert for the January Birthday announcement. Paul, who rode his motorcycle in the gorgeous day’s weather, shared that 11 of 16 Rotarians have given $1,000 so far. He shared a few weird quirks of the January bday people, who are apparently an odd group. Singing ensued. There seemed to be cupcakes; I had a cookie.
Joe Garcia (Gar-see-ah), thanked everyone for supporting the food and other wish list items of Cristo Rey.
Bob Hoffman, chair of the month and day, introduced his Wharton Center colleague, Diane Wilcox, Director of Marketing & Communications. She talked a little bit about the productions they put on stage, but more about the programs they do for the community. They host broadway, dance, music, comedy and more. They offer space to the Lansing Symphony Orchestra, the MSU College of Music and the MSU Dept of Theater. They host 280 events/year, most of which occur Sept-June. They are Michigan’s busiest performing arts center, and the highest rated university presenter in the nation. Their patrons, plus Wharton and the visiting crews were responsible for driving more than $602Million of Economic Impact in the last decade. Performing Arts enrich life, increasing vocabulary, tolerance, empathy, social skills and academic abilities of children. The Wharton Center Institute for Arts & Creativity, supported by MSUFCU, offers lots of great Children’s programming, including Take it From the Top, summer theater, school & family shows, arts programming in Lansing and Flint public schools for 3rd-5th graders, and impacts a total of 30,000 ppl/year. They accommodate limited mobility (their new seats endeavor will double wheel-chair capacity), sign language, infrared hearing systems, large print programs for the visually impaired and even audio-described Broadway performances. Now they are also at the forefront of an important movement via their Sensory-Friendly Performances - 3 this year, 4 next year, and more to come - which have the needs of people with autism as a starting point, not an afterthought. The stats for those with ASD - Autism Spectrum Disorder - are staggering; A new case every 15 minutes, 1 in 68 births, and 50% of births by 2025 are projected to be neuro diverse, meaning they have a different way of experiencing the world, facing challenges from lights to noises, smells, textures, crowds, spaces, and more. Wharton has created online resources and advance descriptions - including a photo narrative - of what to expect at the theater, ensuring families feel welcomed and comfortable at every step, from arrival and beyond. They offer this program with the help of specially trained volunteers and subsidized tickets, graciously supported by donors, which they offer to organizations like Mid-Michigan Autism Association, Peckham, the Autism Alliance of MI and more. This ensures that families can enjoy Wharton Center together. Wharton is only the 5th market in the country to do a sensory-friendly performance of Lion King! Diane gave kudos to Julie Pingston and the GLCVB for their support and encouragement of an entire community effort to welcome families to our region - Lion King weekend is now Lansing Welcome Weekend to so many people from beyond our region. Learn more at Whartoncenter.com/SFP or contact the Wharton Center to learn how you can help continue to make programming like this continue.
President Brewster presented Ms. Wilcox with a coin featuring the Rotary 4-way test and noted a gift will be made in her name to support the Bio Sand Water Filter project - providing clean water in developing countries.
Next week’s meeting will be at the University Club (the Lansing Country Club is closed in January & February); the speaker will be Mike Yankowski, Chief of Lansing Police, who will speak about Policing Metro Lansing’s Opioid Epidemic. Anne Cauley is program chair for February. The meeting adjourned.
Michelle Reynaert's email is: michelle.reynaert@sparrow.org