- us, goodwill and benefiting all. Unfortunately, these values seem to be eroding all around us. Now, there are political responses to this, but I don't want to talk about politics. Instead, I'd like to focus on what we can directly control. We have complete control on whether we are going to fully embrace
- our rotary values. The primary way that we can show our commitment is by helping others. This is the reason that I've decided to co-lead our club's community service committee with Michelle Cohen. I was feeling powerless to control the broader societal drift from our collective rotary values.
- acts of community service take some of that control back. How we help others in our community makes a difference. It not only helps our local community, but it also shows everyone how we think about how others should be treated regardless of how much power or money they possess. They are our neighbors.
- And as Rotarians, we help them. Albert Schweitzer once said, constant kindness can accomplish much. As sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate. This is something that Rotarians need to believe and regularly practice if we are both to live the four-way test
- and help convince others of its fundamental truths. Michelle and I will hold a community service committee meeting on Wednesday at 4 p.m. by Zoom. We'll be talking about potential new club service projects to align with Rotary's mission.
- We'll also have a potential grant-making opportunity to discuss that could extend our support to areas of the community that sorely need it. Please talk to Michelle or me if you're interested in helping plan our work to practice kindness. As my late Rotarian uncle, Wayne Martin used to say, never tire of doing good. Thank you.
- Thank you, Dave. Leslie Kutsenko will introduce our guest today. I'm way shorter than they are. So we have two guests in person today. We have Randy Saunders, who's a guest of Jim Bright. Hello, Randy. From Boy Scouts. And then we have Ellen Stroman, who is a guest of the ORN perspective member. And then
- Lori, do we have any online guests? We have one guest, Megan Gerhart. Okay, thank you. Thank you, Leslie. There's something I had to check twice, but we have no club member birthdays or anniversaries this week. I don't think that happens often.
- For the announcements, I'll start with some sad news. Dr. Mark Dayton, a Bloomington oncologist and a longtime member of the Bloomington North Rotary Club was killed instantly yesterday in a car bike collision. Mark and his wife Jean were founders of the Bloomington Rotary Toast. Mark was a Rotary major donor, a Paul Harris Fellow, Paul Harris Society member,
- and a Bequest Society member. And the Rotary Toast was very near and dear to Mark's heart. He was working on this year's toast. So please remember that the Rotary Toast is on Friday, November 7th. Moving to a lighter note, the Club Holiday Party is on December 11th at the Bloomington Country Club.
- The Youth Services Committee will meet via Zoom at 7 p.m. on Thursday, August 14th. See Joy Harder, Leanne Radcliffe, or me for details regarding how to participate. If you're interested in Youth Services, Joy is here today on one of the front tables so she can answer questions. Board members, committee chairs, if you have time, please stay a little bit after the meeting for a short meet and greet with our guest today, District Governor Carrie Aiken.
- Rotary International has scheduled an early November heart-to-heart pilgrimage to Guadalajara, Mexico. Sign up deadline is August 15th. See Jim Bright or see me if you'd like to learn more. And I had an announcement about a teacher's warehouse project for a pork burger fundraiser on the 22nd in Spencer, but I learned this morning that all the volunteer positions have been filled, so that's good news.
- Okay, let's start with a mystery rotarian. Yes.
- Does anyone have it yet? OK, first clue. Remember, the rules are if you know the answer, you put up your hand. If you're online, you let the host know,
- But don't let anyone know. OK, so this Rotarian practiced law in Shelbyville, Indiana, and also served as an Indiana state rep for 18 years. And we have quite a few in the room. Second clue, this Rotarian retired to Bloomington and has served as president of the Monroe County Public Library Board of Trustees. So if you know, put up your hand. A few more.
- As a member of our club for over 18 years, this Rotarian has in recent years planned and coordinated our December Annual Club Salvation Army Bell Ringing. Put up your hand if you know. All right, we have a few more. And the answer is Steve Moberly.
- Here are a couple of pictures of Steve. First one on the left is from I think what preparation for some sort of awards at Memorial Stadium. I know you're I think it's from 2021 and then on the right a picture of Steve and his wife Sandy at a Rotary Club event I think at Eagle Point in 2021.
