SPOKES VOL. LXIV NO. 3 July 18, 2017
Welcome to our 64th year as the Rotary Club of South Haven!
After a brief fumble, President Renner opened our meeting with “America the Beautiful” and Art Ayers provided the invocation.
Guests:
We had a whole handful of guests this morning! We welcomed Assistant Gov. Terry Allen and new Lakeshore member Steve Teeple. In addition, we welcomed Don Kitchin’s guest and prospective member Mark Beverino, Larry Lewis’ son Chris, Magen Cairns from the Blueberry Festival and our speaker Lisa Bartoszek.
Music:
Bob Boerma returned to the podium this morning and was delighted to lead us in three semi-favorite selections. We began with a song that brought tears to Bob’s eyes, the 1895 hit “The Band Played On”, also known by its refrain, “Casey Would Waltz with a Strawberry Blonde". A couple of lines might have been off tempo or muddle, in spite of Bob’s best efforts. We followed that up with the newer, 1899 hit “Hello My Baby”. This song was featured In The Simpsons' fifth season episode "Homer's Barbershop Quartet" from 1993 (which takes place in Springfield 1985), Homer, Skinner, Wiggum and Apu sing a barbershop quartet rendition of the song. We finished with a well-directed version of “Roll Rotary’.
Spotlight:
Megan Cairns, Executive Director of the National Blueberry Festival presented a brief overview of this year’s festival, including some information on Kid’s day on Friday and a new band on Thursday evening. She thanked us for our longstanding support of the festival and wished us luck on our pancake breakfast.
Announcements:
- Don’t forget the Club Runner App for your phones, it’s a great resource!
- Dorothy Lockwood has information about Rotary Apparel. We can get t-shirts for $12 and Polo’s for $25. There is a sign-up sheet and we can expect the shirts in 8 to 10 days.
- Don Hixson reported that there were some false rumors about the hospital. The truth is that the orthopedic section is temporarily closed so all of the Bronson Orthopedic locations can learn and adopt Best Practices for their specialties. South Haven Bronson Orthopedic will resume patient care on August 1st.
- President Renner announced that the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau has asked Rotary to man the beer and wine tent at the Haven Harvest Festival. We would receive all of the profits. We would not be responsible for security and are covered for liability by our own and the festival’s insurance. Some thought should go into it this is the type of event we want to sponsor.
- Congratulations to Marty and Hollee Graber for the honor they received at the South Haven City Council meeting on Monday evening, reflecting the hard work he has done.
50/50
Paul Hemmeter had the correct ticket this week, but it was not the lucky ticket as he drew the queen. Art Ayres withdrew $2 from our meager pot to walk away as this week’s only winner.
Fines:
- Tom Renner and his lovely wife Carol – who also celebrated her 39th birthday – celebrated their 52nd Anniversary this week.
- Tom and the lovely Dorann Fleming also celebrated an anniversary, their 50th! Tom was reminded of their anniversary by the 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots.
- Paul Hix nearly missed paying for his picture in the paper, but his sharp-eyed fellow Rotarians were happy to remind him.
- Larry Lewis announced the birthday of his granddaughter Abby.
- Terry Allen had a list of birthdays and refused to pay more than $1 each, forcing us to sing one of our better versions of our Ludington style birthday/anniversary song.
- Chris Lewis, Larry’s son, was in town to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the SHHS Boys Cross Country state championship. A job well done by a great group of young men.
- Dene Hadden paid for a picture in the paper, this one taken 40 years after the one he paid for last week.
- Marty Graber thanked us for his support Monday evening and paid for numerous pictures in the paper.
- Jean Stein was in the middle of a dog transaction last week, buying one and then selling it.
- Tom Ruesink has been pleased to have his son visiting this week.
Bob Brickman introduced our program this week, Lisa Bartoszek from Lory’s Place
Lisa was instrumental in getting Lory’s Place started thirteen years ago.Lory’s Place is all about grief healing and education.Located in the Edgewater district in St. Joseph it is associated with the Caring Circle.
They provide free grief counseling services to families, friends and even classmates who have lost a loved one.In addition to individual families, they provide services to businesses, schools, and other organizations who have suffered a loss.In 2016 they served over 2000 clients and already in 2017 have served that many.
Bob Herrera provided support for Lisa, indicating that Lory’s Place has provided valuable service in our schools, a fact this writer has witnessed.
They have a budget of about $550,000, all of which is raised through donations and fundraisers.Their main fundraisers include the “Run, Walk, Rock 5K each spring, their Dinner Auction, coming up this weekend and an appeal letter they send each fall.
With six employees, they count on many, many volunteers to be trained to provide crisis response.
Lisa went on to describe how this concept has spread, including an interesting story about providing a Romanian connection to help them develop a grief support system.
Lisa also indicated that the staff of Lory’s Place is on call 24/7, ready to handle any grief emergency.
Lisa concluded her presentation by mentioning that she would be retiring soon, but has a very capable successor ready to pick up the reins.
President Renner thanked Lisa for her informative presentation, wished her the best in her retirement and presented her with our Rotary speaker’s gift.
He then closed the meeting by thanking all of our guests and leading us in the Four Way Test.
Next week’s program: Jerry Portman presenting The Southwest Land Conservancy and threats to our environment
Next week’s Greeters: Tom Fleming and Art Bolt
Editarian: Dene Hadden