Air Force Veteran Sean Kingsbury (son of past Sycamore Rotary President and current Sergeant at Arms Paulette Renault) updated Rotarians on his work with the VFW Foundation during this week’s meeting.  Kingsbury got involved with the VFW starting in 2007 after returning from Iraq.  He noted that the VFW has been providing support for soldiers since 1899, but thought it was lacking interest from more recent veterans.  Using skills learned from earning an MBA through the GI Bill and marketing experience from his job at State Farm Insurance, Kingsbury said he embarked on a plan to add financial support and relevant events to the VFW Foundation.

 

Kingsbury explained that he wanted to use team building and physical fitness as ways to attract younger veterans to the organization.  He said his plans to reshape the organization’s image of “drinking beer and throwing darts” has started to come to fruition.  One catalyst was a $3 million grant from the Eli Lilly Company.  Another has been a tactical team skill building competition named “Seven Devils” organized for October in odd-numbered years which allows more recent veterans to use their physical fitness skills as a way to bond with fellow members.

 

For his exemplary volunteerism and organizational skills, Kingsbury was made an honorary Foundation board member.  After serving just one year in this honorary role, he was asked to fill a newly-vacated full board seat. His board member colleagues then immediately elected him to be the organization's next Board Chair.  Sean helps guide the organization in its support of veterans, service members, and their families.

July 20, 1919 – Explorer Edmund Hillary (the first person to climb Mt. Everest) is born in Auckland, New Zealand.

 

July 21, 1899 – Nobel Prize winning author Ernest Hemingway is born in Oak Park, Illinois.

 

July 24, 1783 – “The Liberator”, Simon Bolivar, is born in Caracas, Venezuela.  He is known as the George Washington of South America for his efforts to liberate Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia from the rule of Spain.

 

July 24, 1897 – American pilot Amelia Earhart (the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean and to fly solo from Hawaii to California) is born in Atchison, Kansas.

July 20, 1969 – A global audience watched on television as Apollo 11 Astronaut Neil Armstrong took his first step onto the moon – “That’s one small step for (a) man, one giant leap for mankind.”

 

July 21, 1925 – The so-called “Trial of the Century” drew national attention as a jury in Dayton, Tennessee, convicted John Thomas Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of Tennessee law.  The case pitted famed Chicago defense lawyer Clarence Darrow against one-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan.

 

July 23, 1934 – Bank robber John Dillinger (Public Enemy #1) is shot and killed by FBI agents while leaving the Biograph Movie Theater in Chicago.

 

July 24, 1911 – American archeologist Hiram Bingham gets his first look at the ruins of Machu Picchu, the ancient Inca settlement in Peru that is now one of the world’s top tourist destinations.