President John brought us to our feet right on time and Dave Hartman offered up a heartfelt prayer. Pres elect Cara lead us in the pledge and our sing along and ROTARY. Then several birthdays were recognized. It was announced that Noros Martin was making good progress on his rehab from knee replacement. Also Jim Hughes was not with us as he was having circulation issues with his legs. Thoughts and prayers for both of them. Hope to see both back with us in the near future.
Speaking of the future, our meeting next week (2/13) will not be at the Forum but at the KEMP.
There were several brags with Colton collecting the appropriate donation for each one.
Will Goodner then introduced Arnold Oliver for our Rotary member spotlight. We learned that he was born in Byers and graduated from Burk high school and then graduated from the University of Texas with a civil engineering degree. Soon after he found himself working for the Texas Highway Department which resulted in moving around several Texas cities before ending his career here in the falls. Thanks Arnold for joining and being a part of our club.
Cara then introduced our program, the recognition of the Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year. To qualify one must be between 14 and 18 years old and a club member for at least two years. A committee of three including our own John Mayfield then reviewed four finalists to arrive at their pick as the best. That person was 16 year old Ka’Lacia Peterson who has been a member of the Nothwest club for ten years and attends Memorial High School. She was accompanied by her grandparents as her parents are incarcerated. As you would imagine she has had major challenges growing up. According to John she stood out from the other very good candidates. She gave her 6 or 7 minute talk which she had just finished a few days ago. When she goes to Austin for the state competition she must give her presentation verbatim, no notes allowed.
Her final score will be based on four equal areas, essays, personal interview, speech and overall quality. Club members then asked her various questions that she responded to and finally offered her a few critiques to work on. She was a very mature and impressive young lady. I’m sure she will represent the BG Club and Wichita Falls well. She is due back with our club later in March.
We closed out our meeting with four way test followed by a short board meeting.