I've been struggling for hours to get this formatted correctly since a weird version appeared out of nowhere yesterday. Somehow, it corrected itself - who knows why! Thanks to John for his time and tips.
We had a cozy group of 18 Rotarians and 4 guests today, all greeted by our friendly smiling Judy Miller!
Jack led the Pledge and our National Anthem.
Our inspiration came from a China City cookie- "To guarantee success, act as if it were impossible to fail".
Our guests today were Al Voss, Betsy Lewis and our Japanese exchange student, Hikaru.
We received a number of thank you notes from the elementary students, happy to have their dictionaries and books at Christmas. We also heard from the Literacy Volunteers Ontario+Yates who appreciated our donation to the Annual Spelling Bee. They raised $15K for adult literacy. They hope we field a team next year!
Announcements: This coming weekend is Women's Weekend in Naples- Friday to Sunday. Lots of options for fun and learning! * The HS musical, Addams Family is Friday-Sunday with a free preview show for seniors on Wednesday at 7pm. * Rotary District 7120 Conference is May 1-3 at Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville. Info will be on the District website at rotary7120.org. * Hikara had a great trip to Niagara Falls. He presented us with a banner from his home Rotary Club of Takaoka North. * Hospeace House had a very successful Euchre tourney on Sunday. The Monte Carlo Night will be April 18. Jo has tickets! * March is Rotary Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Month. *
March birthday greetings were sung to Theresa, Jill, Carrie, Kristin, Jack and Kevin Johnson!
Our speaker today was Zach Dormer. His dad Pat had a training session today and couldn't join us. Both are local NYS Forest Rangers. Zach grew up in Naples, graduated in 2017 and attended SUNY ESF. After taking the civil service exam, he was one of nine candidates chosen to attend 28 weeks at the NYSDEC law enforcement training academy. Forest Rangers provide law enforcement of Environmental Conservation Laws on state lands. Some of the responsibilities include fire prevention and suppression, monitoring state land campgrounds, trails and rec areas. Gullies like those in our area are often involved. The Adirondacks are a huge part of the 5 million acres they cover. They do specialized training in search and rescue involving ropes, ice climbing, white water, airboat, flat ice and sometimes helicopters in conjunction with the NY State Police. They have opportunities to assist other states and Canada with fighting wild fires. There are only 130 Forest Rangers statewide and just 7 in our 11 county region. Zach feels very fortunate to have a career he loves in the beautiful area of Steuben Co.
The Ace of Hearts was $119. Lucky ticket #9666 was Skip's. He picked the Ace of Spades.
Happy Bills went to Zach's inspiring presentation. Many learned how much Forest Rangers do. We love to have NCS grads tell us about their career. Kudos for the Euchre tournament. We look forward to Women's weekend. The Groves had a great trip to Canada!
The Rotary Moment was a video of Tim dancing in the Hula Hoop at Caruso's.
Jack adjourned after the Four Way Test at 12:54pm.
Correction: My apologies for misspelling Rowan Biggs' name last week...
