We will not meet this Friday, April 3rd, 2026 due to the Good Friday Holiday. Our next meeting will be Friday, April 10th at Lansing Community College. Enjoy your weekend!
This is a rain-or-shine event that is completely free to attend and participate. The Easter egg hunt on the Capitol Lawn will be held from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Youth participants will be divided into groups.
Immediately after the Easter egg hunt, the community is invited to bring their baskets to 100-300 blocks of S. Washington Square to collect eggs and other goodies from local businesses until 1:00 p.m. No purchase is necessary. More information at this link: Downtown Egg-Stravaganza
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.
STEM for All
Kannaki Nagar Social Welfare Turst has been providing free tuition to more than 300 school students in an underserved area. Our Lansing Rotary Club has provided grants for vocational training, building toilets, and online learning infrastructure. Leaking roofs interrupted online classes as well as in person classes. This issue became so bad that the class size drastically went down. In his recent trip to India, Umakanth and his friends collected about $8,000 and made sure the roof was replaced before the rainy season began.
This grant request is to provide compensation to tuition teachers so that the primary service of providing free tuition to students will be restored. This grant will cover paying four teachers for 12 months at Rs 5,000 per teacher per month. There will be two teachers at two locations - Kannagi Nagar and Cheyyur. Once this primary service of providing tuition to students is restored in the 12 months, further funding will be pursued from other sources.
STEM for All received a grant of $1,500.00 and Umakanthan Govinidarajan 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.
Thursday was our social, where Rotarians are released into the wild for a couple hours of unbridled socializing. Because we’re a tame group, there’s not much to report so your intrepid reporter is once again tasked with making stuff up. I decided to use the opportunity to learn more about our Rotarians and guests by asking anyone who would answer a simple question: What’s your favorite movie or movie star. The answers provide keen insight into who’s sitting at the table next to you on Friday:
Diane: Places in the Heart starring the Flying Nun.
Jackson: Blood Diamonds with Denzel.
Heidi: Toss up between two nearly identical movies: Gone with the Wind and Animal House (think about it, they’re both centered on a house, they both involve social upheaval and tumult, and of course they both have at least one character who frankly doesn’t give a damn.)
Cathy: the wonderfully dysfunctional Christmas biopic for all of us, The Family Stone.
Laurie Baumer: Forest Gump and I didn’t see this one coming, Crash.
Chris Nugent: predictably, the Godfather, but not for the reason I expected (any question you have in life can be answered by the Godfather movies; movie mogul won’t hire your nephew? Surprise him in bed; disagreements with business associates? Buy mattresses and make spaghetti; doing something you probably shouldn’t?, have your friends help you while you make a perfect alibi by attending a christening in church). None of that is whey Chris Nugent picked the Godfather. James Caan, 2 years at MSU, walk on qb for Duffy. Chris also picked Shawshank Redemption.
Terry Terry: Terry’s answers could form the basis for a PhD thesis. Rocky Horror Picture Show. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (written and directed by Werner Herzog, 1972). El Topo, a 1970 Mexican acid Western film, I didn’t even know that was a genre!
Ben Rathbun: The Towne, I confess I haven’t seen this one so can’t provide a psychological profile of Ben based on his movie choice. I can say it was a challenge for him to come up with a movie title he liked.
Sue Hansen: Sue doesn’t watch movies, she only watches sports. A lot of sports. Basically any sport. I hope nobody ever tells her about the German Shopping Cart Archery Championship. Sue did confess to a fondness for Harrison Ford.
Susan: Susan can relate to Claire from the Outlander series (she moves from problem to problem easily). She also fancies herself some Goose from Top Gun (original or the new extra crispy version).
Doug: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly! A classic!
Linda: Wall E, a story about an interstellar trash compactor brought to life to save passengers on a cruise ship from a life of luxury.
Brian: (main squeeze of Laurie Baumer), A Bridge too Far.
Nicole Baurmer: I’m certain I got this wrong, City of Angels? Nicholas Cage? Really? If you’re going for Nicholas Cage, Moonstruck is the only way to go. I also have scribbled notes of Matt Damon, but he’s not really a romcom kind of guy.
President Chris: Auntie Mame starring Rosalind Russell. Chris has lived his life consistent with the four way test and this famous line from Auntie Mame: “Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death.”
Raeanne Mardigian: anything with Jim Carey, “Good morning, and in case I don’t see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night.”
Email for Kevin Schumacher: schumacher@glassenrhead.com
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: 