- So Steve has served as president of both the Library Board of Trustees in Shelbyville and then Monroe County. And then the Salvation Army involvement runs deep. He's a past president of the Bloomington Salvation Army Advisory Board. He's a past national chair of the IU Alumni Association. And then Steve and his wife Sandy are past co-presidents of the University Club of Indiana University.
- which is a social organization for faculty, staff, and community residents that traces its origins back to 1912 for men and 1930 for women. So thank you, Steve. And we'll roll into the Rotary International. I don't have a lot to say about International because our guest carries
- talk today will be very international in scope. So anyway, just a reminder, August is membership and new club development month. And then a recap, and I want to applaud Tracy and all the club members. So here are the final numbers for last year. So this club's annual fund contributions
- to the RI Foundation, 22,827 for the annual fund, another 1415 to the Polio Plus fund, which is the most we've had in a few years. You know, throughout the year, it didn't look like we're gonna make it, didn't look like we're gonna make it, and then we blew through our goal. We were second in our district. Dogon Greensburg beat us out. But anyway, an impressive year.
- And then just a little tidbit that I picked up on the R.I. site. Not sure where they got this number, but our club is credited all time giving to the R.I. Foundation $750,000. So very impressive. I think we have a few minutes for happy dollars.
- to be back in the U.S. Let me just say loved vacation and it was great but it's always nice to come home so here's 20 bucks for you. I'm happy because my sophomore grandson at North made the soccer team and his older brother will start at Purdue this
- I'm happy because I'm moving and I'm almost finished with that. I'm now in two places. Don't move if you can't help it. I'm happy because I recently had my 80th birthday party. It was the best birthday party I've ever had, even when I was five or six. All three of my kids came from the coast to be at my party.
- and they left me a great video on YouTube that I just can't get over. So I'm really thrilled about that. It's a real high for me. I'm happy because the Hope mural on the side of the My Sports Locker building appeared in the Bloom Magazine, 20 best places in Bloomington, Tennessee.
- And I'm happy because on Wednesday, September 2nd, from five to seven, we're going to have a celebration at the History Center, which will be honoring the brand new state historic marker, which can't be put in the ground just yet, but it's honoring the local council of women who created the Bloomington Hospital in 1905. Okay, Tuesday.
- Okay, things to be sad about. Oh, Dave, did you want to add one more? Michael, can we get Dave Meyer? What's that? Oh, sorry about my tardiness. I am happy because one of my great refugee friends who's a 17-year-old from Syria who learned how to play soccer in a refugee camp in Jordan after much practice this spring
- uh, managed to move up from JV soccer at Bloomington South to varsity soccer. And he has a big grin on his face. Thank you all. So we're going to switch up the order a little bit here. I'll be introducing our speaker. Um, and then when Carrie Aiken comes up before she begins her talk, we're actually going to do the four way test
- and I'll ask you to remain standing for some special pictures. So Carrie Aiken began her Rotary journey in 2011 as a member of the Evansville Rotaract Club, serving as communications chair, secretary, and Rotary-Rotaract liaison. Among her many accomplishments, she played a vital role in the $100,000 Rotaract Signature Playground project for the Ark Child Crisis,
- shepherding the project from conception through completion. In 2016, she transitioned to the Rotary Club of Evansville, the largest club in the state, where she's held leadership roles, including board member, treasurer, and club president. For her extraordinary service in 2019, Carrie was honored as the District Rotarian of the Year. Carrie is a Paul Harris Fellow, plus three,
- and a proud member of the Polio Plus Society. A dedicated advocate for service and community engagement, Carrie is a founding member of the Rotary Santa Run Committee, which has raised more than $500,000 to benefit local charities. Globally minded and deeply engaged with Rotary International's mission, Carrie has attended Rotary International Conventions in Hamburg, Houston, Melbourne,
- Singapore, and Calgary. She has participated in Sister City projects in Tizimine, Mexico, and chaired the Rotary Club of Evansville International Student Mentoring Partnership. She also hosted the Monarch Marathon Team, Rotarians from Canada and Europe during their documentary film journey along the Monarch Butterfly Migration Trail.
