Up Next: Lynn Rollins, CWRU on Engineers Without Borders
Meeting Opening: President-Elect David Myers filled in for President Kathy Myers. David Dix played God Bless America; Nelson Burns gave the invocation, and the club sang Home On The Range. Asad Khan and Mark Pennell were the AV techs and Rachel Kerns provided the photography.
February Birthdays: Jeff Roeger announced the February birthdays: Pam Petrus on the 2nd; Hal Loughry on the 10th; Ralph Kletzien on the 13th; Matt Carter on the 15th; and Steve Belli and Paul Organ on the 16th. Paul Organ won the free lunch drawing.
Guests: Paul Organ introduced his wife Mary and his staff; Tom Hatch’s guest was Fulbright Scholar Adina Ionescu from Romania; Laing Kennedy’s guest was Brian Grubich, Associate Athletic Director for Athletic Advancement, and Bill Childers’ guest from Rwanda was Pacifique Niyonzima.
Announcements: President-Elect David announced that Rotary will return to Pearson Hall for next week’s meeting and reminded the Club that the Kent Rotary Auction will be held in person for the first time since 2019 on May 6 at the American Legion. Anyone interested in helping with the auction should come to a meeting next week right after Rotary.
Nelson Burns commended David Dix on his Sunday column about John Flynn establishing a Mount Union University scholarship for a Kent Roosevelt High School student.
Doug Fuller reminded members of the Main Street Kent Tap Talk next Tuesday at 7 pm. at the Water Street Tavern to hear Mark Pennell talk about Inventing Franklin Mills.
Will Underwood said the District 4-Way Speech Contest Committee would meet immediately after the meeting in Pearson Hall.
President-Elect David asked for members to attend the District’s Grant Management Seminars. Dates of the seminars are February 24, March 1 and March 5. At least two members need to attend the seminars for the Kent Club to be eligible to receive District grants. See David for details.
Speaker: Paul Organ introduced his son Jack to talk about the five years Jack and wife Kelly spent in Romania between 2013 and 2018.
Jack said his wife Kelly had a semester abroad in Romania while they were in college and she was recruited to be a volunteer there after graduation and their wedding.
Jack said Romania is a very beautiful country that has been conquered throughout history beginning with the Romans in the first century AD. Other conquerors included Hungary, the Otto Empire and Russia. He said the last communist dictator was Nicolae Ceausecu who ended the country’s debt through heavy taxes that impoverished the people; outlawed abortions and birth control which led to numerous orphanages, and developed the secret police who coerced people into informing on each other and disallowed public gatherings.
Sociologists have theorized that the history has caused the Romanian people to develop learned helplessness. The attitude is “That’s life and there’s not a thing you can do about it.”
In 1999 New Horizons Foundation developed a summer Camp called Viata to teach children to trust people and each other through ropes courses, hiking and other group activities. Seven or eight years into the program, alumni from Viata approached the foundation about developing impact clubs to do service projects in the country.
From 2014 to 2018 Jack and Kelly ran one of the clubs. Jack said the key to Impact clubs is service-learning which he described in detail. He said the first project his club members selected was a way to get children off their phones and to play outside. The project included after school competitive games to which 50 children participated. The children in the impact club not only achieved their goal but learned about project planning.
Another project was to try to reduce the violence in the school. The members did presentations to classrooms the Principal said were the most violent. He also asked them to moderate a situation between two fighting boys. They even got permission to do a mural at the school that demonstrated violence makes you ugly.
A third project was to figure out how they could do something about the trash in their city. They mapped the areas of the city with the most trash and presented their findings to the Mayor asking him to do something about the trash and institute a recycling program. This taught them about research and government process.
Jack said his take-a-ways from his experience is that normal in Kent Ohio and the US is not the same as normal in Romania. He used examples of grocery choices and lawn care. He also said discrimination in Romania is anti-gypsy while in the U.S. it is led by white people.
He recommended Rotarians doing service, learn about service-learning. He said you need to learn about the people you are serving before you try to serve them.
Response was by Adina Ionescu, Romanian guest of Tom Hatch. Adina said Jack’s program was very emotional for her. The Fulbright scholar said she has been a teacher for 12 years and is working to make changes in the Romanian educational system. She said she has received grants to take her students to other countries including Spain and Italy.
Respectfully submitted, Anita Herington
