The Lansing Country Club greeted us with open arms on what could only be described as bleak and dreary day filled with rain. Enthusiasm for Rotary was not not dampened despite the weather as President Dennis Fliehman called to order a full house of Rotarians and guests. Brian Taylor gave a thoughful invocation followed by an acapella My Country tis of Thee led by Ken Beachler. The health of the club is most excellent per Diane Sanborn.
Don’t forget to get your international grant requests into the International Committee by November 2, 2018. We had a new member presentation by Marilyn Costigan. She’s a transfer from the Burton, Michigan Club, a 28 member club in which getting all the good works of Rotary done is an all hands on deck affair. Sounds like she has held every post Burton had to offer. Special Music today was introduced by Terry Terry. Pericles Gomes, is a Cellist from Brazil who indicates he wouldn’t be who he was without Rotary. His father was a Rotarian in Sao Paolo. Gomes has played for Kings and Queens around the world and shared his passion for the Cello with us. He did a couple of Bossa Nova numbers, Antônio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim, aka Tom Jobim. The Girl from Ipanema is a classic and he played it with tremendous emotion and pride.
Our speaker of the day was Kirk Ray, the CEO of McLaren Greater Lansing. He’s a 27 year veteran of Provider Side Healthcare. His last post was in Warsaw, Indiana and he is now heading up McLaren’s new build on the SW corner of MSU’s campus. He arrived just in time to experience McLaren’s transition to electronic medical records and to consolidate 2 health care campuses into a new state of the art facility. Tele medicine and collaboration with MSU’s medical school are also on the horizon. The new hospital will be 10 stories with 240 beds and 42 ER examining rooms to accommodate the approximate 50,000 ER visits Mclaren has each year. There were a number of questions which were ably handled and President Dennis closed out the meeting in the usual fashion.
Kevin Schumacher's email is: Schumacher@glassenrhead.com