- Carrie is a member of the Rotary Action Group on Mental Health Initiatives. She co-led the district's virtual mental health summit and contributed to the UK-based Rotary Don't Bottle It Up campaign advocating for emotional wellness and open dialogue. Professionally, Carrie brings a strong background in finance and accounting. She earned her BS in accounting and mathematics from Ball State University.
- and has worked as an actuarial intern with Nationwide Insurance, a Medicare federal fraud auditor with the US Department of Health and Human Services, and a math adjunct for non-traditional students at Harrison College. She currently serves as a senior finance officer with the Evansville Metropolitan Planning Organization. Born and raised in Evansville, Carrie is the proud mother of two adult sons, Andrew and Nicholas,
- daughter-in-law Jess, and her beloved dog Charlie. Away from work, Carrie serves her church as a lector at Holy Redeemer Catholic Church. She celebrates her German history as a member of Germania Manor Corps. I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but I looked it up online, and it looked like a lot of fun. Carrie is a passionate traveler and self-proclaimed foodie. She is the creator behind
- blonde mafia eats where she documents her culinary adventures on Instagram and Snapchat. In every new city Carrie visits, she seeks out the highest rooftop bar to toast with fellow Rotarians over a signature cocktail. And Rotarians, I need some help with this one because I thought the Graduate Hotel in Bloomington had the highest rooftop bar
- And then I read within the last week that they haven't had a liquor license and they just settled it. So I need someone to tell me where the highest rooftop bar is in Bloomington. Leslie. Oh, I see. OK. Well, I'm sure she'd be OK with a free signature cocktail. Anyway, Carrie Aiken, welcome to the Bloomington Rotary Club.
- and let's get ready for the four-way toast. So please stand for the four-way toast. Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it be goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned?
- And fifth, is it fun? And stay standing. So I think one more picture, Katie, so we get Carrie and the group in the background. Or you can go where I'm going, where I'm standing. Sorry. All right. I'm ready.
- Steve, are you in there? No, don't worry. No, yes. Yes, you have to be in there. All right, yes. Okay, there we go. Ah, thank you. Oh, man. I need to learn how to take that. There we go. Sorry, this is my husband told me just take a lot of pictures. And so I've been trying to learn. Okay, thank you.
- Thank you everyone and thank you for obliging to my photo request. At the end of this year, I have to present to our Council of Past Governors
- And I want to show them the faces of Rotary because I love all your smiles. And this has been one of the favorite parts of my journey as district governor. So anyway, so thank you for obliging by that. Thank you for what you do for Rotary. And thank you for the service and the changes that you make to make this world a better place. If it wasn't for you,
- the district and Rotary International wouldn't be here. So this is just a picture from our pets training. And our initial president Mario is up there.
- And he resigned about two weeks before July 1st came in and we worked with Mario we trained with him for a good two and a half years before this. So this is.
- The first part of my presentation is gonna be a little bit of Rotary 101. I know the clubs I've been attending, there's been a lot of new members, which has been excellent. And some people are in their Rotary clubs and they don't see outside of their club and they don't see that they're part of a bigger organization. So we are in zones 30, 31. There's 11 states.
- 31 districts, 60,000 members, 1,500 clubs. So I work with 31 district governors.
- on pretty much, I talk to them on a daily basis. We also have a Rotary International Director assigned to our paired district. So there's 34 zones in the whole entire world and 17 paired zones worldwide. So there's 17 directors. We're 1.2 million Rotarians strong in over 200 nations. So that's more nations than what the United Nations recognizes.
- something that you guys are very lucky because you've had joy as your assistant governor for several years and she is amazing and she's she's been working with you guys for the past few years and this year Jeffrey Berger had asked to
- to step up in leadership. So he is your assistant governor. He could not be here today because he is in Canada with his firm Baird. There are six clubs in the
- area for so there's eight areas in the whole entire district and your area for so it's budford bloomfield bloomington bloomington north bloomington sunrise and rotor act you. The Jeffrey is your friend he's not the rotary police.
