President Sue Hansen rang the bell and the official meeting commenced. Some of our members appeared to rise a little more slowly, possibly still feeling the effects of a late night in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. Carmen Turner took the podium to offer a reflection for today. John Dale Smith then led us in God Bless America, with a proclamation by President Sue for the Spartan Fight Song to kick off their first round match up with the Fighting Foster Loyer’s of Davidson and her mumbling something about congratulations to University of Michigan’s first round win.
We had numerous guests of our club members and Brenda Geoghegan made sure they were all acknowledged loud and clear with the traveling microphone. President Sue then led the club in the Rotary 4 Way Test.
Parker Sessa declared the club is in good health, with no other Rotarians having any news to share.
Diane Sanborn formally announced our newest local grant winners of which there were many with grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000 and the official list was included in this week’s Rotogram.
Ken Beachler introduced today’s special music two flautists from our local high schools who accompanied by John Dale Smith and entertained us with two classical movements.
Laurie Baumer introduced today’s guest speaker, Meegan Winters, CEO & Co-founder of the Able Eyes Organization. Meegan took us through her early life and career experiences working as a special education teacher and how the challenges for her students to be prepared for something as simple to many of us, as a school field trip or assembly, which for her students meant a disruption to their routines and added stresses to their lives as they prepared to attend these events.
During this part of her career, she was first exposed to the concept of a virtual tour and soon learned to use this as a tool to help her students prepare for off site school events. Meegan soon realized that these virtual tours are very useful in gaining insight to things like how far is the parking lot to the entrance of a facility to where are the restrooms located within the facility?
Meegan began researching virtual tours around Michigan and was pleased to learn there were many offered by businesses, event facilities and our colleges and universities. This is the point where Meegan felt her calling to start an organization that promotes virtual tours to assist people with disabilities and special needs and formed Able Eyes. Able Eyes allows organizations to submit virtual tours with a search engine housed are their website: https://www.ableeyes.org/. Today the search engine hosts tours throughout Michigan, the United States and Internationally and is a tremendous tool for those needing and those assisting others who need to prepare to visit a new place or organization as something this simple can alleviate the stress and uncertainty venues cause for people with not only physical disabilities but hidden disabilities, such as PTSD or extreme anxieties about venturing out to new locations.
Able Eyes can assist organizations in developing an organizational virtual tour, considering best practices to accommodate individuals with special needs in traveling to the organization’s physical location or just to allow individuals to visit the location via a virtual experience that would otherwise not be attainable for them to visit in person. Organizations can also submit their own virtual tours and for an annual subscription Able Eyes will add the organization to their virtual tour catalog.
After many great questions, President Sue brought our meeting to a close.
As one of our clubs Editarians, I get the ability to report about our weekly meetings and telling those that may have not been able to attend, what went on in the meeting they missed. Usually, not too seriously and always with good natured fun and my attempts at humor.
However, as my role as a voice for our meetings, I am also taking the opportunity with this week’s report to thank the Rotary Club of Lansing and its great members thoughts, prayers, and support on behalf of my whole family, for the unexpected and too soon loss of my son Grant Timothy Adams. So, for myself, my wife Lori, Grant’s partner Breanna, my other children Sydney and Owen, and last but most important Grant’s son and my grandson Jackson Grant Adams, we all truly offer our most sincere thank you and blessings to all of our club’s membership.
Tim Adam's email is: tadams@manercpa.com