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President Jack Davis called the meeting to order at 12:30. The invocation was aptly delivered by Curt Sonnenberg. Following that, Lisa Smith declined an invitation to come to the podium, but did lead us in a rousing rendition of America, The Beautiful. Dave Trumpie struggled to turn on the microphone, but was finally able to facilitate the introduction of guests. Theresa Kmetz, delivered the remembrance report, letting us know that Jack Bates celebrated his 90th birthday on Thursday and that Matthew Anderson and his wife welcomed a new son into their family this week.
President Davis took a huge risk by inviting Kevin Schumacher to the front with a golf outing announcement complete with a PowerPoint presentation. His presentation was subtitled “How to Die One Stroke at a Time”. Kevin began by telling us how much he does not like golf and belittling those of us who do with several of his opening slides. In spite of his dislike, Kevin has been a regular support of our outing. He recapped some of the organizations that have benefitted from the proceeds of the past outings. In an effort to recruit more hole sponsors, Kevin has started the Hilarious Golf Tee Placard contest, complete with a meaningless prize. This announcement was followed by a review of Kevin’s past placards to give us some ideas of what might be considered a winning entry. President Davis followed up Kevin’s presentation by asking if anyone knew when and where the golf outing is. Cathy, always ready with the important details, let us know that it is on September 16th, a Friday, at Timber Ridge. It’s not too early to get your foursome together. After all, you won’t want to miss seeing all of those Hilarious Golf Tee Placards in real time.
Those who haven’t picked up their 100th Anniversary History Book can pick up their copy at the end of the meeting.
In lieu of special music, President Davis shared a few thoughts about Eugene ‘Gil’ Wanger’s background. Gil, a local attorney, was a delegate to the convention that rewrote the Michigan Constitution in the early 1960’s. He is also famous for his work to be sure there would not be a death penalty in Michigan. He owned a vast collection of information surrounding the writing of the constitution, the Wanger Constitutional History Collection, and has written a book detailing the history of our Constitution. The collection has been donated to the State of Michigan and is one of the most unique and valuable collections ever given to the State. He has been commended for being such an outstanding steward of this important piece of Michigan’s history.
Lisa McCormick, our newest member, was presented with her red badge.
With that formality out of the way, the new member presentations began. Curt Sonnenberg, Chair of the Day, kicked things off by introducing the four of them just briefly so as to not steal any of their thunder.
Emily Sutton-Smith, Development Director at Williamston Theatre, kicked off the presentations. She was thrilled to learn that this meeting would feature new member presentations, primarily because her name was not on the list of presenters. Imagine her surprise when she was asked to take the place of another who was not able to participate. The youngest of five children, she is a first generation American as her parents immigrated from New Zealand. She is happily married with a step-daughter who is a student at MSU and a son who starts kindergarten in the fall. She is a professional actor with a Masters degree from MSU and membership in a number of professional organizations. Emily’s life work is storytelling and she feels privileged to be part of an incredible human experience, sharing stories from the stage. These stories, which are personal and very powerful, have the potential to change the world by changing one person at a time. She has enjoyed learning the stories of fellow Rotarians and looks forward to hearing many more Rotary stories in the years ahead.
Next up was Suseela Thangavela, Programmer with the State of Michigan. Her name, from Sanskrit, means a person with good values. Suseela came from India and has been married to fellow Rotarian Uma for 30 years. They have 2 children. She is passionate about teaching and was a teacher in India. In addition to her job with the State, she runs a school in Okemos, teaching other languages. She always knew that her parents were different, but she did not fully understand how different they were until she was older. They were thrilled to have a daughter as their first born in a time and place where daughters were frequently killed. They treated Suseela and her brother equally and taught them to question what was happening around them. There were many incidents that have led her to where she is today. She told us about the beggar with leprosy who was given food by her mother daily. One day, he didn’t show up and did not appear for several months. Her family assumed that he had died, but one day he appeared again. Her mother rushed out to find out where he had been and welcome him back. Everyone around was surprised that the woman of the house would speak to a beggar with leprosy, but this was not at all uncommon for her mother, who taught her children to look beyond the differences between us. Suseela has seen how much good our club has done through a meeting with Kurt Guter that eventually led to support for Rising Star Academy. From there, she decided that she wanted to be part of a club that does so much good in our community.
Zach Krieger, M3 Group marketing Account Specialist, is not supposed to be here in Lansing. He headed off to college, where he met a girl from his hometown. He had apparently been enjoying college a little too much, but her influence led to a bit of settling down and an eventual degree. She wanted to cut hair and came to Douglas J. Zach followed her and soon decided he was ready to settle down. He had been working in radio some, but didn’t think that was anything that would support a family. He was encouraged to try a career in sales, married the girl and now has a 2 year old daughter. After three years in sales, he started talking to his rep at M3 and decided to make a career move. Today, he loves Lansing and is looking forward to being part of Rotary.
Thomas Stewart, Managing Partner with Common Wealth Enterprises, began by thanking those who have introduced him to Rotary and encouraged him to become a member. He grew up in Bath and was involved in 4H, raising pigs, and is an Eagle Scout. He hated these activities, but now realizes that they were very important in his development. He graduated from MSU with a degree in Psychology. He has been married for several years and has his own consulting company, mostly because his GPA and degree didn’t get him far in the corporate world. He has invested in and helped start 8 companies. Four have been failures, one has been very successful, and the others are at least operating. He owns the Neo Center in north Lansing and is managing Quantum Medical Concepts and a number of other ventures. He was successfully unsuccessful in a bid for Lansing City Council. Although he doesn’t fancy himself an entrepreneur, rather an entrepreneur coach, he has an impressive list of entrepreneurial accomplishments already. He has been told he is an old soul (by his mother) and, due to a recent broken hip and cataracts, he figures he now has a body to match.
President Davis was momentarily speechless after four impressive presentations, but quickly recovered, summarizing the themes that were presented by our new members. All four received their official blue badges and their Rotary pins. Then he looked out and noticed that Rich Howard, who made one of these presentations possible by insisting he could not be at the meeting, was definitely in attendance. In lieu of a speaker’s gift, a donation will be made to our bio sand water filter project in honor of these new members. Our next meeting will be back at the Lansing Center with the Honorable Thomas P. Boyd, Mental Health Court Judge of the 55th District Court, as speaker. With that, the meeting was adjorned for another week.
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Born and raised in Kalamazoo Michigan. Graduated James Madison College at Michigan State University in 1985 (Major: Minority/Majority Group Relations and Related Policy Problem Solving); and Wayne State University Law School in 1990. Appointed Assistant Attorney General in 1995 by Attorney General Frank J. Kelley. Appointed Judge in the 55th District Court (Ingham County, Michigan) in July 2005 and elected to continued service in 2006, 2008 and 2014.