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No Meeting on April 15, 2022
We will not meet this Friday, April 15, 2022 due to the Good Friday Holiday.  Our next meeting will be Friday, April 22, 2022
at the Lansing Center.  Enjoy your weekend!
Capital City Clean Sweep
We have a great volunteer opportunity for our club.  Lansing is having a Capital City Clean Sweep on Saturday, April 23 from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  The morning includes local residents, businesses and other community members all working together to clean-up and beautify the city.  Volunteers will be cleaning the planted beds, sidewalks, parking areas and alleys around Washington Square, the Riverfront/Trail, Museum Drive, stadium District and more! 
 
Please contact Jason Brunette if you are interested:  Jason.Brunette@martincommercial.com   Thank you!
Supporting Relief Efforts in Ukraine
Good morning, Rotarians. Many of you have reached out wanting to know how you or your clubs can assist with the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Ukraine, and what District 6360 is doing to respond to this emergency. The Rotary Foundation has established an official channel for donors to contribute funds to support relief efforts via TRF’s Disaster Response Fund. Through April 30, all funds received into the Disaster Response Fund will be used to support relief efforts undertaken by Rotarians in Ukraine and in the bordering countries. District 6360 has allocated $5,000 of our District Designated Funds to this cause and it is our hope that many of you will join us in this critical effort.
 
Rotarians, Rotary clubs, and others may make contributions to the Disaster Response fund HERE.
 
In addition, to encourage giving in support of this pressing priority, District 6360 is expanding our recognition points matching program through April 30. While our match is typically limited to contributions made to TRF’s Annual Fund, contributions of at least $100 made to the Disaster Response Fund between March 1 and April 30 will now be matched 1:1 with recognition points. Also note that contributions to the Disaster Response Fund count toward Foundation recognition (e.g., Paul Harris Fellowship). To receive recognition points, simply send the receipt for your contribution to Cathy Andrews, she will complete the form to be emailed to Teresa Brandell.  It also enables our club to keep track of what donations are completed.
 
Acting together, Rotary and our Foundation have the capacity to have a tremendous impact on this human tragedy. Should you have any questions about this effort, please contact me at: ntriplett@gmail.com or 517-719-6499.
Editarian Report April 8, 2022
President Sue Hansen pulled everyone in from their small group conversations and called the meeting to order. The invocation was provided by Hari Kern (provided at the end of this report). The patriotic song was God Bless America.
 
President Hansen called on Rotarians to introduce their guests. Gabrielle Lawrence introduced Robert Crowe from The Christman Company. Uma Umakanthan introduced Travis Stoliker from Slice by Saddleback and Win Oo, an entrepreneur and senior at Everett High School and Max Smedly who has been accepted to MSU Osteopathic Medicine. Jonathan Kolbasa introduced Rep. Sarah Anthony who was there in support of the Lansing School District mileage. Justin Sheehan introduced Gerald Bullock, an Everett grad and new production intern for a Lansing Promise podcast. Scott Watkins introduced Roman Stotland.
 
Pres. Hansen led the group in the reciting of the four-way test. Lesa Smith reported on the health of the club (good) and President Sue called for a moment of remembrance for Rotarian James L. Reutter who passed away on the evening of April 3, 2022. Jim was a Rotarian from February 21, 1964, with Louis Legg as his sponsor. Jim was the President of the club from 1977 to 1978.
 
President Sue invited Kellie Dean, Rep. Sarah Anthony and Gabrielle Lawrence to give a community announcement on the Lansing School District’s Bond Proposal.
 
Announcements included:
- Volunteer opportunity: Details are in the Rotogram about the Capital City Clean Sweep on Saturday, April 23, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Contact Jason Brunette for more details.
- Irv Nichol’s son will be presenting a film in the Capital City Film Festival.
- Heidi McNaughton reminded everyone to make their donation to the Paul Harris Appeal with a specific reminder to write checks to Rotary Foundation.
 
Special music featured Benjamin Clements with songs from the musical Show Boat.
 
