Posted by Kevin V. B. Schumacher
Well, Friday was another great Rotary meeting called to order the best Rotary President ever, Chris. His mastery of the four way test has us spellbound and standing at rapt attention. Linda Sarnelli channeled the wisdom of 18th century German philosopher and star of the enlightenment, Immanuel Kant in her reflection. Once again we were treated to the Lansing Rotary version of America’s Got Talent when Heidi McNaughton and Mark Hooper did a sing off of God Bless America. Dan Aylward tossed the cube around for the introduction of guests. During the health of the club portion, long term member Barb Lezotte (Class of 94), announced this was her last meeting and everyone was wondering, “How does she know?” Don’t worry, her health is fine, she’s just moving away. Something about closer to family, stuff like that.
 
Zap Zone’s Brandon McCoy provided our special music. Acoustic guitar with a percussive twist. There’s something cathartic and calming about a big box guitar acoustic set. The crowd was mesmerized when he slowly worked his fingerstyle playing technique into a demonstration of the percussion instrument that the guitar can be. If you don’t know what percussive guitar playing is, visualize combining regular guitar playing with interpretive dance and then add sound. And now, for something completely different. After blowing our minds with the guitar, Brandon brandished an American Flute. We were instantly swept into Jeremiah Johnson meets Dances with Wolves. Thank you Terry Terry for introducing us to Brandon McCoy.
 
We have a hands on volunteer day coming up on November 25 from nine to 11 at the Greater Lansing Food Bank. Contact Jason Brunette if you can help sort foods at the Food Bank’s warehouse.
 
Brett Pacek gave his Blue Badge presentation and I can honestly say his was the best since Lisa Ho Smith did hers. Yes, Lisa, I remember all the jokes from that set. Jeff Benson let him be a vice president for a day at CASE Credit Union when his internship ran out. He had too much fun at MSU during the first two years at MSU so changed from pre-med to finance. How many times have we heard that story. He met his wife in second grade and they have two kids. Not while they were in second grade, they waited until they were old enough to go to a hockey game.
 
Bobby Hoffman was our chair of the day and he introduced us to the former janitor of the BWL Erickson Power Plant, Dick Peffley. Dick is living proof that if you stay with the company long enough you get to do every job the company has and some jobs, like CEO, you get to do twice. He never sought it out, he just happened to be the right guy for the job, twice. The risk averse BWL is owned by the public and oriented towards serving the public. The BWL owns its own grid and sells excess energy production to the market every day. Electric need is projected to double in the next ten years. 80% of the BWL’s customers are residential and 20% are commercial but when it comes to revenues, those numbers flip with 80% of the revenue coming from the commercial side. The BWL is planning replacing 8 miles of water main per year rather than waiting for them to fail on their own. Should take 100 years to complete the replacement. People were curious as a cat in a string factory and Dick didn’t dodge a single question.
 
That’s the review of this week meeting. Deer season is on so wear something orange to the bus station if you’re out early in the morning (this is what I was told as a child going to school in the UP).
 
Email for Kevin Schumacher:  schumacher@glassenrhead.com