Rotareminder
Rotary Club of Kent
November 14, 2023
Meeting opening: President Asad Khan welcomed Rotarians and guests to the meeting. Roger Kramer served as the audio booth volunteer. Nithya Venkataraman took photos. Sandy Roeger played the piano for our patriotic song,” America, the Beautiful”. President Asad led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Kathy Myers offered the invocation. Our second musical selection was the “Get Together Song”.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests:
Our visiting Rotarian was Kaleena Gharky from the Aurora Rotary Club. Shawn Gordon introduced her guest, Hannah Benton, who is a community development specialist with the Regional Foundations of UH.
Announcements:
Rachel Kerns made a plea for toy donations. Toys can be delivered at Rotary meetings in November.
Amanda Senn told us that our November 21st meeting will be a buffet at the Bistro on Main. Please RSVP to Amanda.
Doug Fuller reminded us about the next Tap Talks program featuring Tim Wunderle telling us about the early settling of this area.
Laura Martin Miller is seeking volunteers for the cookie walk in downtown Kent, that will be held on Sunday afternoon December 5th. Susan Hansford is baking the cookies that Rotarians will distribute.
Rebekah Wright Kulis is collecting reservations for the Rotary Christmas party to be held on Friday evening December 1st.
Happy Bucks:
Todd Kamanash collected happy bucks from the following Rotarians: Kathy Myers, Amanda Senn, Larry Wright, Sabrina Bennett, Roberta O’Keefe, Laing Kennedy, Carol Crimi, Asad Khan
Student of the Month:
Principal Dennis Love introduced Ethan Young, a Roosevelt senior, as the November student of the month. His mom Angela also attended the presentation. Ethan is described as brilliant and creative. He is taking mostly AP classes. He is class vice president and involved in athletics. After graduation Ethan wants to attend Williams College and major in mathematics and economics.
Program:
Amanda Senn introduced Dr. Elaine Hseo who teaches at the School of Peace and Conflict Studies at KSU. She is a colleague of Dr. Neil Cooper, who spoke with us last week. Dr. Hseo holds both a doctorate and a law degree. Her area of expertise is environmental peace and conservation. Elaine is passionate about promoting ecological peacebuilding. Human and wildlife interactions often have negative consequences. Elaine showed us places where tensions occur, especially at borders between countries. Fences and security measures prevent nature and people from thriving together. Armed conflict displaces people. Dr. Hseo talked with us about Akagera Park, which is located near the border between Rwanda and Tanzania. The park was designed to protect a large wetland area. During the conflict in Rwanda, most of the wildlife in the park was lost. Refugees replaced wildlife. Work is being done to protect the remaining wildlife and to reintroduce the lost species. Although the conflict has ceased, fences still keep people and wildlife separate. Dr. Hseo is doing research to look at ways to develop a positive co-existence between humans and wildlife. Elaine is seeking stories from the local community to identify ways to preserve human/wildlife co-existence. There is value in preserving and expanding indigenous knowledge, those long-standing practices that are important to native individuals. The goal is to protect and restore indigenous knowledge and to improve the co-existence of people and wildlife. Nature thrives when we are fully engaged with it.
Response:
Carol Crimi thanked Dr. Elaine Hseo for her talk and her passion for her work. Carol identified that the work at KSU in the school of Peace and Conflict Studies mirrors the work of Rotary around the world. Carol also told us that Elaine teaches at the Rotary Peace institute in Thailand. She thanked her for her work to promote peace.
The meeting ended with the Four Way Test.
Respectfully submitted,
Sue Hetrick
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