President Courtney called us to order at 12:30 with the ringing of the bell and led us in reciting the Rotary 4 Way Test. Nicole Baumer’s inspiring reflection was followed by Hari Kern accompanying the club in our patriotic song, the Star-Spangled Banner.
Steve Grant circulated the microphone for the introduction of guest, which included upcoming speaker, Rawley Van Fossen and recent Chamber of Commerce 10 over 10 Awardee, Aurelius Christian, among others. Several Rotarians brought family members, which was great to have.
The Club observed a moment of silence in memory of longtime member, Dr. Clyde Carnegie, who recently passed away.
Julie Pingston announced the April birthday donation results with 100% participation and around $2000 raised for the foundation. She shared what the celebrants would do with an unexpected tax refund; no one said they would give the extra money to Rotary.
We were graced with two new member presentations on this day. First Saeed Jafaei spoke about his life journey and his beautiful family Saeed was born in Afghanistan and also lived in Canada before moving to the Lansing area. He is a Commercial Advisor with the RE/MAX Commercial Group in East Lansing.
Our next new member presentation was Nicole Szymczak. She told us of her family and the path that brought her to the Lansing area. She also spoke of many inspirations in her life, including former LCC President, Dr. Brent Knight as well as a very special Rotarian that we all miss, Kelly Rossman-McKinney.
The Special Music was fantastic. Heidi McNaughton introduced Joey DiMenno and her accompanist, Jeff. Ms. DiMenno went from showtunes to opera with I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady and Habenera from Carmen.
Janet Lillie, wearing green as always, introduced Zachary Constan, PhD, who is the Outreach Coordinator at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at MSU. Mr Constan gave a down to earth and understandable presentation about the FRIB (pronounced F-RIB in 2 syllables he noted). He gave the history of the former Cyclotron at MSU which the FRIB replaced, and pointed out that it is a unique facility. He discussed some of the research that is being done, including cancer treatments. He related how the facility is used to observe the unseeable, and compared it to us seeing trees move as our way of determining wind conditions. He did mention that tours of the FRIB are available, and answered several questions from the group.
President Courtney thanked Mr. Constan for his presentation and noted that the Club will donate to the Foundation in his honor. She reminded us that next week is a social at Lansing Brewing Company featuring music of Pat Hanes and Lisa Smith in addition to our guest group – Suits and the City. There will be no meeting on May 26 due to Memorial Day.
Posted by Chris Swope chris.swope@lansingmi.gov