It was a beautiful fall day for a Rotary Zoom Meeting! Here’s what happened online on Tuesday, October. 13, 2020.
President Mack opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by Gratitude and Reflection.
A Special Meeting was called for the corporate membership of the Rotary Club of Traverse City. The slate of officers for the club board and presidential nomination were presented. Nominees must be a member in good standing.
The nominees to fill three board positions for two years are:
Max Anderson
Nick Beadleston
Jen Casey
Scott Hardy
Alexis Juett
Haider Kazim
The presidential nominee for the Club President for 2022-2023 is Marlene Bevan. The election will take place on Tuesday, October 27 during our club meeting. Please show up and cast your vote!
Rotarians rolled up their sleeves for the Jim Van Work Bee held last Friday. A great time was had by all at the beautiful Canterbury Woods site.
Dan Buron introduced our speaker Cathy O’Connor. Cathy is the president of Step Up, an organization that helps at-risk Northern Michigan youth. Step Up began only six years ago and is having a huge impact on helping teens in our area that need a variety of support that is not otherwise available to them. Needs can vary from clothing, food and personal hygiene items. Food Rescue is one of the largest partners with the Step Up program.
The program initially began at Traverse City High School but has expanded to TC Central and Traverse Heights Elementary. On a weekly basis, 10 volunteers shop for products that students need. Four hundred and fifty students are served each month.
Companies like Plant Moran help with the program through their Cares Staff and provide extra hands and resources especially during the holidays. For many of these students, a gift bag at the holidays is the only gift they will receive.
A food pantry is set up at TC Central and is stocked full time with food and clothing. Donations are tailored to what teens like. But that’s not all that TC Central has for students. Maverick is a beautiful black lab therapy dog. He was initially trained as a leader dog but found his calling as a therapy dog for the students, soothing upsetting situations and offering comfort.
The Step Up program focuses on meeting “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” but sometimes additional support is needed. Some of the students have gotten jobs but needed help with getting the correct work attire such as work boots or something as simple as khaki pants. Without this assistance, they would not be able to work.
COVID has impacted the program. It is not funded by TCAPS yet serves 500 homeless students and families throughout the year. The number of volunteers has dropped with COVID and shopping and storage haven’t been as easy to come by. Food for families at Traverse Heights has shifted to a curbside food pick up program.
The things Cathy has learned through this program;
We have a very generous community
Poverty doesn’t always look the way we think it would
Not to judge parents and students about the choices they’ve made, they are operating in crisis mode
Need to support educational institutions to better serve students
Helping others and offering compassion has real health benefits
With the program coming to an end President Mack reminded Rotarians of the Halloween Blood Drive on October 30, 11-5 at Kirkbride Hall. To sign up to donate click the link:
Rotary’s 14th Annual Jim Van Memorial Outing was a great time for all and a great success. This year’s event was held on the 80-acre Canterbury Woods property that Rotary recently sold to Steve and Carol Shuckra.
Herb Lemcool, Beth Karczewski, Ralph Bednarz, Ken Musson, and Kathy Bussell joined forces with Marti VanEenenaam-Iwanicki (Jim’s daughter), Michael Beckwith (Jim’s son-in-law), 5 Conservation District staff, and the Shuckra’s to put the finishing touches on the restoration of an old dumpsite.
It is estimated that locals used this old dumpsite located on the former state land as far back as the 1930s. As part of the purchase agreement, Rotary hired an excavator to bury a majority of the old broken glass bottles, cans, and other non-toxic household debris but there were several places where the broken glass was still evident. As Rotary did, the Shuckra’s have elected to leave the property open to the public to use for hiking as they have for decades and were concerned that the broken glass posed a danger to humans and their pets. The work bee consisted of picking up any remaining pieces of glass that were evident, spreading 10 cubic yards of top-soil to cover potential hot-spots of debris, seeding (fescue & rye) the nearly 20,000 square-foot former dumpsite, and constructing a fence to block unwanted vehicle access.
As is the tradition after every Jim Van Outing the group ended the day with a toast. This year’s toast was to Rotary and the Shuckra’s for preserving this beautiful piece of land that sits overlooking the beautiful Boardman River Valley.
I M Rotary is a 6-month orientation program to the Rotary Club of Traverse City, Michigan.
We want your experience with our club to be fun and rewarding, so it is an expectation of all new members that you participate in this program. New members should plan to attend all 6 sessions. The program is ongoing, so you can start as soon as you join and if you miss a session you can make-up later in the year when that topic is presented again.
Members who attend all six meetings will be awarded 500 points (valued at $500.00) from the Club, which is ½ way toward one of Rotary's highest honors: The Paul Harris Fellowship CLICK HERE to learn more. If you choose to donate to the Rotary International (RI) Foundation all donations will be added to your total donation.
We will typically meet on the third Tuesdays of each month, starting right after the regular Rotary Club Zoom meeting. Please just stay online or on the Zoom call.
