Spotlight 03-08-16, Vol. 78, No. 10

Posted by Richard Perlberg 
on Mar 09, 2016
 
PROGRAM:  Mark Cook presented Paul and Mary Ellen Huber, who live near Cleveland and are creators and board members for charitable, non-profit organization called Helping Haitians in Need.
 
PROGRAM:  Mark Cook presented Paul and Mary Ellen Huber, who live near Cleveland and are creators and board members for charitable, non-profit organization called Helping Haitians in Need. President-elect Adrienne Knack filled in for president Cathy Riesterer this week.
GUESTS: Michael Griffith, son of Scott.
BIRTHDAY’S: Carole Bullion (Tuesday) and Bonnie Corrigan (Monday).
TWO TRUTHS AND A LIE: Terry Simpson and Jason Hundley participating. Terry said that during travels to Africa, he: 1) was put in a precarious position when a herd of wildebeests surrounded his ten; 2) because of a missed connection, it once took him 47 hours to reach the Congo from Detroit; and 3) after landing in Rwanda, his car was met at the Uganda border by a border guard with only a phone for light and an AK-47. Jason correctly spotted the first one as a lie. Jason’s stories were: 1) as a kid he needed to clean up after gory and yucky crime scenes to help his dad’s business; 2) an introvert in high school, he became a cast member at Disney World, performing daily before 20,000 guests; and 3) at Disney World, he was an extra for Family Matters, which led to a castaway shirt that got him into a cast party where he enjoyed Bud Lights with Squiggy from Laverne and Shirley. The third story was the lie, which Terry correctly guessed.
Next week’s participants: Julie Smith and Julia McBride.
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
  • The club is looking for new chairs to take over the Adopt-a-Highway project.
  • Mitch Zoldowski says that the next Red Night will be 5:30 Tuesday, March 22 at the Main Crossing. Members of the new satellite club will be there.
  • As a reminder that this is Rotary Literacy Month Nancy Johnson and her able supporting cast reminded us that there are many different types of reading problems.
  • Dennis Kallio said that the Boy Scout from Troop 350 will be recognized for his life-saving efforts when he is awarded a Medal of Honor, one of only 284 issue in country, Monday night.
  • Dennis also announced that the pub crawl has been postponed until a still to be determined summer date.
  • Bill Anderson said Brighton Rotary the Brighton Rotary team of Joe Petrucci, Piet Lindhout, Rachele Evers and Mitch Zoldowski bowl at Hartland Lanes for Big Brothers/Big Sisters Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon.
  • Mike McManus refers us to the Rotary Web Site for information about International Women’s Day. He also reports that the Rotary Foundation has released 35 million dollars in the fight to eradicate polio worldwide.
  • Brian Donovan says the Raiders will be doing a bathroom remodeling next week.
  • Beth Walker says 49.82 has been returned to Rotary through the Kroger receipt program.
  • Applications for Brighton Rotary scholarships are due April 6. Any high school senior who lives within the Brighton Area School District boundaries is eligible.
  • Beth says that SAT/ACT practice tests at BHS are April 16.
  • This year’s additions to the Brighton Women’s honor roll will be at next week’s meeting. Included in this year’s class are Rotarians Carol Bullion and Nancy Johnson.
 
PROGRAM:
Dr. Mark Cook introduced Paul and Mary Ellen Huber, who live outside Cleveland and are board members of the non-profit Helping Haitians in Need, which they started. Their efforts began during a vacation to Turks and Caicos where they met Eddy, a pool attendant who spent months away from his Haitian home earning money to support his family. Eddy also serves as a pastor and runs an orphanage in Haiti. Through Eddy, they learned that the remote Haitian community needed most of all a cistern because of the poor quality of water in the area. The retired Hubers raised 25,000 to build the cistern which has been operating since last June, serving 2,500 people who previously had no source of safe water. Now the Hubers though HHN are turning their attention to building and supplying a more suitable school that serves the children and Eddy’s orphanage. Many of the children are not technically orphans but have no parents in their lives, sometimes because they’ve been abandoned because the parents can’t provide for them. It’s a remote place, a four-and-a-half hour drive from the capital, Port Au Prince, with the last hour on a road that more closely remembers a dry creek bed. Fund-raising is based on donations and grants in order to build a better school, provide supplies and provide pay for teachers. One hundred percent of donated funds go to the Haitian community as the Helping Haitians in Need board pays for all administrative costs all of board members’ pockets.
50-50. Mike McManus, Bill Anderson and Julia McBride (drawing for Katherine Lawrence Copp) failed to fine the Ace of Spades, to the 610 dollar pot will grow next week.
 
Key dates:
Saturday, June 25 – Second Top of the Mountain Dash or Crash at Mt. Brighton.