Sean completed undergraduate degrees in international studies and history from Michigan State University. He returned for a graduate degree in law enforcement intelligence as well as certificates in homeland security studies and terrorism. Since 2008 he has worked as a civilian analyst for the Michigan State Police.
Sean was the first leader of the Capitol Area Civilian Emergency Response Team and has delivered numerous training courses on emergency preparedness and terrorism. For the past 12 years he has helped to manage the annual Connections Wargaming Conference sponsored by the graduate schools of the U.S. Department of Defense.
Sean is currently the Second Vice-President of the Lansing Torch Club. He lives with his wife and three daughters in Haslett.
Nominations Wanted for our Club’s “Rotary Hero” Our club’s board of directors is requesting nominations for a club member who will be recognized as our club’s “Rotary Hero.” The Rotary Hero will be selected by our club’s board at our meeting, and will be honored at the District Conference held in St. Joseph on May 16th. A nominee should be a current Rotarian who truly exemplifies “Service Above Self” in everything that he or she thinks, says or does, or a long-time member who has given many years of service.
Your nomination should include:
Your nominee’s name and a two-word descriptor, such as “Servant Leader” or “Go Getter”
A paragraph (or more if you feel inspired) describing why they are our Club Hero
Past honorees from our club have been: Jack Draper, Jack Bates, Ken Beachler, Duane Vernon, Irv Nichols, Helen Mickens, Mark Hooper, Pat Hanes, Sue Mills, Kurt Guter and John Cauley.
The deadline for submission of nominations is April 30th. All submissions should be emailed to Cathy at cathy@lansingrotary.com. If you have any questions please direct them to President Chris Swope.
Max Hondorp, a junior at Lansing Catholic High School, is helping the community honor the U.S. flag through part of his Eagle Scout Project. Max built two flag collection boxes that will be placed at two locations in East Lansing from March 23-June 10, 2026:
East Lansing Fire Department (1700 Abbot Road)
St. Thomas Aquinas Church (955 Alton Road)
The collected flags will be respectfully retired during a flag burning ceremony on Flag Day, June 14, ensuring they receive the honor they deserve.
We have a service opportunity at the Greater Lansing Food Bank on Wednesday, May 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and Tuesday, September 22nd from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. located at 5600 Food Ct., Bath Township. Please let Jason Brunette know if you can help: Jason.Brunette@martincommercial.com
A total of $40,000.00 was approved by the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation Board for International Grants from the committee. Each week we will highlight one of the non-profits receiving our checks.
Rescue South Sudan Village People
The Majok-Chedhiop Primary School Project is an on-going project to provide a free, primary school education (grades 1-8) to children in the rural village of Majok-Chedhiop, South Sudan, and children from nearby villages. Currently, the greatest need is to raise funds to pay the teachers and staff of the school.
With the generosity of the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation and other donors, we have successfully established 2 wells (a 3rd well was dug by the government), finished half of the permanent school building and most of the teachers' offices, started a school garden, and hired 15 qualified teachers. We now have about 450 registered students from 10 villages; about 1/3 are girls.
In addition, construction of a temporary building to house grades 1-4 is underway, the garden is being expanded to raise crops needed to support a free lunch program, and future plans include growing enough crops to sell excess produce at markets with the profits going to support the operation of the school. The goal is that one day, the school will be self-sustaining.
The government of South Sudan discontinued payment of our teacher salaries. Most recently, the eliminatin of funding for USAID by our government resulted in the loss of a grant to a village church that was the source of rice and vegetables that the church donated to the school for the free breakfast and lunch program. RSSVP now must concentrate the bulk of donations to teacher and staff salaries and to purchase food for the meal program.
Most of the teachers in South Sudan have no formal training and on average have completed only 4 years of schooling. All 15 teachers of our school are trained and qualified under South Sudan's official standards and requirements. However, due to inflation, to retain these qualified teachers, RSSVP needs to secure sufficient funds to increase salaries to provide a living wage. That is what this grant will provide.
RSSVP received a grant of $4,000.00 and Irv Nichols was the sponsor.
This year the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation has allocated $82,567.00 for its Local Grants program. Grants up to $10,000 for local nonprofits that serve residents of Ingham, Eaton, and/or Clinton Counties. Funds may be requested to be used toward capital campaigns, general operating expenses, special projects/events, and ongoing program support.
Grants will be evaluated based on the impact the project will have on the Lansing area and must address one or more of the following:
serve residents of Ingham, Eaton and/or Clinton counties; impact underserved or disadvantaged populations, enhance cultural, recreational, or economic elements of the community; demonstrate a unique or emerging need that is unmet by another organization; and grants will be awarded for existing programs, new initiatives, or special projects.
President Swope called the meeting to order at 12:30 p.m., and led Rotarians in the recitation of the Four-Way Test.
Ben Rathbun presented a beautiful and touching Reflection about his service to Ele’s Place and how, one day in 2021, he found himself on a couch there, crying as he grieved the untimely passing of his beloved father and former Rotarian Paul Rathbun.
We sang the Patriotic Song, “My Country ’Tis of Thee” with Hari Kern on piano.
Intro of Guests: Alex Hernandez handled mic duties. There were a lot of visitors — thanks in large part to Bobby Hoffman who brought a gaggle of guests to fill a whole table!