The following dates are currently set (but subject to change). You will be notified of changes via email, and announcements at the general meetings and in the club e-bulletin.
Meeting #1: Club Service - February 16, 2021
Rotary of Traverse City overview
District 6290 & Rotary International
Fellowship Opportunities, ClubRunner
Meeting #2: Community Service -September 15, 2020 / March 2021
Bell Ringing, Christmas Baskets, Friends of the Boardman Watershed Dinner, Munson Manor, JJ Beckett Access-ABILITY Committee/Tag Day
VROOM, A-ZOOM, ZOOM WITH ROTARY 2020 Rotary Education Summit - Districts 6290 &6310 October 17 - 22
Rotarians - Start your Engines! Give your Rotary engine a tune-up, performance style! Energize and recharge with engaging speakers talking about relevant and interesting topics, giving us ideas that we can really use! Don't miss this year's RES - conveniently held in your own home via Zoom!
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17TH 9:00 AM TO 10:00 AM (This was recorded and will share soon)
Dr. Mary Berge, a member of the Rotary Club of Johnstown and a licensed clinical psychologist, was first introduced to Rotary in 2002 when she served as a Group Study Exchange team member to Sweden. She has since has served as District Governor (2008-2009), Zone 29 Rotary Coordinator, Training Leader at the International Assembly in 2019 and 2020 and she has been selected to serve as a President’s Representative on four occasions. She is a frequent speaker and trainer around the Rotary world including having spoken at the 2013 Rotary International Convention in Portugal and at the Women in Rotary Conference in Romania.
This is going to be Great!!!
MONDAY OCTOBER 19TH 7:00 PM TO 8:00 PM
As a digital media consultant in the non-profit community volunteer sector, Evan has expanded his skills to educating local professionals, businesses and community groups across Australia and around the world to focus on the practical use of social media and how to develop it to brand and market their stories.
Evan is an accomplished public speaker, emcee, trainer, social media advocate and hardworking volunteer with over 20 years of volunteer experience with Rotary International. You may recognize Evan best as a service-minded superhero. You see, for Evan, it’s easy to be a Rotary hero because as, he sees it, all Rotarians are superheroes and we all need to promote the heroic acts we do in the community and around the world.
In whatever way, Evan is proving that Rotary isn’t all business. His message is “Let’s have fun in Rotary,” and with that message, he's engaged in telling Rotary’s digital story.
Mary Beth is the founder and President of Ryan Signs, Inc., in Madison, Wisconsin, USA. She is a non-lawyer Fee Arbitrator and a (past) non-lawyer member of the Client Security Fund of the State Bar of Wisconsin. Mary Beth is a supporter of the What If? Foundation, which works to feed and educate children in Haiti.
Personal time is shared with her husband Alan Selene (PDG, District 5970) and daughter, Bridget and son-in-law, Sean Hart.
Mary Beth Growney Selene has been a member of the Rotary Club of Madison West Towne-Middleton, WI, USA since 1987 and she served her club as President in 1993-1994. She has been a host parent to four Rotary Youth Exchange students.
In her District 6250 she served as Governor in 2000-2001; District Membership Chair and District Rotary Foundation Chair.
Mary Beth served as a Training Leader at the International Assembly in San Diego and was the District 6250 Representative to the Council on Legislation in 2004, 2007 and 2010.
She has served at the Zone level as an Institute General Chair, a Regional Rotary Foundation Coordinator, Public Image Resource Coordinator, and Rotary Coordinator.
Mary Beth served as a Rotary Foundation Trustee in 2016-2019 and, as a Rotary International Director in 2013-2015.
While a Trustee, she served on the Finance, Program, and Stewardship Committees of The Rotary Foundation, the RI-USAID Partnership Steering Committee, and the PolioPlus Advocacy Committee.
She continues to serve on the Rotary-USAID Partnership Steering Committee. She is also a member of the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Action Group (formerly WASRAG) Operations Team.
She has received Rotary International’s Service Above Self Award, The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service, and The Rotary’s Foundation’s Distinguished Service Award.
Mary Beth and Alan are Major Donors and Bequest Society members to The Rotary Foundation’s Endowment Fund and they are both Sustaining members to the Annual Fund.
Executive Director, Athens CASA/GAL Program Regional Director, Southeast Ohio CASA Program
Brief Introduction Bio
Jenny Stotts currently serves as the Membership Chair of Rotary District 6690. She is a charter member of the Rotary Club of Athens Sunrise. Her favorite Rotary activities include RYLA and Paddle for Polio Plus, an annual event featuring kayaks. Professionally, Stotts is the Executive Director of the Athens CASA/GAL Program and the Regional Coordinator of Southeast Ohio CASA. She describes herself simply as: Mother, Wife, Friend, Social Worker, Rotarian and Trouble-Making Millennial.
