SPOKES -- June 22, 2021

 

 

• Jane Copping, who passed away this weekend and will be dearly missed, will be remembered with a visitation and service at Peace Lutheran Church on June 30 at 2:00 PM.

• Our Sneak Peeks at Bronson will begin tonight.

• Our new officer induction ceremony will take place on July 6th at 7:00 at Stanley Johnson Park.  It will be an informal gathering with light refreshments. Bring chairs..

• Thursday’s social hour has been moved from ZOOM to Stanley Johnston Park. Beginning at 10:00.  Bring your own chair and beverage.

• Work continues to honor Bob Stickland and funds for a memorial statue are still being raised.
  

• We will be working with the Kiwanis Club to put on a Pancake Breakfast during Blueberry Festival on August 14 and 15.

50/50 and Fines

Stephanie Kohler was called on to select the big prize winners this week and called out Bob Boerma’s number for the big prize and Art Bolt’s for the $2 prize.

Fines were charged to:

• Bob Boerma had a huge collection of birthday people at his house last weekend.  By the time they finished with their birthdays, there were none left for anyone else.

• Larry Wittkop again secured the great Louis Armstrong to sing our birthday song.

Spotlight

President Elect Bill Roberts was our spotlight this week.  Bill was born in Springfield Illinois in a neighborhood of 24 other boys.  It is interesting to note that Springfield is also the home of the Homer Simpson family and Homer Simpson worked in a nuclear power plant.  Bill spent most of his working career working in nuclear power plants and he is from Springfield.  A big part of Bill’s life was the famous Rt. 66 which ran near his home, school and neighborhood playgrounds.  Bill left Springfield however, completing his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Illinois.  He began working at the Palisades Nuclear Power plant in 1974 and worked for Consumer’s Energy until he retired in 2007 except for small stints in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Bill married his wife Jan while they were in college and they will celebrate 50 years of marriage next year.

The most famous of his relatives is former U of M basketball standout and Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Robin Roberts.

Our speaker this morning was introduced by President Thompson.  Stephanie Kohler has been with Lory’s Place since 2007 and has served in a number of positions including the director position she now holds.

Lory’s Place is part of Spectrum Health/Lakeland Health’s Caring Circle – which is led by our own Melinda Gruber.  It was founded in 2004 with the purpose of helping people with the grieving process and to help them cope with difficult times over the loss of loved ones.  The plan is to create a safe space for people to learn about grieving and to grieve.  Since they began, they have helped more than 40,000 people.  They provide help in the form of small groups, individual sessions and other materials from ages three to folks in their nineties.  Much of the support they provide is based on peer group work.  They do want clients for their services – which are all free - to be self-referred.

Support is divided into five groups including those who lose loved ones by suicide, early life loss, overdose death and the newest group the 18 – 25 year old support group.

Lory’s Place also provide education to organizations that need to or want to understand the grieving process like nursing groups, schools and other places that may have to deal with death.

They are able to keep going because of the support of the community, to the tune of more than $460,000 a year.  In addition, they have received generous support for the addition to their facility.

The biggest fund raiser for the organization is called “Reflections” and this year it will be held here in South Haven at the Black River Barn on July 16.

President Thompson thanked Stephanie for her informative update and let her know that our speaker’s gift is in the mail.

President Thompson adjourned the meeting with the Four Way Test at 8:00 AM

• NEXT WEEK:   We will have a surprise program next week!
  
  Editarian:  Dene Hadden