Jodie Corey-Behrens, Sargent at Arms, was a solo act this week. She led us in the pledge of allegiance and provided the invocation. There was no song this week (some of us whose voices sound like cats screeching silently cheered about this). Past President, Tim Smith, introduced visiting guests and Rotarians. Mark Carlson, Blaze Restoration, was a guest of Gary Francque; Caroline Ruhl joined her husband, John Thompson; and Marcia Lintz with Blackhawk Area Education joined us. Halenka, our youth exchange student, shared what she did this week. She said she had a great time this week. She attended two concerts, one being the Riverfront Pops Concert. She also when shopping, spent time with new friends, and registered for school.  Paul Plagenz presented a $500 check to Marcia Lintz for the playground equipment at Blackhawk Area Education. The projected goal is $255,000 and, with Moline Rotary’s donation, they have received about $140,000. There is no meeting on Monday, September 4, due to the Labor Day holiday. The golf outing is on Monday, September 11. Please contact Dennis Kelly if you plan on attending either the luncheon, plan to golf, or both. Meetings return to the church on Monday, September 18. In her official role as Sergeant-at-Arms, Jodie asked Kevin Rafferty about his wife Colleen’s role with the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Colleen is an advocate for persons living with a serious mental health condition and works with NAMI to bring awareness to the cause. Colleen was named honorary NAMI Walks Chair, which will be held on September 23 at Modern Woodmen Park. Kevin said he would be happy to carry the bucket to each table for donations! Additional information is available at www.namiwalks.org/greatermississippivalley. Jodie also called on Mayor Acri, who was on the cover of the Gold Book this month. She stated that next month is Mayor Thoms turn.  Jodie inducted Jenni Swanson into the Club. Jenni is a sales representative for Lincoln Office, a commercial interior design company. Jenni joined Rotary to give back to the community. She said that the variety of community service opportunities with Moline Rotary allowed her to join just one club to give back. The ClubRunner Mobile App is your key to connect to your ClubRunner website and all the Moline Club news and contact information on the go! Completely free to download and use, this app is password protected just like our website. The ClubRunner Mobile app allows you to to view your member directory, contact your members and executives, read the latest articles posted to your website, learn more about your upcoming events and speakers, view your meeting details and track your attendance statistics, right from your smartphone or tablet! To download the app from the Apple App Store or from Google Play, simply type in 'ClubRunner' in the search bar. Our mobile app is compatible with all versions of the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch sets that have iOS 8.0 or later and with versions of Anrdoids that are 4.0.3 or better. Ann Neumann shared News of the Day Jon Christiansen’s celebration of life is scheduled for August 27 at Short Hills Country Club, on Sunday, August 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Jon passed away on Monday, August 14.  Jim Rabchuk introduced this week’s speaker, Julie Forsythe. Julie is the Vice President of entrepreneurship and innovation with the Quad Cities Chamber. She told the Club about Ignite Quad Cities, an entrepreneurial culture-building initiative of the Quad Cities Chamber that connects new, growing and emerging business to resources. A primary resource for local entrepreneurs is The Venture School, which was created to accelerate the startup process while increasing a new businesses chances for success. Julie introduced Pat Flaherty, who attended The venture school to learn how to get his product to market, Germbot. Germbot has the technology of battery powered robots with sanitization properties of UV light to provide a low cost, highly effective and highly portable cleaning robot. Pat was a wrestling coach and became interested in a product when a wrestler contracted the MRSA infection from the wrestling matts/floors and became extremely ill. Pat started in 2009 and it took five years to bring his product to m  arket with little success. He and his son Connor took the Venture School course for rapid prototyping and went from a five-year to five-month process. You can learn more about his product at www.thegermbot.com. The Venture School relies on mentors. Contact the Quad Cities Chamber at 563-322-1706 if you are interested in mentoring, or would like to learn more about Ignite Quad Cities or The Venture School. The meeting ended a bit early so that everyone could view the solar eclipse. Several members hung around for a bit to view the solar eclipse. Thanks to Eye Surgeons Associates for providing the protective eye-wear so we could view safely. |
