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.

 

 

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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Ken Loving, Chief Executive Officer of Access Community Health Centers, addressed Breakfast Rotary on January 6. Dr. Loving has been in his position for 10 years, starting when the main clinic was housed in the little Red House on Park Street with just one full time physician. Access became a federal funded health care center in 2002 when it provided dental and mental health services. They are now located on Park Street by the Urban League Building. Access serves people who have barriers to health care and the patients pay on a sliding scale based on their household income. 20% are uninsured and the rest are on Badger Care/Medicaid. The model of care is integrated care including psychological, behavioral/mental care, dental and pharmacy care. The Celebrate Smiles Dental Care is now in all elementary schools. Dental problems are the number one reason kids miss school. In the future, they would like to take care to the people who need care, especially dental. Now they need dental and medical assistants. The people they serve speak 38 different languages.

 

December 9 speaker Jeremy Kautza, a 30-year, 3sport official with program chair Bruce Harville. Among his remarks, Mr. Kautza spoke about the perils of refereeing.

 

Helen Baldwin‘s interest in Rotary travel began when she and husband Gordon arrived in Sri Lanka where Gordon visited a club in Colombo at the time of the Tieneman Square incident. Gordon came back with much international information. It was a great stimulus to say yes when Helen was asked to join Madison Breakfast Rotary.

 

Bill and Eng Braun took Nako, from Japan and Ludovica, from Italy, apple picking at Eplegaarden Orchards. And with Eng, the girls made apple pies in Eng’s kitchen. Eng has arranged this cultural cooking experience with the new students for many years.