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Notes from December 4th meeting-
After 18 minutes of Zoom banter among 20+ members, President Dan called for the meeting to commence by asking David Wood to mute all in attendance.
There was a slight delay, and David’s voice, slightly altered, came on-line apologizing for his delayed response as he had just been through a life altering situation with one of his clients. David said that during a call there was a circumstance where there was an unusual silence, and this pause created concern, and it was evident that the caller was having a life-threatening issue. After some telephone calls and activity by others, it was determined that David’s client was lucky to be talking to David, and that with the help of others he was alright.
Joe McCaffrey provided a thought provoking inspirational calling for a return to calm from the wild period of race issues, national elections, and general unrest. Twenty-six members and guest participated in the Pledge of Allegiance.
President Dan proceeded to announcements:
- Our club meeting will be held on Zoom for a longer time than initially anticipated. An Excel slide was shown providing information that potentially 76% of citizens over the age of 70 were the most susceptible to the gravest effects of COVID.
- Bud Laber gave a shout out to Bill Curnow on his clothing drive success for Step-Denver. Bill noted that the collection weighed between 300 to 400 pounds of fine clothing, and that the recipients were very thankful.
- Jim MacDermott credited the members of the club for their efforts in raising over $2600.00 for this year’s Giving Tree Program.
- Martha Diss Sundby thanked club members for their foundation giving and suggested that there is never enough charitable giving by the members.
Revisiting the Vocational Talk portion of the Rotary Program, President Dan call on Xenia Matteson to the central panel to make her presentation.
Xenia’s story begins in Arizona where her father was in the Aviation Industry. She and her sister grew up in Scottsdale, and eventually she graduated from nearby Arizona State University with a degree in communications from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Knowing that key positions in communications existed in New York or Los Angeles she opted for Denver to become the self-directed person she decided herself to be learning along the way in grade school and high school by doing odd jobs, like baby-sitting, car washing and all-around errand person. Seeing the gratification of others in the real estate world, she dedicated herself to becoming a Realtor, where after 18 years she feels accomplishment and satisfaction, both personally and for her clients. She enjoys riding her bike and skiing. After Covid, she hopes to visit Spain, and participate in the Register’s Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI).
Bill Curnow, Sergeant-at-Arms, So, broken pencils are pointless, and those who do not save (properly) often are less than accurate.
Bill did admit that during his truancy, he learned to scuba dive—making his first solo dive on his 70th birthday in Kauai. (Puhi!)
Martha noted that there were many members of our club not on our Zoom calls, and that we all should make note of those missing and individually reach out to them.
Bill switched gears from Sergeant-at-Arms to providing the introduction for today’s program speaker.
Ron Green, is an educator, and a great friend of Bill’s who also is married to Bill’s and Kathy’s daughter. So, yes, that make Ron Bill’s son-in-law.
on provided a power point presentation that gave background into his topic, a program which provides a great leverage to educators to help in youth education.
Ron noted that the “launchpad” of the Epic Ethics Program was from discussion following the shootings in SandyHook Elementary School in Newtown,m Connecticut. The ultimate question posed was “what could Rotarians do?”
Click here for more : An Ethics Based Literacy Program
Thought for the day: Nelson Mandela: “Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world.”