Thanks to our Chair of the Month/Day, Scott Duimstra, who provided the introduction of Jim Curran, Founder of Great Lakes Reality Lab.
 
Mr. Curran spoke on "Web 3.0, the Metaverse and VR - the WILD World Web"
 
Highlights include:
 
● What is a Metaverse? Taking a physical experience and recreating it in a virtual world.
 
● How is the virtual world evolving? How do we access it? The future of the virtual world and the metaverse is endless-- how do we bring this tech to Michigan?
 
● Young people and recent grads are choosing to stay local because the living expenses are so much lower than in California’s Silicon Valley.
 
● Research shows that retention happens in “doing,” and the virtual approach is a smarter way to give content to students in order to retain information.
 
● The applications of this technology are endless. Some examples are: teaching, virtual art experiences, immersive art, historical and science experiences, technical training
 
● Using VR minimizes the cost of potential destruction--like experimenting with chemicals and blowing up a chem lab.
 
● VR also has opportunities to help mental fatigue or minimize trauma to essential workers by offering a calm escape.
 
● Digital Workforce Development – Access to what job experiences young people might be interested in; messages and videos from prospective employers; a more streamlined approach to connecting hiring managers with interested potential employees.
 
● Presented the Michigan Joint Training Innovation Center, a place for kids to experience technical skilled trades. It is the first of its kind in North America and looks to grow the available curriculum.
 
● “Digital Gold Rush and you don’t have to go West to find it”
 
President Hansen shared that in lieu of a speaker’s gift, we will make a donation in the speakers’ honor to a local organization through our Lansing Rotary Foundation which has, over the history of our club, given in excess of $2,000,000 to local organizations and projects.
 
NEXT WEEK: We will not meet next week due to the Good Friday Holiday. Our next meeting will be Friday, April 22, 2023, at the Lansing Center and we will hear from Michele Strasz, Executive Director of the Capital Area College Access Network. The invocation that Kern read in honor of Curran:
 
Let us be still as we humbly turn toward the Spirit of Life and the Spirit of Love.
 
Today, we express our gratitude for our many blessings: for good health; for the freedom to gather together here; for the fact that for most of us, our needs are being more than well-met. Also, we are grateful for those in our community who are dedicated to educating our citizens and who continue to look for new and creative ways for people to learn.
 
But even as we count our blessings, we are reminded that so many in our world are suffering. Great numbers of people are fleeing their homes and their countries of origin and are experiencing horrific turmoil, destruction, and loss. For them, the possibility of learning new things is likely the farthest thing from their minds right now, and prosperity for the future must seem more remote than ever. May we find ways to reach out with compassion and may peace come in those areas much sooner than later.
 
Being part of a service organization like our Lansing Rotary is also a blessing - where we can come together, form new associations and friendships, expand those we already have, be exposed to new ideas, share our life experiences, and have opportunities to contribute to the well being of others in our community and in the wider world. How fortunate we are!
 
And now, as a new and warmer season is beginning, we can turn to nature to teach us yet another powerful lesson in that those seeds, which have been dark and closed and buried, are surrendering to a process where they are cracking open in the dark, giving themselves over to a growth process they cannot see, and finally, breaking ground to bud and bloom into a life of light that we call spring.
 
Blessed be and may it be so.
 
Amen
 
Meghan Martin's email is:  meghan@lansingarts.org
Speakers
Apr 22, 2022
"Postsecondary Education is Critical to our Economic Recovery"
Apr 29, 2022
"The YMCA's Past, Present, and Future"
May 06, 2022
May 13, 2022
"Michigan Healthcare: Past, Present, Future"
View entire list
Rotary Club of Lansing
P. O. Box 13156
Lansing, MI   48901-3156
Meeting Responsibilities
April Birthday Chair
Shaski, John
 
Remembrance
Zell, Katherine
 
Chair of the Month
Duimstra, Scott
 
Chair of the Day
Duimstra, Scott
 
Reflection