President Dick Jay called the meeting to order promptly at 12:26, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

 

 

Steve Loftin and Randy Hein were our greeters today and Steve introduced the members who brought guests:

Susan Griffith had us stand and led us in singing “God Bless America”

 

Leah Reeb informed us that one of the ministers that was with her Grandfather in Selma in 1965 when he was murdered passed away today on Martin Luther King Day. Very fitting day for Clark Olson to have passed away after defending Civil Rights since the sixties.

Randy Hein pointed out that Reverend Bill Pierce is back with us after recovering from a stroke in November.

 

Liz Becher nominated the following Rotarians who were appointed to boards and commissions for the City of Casper:

Errol Miller was appointed to the Central Wyoming Senior Services Advisory Board;

Tim Monroe to the Civil Services Commission;

Randy Hein and Fred Feth re-appointed to the Planning and Zoning Commission;

Phillip Rael To the Old Yellowstone District Advisory Committee;

Pinky Ellis serves on the Historic Preservation Commission;

Rotarians serving above and beyond to serve the community.

 

 Miamie Sleep gave her classification talk today, she said that people always have questions about her name and so she answered the most common of those by saying she was neither born nor conceived in Florida, her parents are not hippies and they are not Miami Dolphin fans. Also her last name is not Florida. She was born and raised in Kaycee WY and played lots of sports and was in Drama and Band, she got to play in the WY State Marching Band in HS, and she got to do the millennial Rose Bowl Parade and the Bush inauguration while in the Band. After Graduation she moved away for a while and then moved to the big city of Casper. She met her husband and they have been married for 11 years and they work together at Serve-Pro which is his families business. She has two step sons, one is 24 and lives in Casper with his fiancé and her two daughters and they just had her first Grandson who just turned five months old. The youngest step son is 18 and just finished a military training in Georgia and will be home next month. She is the founder of Mimi’s House which is a non-profit she started which will house homeless teenagers, she is also relaunching the family support group in Guernsey for the military families there. She is also an Ambassador for the Chamber, she signed up for the board of realtors, and she is also helping the Five Trails Club start up Interact for the High School students. She really enjoys meeting new people and loves the idea of service above self and loves hearing other people’s stories so join her for coffee sometime and visit.

 

Alban Shaw from Five Trails Club announced that their annual fundraiser will be held on February 22^nd, it will be a beer and wine tasting with many local vendors available at the event. It will be held at the Lyric and tickets are $25. He and Barb have tickets with them and you can also purchase them through the Club’s FB page.

John Griffith announced that we are still in need of a host family for the third period of the year for Francisco, he also said that we have to get better at finding host families as we will no longer be able to host exchange students if we can’t have families to host them. Bill DeGraeve seconded this and said it is an awesome opportunity and anyone would love to have Francisco in their home.

Richard Schwahn spoke to us about the Outbound Exchange Program and encouraged everyone to submit names of family and friends who may be interested in taking part in going to other countries.

President Dick Jay announced that the billing statements went out via email and if you did not get yours to please let them know and he encouraged everyone to get those paid.

 

No School Today

 

President Elect John Griffith introduced our speaker today, Reverend Leslie Kee from the Unitarian Universalist Church in Casper. She spoke to us today about the Civil Rights movement and why a Martin Luther King Day. She comes from a homesteader family in the Black Hills of South Dakota so she understands Wyoming. After graduating from CSU she moved to Lusk to teach English and now almost 40 years later she is still in Wyoming. IN 1964 her family moved to Casper where she attended Grant Elementary School. On August 5, 1965 President Lyndon Johnson signed a voting rights act which prohibited the racial discrimination in voting, according to the U.S. Department of Justice this act is considered to be the most effective piece of Civil Rights Legislation ever enacted in the U.S. Around that time President Johnson went on a tour of the Country and came to Casper. Her mom pulled her out of school that day to go see him speak and she was able to shake his hand at that visit. She was then hooked on American Democracy from that day on. The rest of her Childhood was shaped by the evening news and the voice of Walter Cronkite, along with the anti-war movement, and the inspiration of John Lennon along with the most distinctive voice of the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Along with the movement of make love not war she remembers the seemingly systematic assassination of the many young idealistic leaders who spoke in such beautiful language of the goodness that Human beings are capable of, President JFK, Medgar Evers, Malcom X, Dr. King, and Bobby Kennedy. She remembers where she was and what she felt when these assassinations occurred. Along with the shock of the assassination of Dr. King she remembers the comment made by her Father at the dinner table, he held some very strong negative beliefs about the black community and that is when she knew that she would never follow in his footsteps when it came to how to believe in Liberty and Justice for all. In 2006 she went on a tour of the deep south and visited many sights of the Civil Rights Movement and attended Church with many who were there for many of the terrible acts of violence that were perpetrated against the Black Community.  They ended the tour in Memphis TN where she stared out the window where the assassin sat waiting for Dr. King to step out onto the hotel balcony that morning of April 4, 1968. This tour was life changing for her to actually see all of those places that she had only known through the news as a child. She put together a scrap book of this trip to remember all of these experiences. She recounted the story of the assassinated James Reeb and the reverend Clark Olson who passed away today. She will always remember that experience and seeing the places where so many lost their lives as they fought for civil rights for all. This is why the Martin Luther King Day matters.

 

President Dick Jay concluded the meeting at 1:04 letting us know that next week we will be at the Ramkota. The speaker will be Charles Walsh with CAEDA.

 

“Be the Inspiration”