On October 5, Judy Levine announced that Kevin Frost has been selected Rotarian of the Year for his work in Guatemala with the UW-Madison Engineers Chapter of Engineers Without Borders. This project brought the club an opportunity to work on a Rotary global grant in Guatemala on the building of a water tank supplying water to homes and a local school. The project gave the club a whole new level of involvement with the Rotary Club in Guatemala, a Rotary club in Milwaukee and other clubs in the area. Kevin and the students and members of EWB, did a lot of the physical work on the water tank and pipes in Guatemala. Kevin said that people in Guatemala gave up their homes for the students to stay in while they worked. Kevin showed slides of the big celebration at the finish of the water tank which was decorated with balloons and flowers.

 

Ellen Cook was inducted into Breakfast Rotary on September 21. She retired recently as a senior scientist and formed her company Cajun Cook which sells Cajun Jambalaya and sells “Start Up” kits in all the regional grocery stores. Ellen is on the board of start-up companies Isomark, LLC and AbE, LLC. Both are biotech in nature. Isomark’s patented technology (maintained by WARF) monitors exhaled breath to detect infections caused by a metabolic change in the body from viral, bacterial, and fungal sources within 4-6 hours of onset and prior to onset of symptoms. AbE Discovery has a diverse portfolio of patented technologies focused on supporting animal health and also partners with entrepreneurial scientists to lead their technologies from discovery to impact. The global non-profit is called IndiMark. She said they have partnered with Gary and Books are Power to send books to the 3 villages which are in Kajiado County, Kenya. Ellen came to Wisconsin in 1982 from Louisiana and received a PhD from UW-Madison. Ellen - “I am very excited to become a member of the Breakfast Rotary Club! You should know that I considered other Rotary cubs and this one just fit me in the best way!”

 

The village had to temporarily stop the project because of the pandemic but have restarted it and are now about 6 weeks away from providing all the houses with water.

 

 

Kevin Frost spent several weeks in January 2020 working on the Guatemala water project funded with a grant from Rotary District 6250. He reported that the community almost completed the large community water tank and they walked all the water lines and staked out the locations of major equipment. The EWB students and community grew together as they worked together. It was a truly life giving trip, he said. Kevin Frost also went with several students to meet Rotario Los Altos, our counterpart in Quatqetzeltanago, Guatemala. They were very welcoming and had a great interest in the project and would like to work with both our club and engineers without borders in the future.

At the June 22 club meeting, Bruce Harville, President of the MBR Foundation, presented gifts to eight non-profit organizations for projects in keeping with the Rotary ideals. Of the $3500 total, 40% comes from investments, the rest from outright gifts.

 

 

Membership chair Judy Levine giving new member Andrew Willits his red badge on January 27. Andrew is a real estate broker with At Home Madison Keller Williams.

Nako later sang a solo, “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid. On January 27, the club enjoyed the Parkers’ video of Nako’s solo performance.

 

Andrew Willits, January 13 speaker Brian Juchems and Bruce Harville. Brian Juchems, Co-director of GSAFE Wisconsin, spoke very eloquently on Creating Just Schools for LGBTQ+Youth.