It was another truly GREAT Rotary meeting with a higher than expected attendance on the opening day of deer season. Coming just one week after what could at minimum be considered a rather nastily contentious election regardless of one’s political leanings, the end of Nikki’s invocation to “make us one” seemed appropriately timed. After a rousing rendition of “God Bless America” Dave Milross enthusiastically orchestrated the oldie “Dem Bones” which concluded a listing of the Top Ten Medical Songs. These were hits such as “This Gland is Your Gland” and “Send in the Gowns” to name a few of the classic GREATS.

 

Visiting Rotarians and guests included the solicitous Marcia Billings again offering Rotary Raffle Calendars as the Twilight Club’s current fundraising effort. And the students of the week from TC West exhibited the mindset, later expressed in a different context during AL Bonney’s program, of what it takes to go from a good student to a GREAT student and involved citizen. Carson Harrington not only plays soccer and hockey, but also mentors autistic children and plans to attend Grand Valley to become a physical therapist in order to further help others. Olivia Coolman also aids those in the ASD program and similarly wants to use an exercise science and physical therapy degree from Hope College to help others. She also wants to travel abroad and continue dancing while she can because as she noted “eventually the body will fall apart as you get older”. This was one of the GREAT speaking-to-the-choir-moments that yielded a rippling chuckle effect through the room.

 

 President Mike called for a Special Meeting to announce the Nominating Committee selections for Club officers to be voted upon at the annual meeting November 29^th. As happened with the recent Rotary Charities and Camps and Services elections, a GREAT number of with equally GREAT quality of candidates were offered in the following: As President Elect, Allison Beers; Officer options are Dave Ford, Lisa Froning, Vern Gauthier, Katy McCain, Sid Van Slyke and Steve Wade.

Roy Pentilla introduced the Rotary Foundation’s month goal of every Rotarian committing to giving $100 per year, and this week’s speaker Rotarian, Past Club President and Past District Governor, Al Bonney. Al’s presentation could easily have been titled “Going from Good to GREAT”. To begin he gave a great acknowledgement of the efforts of the World Community Service Committee and continued with a great detailed explanation to the question of “where does the money go” by outlining the link between the Rotary Foundation Fund donations to Matching Grant funds. He explained that as the competition for funds is stiff, people look for the most productive means in which to place their money, and the Foundation has been awarded a 4 star rating for the last 9 years in a row by Charity Navigator (the leading industry evaluator of charitable organizations), putting Rotary Foundation in the top 1% of all organizations evaluated. But the real reason to be proud of the Rotary Foundation is that this most productive money is being used to change lives and build better communities, as was witnessed in the “A Century of Doing Good in the World” video then shown.

 

Al further explained how good grants can go to GREAT grants through the matching program. The TRF doesn’t do projects, the clubs do the projects using the funds aggregated by TRF.

 

But perhaps most inspiring was Al’s story of how he became passionate, thus going from a good Rotarian to a GREAT Rotarian. His first was of meeting Anne Lee Hussey at the Polio Survivors and Associates booth at the House of Friendship during the 2008 Convention who told him the story of Ayuba Gufwan of Jos Nigeria; a polio survivor and founder of HARC (Handicapped Advocacy & Rehab Center) in 2007 who was building bicycles to give the gift of mobility to polio survivors. She asked if Al would commit to being the lead club for a matching grant, to which he said yes. Ten clubs on 3 continents contributed $30,100 seed money which was matched by TRF for $96,600, totaling $126,100 and resulting in 800 wheelchairs by 2010. These funds were available because of the commitment of Rotarians to giving $100 per year to the Annual Fund, affording the opportunity to turn good club projects into GREAT club projects.

 

 Yet another inspiring story as part of Al’s growth from a self-professed good Rotarian of 8 to a well over 20  GREAT one was his experience through the District Life Leadership Committee, seeing the kinds of work being done by other clubs and kids. One of the exchange students, hosted by our club, was Luciana Rios from Argentina. She wanted to raise $20,000 to build a shelter for battered women, a first for her community in Argentina. She was committed and raised $8000 which then was matched by funds available through the Rotary Foundation that boosted that number to $16,000; thus turning her GOOD project into a GREAT project. Al reminded that this is why a $100 donation level by every Rotarian is necessary to maintain a grant program that is robust and vibrant and so important to making these kinds of matching funds available to make good projects into GREAT ones.

 

 Al’s passion and enthusiasm for Rotary and its good works is inspiring! If we could just bottle Al’s enthusiasm and administer it as a polio booster shot, polio would be eradicated not in months or years but mere hours. GREAT JOB AL!

CURRENT CAREER – Realtor at RE/MAX Bayshore Properties

 

EDUCATION – Bachelor in Science from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

   

FAMILY- Husband Zach and 8 month old daughter Victoria.

 

FAVORITE DESSERT -  Key lime pie or the chocolate brownie from Tom’s.

 

FAVORITE ACTIVITY – Hiking, swimming and relaxing on the beach.

 

FAVORITE MOVIE – I’m a big fan of zombie movies and Reese Witherspoon movies, but not Reese in a zombie movie.

 

FAVORITE SONG – Any song by Nelly or Outkast.

 

LIKELY KNOWS – I was a TMI (too much information) baby. My mother was pregnant with me in Pennsylvania when Three Mile Island had a nuclear meltdown. She had to leave the area and spend a few weeks in Boston with my aunt until it was safe to come back.

 

LIFE ROLE MODEL – My grandmother. If everyone had just an ounce of her grace, class and strength, the world would be a much better place.

 

MOST SIGNIFICANT ACCOMPLISHMENT – Completing 5 marathons.

 

 

FUNNIEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU -  Disclaimer: my husband doesn’t think this is funny, but it makes me laugh thinking about how mad it makes him. When I first moved to Chicago, I worked in a high end retail store on Michigan Avenue. Steve Yzerman was one of my top clients but since I didn’t follow hockey, I really didn’t have any idea who he was. He sent me the nicest, signed Christmas card thanking me for helping him thoughout the year and a few months later, I threw it away when I was decluttering my apartment. When my husband found out that I threw away a signed card from “The Captain” he almost divorced me.

IF YOU COULD BE ANYONE IN THE WORLD FOR A DAY (present or historical),  WHO WOULD THAT BE---AND  WHY? Any member of The Chicago Cubs the day after they win the World Series. (I wrote this before the series was finished, I just had that much faith they would win.)

 

MOST FAMOUS PERSON MET -  Jennifer Aniston, John Travolta, Mr. T and Brangelina—RIP (not all at the same time).