SPOKES VOL. LXIX NO.44
July 12, 2022
 
President Mary Sue Lyon welcomed everyone to the first Tuesday
meeting of her presidency! We opened with the “Pledge of
Allegiance”, followed by Art Ayers’ invocation, which offered
prayers on behalf of Mike Livovich, his wife, Mary Ann, and
their family, as well as Dr. Marty Graber and Dr. Richard
Swanson, as they both are scheduled to have cervical spine
surgery within the next week.
 
GUESTS: Today’s speaker, District Governor Kathy Gallagher and
her husband Michael; Pam Leiter-Goebel, board president, and
Joie Barnhart, director of programs and memberships from the
Mitten Children’s Museum, as well as prospective members Holly
Boyd and Mike Kempker.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Mary Sue’s observations from the holiday weekend:
+ A huge “thank you” is in order for everyone who pitched in to
make the July 3 rd pancake breakfast such a success. We served
1000+ people and went through 240+ dozen eggs-WOW! Treasurer
Dave Campbell reported gross proceeds of $12,500+ prior to
counting the tip jar donations. Jerry Gruber indicated that the
tip jar donations exceeded $500!
+ Special thanks to the core leadership team for the breakfast,
led by Don Hodgman and his “well-oiled machine” deputies: Art
Ayers, Tom Ruesink, Jerry Gruber, Mark Odland, and Paul Hix.
What a team! It was fun watching you at work! I understand this
event was a dress rehearsal for our next pancake breakfast at
the airport on August 14 th .
+ I also wanted to acknowledge everyone who assisted with the
July 4 th parade. There were 24 Rotarians and family members who
participated, which made the job easy and enjoyable.
+ Jerry Gruber revealed the treasure map, indicating where he
buried the secret pancake recipe until the Fly-in breakfast on
August 14 th .
+ Don Hodgman reported that we had 64 members, spouses, and
other family members who participated in the set-up, the event,
and/or the clean-up.
+ Don also brought an aerial photo of a previous Fly-in Rotary
Breakfast at the airport. He also announced that sign-up sheets
for the August 14 th breakfast will be available at next Tuesday’s
meeting.
+ Mary Sue indicated that she had neglected to recognize a very
important group of members, whose terms have just ended as board
members:
Dene Hadden
Mark Odland
Bob Straits
Richard Swanson
+ We have two membership applications that have been submitted
for consideration by our SH Rotary Club: Holly Boyd and Mike
Kempker, whose sponsor is Griffin Graham.
+ Our next Board meeting will be held next Tuesday, July 19 th ,
immediately following the regular meeting.
+ The first meeting of the new Youth Services Committee will be
held on July 21 st at 4pm at Caring Circle. Anyone interested in
joining the committee is welcome.
+ The only thing that remains in finalizing the construction of
the Rainwater Harvesting Cistern in Kenya is replacement of the
guttering on the hospital. Before that could proceed, approval
from The Rotary Foundation was needed for us to use contingency
funds which were “built” into the Global Grant. That approval
was recently granted, so we eagerly await the completion.
+ Tom Renner acknowledged the great job being done by our new
South Haven Rotary Publicity Team of Emily Gruber and Dana
Hullinger.
COPPING’s COMEDY RELIEF

News outlets reported that a psychic midget had robbed a bank;
thus, there was now a small medium at large!
50/50
Tom Ruesink made no mention of finding someone “honest and
reliable”, but he found Michael Gallagher, whom we “assume”
possesses those traits, to pick the first winning ticket.
Nick Tuit had the winning ticket and drew card #2 for half of
the pot, which went to President Lyon.
Tom then acknowledged those joining us via Zoom: Jean Stein, Bob
Boerma, and Brandon Hinz.
BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES
+ Steve Larsen celebrated a birthday.
+ Tom and Donna Rummel are celebrating their anniversary today.
+ Larry and Barb Wittkop are also celebrating their anniversary.
+ Speaking of “celebrations”, Jerry Gruber announced that he and
Ann’s great-grandchild has been determined to be CANCER-FREE at
DeVos Children’s Hospital!!!
+ Tom Ruesink reported that his grandson’s uncle had a birthday.
+ Dene Hadden announced that the South Haven Public School’s
Foundation was sponsoring a raffle. Tickets are $20 each, for
the chance to win a Kawasaki Mule. See Dene if you’d like to
purchase tickets.
+ A “Ludington-style” version of the Happy Birthday/Anniversary
song was then “sung” by most.
Due to time constraints, the basket was passed from table to
table.

