President Julie Townsend called the meeting to order. Jim Russell then led the invocation, pledge, and Four-Way Test.
Dorsey Hightower introduced the guests and visiting Rotarians. Daniel Martinez was a guest of Michael Huff, Beth Ann Noles and Brenda Alvarez were guests of member Marsha Leap, Rebecca Fortier was a guest of Scott LaRonde, Carter Brady was a guest of Mike Loudon, and Kyle Hicks was a guest of Steph Colon.
Happy Dollars were collected by Karen Warren. Mike Loudon then led the Club in singing “Old Macdonald.” President Julie then presented Mike with an “Old Macdonald Monopoly” board game.
Matt Schichtel made an announcement about the club’s Fantasy Football League. Please look out for an email from Matt regarding how to sign up and register.
Irma Cole made an announcement on behalf of Reba Coil – August 22nd – social & school supply drive at Lakeland Springhill Suites. We will be circulating information regarding the items to bring. You can either bring them to upcoming club meetings or the social. Also, there are a few remaining spots for the Club’s Honduras Trip. Contact Irma to sign up.
Carol Wallace introduced today’s speaker, Steve Overton. Steve grew up in South Carolina and spent over 20 years in journalism, the majority of which were in Tampa. He then worked in financial services as a CFP in 2000. In 2012, he joined the Rotary Club of Sun City Center where he twice served as President and the club won numerous awards while he was President. He and his wife have two children and numerous grandchildren.
Steve started by reminding our club that we are the flagship club of the district. We are the largest club in the district and have fun while doing it. He reminded us that the Rotary message is simple – it doesn’t have to be complicated.
He told us stories of his childhood, his kids, grandkids, and his time at Tampa Bay Station 8, where he was involved in starting the segment “8 on your Side.” The entire station is now named “Channel 8 on Your Side.”
He then discussed Arch Klumph started the Rotary Endowment. He created the Rotary Foundation in order to “do good in the world.” This is a simple concept – Rotary’s mission is simple and straightforward and easy for people to understand. Mark Scholnick came up to discuss the Rotary Fight against Polio. There are two counties that still have polio: Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are over 1 million kids in Florida who are not vaccinated against Polio. We have to keep fighting this deadly disease. WHO says that we only have five more years of fighting this disease until it’s fully gone. The Bill Gates Foundation matches our Rotary Donations 2:1 and they cut a check to the Rotary Foundation for that amount for us to manage and disburse. We have partners all over the world to help fight this disease.
Rotary’s next disease to target is Cervical Cancer in Egypt. It is rampant in Egypt and is affecting women & young girls there. They are then focusing on Malaria in Zambia. Steve is confident those diseases will cease to exist because Rotary is focusing on them.
In each club, we are looking for a higher cause. What are the things our club does well? We are a leading club – we have good things (friendship, fellowship, service) in spades.
“Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, across the globe, in our communities and in ourselves.”
Next week’s club is Pam Page with the City of Lakeland’s Parks & Recreation Department.
President Julie concluded the program with paraprosdokian – “change is inevitable except from a vending machine.”