Meeting on January 7, 2020

Greeting:  President Roger Sidoti welcomed Rotarians and guests to the Rotary Club of Kent.

The patriotic song of the day was God Bless America, played by David Dix.

Laing Kennedy led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Nelson Burns offered the invocation.  David Dix led us in singing Auld Lang Syne, to bring in the New Year.

The Rotareminder author is Sue Hetrick,  and Todd Kamenash will take photos.

There were no visiting Rotarians.

Bill Childers introduced Emily Holt, an intern working at United Way.

Richard King won the drawing.

President Roger and Past President Larry Lohman presented a Paul Harris Fellow award to Jeff Roeger.  This award was designated by our Club to be given to Jeff  in recognition of his service to Rotary.

Deborah Krutz received a Paul Harris Fellow award.  Tom Hatch is a Paul Harris Fellow plus 1, and Nelson Burns is a Paul Harris Fellow plus 2.

Will Underwood said that the District Four-way speech committee would meet at 1 pm today.  The committee is looking for someone to head-up our Kent speech contest.  See Will if interested.

Larry Lohman reported on the successful completion of two major district projects.  One was the water project in El Salvador.

Randy Smith told us to save the date of October 24^th for a celebratory dinner marking our 100^th anniversary as a Rotary Club.  The committee planning the anniversary events is meeting today at 1 pm.  Ideas for a keynote speaker and an MC would be welcomed.

President Roger highlighted the calendar information that is shown on the screen during our lunch time.  A table talk topic was also posted. 

The auction committee is going to meet starting today to prepare for our spring fundraiser.  New members are welcome to join the committee.

Anthony Horton introduced Ashley Legg, a Stanton Middle School student, who was selected to be the student of the month at Stanton Middle School.  Ashley is involved in school music activities as well as sports.  She is taking Latin for high school credit and has a high GPA.  Ashley is also active with her church and volunteers at Hattie Larlham and Haven of Rest.  She is planning on studying Biomedical Engineering when she gets to college. 

Ashley’s parents, Sara and Richard Legg, and brother, Ricky, joined her at the Rotary meeting today.

Mary Beth Harper, one of our Rotary members, talked with us about a way we can be very intentional by having a word guide us throughout the coming year.  She told us that many people make New Years resolutions to diet, exercise, save money, etc. and are eager to make changes.  But most people give up way before much of the year has passed.  Instead Mary Beth challenged us to select a word of the year following several guidelines:

            Select a word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live.

            Use a work that sets an intention or theme for how you want your year to go.

            Pick a word that contains energy, images and meaning.

            Select a word by reflecting and listening to your heart.

Mary Beth gave us examples of words she has chosen in past years and outcomes from the experience.   She also talked about her “happiness” group and some of their words of the year. She then gave us time to talk at our tables using some questions to guide our discussions.  Discussions were lively and people were reluctant to stop at the end of the program time.

Suzanne Hetrick thanked Mary Beth for a very inspiring program that will stay with us throughout the year.  Our own members present wonderful programs for us and today’s program was a perfect way to begin a New Year and a new decade.  We should all have a Happiness Group, too.

 

Respectfully  submitted,

Sue Hetrick