Good morning fellow Rotarians, this is your reminder that we have our Rotary Lunch Bunch meeting this Wednesday, August 26th from Noon to 1:00PM at Sam & Louie’s Pizza in Elkhorn. Our speaker this week will be Cindy Gray, Cindy is the Associate Superintendent of the Elkhorn Public Schools. Cindy will discuss how the school year has started so far, enrollment statistics and any new building projects going on in the district.
See you this Wednesday!!!
The first Lunch Bunch meeting in September will be Wednesday noon, the 9th at Shevy’s in downtown Elkhorn. Our speaker will be Michaela Williams, President of Care Consultants for the Aging. Her business is a home care registry, they screen and schedule in home caregivers that work directly for families. In addition they have produced the Eldercare Resource Handbook.
This week, our speaker will be Meredith Dillon from Keep Omaha Beautiful. On September 3rd I am bringing Tripp Sutter. As you may know Tripp is a Big Ten football referee and he will update us on college football and the new rules. He is always entertaining. On September 10th I am bringing Ethan Copple. Ethan recently received the award for the American Legion 2015 National Eagle Scout of the Year. He will tell us about his scouting career and also his Eagle Scout project in Elkhorn. Ethan attends Elkhorn South so I suppose Roger and Steve will try to take credit for his award.
I attended the District 5650 Conference in Council Bluffs on Friday, August 21. The 'Foundation Day' activities included two speakers, and several presentations from clubs about specific projects completed with club and Rotary Foundation support. The first speaker was Mark Rupp, M.D. Dr. Rupp is the Director of the Department of Infection Control and Epidemiology at UNMC. He is a strong advocate of vaccinations and of proactive planning for infections (e.g. emboli and MRSS). He cited Rotary for its outstanding work in combating polio world-wide. His presentation, along with some personal testimony from two Iowan Rotarians who were infected as youngsters with polio reminded all of the important work necessary to combat infectious diseases.
Presentations of note included a Career Fair Day sponsored by the Council Bluffs Rotary and the Council Bluffs Public Schools; a Rotary Music Playground which was a joint project of six Rotary clubs led by the Lincoln East Club and resulted in an outdoor music playground at Camp Kitakia; the Girls of Zabuli (Afghanistan) project of world community service by the Suburban Omaha Club supporting a school for girls in a small community 30 miles north of Kabul; and a water project - Building Communities and Bridging Continents - by the Wayne Rotary Club and the Juba (South Sudan) Rotary Club to build wells to serve small isolated communities in the Sudan.
All in all the day was a great reminder of the 'Service Above Self' mission of Rotary.
Thanks, Ron. -Roger Breed
WE RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING NOTE FROM NICKI KLEIN FROM OUR DISTRICT 5650
We honored your club or members with the following recognition and awards:
TRF - 100% EVERY ROTARIAN EVERY YEAR (note: this is for our annual donation by each club member to the Rotary Foundation)
Congratulations to your Club and thank you for your commitment to Rotary!
President Roger opened our meeting by calling on Jim Tomanek to give the invocation. Thanks to Jim for his well done invocation. Jim then lead us in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States. President Roger then introduced visiting Rotarian, Jim Hedgpeth from Omaha West and there was a discussion of the spelling of Jim's last name plus other anecdotes. Treasurer Rita reported that our bank balance was $14,134.54. Secretary Ron had nothing intelligible to say. Tod Ringenberg received a report from the Scholarship Foundation that our club has donated over $40,000 since 2007.
Jim Tomanek reported that the LUNCH BUNCH will be meeting at Sam and Louie's at noon on Wednesday the 26th. The featured speaker will be Cindy Gray, Associate Superintendent of Elkhorn Public Schools. (Current and former Superintendents are welcome to attend) Jim then introduced Tamera Fenske from 3M, our speaker of the day.
Our speaker of the day was Tamera Fenske, Valley Plant Manager of the 3M Personal Safety Division. Tamera was introduced by Jim Tomanek, however Neil Kirby was visiting Tamera before the meeting and was drawn into a photo opportunity with Tamera.
Tamera is originally from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and was educated in the region receiving a MS Degree in Environmental Engineering. Tamera came to the Valley Plant in 2014 . Tamera said that her connections with Rotary are strong, her Grandfather was a District Governor and her sister is currently a Club President in Flint, Michigan. Tamera showed us some videos about 3M in general and specifically about the Valley Plant. She pointed out that 3M has 260 plants in the US and at the Valley Plant there are 545 employees.
The Valley plant has received numerous awards, including the Number ONE plant in the world last year. The plant enjoys an excellant central location in the US and has excellent site performance. Products from the Valley Plant hae featured prominently in crisises and disasters such as the Ebola outbreak, the 911 Disaster, and the Exxon Valdez debacle. In discussing plant budget Tamera pointed out that her plant is not capital or R&D constrained.
How does a 78 year old Rotarian buy his monthly dose of wine? He rides his recumbent bicycle to the neighborhood HyVee (3 miles round trip over hill and dale away from main streets). Then he buys about 10 of those little dollar bottles of wine, mooches a cloth bag from the store, hang the bag on a seat post and pedals home. The nice thing about recumbent bikes for older riders is that your are not likely to fly over the handlebars and you can get your feet on the terra firma pronto if a flaw in the street is suddenly encountered.
NOTE: I would like other club members to email something going on in your life tht you would risk paying a dollar for in fines to Neil
This week, our speaker will be Meredith Dillon from Keep Omaha Beautiful. On 
How does a 78 year old Rotarian buy his monthly dose of wine? He rides his recumbent bicycle to the neighborhood HyVee (3 miles round trip over hill and dale away from main streets). Then he buys about 10 of those little dollar bottles of wine, mooches a cloth bag from the store, hang the bag on a seat post and pedals home. The nice thing about recumbent bikes for older riders is that your are not likely to fly over the handlebars and you can get your feet on the terra firma pronto if a flaw in the street is suddenly encountered.