- When you see him, please welcome him. He's here as a resource for you. And he has a lot of clients here in Bloomington, even though he's from the Evansville Club. So he makes it over here very frequently. And so don't hesitate on asking him where he's, if you have any questions.
- The other thing, how many people here know what their DACDB login is in password? Okay, okay, so on the left hand side you can, or the right hand side, that's what DACDB looks like. It's our district database and you can find a lot of information in there if you make a lot of clicks and there's no real
- rhyme or reason to getting to what you need to find. It's very cumbersome and I don't think it's very user-friendly. So the developers of DAC ended up coming out with this new mobile app. It's called Ignite.
- So I'd like everybody to download Ignite. You can download it from the Apple Store or from your Google Play Store. Your login is your DACDB login and your password. This Ignite app is way more user-friendly. It's very intuitive as well to use. You can upload service selfies on there. You can see what your Paul Harris giving, how close you are to your next Paul Harris.
- You can also do messaging to everyone in your club. You can find contact information for almost any rotarian in our district. And there is usually a cost to to ignite and
- We at the district decided to pay for this for this year for every single rotarian to have. So it was active July 1st and there should be some formalized training coming out soon. But in the meantime, you can download this. You can log in with your username and just kind of play around with it.
- Yes and it makes it super easy to track your service hours and I think this is going to be great because there's so many hours we put in with communications and emails on certain projects and you really don't get the gist of what your projects are costing you in time so you can definitely see the accumulation of those. Also
- The DACDB is going away in three to five years, so we also wanted to make sure everybody in our district had Ignite so that you are ahead of the game when it does, when you're forced to go to Ignite. We have a brand new RILA website, and I believe it's Octave.org.
- I think it's August, or no, September 5th is when the deadline is for clubs to submit their sponsors. The great thing about this Rotary Youth Leadership Awards website is all of the forms are on there. So if you have students that are interested and they forgot the email or they can't find their form, they can go right to this website and download their form as many times as they'd like to. And then this year, because it falls under
- It falls on Halloween. We are doing a Star Wars theme, so all of the teams are going to have Star Wars team names. We're doing a Unite for Good. We're going to have the Dark Side and the Stormtroopers versus the good guys too.
- Susanna from New Albany actually is a certified Jedi. She's gone through the Fred Rogers Institute and she is doing a special program with us and we'll have lightsabers for the kids. So if you want to entice students to attend, please let them know about our theme as well.
- Also, social media. I feel that we have the best social media public image person in the district. Well, actually, she's our district, but in the zone, she's Gretchen Ross. I met her in Rotorakt in 2011, and she's a news anchor for Channel 25. She will post whatever you want, your toast. She will get it out there on our district social media. So please,
- please send your information to her and she will also get you on the news if you'd like to speak about the toast on the news if you don't mind coming down to Henderson in the in the morning. So but I also heard that she can also do it via zoom. So
- My message is on branding. 96% of kids can identify the McDonald's logo. And kids identify McDonald's logo with food, fun, and play. But what if we could get kids to identify the Rotary logo with international nationality, community, leadership, parks, play, something like that.
- Several years ago when the Ukraine war broke out, I was approached by the mayor of Evansville. I'm from the Evansville club and she said, you know, Rotary is the biggest outlet to get
- to get information out. Our club's 200 plus, and we're over 100 years old. We're also televised. She's like, I'd like you to go speak to this pastor of the Slavic Church. And I didn't know that we had a Slavic Church in our community, and they just happened to be having a food fundraiser. So I thought, well, I want to try this borscht, and I want to try all their great food. So I went. I spoke with the pastor.
- scheduled him for July because July was when I was going to be president and I wanted to make sure that we had an engaging program. He spoke to our club. We got a lot of donations for him. I grabbed him and I said, what else can we help you with? What else do you need?
- And he said, we're starting to get a lot of Ukraine refugees coming in and we need clothes and we need household items because they're coming in and they're not bringing anything with them. So I just happened to go back to my office and a coworker said she was cleaning out her mom's house because she moved into an assisted living and she had all this china and all this just tons of household goods that she didn't know what to do with.