SPECIAL CHECK PRESENTATION
Our Rotary Board recently approved a $10,000 donation to the
Mitten Children’s Museum, a new museum in town which caters
primarily to children ages 1-10 years.
The idea for a local children’s museum began in 2019, when the
Fennville Museum Board opened a temporary “pop-up” museum in
downtown South Haven for the summer months.
The museum, affiliated with the Forever Curious Children’s
Museum of Fennville, is located at 246 Broadway Ave. in the
historic Conger House.
An ice cream social, a fundraiser to benefit the museum, will be
held on July 30 th from noon to 4pm at Riverfront Park. Tickets
may be secured on Facebook for $12 each.
Representatives from the new museum, Pam Leiter-Goebel and Joie
Barnhart, joined us this morning to speak briefly about the
museum, and to accept the check from President Lyon, on behalf
of the South Haven Rotary Club.
PROGRAM: District Governor Kathy Gallagher
Our District Governor’s Background:
Kathy joined the Rotary Club of Battle Creek in 2005. She served
as club president in 2017-18, after serving as club secretary
for nearly ten years.
Her District leadership positions include serving as an
Assistant Governor and as the chair of The Rotary Foundation
Committee.
Kathy graduated from Michigan State University, having earned
her undergraduate degree in Social Work. She was a medical
social worker prior to taking time off to raise her family.
Kathy primarily worked in Hemodialysis, as well as the intensive
care and emergency care units.
Throughout their sons’ school-aged years, Kathy served on the
Battle Creek Area Catholic School Board as its secretary and
served as a trustee on the Battle Creek Area Catholic Schools
Foundation Board.
She retired in 2013, after helping to raise nearly $20 million
for the Catholic Schools in Battle Creek.
Kathy is married to Mike, a member of the Gull Lake Area Rotary
Club. They have two married sons and five grandchildren. Family
is the love of Kathy’s life! She and Mike enjoy traveling,
RV’ing, boating, and gardening.
DG Gallagher indicated that this was her first club visit since
officially becoming District Governor.
Her message was based on the theme of “four people/one idea”,
which was a reference to Chicago attorney Paul Harris and his
friends as they sought to “quench” the longing for fellowship
among businessmen.
She mentioned that over time, Rotary’s reach and vision
gradually extended to humanitarian service Members have a long
track record of addressing challenges in their communities and
around the world.
Only sixteen years after being founded, Rotary had clubs on six
continents. There are currently 1.4 million Rotary members and
46,000 Rotary clubs.
The 2021 International Conference in Houston, which was attended
by 21,000 Rotarians, provided many special moments for DG
Gallagher; not the least of which was when she sat and conversed
with people from Columbia, as well as witnessing tremendous
support for a physician’s group attending from Ukraine.
She told of the Zambian Scholarship Project, currently being
undertaken by District 6360, via the District’s international
committee (DISC), as well as District 7780 (in Maine), and
District 9210 in Zambia. These three districts have collectively
laid significant groundwork towards achieving the common goal of
providing financial support for three bright, motivated, and
hard-working Zambian orphans who are intent on receiving a four-
year college education in Zambia.
DG Gallagher highlighted the tremendous support provided by
District Governor Nominee Mark Odland.
Mark serves as Chair of the District 6360 Membership Committee,
a member of the Visioning Committee, and an Assistant District
Governor for Area 2.
She also recognized Dan Thompson for his PolioPlus Society
membership.
DG Gallagher addressed a variety of questions before being
thanked by President Lyon and our entire club for coming to
visit.

NEXT WEEK’S PROGRAM: July 19th
Hannah Bentley, of the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Michigan.
Program Chair: Tom Noverr

NEXT WEEK’S GREETERS: Bob Brickman and Nick Tuit
We concluded our meeting with the 4-Way Test.
Respectfully submitted, Art Ayers, Past Seasonal Editarian