Today we officially welcomed Kristin Filhouer into Membership.
Kristin is the Campus Administrator for U Rock. She grew up in Janesville, graduated from Craig, and attended UW Whitewater for both her under and Graduate degrees. A 2 year job at the Holocaust Museum in Washington changed her life and direction, bringing her back to Janesville with a goal to work with helping people and then into education. SHe worked at the Job Center developing curriculum, and has been at U Rock for 13 years- she was part of the working group that helped with the development of the new regional model. She credits great mentors with good guidance along the way in helping her pursue opportunities. She has a 16 year old daughter. We're glad you've joined Noon Rotary, Kristin!
MariVi enjoyed her favorite Christmas holiday and a trip to Chicago. Inbound and Outbound Exchange students spent a Hockey weekend in Madison last weekend. She will be selling things beginning next week to help pay for the (expensive) Spring trip, so if you'd like to support her fundraising efforts please bring $.
Rotary Anniversaries: Ray Kitson- 63 years, Kats Neeno- 58 years, Scott Porter- 56 years, Russ French and Ken Lein- 52 years, Wayne Gilmore and Phil Waller- 25 years, Al Utiz- 24 years, Dibs Cullen and Bill Hesser- 20 years, Vicki Morris- 14 years, Abagail Davis-Scienszinski- 9 years, and Denise Webb- 4 years. Congratulations all!
Birthdays: Rick Hathaway 1.2, Sue Boettcher 1.7, Joe Shere 1.8, Laura Baker 1.12, Ray Kitson 1.12, Ken Lein 1.12, and Gary Bersell 1.14. Happy birthdays!!
Laura read a thank you from our wonderful servers, Gabby and Sam.
Mick Gilbertson- there will be a Camp Rotamer meeting next week after our regular meeting. All are welcome to come and learn more about this committee and our Camp plans.
Harris Thatcher spoke about his gifting to our Foundation Endowment Fund. Consideration on what to support financially is a personal choice, and as a 50 year Rotarian, the Endowment fund is important to Harris. You can donate monthly, quarterly, annually, or through a Trust or Will, and he has established a charitable Trust (easy, painless) through Fidelity that makes his quarterly donations. He'd be happy to talk to you more about the process if you have questions.
Raffle: Gregg Dickinson won the $16 pot, and JP of $175 rolls over.
Jerry Burhans, USA Softball, with Cindy and Victoria
I didn't know what to expect from this program, and found it to be educational and fascinating. Jerry , a Hall of Fame and 61 year Umpire, has stories to tell! Softball started as an indoor game in the late 1800's, and is now the largest team sport in North America with 40 million participants. Our Boys and Girls Club is fortunate to have Jerry teaching local 14-15 year olds how to Umpire, and those who pass field and written exams will become certified Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association baseball and ASA softball umpires. These Umpires can earn $2-4,000.00 during the Summer months, as there is high demand. Jerry had 2 of his students, who Umpire at a higher level in HS than WIAA Umpires, talk about their experiences. Sydney is a Jr at Edgerton HS, is a top ranked amateur pitcher and is the first Umpire in Wisconsin to ever be chosen to Umpire a National Tournament. She has worked around 100 games in the past 3 years, and credits the skills she has learned as being impactful on her entire life and future studies. Victoria credits Jerry with propelling her to Nationals in 2016. The USC watched her closely as the games progressed and got more intense, and she loved the camaraderie with the other Umpires. She was featured in a Gazette article yesterday- http://www.gazettextra.com/20160416/teen_learns_more_than_rules_from_umpiring_softball
Questions were asked about controlling unruly spectators and Coaches and all 3 agreed that a good Umpire knows how to shut that down. Jerry gave us an inside look at what goes on during Umpire-Coach confrontations in the NBL- fascinating stuff!
Sam Furseth, a Sr at Parker, was accompanied by his Father Craig today. He is a member of DECCA, Link Crew, and enjoys most sports. He works part time at Jimmy Johns.
Dyan Dawkins was accompanied by his Mother Monica and Grandmother Maria. At Craig he plays Tuba in the Band and Ensemble and has wrestled for 3 years. He is working on his Eagle Scout Dawson Field project (paperwork yet to be turned into Paul Romanelli!), and enjoys outdoor activities like hikes biking, walks, etc. He plans to attend a 4 year College with the goal of becoming a Naval Officer/Pilot.
When Teguest Yilma helped found the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Entoto in 2002, she thought polio had already been eradicated from most of the world. But while Ethiopia had been free of the disease, Yilma was shocked to learn that new cases had started cropping up in surrounding countries such as Somalia.
“I was thinking, it’s not possible, we can’t be free if the countries around us are not free,” she says. Yilma, the managing editor of Capital, Ethiopia’s largest English weekly newspaper, has brought a journalist’s skills to the fight against polio. She became vice chair of the Ethiopia...
Battling breast cancer in 2000, Kathryn Smith found comfort pursuing her lifelong interest in Franklin D. Roosevelt. The more she read, the more intrigued she became with the 32nd U.S. president’s private secretary, Marguerite Alice “Missy” LeHand. “I thought, what a fascinating life she had because she was by his side through the polio crisis, establishing the polio rehabilitation center in Warm Springs and then after his return to politics,” she says. Smith, a past president of the Rotary Club of Greater Anderson, S.C., and a longtime newspaper journalist, turned that curiosity into a book...
The Atlanta Host Organization Committee is offering some good old-fashioned Southern hospitality at the Rotary International Convention from 10 to 14 June. It has planned a wide range of activities featuring everything from good food and music to inspiring tours of local landmarks. If it’s your first convention, these events are chances to meet fellow Rotarians from around the world, and if you’re an experienced convention goer, you can catch up with old friends.
Hall of Fame baseball player Hank Aaron will host Rotarians for a “Strike Out Polio” night at the new SunTrust Park, where you’ll...
One of United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s earliest memories is of fleeing with his family into the mountains during the Korean War, his village burning behind him. His father and grandfather had to forage for food in the woods; his mother gave birth to his siblings away from anything remotely resembling a health facility. “I have known hunger,” he says. “I have known war, and I have known what it means to be forced to flee conflict.”
The soldiers who came to their rescue were flying the blue flag of the United Nations. The UN provided them with food and their schools with books....
Like a lot of us, I spent much of my childhood riding bikes, but fell out of the habit for a while. Forty years. Then my wife and I moved to New York, where cyclists risk their necks in a daily Thunderdome of cabs, police cars, firetrucks, double-decker buses, messengers on motorbikes, and delivery trucks backing around corners at 20 miles an hour. Not for me! At least not until my 50th birthday, when my metabolic furnace flamed out. Calories started going directly from beer bottle to beer belly. It was time to start exercising. Either that or give up Samuel Adams, and I couldn’t do that to...
