June 18 is the StoryWalk in downtown Kent. 

Guests: 

Kent Police Chief Nick Shearer, guest of Fire Chief Bill Myers. 

United Way’s Julia Colecchi, guest of Bill Childers. 

Portage Community Bank VP, Commercial Lender Tim Naftzger, former Rotarian.  

Birthdays: 

The following members related stories about their service to the community as part of the May Rotary Birthdays presented by Jeff Roeger:  Chris Martin, Christy Anderson, Tom Myers, Bill Nome, Will Underwood, Doug Fuller and Larry Wright.  Christy won the free lunch. 

Student of the Month Gianna Ferrara 

A senior at Roosevelt High School, Gianna Ferrara was introduced by Principal Dennis Love and accompanied by her parents, Garret and Michelle Ferrara.   

A 4.495 GPA student, Gianna is very involved with academics, sports and music at Roosevelt.  She has taken 18 Advanced, AP and College Credit Plus Courses and completed the Athletic Health Care CTE Program.  She is a member of the swimming and diving and track and field teams, as well as a competitive skier.  Gianna will attend Bates College in Maine with the career goal of becoming an orthopedic surgeon. 

Program:  A history of when women were invited to join Rotary 

May Program Chair Bill Childers presented an overview of the history of women joining Rotary.  Bill discussed the extensive and long litigation process which ended after 10 years in the courts.  On May 4, 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Rotary Clubs must accept women members.  This followed an original suit by a Rotary Club in California, which voted to admit members in 1977.   

Bill introduced Pam Petrus, who served as Kent Rotary’s first woman president and the third woman inducted into our club.  David Dix talked about his memories of Kent Rotary at that time.  The program concluded with Bill recognizing the five women presidents of our club and announcing that Rotary International will induct its first woman president, Jennifer Jones, this summer.