Hari Kern started out our afternoon with a beautiful piano interlude. She played the Entertainer, followed by Ship of Fools, What a Fool Believes, Fool on the Hill and she finished with the crowd favorite, Why Do Fools Fall In Love. President Sue then brought our April Fool’s Day meeting to order by announcing that since we’ve had two fake springs, we should be just about done with Third Winter (see chart).
President Sue is an April foolish dreamer. There’s no way winter is done with us. Scott Watkins provided our weekly Rotary Reflection, shared values, greater good, present work is future community, good stuff. Then we sang and did we belt it out. We sang the most patriotic song we could think of that everybody knew the words to, a moderately off key garage band version of Harry Nilsson’s Coconut that sounded a bit like this.
Hey, we’re working on it. This segued well to health of the club. Sue Mills sent us this video about Pickle Ball and how it’s low impact and won’t cause you to have knee replacement surgery.
How’d we do reciting the 4 Way Test without a banner to remind us of what they are in order? Um yeah, we’re working on it. Jason Brunette took the podium to announce a Rotary Service Opportunity, Clean Sweep on April 23, 2022, 10:00 to noon. Contact Jason if interested. jason.brunette@martinpropertydevelopment.com Real brooms only, none of that Harry Potter stuff.
Heidi McNaughton dizzied us with the full array of Paul Harris options this year. Designate your contribution for Polio Plus and Gates Foundation does a 2:1 match. Designate your contribution for Ukraine Disaster Relief fund and our District will match you in points getting you that much closer to a Paul Harris Pledge Pin.
Even though Ken Beachler was at the meeting, there was no special music. Intolerable. Especially in Third Winter, when a week without music is like a week without sunshine. I searched the interweb and found our beloved Beachler moonlighting as a narrator for a hapless elephant named Babar. This link to Ken’s voice will have to do.
Scott Duimstra’s theme for speakers for the month is empowerment. We were introduced to Dustin Hunt, owner and operator of Muralmatics https://www.muralmatics.com/. Dustin is exempt from ordinary ways of living. Taking street art to another level, Dustin Hunt is a certified teacher and small business owner. He is an “investigative individualist” by some measure. He’s worked and lived in Portland, Minneapolis (not by choice, so to speak) and has landed back in Lansing. Math for many is problematic and Dustin found a way to integrate math instruction with art, specifically, wall art, murals. Using the visual art of murals helps students learn math concepts involved with geometry, algebra, and scale. Some students are not well served by standardized education and they end up in alternative education, that just because it is alternative, still may not meet their needs. Fusing alt-alt-ed with art instruction and math to comply with court mandated community service fills a void in the lives of many students. When graffiti is part of your alt alt ed tool box, interview questions take on a new twist. Can you work fast? Can you work at night, in the dark? Are you ok with being on the fringe of legal art exposition? Are you ok with your art leaving town tomorrow because it’s part of a train? Is money your primary motivator (if so, may not be well suited for graffiti work). Dustin sees genius in people who have been marginalized. When asked to define that genius, it was like he was grasping at a defiant, invisible cloud. Such is the nature of seeing genius in populations that don’t “test well”, it requires re-thinking of old paradigms. Dustin fielded more than the average number of questions from the audience with aplomb.
Have a great week folks!
Kevin Schumacher's email is: schumacher@glassenrhead.com