District Conference - Evening Session

The evening session began with Tom Huberty again doing some interviewing, this time with the maestro of Minnesota improv, Dudley Riggs.

 

 

Dudley began his show business career at age 5 in Vaudeville, and has never stopped.  His Brave New Workshop was formed in 1967 and continues to operate to this day, although no longer under his direction.  He told some highly entertaining stories, and his interview received a nice exclamation point with a video greeting from Senator Al Franken, whose comedic career was launched on the stage of the Brave New Workshop.  This was a surprise – and a pleasant one – to Dudley, as was the brief improvisational act that followed.

 

I learned during dinner that Dudley’s wife, Pauline Boss, who attended with Dudley, lost a brother to polio many years ago.  He was a teenager, playing football one day, dead from polio the next.  These are the kinds of stories going away thanks to the work of, and donations from, Rotarians over the last 30 years – only 24 cases worldwide reported so far this year, compared with over one thousand per day 30 years ago.  So it was fitting that part of the evening program included the presentation to our PolioPlus chair Tim Mulcrone a check for $10,000 out of our District Designated Funds toward polio eradication.  What I probably didn’t mention at the time:  With the current matching grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, that $10,000 will turn into $45,000 – which will go immediately and directly to the polio eradication effort.

 

Our evening concluded with music, and a brief pitch for a potential Rotary project involving our young people.  Michael Levine, the founder and trombonist for the Dallas Brass, appeared to talk about Harmony Bridge, a project in which young musicians – elementary, middle and high schools – travel to local senior communities to play for and interact with residents. 

 

 

Michael has been working on this concept for several years, preparing musical arrangements of old standards and working with bands across the country.  On this night, he appeared with students from the Edina schools – two small ensembles each played a piece.  The surprise and moving ending to the night came with the song – always sung at the end of Rotary International Conventions – “Let There Be Peace on Earth.”  For this song, students filled the room to play – not just a small ensemble – a MOB of approximately 90 young musicians.  After one instrumental verse, the entire audience rose and sang along to the words flashed on the screen.  The power of what Michael is doing with these kids is reflected in the turnout – all voluntary – of the kids, but also all the parents who saw to it that the kids got there on a spring Saturday night to play the one song.  It was one of the more moving experiences I had this year as District Governor, and what a wonderful way to end a wonderful day!