Club President John Starnes called the meeting to order at 12:28 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary. He also welcomed back Dick Shamley and let him know he has been in our thoughts and prayers.

 

Deb and Gene Theriault were our greeters and Gene introduced guests:

Richard Schwahn introduced his wife Michelle Schwahn, and our exchange student Elise;

Chad Nelson introduced Tim Chenoweth;

Anne Ladd introduced her daughter Amy Ladd;

Dennis Jack introduced Daniel White;

Dave Elmer introduced his Wife Wendy Elmer;

Lori Klatt introduced Christy Walker;

John Jorgensen introduced Greg Dixson;

Steve Shive introduced Fred Feth;

Dennis Lower introduced Brett Johnson;

Gene introduced his guest Normand Charette;

 

Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “Cowboy Joe” in the hopes it will help UW win a football game, 

 

 

President John Starnes announced that Dick Shamley’s wife Wilma’s, celebration of life will be October 17^th at the Casper Country club from 2-4 PM.

Bill Schilling let us know that a card is being passed around for Dick Shamley and family.

Tom Thorson announced that Mike Sullivan will be recognized as Citizen of The West at the Western Stock Show, a very high honor.

Denise Prugh let us know that our former exchange student Max will be here next Monday along with his Dad, she also said that Scott Skavedahl’s daughter won the High School State Championship for the second year in a row. 

 

 

Susan Griffith nominated Mary Koernig for the new exhibit at the Nic;

Rick Reimer nominated Andrew Byler for being named to be in a leadership academy as a CPA, 1 of 30 nationwide;

Bob Tarantola nominated Tom Lockhart for his milestone birthday tomorrow;

Chad Nelson nominated Bill Schilling for 15 years of Leadership Wyoming;

John Patterson nominated everyone that participated in the Platte River Revival cleanup over the weekend; it was the best turnout ever with 725 volunteers;

President John Starnes nominated Mike McIntosh and presented him with a 4-way test coin for his hard work in taking care of the minutes every week, and he thanked Liz Becher for stepping in when Mike is gone;

 

 

 

Tim Havasi was presented with his Paul Harris plus one Pin today.

 

Vicki Diamond sponsored by Bill Schilling, received her blue badge today, congratulations.

 

Ethan Dexter introduced himself to us today; Ethan thanked his sponsor, Steve Domonkos. Ethan is originally from Kansas and went to Kansas State. He and his wife moved here in 2011, his parents moved here in 2004 so he was already familiar with Casper. He accepted a position as Regional Business Development Representative for a Psychiatric Hospital out of Utah in 2011 and was stationed here in Casper. He is now working at Blue Cross Blue Shield working with group health insurance sales and service, has been there for about 15 months. He and his wife have three children ages 6, 2 and 1 which keep them busy. He is quite happy and excited to be part of our Rotary Club and to participate in serving our community.

 

Jim Ruble introduced our speaker today, our last year’s outbound exchange student Tyler Moore who went to France. Tyler presented us with a great slideshow of pictures from his adventures in France and surrounding areas. He said that it was the best decision of his life. He had three host families that were all different from each other, his first one had six children and he is an only child so it was quite a different experience for him. He said that the second host family were much more like his family and were fantastic. The third family was the most like his family so much so that they would skype with his parents and they did many similar things in life. He showed us some very beautiful photos of the France countryside and mountains. He then showed us some pictures of the city with the Metro and other sites. The French Architecture and buildings were incredible and he loved seeing them all. The class he was in had 4 men and 30 women and the class count goes backwards from ours which was confusing. He also said that they study all year long for one final test at the end of the year and they have a presentation that counts for 20 % of your grade, very interesting to him. He also showed us some great pictures of people he met and became close to. He got to travel to many places while he was over there, he visited the Netherlands, Belgium (Elise was excited for this one), England, Scotland, Germany, Austria, The Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, and Andorra. He had some great pictures of his adventures around Europe with friends and his host families. He said that Christmas is celebrated differently from the U.S. and they do not start the celebrations two months in advance like we do here. He loved all of the Rotarians there and said that they complimented his French and he was able to get a diploma saying that he spoke French well after passing the test. He also got to spend a little time with the KWHS and NCHS students from the French classes who spent some time there for their annual trip. He thanked us for the great opportunity then he opened it up for questions. There were great questions from the group, the best from our current exchange student, Elise, who asked her question in French to make sure he could speak it. He said that the Rotary meetings there are very similar to ours other than they had plated dinner served with wine and their presentations ranged from “why you should never go to China” to “is this person really dead?” very interesting subject matter for a Rotary meeting. Thank you, Tyler, for the great report on your exchange adventures.

 

President John Starnes adjourned the meeting at 1:19 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are back at the Parkway and will hear more about the End Polio Now campaign.

“Be a gift to the world”