Last Weeks program was a memorial to the passing of Alvin Futch. Thank you to Bill Wicker who put together a slide show “montage” of Alvin’s career with the Plant City Rotary Club. The Noon Plant City Rotary club is 64 years old and Alvin Futch had been a member for 62 of those 64 years. According to Charlie White, Alvin was very impressed that in May of 1955, the Rotary Club of Bartow would have the interest, drive and ambition to help launch a club in Plant City. The act of the Bartow club sponsoring the Plant City club made Alvin realize the importance and comradery of Rotary. Charlie went on to talk about some of the contributions Alvin made to our club including; the Rotary “Rodeo” – started in 1957 and led by Alvin, and his brother Raymond, for 16 years, the Wild Game cook-out – started by Alvin in the early 70’s, District Governor representative when our club sponsored the Tampa East club in 1988, 1986 – 1987 club President, Rotary Forest service club project that planted over 1 million trees between 1992-1995 and resulted in over $900,000 in revenue, from the forest, for parks and recreation. Alvin also wrote two books on the history of Plant City and the history of our Rotary club entitled “60 years of Rotary in Plant City”. Many other Rotarians stepped up and related their “experiences” with Alvin over the years…Jodi Stevens recalled that Alvin was so impressed with her “hunting abilities” that he wouldn’t believe she shot a deer until she brought in the head! He finally admitted that he was very proud of her! Clayton Jenkins recalled the “Fireside chat” he had with Alvin in order to become a member. It was quite a bit different back then! Billy Keel told stories of the “cabbage cut” with Alvin and the difficulties with “impressing” Alvin! Jeremy Burris has known Alvin since he was a kid…Alvin was a “big deal” to a kid. Alvin would always stop and talk to Jeremy and believed that we should always stop and talk to the youth…Jeremy want to be like Alvin! Aaron Davis, John Haney, Randy Gordon and Lee Williams all had great things and terrific stories about a great man and a great history in our club and in our community. His sense of humor was a main topic of all the tributes. Alvin set an example for all of us to follow…”Rotary above self” and “he profits most who serves best”. We are all very proud of Alvin and his legacy. He will be deeply missed.
This past week several of our club members visited Dover Elementary School to see the new book store made possible by a grant from our club. Students are awarded "Dragon Bucks" for good performance or behavior and can use the "bucks" to purchase books. Also shown is Elvis J the first customer of the book store.
Last week our club welcomed 2 new members, Scott Gardner and Matt Roberts. If you haven't met them yet, be sure to introduce yourself and give them a warm Rotary welcome!
President Jodi Stevens, Proposer Lee Williams and Scott Gardener
Proposer Jeremy Burris, Membership Chairmen Charles Harris, Matt Roberts and President Jodi Stevens
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.
Boy's and Girl's Club Corn Hole Tournament - May 4th, 9:30 to 11 am
Installation Banquet - Thursday, June 13th - Details to follow
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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
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During October, I described a re-framing technique whereby a person can become more accepting of their present circumstances by thinking of something worse.
An example I described was coping with a traffic delay by completing the statement, I’m glad I’m not……. with, a part of the accident that has caused this delay, along with options for dealing with other anxiety-inducing scenarios. But then I realized not all people might relate to the examples I provided so am offering a more generic option. Indeed, it’s the exception to my cardinal rule that one size never has or will fit all. The technique I’m going to describe can work for everyone regardless of age, gender, or health status. Nor does it matter whether the stress is triggered by interpersonal conflict, a lousy reward system, or problems with the infrastructure where you live or work.
The next time you feel overwhelmed with work-related stress, do this simple thing and you will start feeling better immediately. It requires neither skill nor
practice. All you have to do is go the nearest drug store and purchase a rectal thermometer. I’m serious. Don’t buy the first one you come across for it’s important you get the right size and brand. For the purpose of reducing stress, get the one sold by Q-Tip.
Take you thermometer home, and lock the door. You don’t want anyone disturbing you for the next hour. Draw the curtains, play some relaxing music, then slip into some loose fitting clothes before stretching out on your bed or couch. Then, pick up your rectal thermometer………… and read the fine print on the back of the package. According to Q-Tip, each of their thermometers is “Individually Tested”. Yes, it really says that! Can you imagine having that as your job? So, as you lie on the couch lamenting all the things going wrong in your life complete the statement I’m glad I’m not…….. with, working for the quality control
division of Q-Tip. Things could be a whole heck of a lot worse! I guarantee you’ll feel better.
You’ll learn more options to get your life under control, especially in the midst of unexpected change, when I speak on that topic May 23rd at our annual District
Conference. Forget about Progressive Muscle Relaxation, Mindfulness, or Deep Breathing. I prefer lesser known solutions that people don’t often think about. I wonder why?
Profile: A vine ideaHeidi KühnRotary Club of San FranciscoHeidi Kühn arrived in Utsunomiya, Japan, in 1975, a few months after the end of the Vietnam War. She was a Rotary Youth Exchange