- and wanted to know where I suggested that she donate it to. I said, oh, great. You know, do you mind donating it to our refugees coming in from Ukraine? She said, yes, but I need to get this out by this weekend. So I meet her and we take all, we take several carloads over to a house kind of in northern Vanderburt County.
- and a mom comes out, she's pregnant, she has a baby on her hip where I'm loading the car. And this little girl, she's about three or four years old, runs out of the house in the sparkliest dress. And she runs up to me, looks up at me and says, I wished for you to be here and you're here. And then she giggled and ran away. And I was so perplexed by that.
- But it really sat on my heart and being on the board of the Ark Child Crisis Center. That's emergency child care for six weeks to six year olds. We have a we put on this great
- Fairytale Ball every year. We have all the Disney princesses there. And being a boy mom, I've never been able to attend because they're not really into the Disney princesses and stuff. So anyway, so I called her mom up and I said, hey, this may sound crazy, but can I be your daughter's godmother and take her to the Fairytale Ball? You just tell me what her favorite princess is and I'll make sure she
- She has a costume and stuff like that. So we went, and she had a great time at the ball. And after that, I started spending more time with her. Usually about once a week, we'd go get bubble tea. She also sat on various Zoom calls with me. I sat on a United Nations Rotary small group. There's five of us. Marianna's from Serbia, Sweden, Italy, and Poland.
- She would sit on some of those with me and they all knew who Christina was and she thought it was great because there's Europeans on there.
- In my mind, I'm like, here's my legacy. I want her to grow. I had so many aspirations for her. I want her to go to RYLA. I want her to start an interact club. I want her to be a global scholar. That's going through my brain. So then last summer, I was in Thailand for over a month in Singapore, Malaysia.
- Technology is great. We had video chats. She video chatted me before she'd go to bed at night, and that's right when I was getting up in the morning with the 12-hour difference. It was a great learning experience for her because she could see it was morning where I was at, and one week I get
- About a week before I was leaving, she's like, Carrie, are you still in that country that is morning when it's night here? I said yes, but I will be home in a week and I will take you out as soon as I get home.
- So I get home, take her and her brother out for the day. We spent the whole day together, and then it was 4th of July, and I was supposed to take them all. She has three siblings. I was supposed to take them all to a lake party, but Mother Nature had other plans, so we didn't get to go, and we were gonna reschedule it. So two days later,
- is the rescheduled day, I can't get a hold of her family. I finally look at Snapchat. I shared location with her brother who is 12 because I just wanted them to know if you need something, you can see where I'm at and this is a good way to get a hold of me without trying to cause any other distractions. I look in there about 20 hours west of Evansville.
- So shortly after her mom calls me and they're in Spokane, Washington, she says, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry you did not get to say bye to the kids. We had to escape at 3 a.m. and 3 a.m. was the time we needed to leave, but we are safe.
- You can video chat with Christina whenever you want. You can come visit us if you want. My heart was broken, but at the same time, I knew that was a safer place for them to be in. So anyway, so I took off on Memorial Day and spent four days up there. When I got off the plane, I was wearing a rotary t-shirt and I had my rotary bag. And just to let you know,
- tell the customs people that you're with Rotary, which I didn't have to go through customs obviously as a domestic flight, but I found out that I don't get any other questions asked by customs. So I do love traveling internationally with Rotary. We're very well respected. I get off the plane and Christina runs up to me to give me a big hug, but first she's pointing out my shirt and she's pointing out my bag and she's like,
- Carrie, Carrie, my new first grade class, the Rotary Club came to my class and gave all of my first grade friends a Rotary t-shirt. And she was so excited about that, wanted to tell me about it. And then we stayed, I stayed at a hotel that was
- up against Spokane's, their riverfront, which is where the largest waterfalls are in the whole nation. And as we're walking, so that's me and then that's Christina and her two little brothers. And she points to this water fountain and there's a Rotary International logo engraved into the pavement.
