Last weeks program was provided by Rotarian Lee Williams. Lee’s guest speaker was Gil Gott, Executive Director for the Plant City Photo Archives. The history organization began in 2000 with the acquisition of the photographs of long time area photographer, Bill Friend, and became the Plant City Photo Archives. The mission became the preservation of the community’s history and heritage through the collection and preservation of the community’s photographs and documents, and developing the stories wrapped around those images. By 2010 the organization became the Photo Archives and History Center and focused on the preservation of the history and heritage of community’s within the Central West Florida area, with the initial concentration on the greater Plant City area, and added a History Center and library and expanded it’s collections and archives of papers and documents from area clubs and organizations. The collection of historic photographs contain thousands of photos of individuals, groups, businesses, schools, streetscapes, landscapes, aerials, and numerous activities. Selected photos of various categories are printed and exhibited in the 1,000 square foot Exhibit Gallery on the rotating schedule. These images are printed and exhibited in various sizes from 8″x10″ to 3’x4′. The History Center and its library were set up in 2010 and now contain valuable documents and papers from the community. Included in the collection are the papers of Mary Frances Morgan, also known as Panky Glamsch and Panky Snow, the papers of the Plant City Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the papers of D.E. Bailey, and a number of others. The History Center library is open to the public for reading, reference, and research during regular hours. Working with the local community is a key goal for the Archives. Reaching out to schools & colleges, local government & private organizations is a way to build bridges and connect with the community. If you are a business in the local area; they would love to hear from you and have the opportunity to meet & greet to see how they can help you. There are over 125,000 images (photos and documents) with 40,000 more in storage yet to be scanned. Many businesses have reached out to decorate their walls with many of the beautiful photographs located within the archives. Class reuniouns contact the Archives to have enlargements created to celebrate pictures of their past. They have had local grocery stores contact them to help create a display to promote the famous Strawberry Festival within their business. The Archives have recently developed a “Junior Archivist club” for kids, 9-14 years old, where they can become a “document detective”. It has developed into a great program where kids learn to find clues, evidence and verification of unknown pictures. The kids learn the difference between; Archivist (learning to preserve history), Historian (interpreting the history/pictures), and Librarian (organizing the history). They have a great time learning about history and how to preserve it, which is the purpose of the Archives as many historical artifacts are being lost or forgotten. We are losing our history and in order to preserve it, it needs to start with the kids. The Plant City Photo Archives operates by donations, volunteers and grants. If you can help the Archives in any way, contact Gil!
-provided by Mike Arndt
Club News
Wild Game Cook-Out is less than 2 weeks away
Final preparations are underway. If you do not know what your committee assignment is, please see Brian Griffin. Please continue to get out and sell tickets. This is our largest fundraiser of the year and helps fund many of the charitable efforts of our club. As a reminder, even though you are working at the event or in it's preparation, all club members are expected to buy a ticket. Please turn in ticket money as it is collected because there are quite a few expenses that need to be covered to pt this event on.
Dennis Digamon and Ed Bozeman are collecting “beginner reading books” to send to needy kids in the Philippine’s. Bring any books you may have to the meeting on April 8.
It is our goal to have enough sponsorship from members
of the club to make our website and these e-bulletins
self-supporting. If you enjoy these electronic updates and
appreciate our club having a presence on the website
it's time to step up. For the low fee of $50, your business
ad is not only included in each of these e-bulletins and on
the website pages, these ads are active links that take you
to your business's website. Don't have a business and
still want to help, we can include an ad thanking you for
your sponsorship. For more informationemailBill Wicker.
Club Assembly - Wild Game Prep. - Monday, April 1st
Wild Game Cabbage Cut - Wed., April 3rd
Wild Game Final Prep - Thur., April 4th
Wild Game Cookout - Friday, April 5th
Installation Banquet - Thursday, June 13th
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Program Chair
Kayla Drawdy is our Program Chair! Please notify Kayla of you upcoming speakers at 763-1821 or kayla@htitle.com
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Have any news you would like to share? Do you have a new position at work? Family news? Any news you would like to share with club members and bulletin subscribers? E-mail to Bill Wicker
Share the Rotary News! If you know anyone that would like to receive our E-bulletin, let
them know they can sign up for it on the home page of our
website www.PlantCityRotary.org . They just need to go to
the bottom of the left hand column, click on sign up for
newsletter and fill in their name and e-mail address. You
can also forward them this newsletter and they can use the
link at the bottom of the left column.
Who are you and what do you want? is a question that should prompt pause and reflection for each of us at various stages of our lives. We tend to assume our life begins with a physical foundation, the unalterable template of which is embedded in our DNA. Sure, we change as the years roll by, however, by building upon and sculpturing the core essence of who we were
when we were born. That commonly accepted belief has now been questioned along with the question, how human are we?
Teeming inside and on the surface of our bodies are millions of bacteria referred to as the microbiota. Indeed, only ten percent of the cells inside us are derived from the human genome. The rest are bacteria, which reproduce and die at a dizzying pace. Like a coral reef, each of us is an assortment of ecosystems working in harmony thereby defining who we are.
Furthermore, the ‘human’ cells are constantly changing. You are far from who you were when you were born, nor for that matter the same person you were just a year ago. Red blood cells are replaced approximately every 120 days, the calcium stored in bones is used and replaced constantly, and each day, thousands of cells drop from the skin as new ones replace them. That’s just a sample of the dynamic changes that bring about constant change to our physical features. Even the once assumed permanent code embedded in DNA can change. A relatively new scientific discipline call Epigenetics (on top of genes) has established that the genetic template you pass on to your children can be changed by environmental factors. That includes
stress, along with a recent report that binge drinking can change DNA in a way that makes us want to drink more alcohol. That desire becomes part of our genetic code with the potential of being passed to future generations. From genes to behavior, we are in a constant state of flux, and far from the person we once were.
Failing to acknowledge that such changes occur can be a source of both personal and interpersonal conflict. For example, the expectation the person we married will be the same 20 years later. The assumption we’ll have the same abilities at 60 as at 16, or adherence to beliefs
and values that may have been justified during our teenage years, but no longer are. Last summer, I introduced myself at each official club visit as your district governor. If I were to do so again, my approach and message would be different, not because I thought of new things to say, but because I’m not the same person. Neither are you.
