SPOKES VOL. LXV NO. 48 June 11, 2019
Bob Stickland was our greeter this morning.
President Odland opened the meeting with the “America the Beautiful” and Art Ayers provided the invocation, including a special few words for Tony Martorano as he faces more surgery.
Guests:
We welcomed back snowbird Bob Brickman and also Ross Woodhams who attended the Rotary International Convention in Germany last month. We also welcomed Brian Saxton, Lija Hanny, Isa Gruber, Sherry Ulig and Malik Jackson from the Benton Harbor Boy’s and Girl’s Club..
Spotlight:
Sue Duval, working with Bob Boerma has initiated a project to review and update our music selections over the next few months. We will each be surveyed about our favorites and have the opportunity to suggest alternatives.
Every effort will be made to preserve as much of “Dottie’s” piano playing as possible. Dottie, the wife of long time Rotarian Wib Lynam, originally recorded the music on cassette tapes and her music has been a staple of our meetings for many decades. (And if you listen closely, you can hear the metronome ticking in the background of each piece.)
Announcements:
- Our annual change of officers’ dinner will occur on June 25th at Hawkshead. Invitations to the dinner were passed out and a sign up sheet passed around. The dinner will also honor Don Hixson and Glenn Pietenpol. There will also be a golf outing before the dinner and Dan Thompson has the signup sheet.
- We have parking lot duty for the 4th of July Parade. More information to follow.
- The We Care Golf Outing, put together by a group of Rotarians, raised $9500 for that organization.
- Our first pancake breakfast will be help on July 7th at the pavilion.
- A special congratulation to Deb Davidson on her Lifetime Achievement Award from the Chamber of Commerce. Well deserved!
Songs
Jim Davis led us in a couple of real oldies this morning, beginning with a song written for the play The Isle O' Dreams in 1912, “When Irish Eyes Are Smiling”. We followed that up with “April Showers”, The song was introduced in the 1921 Broadway musical Bombo, where it was performed by Al Jolson. It became a well-known Jolson standard. Interestingly, Spike Jones wrote and performed a version of this song that began with the lyrics: "When April showers, she never closes the curtain...". We finished with “All Hail to Rotary”
50/50
Don Kitchin not only had the lucky ticket but drew the even luckier “4”, winning the pot.Someone won the $2 prize, too.
Fines:
- Ted and Julie Weber celebrate an anniversary this week.
- Dick and Marilyn Swanson also celebrate and anniversary this week.
- Also celebrating an anniversary, Dan and Missy Thompson.
- Our final anniversary celebration features Paul and Ann Hemmeter.
- Pete Swanson is celebrating the birthday of his grandson.
- Art Ayers celebrates a granddaughter’s birthday this week.
- Bob Boerma celebrates the birthday of his lovely wife Karen this week, followed shortly thereafter with is own birthday.
Rosalie Plechaty introduced us to our topic this week, The Boy’s and Girl’s Club, and invited Brian Saxton, CEO of the Benton Harbor club, to speak to us.
Brian began with a brief history of the Benton Harbor club and reviewed the three basic principles of all Boy’s and Girl’s club. They include: Developing Supportive Relationships; Out of School Enrichment; and Job Readiness.
Brian than invited Isa Gruber, an employee of the club and SHHS grad, to talk about her experience as a worker in clubs and how watching and helping young people grow and mature through the efforts and programs of the club. She is currently working to make connections with organizations and individuals in South Haven to develop a club here.
Isa was followed by Sherry Ulig who handles much of the PR for the Benton Harbor club and emphasized the three principles, letting us know that 63% of kids say they don’t have a place to go with adults that care. 91% of youth surveyed believe they would benefit from extra academic help and 78% of kids want to work but say they don’t know how.
Malik Jackson, the Benton Harbor club’s Youth iof the Year, spoke about his experience and what he had learned and benefited from being part of a Boy’s and Girl’s Club and the confidence he clearly expressed about his future.
Brian returned to the podium and explained that work on establishing a club in South Haven had been going on for the last year and a half and the plan is to start activities and programs here next October. They plan on becoming out of school, year round partners. They plan on working with the many organizations and businesses in town to offer programs with or in conjunction with them to provide year round out of school activities for youth from 6 to 18.
The challenge is to find programs that will draw kids into the club. They hope to serve 150 kids. In order to do that, they will need lots of volunteers and are currently working to raise $1 million dollars to sustain the club for three years.
President Odland and our membership appreciated the presentation and he presented each of our guests with a speaker’s gift.
President Odland closed the meeting with the Four Way Test.
Next week’s program: Dan Thompson and an update on our membership Initiative.
Greeters: Don Hodgman and Deb Davidson.
Editarian: Dene Hadden