Rotareminder for Sept. 19, 2023

The meeting was called to order at 12:13 by Asad Khan, who led us in the patriotic song: God Bless America. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Tom Larkin did the Invocation, and we sang “Heart of my Heart.”

There were no visiting Rotarians, and the guests were the Student of the Month + parents (see below), and Ivana Krsteska, guest of Jennifer Lennox.

Various members of the group gave happy bucks to celebrate awards, visits and athletic events.

Announcements:
Larry Lohman announced that the organization that helps with our water projects, CoCoDA, will be holding a virtual conference via Zoom in November. More information about this will be forthcoming, and Jim Mulholland, the executive director of CoCoDA, will be speaking in October at our Kent Rotary meeting. Nancy Whitehead said the Foundation has received no requests for funds. She reminded the group that the foundation works in three areas – education, poverty and health and wellness. She said interested parties could reach out to her via email or find the forms on ClubRunner. Deadline is Sept. 30. Nancy also said we’ll have 2 cars in the Homecoming parade on Oct. 21, and that anyone who wants to participate should contact her. Todd Kamenesh said the Bowman breakfast is on Oct. 17 at 9 a.m. and the speaker will be David Dix, interviewed by Eric Mansfield. Todd will also be verifying the accuracy of email addresses in ClubRunner at the next few meetings, as we need valid addresses for the Youth Protection Training that we are required to do. Please stop to see him at the registration table to make sure the email address we have on file for you is correct.

Student of the Month:

Dennis Love introduced Ron “Scottie” Spears and his parents Darla and Ron. Scottie has a 4.0, is a scholar athlete and also created a fundraiser to help a local child battling cancer. His teachers called him well-read and positive, amazing and caring, especially around young kids. He was the local representative to Boys’ State and was later chosen to be one of two young men to represent Ohio at Boys’ Nation. He is involved with Latin Club and baseball and plans to play baseball in college and study political science.

Program:

Asad introduced MaryBeth Harper who talked about “Making Friends Later in Life” as the third part of her friendship series. MaryBeth referenced the book “We Need to Hang Out” by Billy Baker, who wrote about why middle-aged people have a hard time making friends. In the book, Baker referenced a research project that showed most people have 150 friends (5 very close friends, 10 close friends (people who’d come to your birthday party), 35 middle-ground friends, and 100 acquaintances).

The book was also read by the Rotary Book Club, and various members of the club (Jennifer Lennox, Randy Smith, Will Underwood and Laing Kennedy) talked about how important the book club had been to them personally. Groups then responded to MaryBeth’s discussion questions about talking to lonely friends, joining groups and why it’s hard to make friends. The homework for this week is to compare your own list of friends using the “150” friends system listed above and think about what you’ve learned from the exercise. (Baker suggested starting with contacts on your phone.) 

The responder was Laura Martin Miller who thanked MaryBeth for the friendship series and read a long list of the many ways that book clubs can be good for you.

 

Jennifer Lennox