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President Nick called our meeting to order promptly on a hot July afternoon. We began by reciting the 4 Way Test, followed by singing “America” accompanied by John Dale Smith. Katie Krick had microphone duties and attempted to assist with the introduction of guests, but technical difficulties meant members had to speak loudly to be heard. Craig Stiles introduced his son, Peyton, who was in attendance to hear his sister sing as part of our special music. Lesa Smith brought Michelle, a colleague from Burcham Hills who is considering membership. President Nick reported that to the best of our knowledge, the health of the club is good. He also announced that the Delta-Wavery Rotary Club is having a golf outing on Thursday, August 3rd at the Grand Ledge Country Club if anyone would like to participate. He also shared that Sharalyn Davis, this year’s District Governor, will be visiting our club on August 4th. She will speak and present this year’s Paul Harris awards. Our special music was introduced by Heidi McNaughton. Heidi brought two fellow vocalists with her to complete a trio. Heidi was joined by Joey DiMenno and Michaela Stiles. They sang two golden oldies – “Mister Sandman” from the 1950s and Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy from 1941. This Rotarian closed her eyes and thought for sure that the Andrews Sisters were performing for our enjoyment. Next up was Brenda Geoghegan with her new member presentation, bringing to an end her two-year effort to dodge her opportunity. She began by letting us all know that there are too many unnecessary letters in her last name. Although it is a married name, she let it be known that she is divorced and single. She lives in East Lansing now but grew up in Owosso where her father was a police officer and then a doughnut shop owner. He met her mother, who is Japanese, while in the Air Force. During her youth, Brenda had the opportunity to spend 8 weeks in Japan to get to know her Japanese family. Brenda has a degree from MSU in advertising, a field in which she has never held a job. She has always worked in banking and is currently a private banker for Huntington Bank. She has two sons, both in the area, and one working in banking. She has two sisters who also went to MSU, each sister has two children and all of them went to college. This made Brenda’s parents very happy. Brenda serves on several boards and is very active in Athena Win and its Evening of Empowerment. She enjoys travel, MSU sports, cooking, reading, podcasts, Netflix, alternative music and more. She had a list of recommendations in most of the areas, so hit her up for her favorites! Next, we heard from Corey Grant who described herself as a nerd who was into sports in Houghton Lake. She was the first in her family to attend college, landing at Central Michigan. She was bored in college, so she joined the Air Force after her sophomore year and worked in logistics. She served 11 years active duty and made it from enlisted to officer. She has recently taken a job with the Michigan Department of Treasury. Since high school, she hasn’t lived more than 3 years in one place. She is looking for roots in the Lansing area and wants to give back. She and her husband, who were high school sweethearts, have 5 acres in the area. Corey enjoys reading and gardening, as well as travel. She has a daughter who is currently at MSU, but may take a gap year. She has 3 dogs, 5 cats, and will soon have a flock of chickens. Our final new member presentation was from Steve Grant who is, you guessed it, Corey’s husband. He came from a huge family – 7 sisters and 4 brothers for 12 in all. Currently, he has 32 nieces and nephews. He described himself as a strange nerd in high school, attended Marquette University, but left after his sophomore year to join the Army, serving 4 years. After growing up in Michigan, he landed in Boston, but soon discovered that he didn’t really like the big city. He returned to Michigan, settling in Lansing and working for Charles Mickens, husband of Lansing Rotarian Helen Mickens, in IT at Cooley Law School. Steve has been enjoying our club’s presentations and is looking forward to more. President Nick presented each of these new members with their blue badge. President Nick thanked Rebecca Bahar-Cook for serving as our Chair of the Month. As our President Elect (at the time) Nick was able to attend the Rotary International Convention held in Melbourne Australia. His family (wife and three kids – 12, 10 and 7) was able to accompany him on a journey that encompassed 24 thousand miles, nine flights, and two countries. First stop was New Zealand, with time spent on both the North and South Islands. North Island was very green and lush, and included Hobbiton, one of the movie sets for Lord of the Rings. South Island was arid, dry and rocky, with more of an alpine feel. It also boasts one of the LOTR filming locations – Glenorchy. There was sight seeing in Melbourne, including sports Australia style, notable graffiti and the actual RI Convention. (More on the Convention to come.) The family travelled north to Port Douglas. Had they driven, it would have taken 40 hours, so they opted for a plane flight instead. While in Port Douglas, they were able to cuddle with koalas, and saw many birds, salt water crocodiles, and jellyfish. Their visit to the Great Barrier Reef surprised them with neighborhoods of coral rather than the single walls of reef that are more common. Reporting on the Convention itself, with a theme of Creating Hope in the World, President Nick noted that the Rotary brand is strong worldwide. He had the opportunity to pack meals to be distributed in the Melbourne area with a group of Rotary women from Central Florida. These women were former military and left quite an impression on Nick. Nick shared a video that was an update on Rotary’s Polio Plus efforts. The video was filmed in Pakistan and showed that the effort there is proceeding house to house and mom to mom. Strict recordkeeping is followed so that there is no doubt that all children are vaccinated. The end is in sight, but we aren’t done yet. This effort has been not without personal sacrifice, with 60 aid workers losing their lives. Nick noted that there are a lot of tools available from Rotary that can be used for social media, both on Club and personal pages. Nick has several objectives for our club over the next year. 1. Grow membership – Michelle Reynaert will be heading up this effort. We are each encouraged to invite potential new members to our meetings. 2. Re-engage student guests – Courtney Millbrook has agreed to work on this. 3. Service Projects – Jason Brunette is working in this area and will be developing a quarterly calendar around service, giving us all more notice for these opportunities. 4. Quarterly State of the Club meeting – This meeting will focus on new members and committee updates. In closing, President Nick offered this reflection: The Whakarewarewa Forest in New Zealand boasts a stand of California Redwoods planted in 1901. The largest of these is about 236’ high and 7’ wide, rivaling those in California that have existed an average of 600 years. These trees have grown faster in New Zealand than they do in their native California. This reminded Nick of the parable of the sower found in the New Testament. When seed is sown, there are three factors at work, the sower, the seed and the soil. The most important of these is the soil. In this parable, soil represents a person’s heart. Nick believes, and I am sure we would all agree, that Rotary is a reflection of our hearts. With a final reminder that our District Governor will be visiting our club next week, the meeting was adjourned. Here is the link for the video President Nick showed towards the end of his presentation in Pakistan about Polio Plus: CLICK HERE Linda Lynch's email is: linda.j.lynch@gmail.com |
Sharalyn Davis, BM, MT, MBA has been a Rotarian for 16 years. Her journey started at Climax Rotary Club when she was on the school board and she soon served as Club President, Assistant Governor, and on various club and district committees. She was attracted to Rotary’s Purity of Purpose and fell in love with the theme the year she joined “Sow the Seeds of Love.” She has since been a member of Cereal City Sunrise and currently serves with Union City Rotary..jpg)