- And then there's bronze signage and it says to the children of Spokane. So I just absolutely, absolutely loved that. That rotary was there and it said from Spokane 21. So all of a sudden I have this relief and comfort that
- Okay, where she's at has a great, huge rotary presence. And I've actually reached out to the club to tell them my thanks for what they do for the kids. So that is my story on why having the rotary emblem and why getting kids to know that rotary is here, as we're here for leadership, for community, and for safety.
- And then just, I did wanna mention about district grants. As you know, our district, we provide a lot of leadership training, but district grants this past year, well, it's 2025, 2026, you should get your checks by September 1st of this year. We had $45,000 worth of grants and we had 17 clubs take advantage of this.
- Also in 2023, 2024, there were $291 million granted worldwide. Also a membership engagement, I just wanna give you, don't forget about our fellowships. So once you're a Rotary member, you can join a fellowship. There's over 120 of them.
- They have kites, beard and mustache, gin, weather enthusiasts, tea lovers. And then rotary action groups are action like human trafficking awareness and slavery, mental health initiatives. And we also have an AI fellowship. Hi, I'm Mr. Harris. And with rotary, we can change the world one polio vaccine at a time. Some people might call me Paul Harris.
- But I'm not, I'm AI. All of these people aren't real, including me. So come join me for a session on AI at the Rotary International Convention in Calgary on June 23 at 3.30. The session is called Chat, GPT, and AI, Creating Efficiency and Engagement. And we can't wait to see you there. I wanted to show that video because
- I also get a lot of questions about rotaries dying, rotaries, what's rotary doing to keep up with the new generations and we have an AI fellowship and those instructors, that was my absolute favorite. It was an hour and a half long session and that was probably my favorite session out of the whole international conference. And then this is my final,
- message about unite for good is the new message and as you saw in the first photo that I showed we had Mario who was the the previous president and in that photo up there we have President Francesco Erizo he's from Italy so he I did actually get to meet him
- in Calgary and I was very happy to meet him and he is keeping the same messaging, the Unite for Good. So when you leave here today, I have Unite for Good pins up at the registration table along with my contact information if you have questions or anything.
- So I was thinking about, when I was thinking about Unite for Good, I had read a Costco magazine looking for, looking for speakers for whenever, for my rotary club. And I found this guy, he's a pilot, Robert De Laurentiis, he's from San Diego. He has a plane called Citizen of the World. And the Citizen of the World, he flew it from the South Pole to the North Pole, which is the two places where peace has always existed.
- He stopped in 24 countries in between. He was grounded because it happened during the pandemic. He had his documentary crew ask people what they wanted in the world most. They said,
- Every single person, they found out that there was more similarities than differences. And they wanted health and happiness and joy and safety for their friends and families and communities. And when I read that, I thought, that's what Rotary does. That is us. So when you donate to the Rotary Foundation or when you're out here doing the service projects and
- and helping out teachers' warehouse and those types of things, you're creating a piece on earth that everybody is trying to achieve. So clean water isn't available to everyone. We take that for granted.
- And we also have reverse global grants. So even in America, we had some places in Eastern Kentucky that did not have clean water. So we did a reverse global grant with them where a different country partnered with us to give them clean water as well. And also for Unite for Good,
- You know, not everything goes, not all of our funding goes overseas and we never see it. For any of you that attended the All Indiana Conference in Indianapolis, we assembled 15,000 meal kits to, these were all passed out to families here in Indiana facing food insecurity. So those 15,000 food kits all stayed here
- in Indiana. And then if you also look at that first picture, Jeffrey is the guy in the middle with the hairnet on. So he is, like I said, he will be your AG. We have worked together with our kids and PTA. Since our kids were super little, he was probably the only male I knew that was in the PTA for elementary kids. So he is definitely a doer.
- And one more plug for Unite for Good. I hope you all come to the, we are having a joint district conference and it is May 8th and 9th at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. And we are partnering with Kentucky, Western Kentucky and Western Tennessee.
- My counterpart, Dorsey, he is a previous senator of the state of Kentucky and has all of the connections to the bourbon distilleries down there. So we will be having a bourbon, a bourbon and Derby theme is the weekend after Derby. So Galt House is still going to be decorated for Derby. And we're going to have some great bourbon tastings and fellowship to, to mix with our two, our two districts to the south.
