Here's What's Happening at East Polk Rotary

Hello Rotarians!

As part of the announcements last week, Kim announced that the HyVee Rootbeer Float fundraiser at HyVee on August 16th raised $289.  Ned Looney made a motion that the club match that amount.  Mike Hamilton quickly seconded the motion and the club voted in the affirmative.  So, a total of $578 is headed in the direction of the Special Olympics.  Many thanks to the participants and Todd Ross for coordinating the event.

Last week Adam Kline, acting as Rotarian of the Day, introduced our speaker Rich Powers, the Superintendent of Bondurant/Farrar Schools.  We learned from Rich that the district is the second fastest growing in the state, behind Waukee.  One new initiative this year is that all new students get an Apple Macbook Pro laptop.  Not bad.  He also spoke about how education is evolving--less rote memorization and more skill building for critical thinking and problem solving.  Rich touched on both the short-term and long-term challenges of managing the school district.  Fortunately, some of the financial burden for capital improvements has fallen on the shoulders of local lottery winners Brian and Nancy Lohse, who have been quite generous with the district.

Coming up, in a week, we return to Food Pantry Day and the items requested are cereal and boxed macaroni.  Remember to bring those items to our September 3rd meeting.  Tomorrow features our business meeting with a new twist.  President Byers is jettisoning the golf challenge for a new mysterious activity.  However, you have to be present to win. . .er, participate.  Hopefully, we'll see everyone tomorrow.