Health of the Club: No health-related information reported. Yay!
Special Music: Cam Gnass shared about Capital City Film Festival, which will take place April 8-18. We watched a short video of films, and a hilarious and touch short story about the lifelong bond between a young boy 12-year-old boy and his sister.
Announcements:
President Swope announced that the local grants application process will be live through the April 20. He asked Rotarians to let their friends know about this opportunity.
Alex Hernandez will co-chair the Membership Committee. Congratulations, Alex!
We are still looking for Service Project Committee members. We’re also still recruiting Chairs of the Month for the 2026-2027 calendar, and we could also use a couple more Editarians. Please reach out to Lolo Robison at lolorobison@gmail.com if you are interested.
President Swope shared about Pillars of the Community’s Michigan Kickoff on Friday, April 17, 9 a.m.-11 a.m., at 123, W. Allegan St. #100, Lansing, MI 48933. This program seeks to bolster public faith in the American election system and its officials by engaging politically diverse civic leaders to examine the integrity of the electoral process and the safeguards in place. The goal is to have this examination provide community support for the reliability of election results, and for the local and state election officials who administer them. Interested? RSVP to Haley Bennet at hbennett@truscottrossman.com or Lindsay Hart at lhart@trusctottrossman.com — this is an invitation-only event!
Phyllis Riley earned her Blue Badge today after giving her New-Member Presentation. We learned that her dad was her hero. He taught her how to bait a fishing hook, catch and release, shoot a gun, and grab anything to shove into the carburetor of her Pontiac LeMans to get it to go when it flooded. Disclosing that her parents “got busy,” she’s one of many siblings. She was raised in Muskegon as a Catholic and graduated second in her class. A self-professed band geek and nerd, she went on to study marketing and management at Central Michigan University (Fire up, Chips!), and graduated among the top five in her class. She worked for Steketee’s in Grand Rapids and was an assistant buyer for the men’s department at Herpolsheimer’s. She worked for Unisys and sold computers to the federal government, and then relocated to Lansing and sold computers to state government. She got into and excelled at event planning, met a guy named Jamie who married her, which allowed her to legally change her name from Phyllis Funk to Phyllis Riley. They had two boys, Jacob and Nathan. There were a lot of sports, including a lot of soccer and a lot of skiing. She has a one-year-old grandson, Benny, who she described as “the cutest pumpkin ever.” She gets excited when she pulls a weed out by its whole root — so much so that she takes a picture to document the feat. She prefers apple pie to cake for her birthday, which her husband makes for her every year, complete with a latticed top crust. She and Jamie are faithful Catholics and volunteer at St. Martha’s Parish in Okemos. She planned the Evening of Empowerment for Athena Win — Igniting the Leader in You, and she is championing Child and Family Charities May 14, 2026, from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. at Urban Beat. Do let her know if you’re going. Congratulations, Phyllis!
Chair of the Day Ben Rathbun introduced Lisa Nielsen, who is the somewhat new branch director at Ele’s Place. She came on board in June 2025 with more than a decade of nonprofit leadership experience. She’s still learning the ropes at Ele’s Place, which provides meaningful support to grieving families. She shared about her work and its positive impact on the community, especially as she works to build strategic partnerships. She is motivated by the children who rely on the organization’s services and support. Lisa demonstrated some of the activities she facilitates at Ele’s Place to engage children, encourage them to talk about their feelings and, most importantly, recognize that others at Ele’s Place are also grieving and leaning on one another. She is a compassionate advocate for the children and young adults who call Ele’s Place their home away from home.
Project. Max built two flag collection boxes that will be placed at two locations in East Lansing from March 23-June 10, 2026:
We have a service opportunity at the Greater Lansing Food Bank on Wednesday, May 27th from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. and Tuesday, September 22nd from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. located at 5600 Food Ct., Bath Township. Please let Jason Brunette know if you can help: 
catch and release, shoot a gun, and grab anything to shove into the carburetor of her Pontiac LeMans to get it to go when it flooded. Disclosing that her parents “got busy,” she’s one of many siblings. She was raised in Muskegon as a Catholic and graduated second in her class. A self-professed band geek and nerd, she went on to study marketing and management at Central Michigan University (Fire up, Chips!), and graduated among the top five in her class. She worked for Steketee’s in Grand Rapids and was an assistant buyer for the men’s department at Herpolsheimer’s. She worked for Unisys and sold computers to the federal government, and then relocated to Lansing and sold computers to state government. She got into and excelled at event planning, met a guy named Jamie who married her, which allowed her to legally change her name from Phyllis Funk to Phyllis Riley. They had two boys, Jacob and Nathan. There were a lot of sports, including a lot of soccer and a lot of skiing. She has a one-year-old grandson, Benny, who she described as “the cutest pumpkin ever.” She gets excited when she pulls a weed out by its whole root — so much so that she takes a picture to document the feat. She prefers apple pie to cake for her birthday, which her husband makes for her every year, complete with a latticed top crust. She and Jamie are faithful Catholics and volunteer at St. Martha’s Parish in Okemos. She planned the Evening of Empowerment for Athena Win — Igniting the Leader in You, and she is championing Child and Family Charities May 14, 2026, from 4 p.m.-7 p.m. at Urban Beat. Do let her know if you’re going. Congratulations, Phyllis!