- And that is all I have. I'm happy to answer questions. I know you guys have a, I've heard you have a lot of questions and I am happy to stay. I'm here till Thursday. So if you, so I will stay as long as you want to, as long as you want me to answer questions. Yes.
- My question is, God forbid, is it very important to me, too? And I wonder if you have any single project that a bunch of people could initiate and put into action here. Thank you, Charlotte. I was.
- We do have and now this is polio though. So I worked with I worked with Indianapolis and they have Ryan Henry. He's the DG at the district governor up there and he provided this amazing workshop and toolkit that we can partner with bakeries on October 24th and every bakery that we have basically we're just requesting them to put
- to either create a purple donut or a purple pinky donut, or to just contribute a certain amount of their funds from that day to the polio movement. And we have that all over. But my other one is the Peace Pole. So I don't know if you saw on the one where it was in Spokane and you saw the Rotary Fountain, right?
- next to where I was standing is a rotary peace pole and the peace poles are poles that have eight different languages on them and they say let peace prevail. There's 250,000 in the world and we've just been encouraging people to plant peace poles and I know Evansville's getting three of them. Muncie
- Muncie was the first one in our state to have that last year. So that's one of our things you can do so much with the PeacePool. It's not very expensive and just make people aware and it really connects everybody. So Kerry, kind of in that same vein, our world is more political. Vaccines are political now where they didn't used to be in the past.
- from a peace building standpoint at the club level, all the way to Rotary International, what is the role where peace building is concerned? I think it's been two years since Rotary International has said anything about Gaza. There's just lots of stuff happening. So where is Rotary International and what is the recommendation for clubs that have things to say and have opinions
- What are the recommendations for clubs where peace building is concerned? Sure. One of the things I do want to talk about the vaccinations Rotary is still that is still their main mission is to eradicate polio. I was really happy to be in in Calgary and I
- Holger Knack, he's a previous Rotary International President, and he sits on the World Health Organization. I don't know if you all knew this, but I think the World Health Organization had pulled out funding for vaccinations, especially for polio. And then Holger announced that now the United States has
- is providing funding for that. So I was really happy to hear that we still have we still have rotarians going into Gaza and Pakistan and areas like that to perform vaccinations for ampolio. It's just costing a little bit more because sometimes because for the safety of our rotarians and with any type of
- international organization like that. Sometimes you do have to provide extra funding to get into those areas as well. So I do know we're coming back around to the polio vaccinations. I know it's a really, you know, this political era is just wild and I feel like
- people are being caused to be divided and really that's how you can be controlled as if you're divided. If everybody would stand together for one thing, you're not going to be as controlled. Does that answer your question or a little bit? Okay.
- Hi, Carrie. Is there anything with the 250th anniversary coming up with the U.S. that Rotary's doing? Oh, with Rotary's 250 or no, it's not Rotary. I do not know, but I can definitely Google that or I can ask our international directors on that. I have not heard anything yet. So that would be awesome if there was something.
- I do know Rotary Internationals, I think it's their 125th. They're having a big celebration in Chicago. So that will be, they'll have the International Convention in Chicago. I believe it's 2029 or 2030. It's one of those years coming up.
- Hello, I'm here. Hi, I'm Whitney. I chair the International Services Committee and I just wanted to ask you about your experience with the mentorship program between Rotarians and international students. I would love to hear that because I'm also an international student and I heard about Rotary through a local family of Rotarians and that's one of the most beautiful experiences I had here. So I would love to hear
- more about that you can share that is a great question Whitney and I could talk for days on that of the experiences we had. So in my, in my club in Evansville we partnered with the University of Southern Indiana, we
- We started a mentorship for just any student with, and then we partnered them with a rotarian and we found out that the international students were the ones that were way more engaged in really, it was a nice partnership that goes each way. So every year we have about 25 international students come in.
- And we partnered, we have a big picnic that USI hosts us for. And anybody that's interested in being a mentor, that's a rotarian, they will come in. We have extended it to, because we have a rotary at night, we had Evansville Rotor Act, we have Warwick County. We invited all of our community rotary clubs to join as well.
