Zach Constan earned his Bachelor’s Degree in physics (1995) from Albion College, studied psychoacoustics for his Ph.D. in physics (2002) at Michigan State University, taught college astronomy for three years, and served as a church Youth Director. Now, as FRIB Outreach Coordinator, he gets to tell everyone about the exciting developments in nuclear science at MSU’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.

 

MSU's Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) is one of the world's leading rare isotope research facilities. FRIB accelerates stable nuclei to half the speed of light and fragments them on a target to produce nuclear varieties (isotopes) that do not exist on Earth. Researchers study them before they decay in less than a second. The secrets we learn could help explain what happens in supernovae and the origins of elements that make up the human body. Now that the new linear accelerator is online (May 2022), FRIB is expected to discover over 1000 new isotopes!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Last Saturday evening, Rotary District 6360 honored Rotary Heroes. Our own Hero was Kurt Guter and our own President Courtney Millbrook was in attendance.  She was thrilled to accept the award for our club with the most "net growth" in club membership.  Impressive!!           

There were 14 of us on the zoom and countless others in person at last week’s Rotary meeting. President Courtney called us to order. The 4 Way Test was recited, Dan Aylward gave the day’s reflection and a patriotic song was sung. No guests today, finally we can be ourselves. For health of the club, all was well. Scott Keith thought he had back pain or neck pain so he had it checked out, turned out to be a touch of stroke and it was good he went in. When in doubt, check it out! Chris Chamberlain has a new baby and photos were shared in the traditional cell phone fashion. Joel Hoffman had shoulder surgery. No word on the cause, could be he’s secretly Atlas holding up the weight of the world or tired from a weekend boulder challenge like Sisyphus. We all hope he is on the mend.

 

Kurt Guter is at the District meeting receiving an award for being our club’s Rotary Hero. Heidi McNaugton reported that we raised $13,000 in April towards Paul Harris, with 57% of Rotarians contributing. New Member Red Badges were given to two new members. Lansing Art Gallery’s Michelle Carlson and Loomis lawyer, Mikhail Murshak. Dan Wyant gave his new member presentation in unique fashion: a series of likes, dislikes and worldly observations: “Don’t play with wild animals” was my favorite, with a close second being “The world is run by those who show up.”

 

Andy Brogan made two Rotary meetings in one week and said he felt like he was a new member! Andy was our chair of the day and introduced speaker Cathy George. Cathy was formerly the women’s volleyball coach at Western Michigan (11 years) and then MSU (17 years). She racked up 667 wins in her 35 years of coaching before she retired in 2021. Some people are really good at retirement and others just can’t seem to sit still. Apparently Cathy is in the latter group as she was recently named head coach of the Grand Rapids Rise, a new professional women’s volley ball team that will play in the Pro Volleyball Federation. The team will be based in Grand Rapids and play at VanAndel Arena. Other teams include Atlanta and Omaha with more to be announced in the coming weeks. Each team with have a roster of 14 players with twelve being paid the league minimum of $60,000 and 2 “franchise players” being paid $100,000. Europe and the rest of the world has been recruiting US women for professional volleyball leagues overseas for years so the first challenge was to bring our professional women players back home. Most of the US Olympic volleyball team hail from the Big 10 so the hope is they’ll be interested in coming back. Europe has a strong draw though with Italy and Turkey being the powerhouse teams. The Grand Rapids Rise will share infrastructure with the Grand Rapids Griffins (AHL Hockey pro team). They will have a 22 games season with play starting in January 2024.

 

A ton of questions were asked from all over the room and like a great libero, all were ably answered by our speaker. President Courtney brought our meeting to its traditional close.

 

A final thought, heavy emphasis on “final”. On Thursday of last week, Pat Munshaw did a great job of bringing in speakers for a luncheon at the University Club to talk about including the Lansing Rotary Foundation in your estate planning. Our Foundation has established a “Legacy” club to honor club members who include Rotary in their estate plans. The how, the what and the why of including charitable giving in your estate plan was explained to approximately two dozen Rotarians who attended. It's never too late to give in your estate plan. Correction, it’s entirely possible to be too late to make estate plans. I should have said, it’s never too early to think about your estate plans. Leave a good roadmap for those who follow you and if it’s in your ability to do so, the Lansing Rotary Foundation can put your charitable intentions to work. If you want more information, reach out to Pat Munshaw.

 

Kevin Schumacher's email is:  schumacher@glassenrhead.com