This week our speaker was Brandi Vorhoff, Home Depot Store Manager. Through our conversation we got to learn a lot about our local Pontiac Home Depot, like that they are celebrating their 30th anniversary this year, they are also the largest Home Depot in the area with 53 million in sales, they take pride in having great customer service, and unlike most businesses, Covid really helped increase their sales. Brandi also spoke about Home Depot’s willingness to be diverse when it comes to women in the workplace and how they have training programs specifically based to train women and have women leadership programs.
This week our speaker was Lisa Brown, Oakland Co Clerk / Register of Deeds. Lisa spoke to us about a program that she developed where you can subscribe to free email alerts when new documents of interest are recorded at the Register of Deeds. This will let users be notified of any activity happening on their property by sending alerts to potential real estate fraud. This innovated program has received national acclaim and was showcased at the Google Next ’19 conference.
This week we went on a field trip to tour the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Pontiac. We got to watch workers pick, pack and ship, showing us what it is like to work inside the huge facility. We got to learn about the innovative technology that moves the products throughout the building with the use of Amazon Robotics. Watching the logistics of how the Amazon operating system works was truly incredible. For anyone interested in doing a tour of this amazing place here is the link to get started booking your tour. https://amazontours.com/
This week our guest speaker this week was Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard and Max (a cute little comfort dog). The Sheriff started the conversation talking about the 87 drones that the county uses for many purposes, with a drone’s thermal technology they have used them to find missing children, chased down fleeing criminals (because a drone can move quicker then most police), they are used as first responders in live 911 calls. Because drones have become such a useful resource, Oakland County has created their own curriculum for their in-house drone training, and now the rest of the country is also learning that curriculum from Oakland County.
This week our speaker was State Representative, Brenda Carter (and her husband Randy). Brenda spoke about some of the work she has accomplished in the house of representatives and some of the chairs she sits on such as the insurance committee, the poverty and homeless taskforce, and the labor caucus. But what Brenda was most excited to discuss was the relationship between the Pontiac Rotary and the Kusatsu Rotary Club in Japan.
This week we had a fieldtrip to All Saints Episcopal Church in Pontiac, where we had lunch, which is free to the community on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s, then took a tour of the church with Reverand Christopher Johnson and Charles Sajewski, who is the church’s archivist. We were joined by a few fellow Rotarians from Clarkston and Waterford who were also interested in the history of All Saints. We learned that the first church was built of wood in 1841, and that church was replaced in 1854 by a stone church. They had 3 fires, but the fire of 1948 devastated the church completely. They rebuilt it in 1951 and that is the church that remains today.
We had another fieldtrip this week to check out Sam Cannonier’s State Farm Insurance office on Huron in downtown Pontiac. Sam, one of our newest Rotarians, graciously opened the doors to his beautiful office to talk to us about how he became an insurance agent, because in Sam’s words “nobody dreams of being an insurance agent.” He opened the office in November 2020, which included buying and refurbishing the building, becoming a staple in the Pontiac community. Sam told us about his background in banking and finance and how he teaches financial literacy in schools, and he is also a financial advisor.
This week we had a fieldtrip to Nowak & Fraus Engineers in downtown Pontiac. We met with Chad Findley, Managing Partner and Allen Schneck, Principle. They spoke to us about the history of NFE, which started in Royal Oak in 1969, and has successfully provided professional services to thousands of clients and have been honored with numerous awards. They specialize in Municipal, Civil, and Construction Engineering, Surveying, Environmental Sciences, Wetland and Water Resources, Site Analysis, and Infrastructure Evaluation. They have three other locations aside from Pontiac, their other offices are in Detroit, Shelby, and Kalamazoo.
In January we were fortunate to be guests at Pontiac High School. We met Dr. Kimberly Leverett (Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction), Joe Auricchio (Assist. Principal), Teni L. Clark-Franklin (Assist. Principal), and Bryan Schuerman (CTE Supervisor / Administrator) to discuss the progress and challenges with the approximately 700 students they have at the high school. They spoke to us about enrollment, attendance, the CTE programs and pathways, testing, teacher/student relationships, truancy, and the surrounding community.
At P’s & Q’s Bakery we heard from two important speakers from the Pontiac School Board: Gill Garrett, and Shaquana Davis-Smith. Gill is the President of the School board, and an Oakland County Sheriff Deputy and Shaquana is a Trustee on the school board and the owner of P’s & Q’s located in Pontiac. They spoke to us about numerous subjects like enrollment, restructuring debt, electric buses, safety, curriculum, communications, marketing, and the reputation of Pontiac schools.
.png)
Pontiac, MI 48341
United States of America