- just because it's such a popular program. We also have a rotarian from our club who owns an HR. So it's called HR Solutions and Vicki comes in and she will go to the school and do mock interviews with them, help them with visas. We also have international legal services that will help them as well on a job seeking side. And we've had several several students be able to
- get the jobs. As rotarians, what I like about it the most is we're giving them an American experience. So they are they live on campus. But for example, I had a Pakistani student Chitra and
- If you are familiar with Evansville, we do not have a great transit system for students that are at USI or international students don't have transportation. So a lot of them are stuck on campus. So I had Chitra and it was during the spring semester.
- And she wanted, I think she was Muslim and she really wanted to go to a Catholic church. So I brought her to Saturday night, Easter Saturday. It's a two or three hour long mass. And, uh, I brought her there because they blessed the fire. Uh, the priest there was a previous president of my rotary club. And, um, anyway, she was in all the whole, the whole time she was like,
- This is what I see in the movies and also like we would drive around and she would she would be like in my country in Pakistan women don't drive so she and I have a little Audi convertible so.
- She'd be like, can we put the top down? She'd do all these videos and send them to her friends back home. And I will tell you, like we had so much fun. Usually like, like I said, my heritage is German, so I'm usually getting the German students, but I was so excited to, I learned so much from Chitra and I was so happy. She had never known about rotary until our program. And then she went back to Pakistan and she is now, and she,
- got involved with Rotaract and now she's on some like huge zone leadership position with Rotaract and she gets to speak to clubs in India and Pakistan and you know, I talked to her probably once a month and she's just like, that was like finding Rotary was just the best thing for her. So that's how we work it. We've had people take their
- their students to like weddings or different American holidays that they wouldn't normally celebrate. Do you have any questions online? Just real quickly, I see you on Facebook where you're traveling here, there, and everywhere. There are about, what, 35 clubs now in our district. How many have you visited and could you share a highlight or two? Sure. So I visited
- It'll be 15, I think you guys are my 15th one today. I've been doing three things while I've been going to each one. One is called not rotary chicken because I really wanted to find out if the myth about rotary chicken was true. So I always feel a little real about what I've had and it's been interesting because I've had everything from little diners that you would see on like
- like Triple D on the Food Network to homemade buffets made by Juan Rotarian to our event centers like this. And then I've also been doing the Rotary Road Show. So I don't want to just show people
- me in a bunch of meetings with everyone I'm including those, but I don't want that to just be the image so I've been driving around different towns and
- I have a segment called I found Rotary. So I will say Columbus, Indiana, if you have been to their air park, as part of the airport, they have students that have in their welding department that have created these amazing benches that say service above self with the yellow Rotary logo on it. I think the branding is okay. So I don't need to send the Rotary police out. And they also have, they also have
- installed two disc golf courses and they planted a piece pole there so that was one of my favorite things that I've seen. I'm really excited to be able to tour your teachers warehouse tonight. I've heard a lot of the other clubs tell me about teachers warehouse and say that they've also helped volunteer as well so I'm very excited to see
- to see why you have started. Thank you. I think in terms of the conference for next year, your bourbon plug, you might get some attendees from this group. It's nice to know our district is in such capable hands. In honor of your presentation, a donation will be made this quarter to off-night productions.
- Mr. Rotarian, I think Sally Gaskell was the first one here in the room. And then Laurie, did anyone get it online? Was anyone first? No one raised their hands. Okay. No takers there. I'd like to thank the club members who volunteered to help with today's program. Marilyn Wood, Leslie Kutsenko, Laurie Garrity, Dave Meyer, Jim Bright, Michael Shermus, Katie Cerniak,
- Amy Osajima. And before we leave, could I ask, we've had several club members over the years serve as district governor. They've played different roles. Could I ask those of you who are able, if you've served the district, please stand. Thank you. Our next meeting will be August 19th. We're in the solarium down the hall.
- Our speaker will be Ellie Spear, whose talk is titled, Empowering Our Community to Make a Difference, One Apple Core at a Time. Thank you.