With balmy spring sunshine streaming through the stained glass windows of the Anderson Room of the Michigan Union, President Mark Foster rang the bell to start today’s meeting. Pianist extraordinaire Tom Strode played America the Beautiful while we sang along.  John Barrie gave a heartfelt inspirational welcome reflecting on friendship, gratitude, the pride of service above self, how actions matter most, and of the ripple effect of those good works.

Marlena Studer, accompanied by her husband Steve Ragsdale on the guitar, led us in singing I Love the Mountains. We dazzled as a club by singing this as a round. Boom De Ah Da! This song will also be sung at the April 13 fundraiser for the Rotary Youth Exchange Program to which Marlena invited us all.

President Mark thanked today’s meeting team: Linda Kentes, Dan Romanchik, Brian Schrag, Dennis Burke, Kathy Waugh, Jim Egerdal, Sara Maddock, Ben Bolen, Sam Kottamasu, Mary Steffek Blaske, and Ugur Cetin. He continued by welcoming visiting Rotarian Michael Danielson (who reported that his mother, Millie, at 101 is doing well and welcomes visitors). Other welcome guests include Janice Zinn, Gerlinda Melchiori, Karen Strode, and Steve Ragsdale.  Anna Byberg introduced speaker Etta Heisler and Apple Playschool development / communications director Brittnai Murillo.

President Mark eclipsed all previous humorous moments with a special photo montage showing the totality of The University of Michigan blocking the sun from the school from the school to the south.

Leo Shedden, on behalf of the entire club, presented Don Deatrick with the Club’s prestigious Distinguished Service Award. Deatrick’s service above self is part of his fabric – from his earliest days in Waukesha, Wisconsin, to his current work on behalf of Michigan Vets. From being an engineer at Bell and handling switching stations for California aqueducts to designing super tall relay towers to be disguised as towering pines, Don has been key to getting projects done right. Deatrick joined our club in 2013 and has been a Director of Club Service, has championed the highway cleanup, touch a truck and GTO. Most recently, Deatrick has led the critically important Hire MI Vet program. The entire club rose to give Don a well-deserved standing ovation.

Today, Bill McPherson recognized Dallas Dort as an Emeritus Member. Dort has been a Rotarian for 60 years. An important leader in the Ann Arbor community, Dort has served on the boards of UMS and Kerrytown Concert House. He is an active member of 1st Presbyterian Church as a deacon and on their Sessions Committee.   Our club is better for having you as a member and we are proud to know you, Dallas.

Don Duquette and Paul Webb gave our weekly Environmental Action Group quiz, today focusing on trees. We all learned important facts about the glorious trees in our Tree Town USA including that you can honor a loved one by a $200 donation in their name to the City’s Adopt-a-Park program.

Bev Seiford, channeling her inner Susan Smith Gray with a magnificent purple portrait hat (soon to be seen at a Kentucky Derby party?) polled the members to see who liked wine? Women? S

ong? Come to hear “Tell me something good,” at Wine, Women and Song at Kerrytown Concert House, April 25-28. Wednesday, April 24 is a dress rehearsal with special invitation to attend for all

Rotarians and their guests. Visit bit.ly/wws-rotary-2024 for Wednesday tickets, contact Shelley MacMillan at shelleymacmillan@mac.com,

or Emily Olson at emily@kerrytownconcerthouse.com .

Anna Byberg introduced speaker Etta Heisler, Executive Director of Apple Playschools. Heisler began work in 2019 at Apple Playschools after receiving her degrees in education policy, and working at Ann Arbor’s Hand-on Museum and Leslie Science Center. Her talk, “The Child Care Crisis and What We can Do About It,” struck each listener with the critical need for attention to the challenges facing not only providing child care, but its repercussions on the entire community.

“Born running child care,” in a home-school environment, Heisler sees beyond the walls of the classroom to how child care fits into the larger economy and to human need.

She quizzed the audience for our awareness about child care needs. The sobering answers are:
1.) The current ratio of child-care spots available to the number of children in our community who need them is (for under 5-year-olds) 1:8. There are not enough teachers, nor in the pipeline, to get us to 1:3 goal.
2.) The current cost of 40 hours/week x 4 weeks of child-care cost is $14,000 – $30,612. For infants that cost is $21,400/month. Apple Playschools provides scholarships for families so that they can both work and provide day care for their youngster.
3.) The average wage for an early childhood educator in Washtenaw is $12.23/hour. With fast-food chains paying more money, many adults must choose a higher-paying wage.
4.) The economic impact of inadequate childcare infrastructure on the State of Michigan’s economy is $2.88 BILLION. Heisler noted that for every $1 spent on childcare benefits, it returns $5.

Heisler noted that the State and Federal funding that supported child care during Covid has ended. We can help child-care providers like Apple Playschools by writing to our legislators asking for covid-level subsidies to be reinstated.

Heisler spoke with an energy that made each audience member feel assured that the youngsters under her watch are going to thrive. Her drive to look widely for solutions — including making underused and unused buildings be repurposed for childcare, and for providing more administrators who can release the bottleneck of reviewing proposals to build child care facilities  — motivated the Rotary audience.

The Club thanked her with a warm round of applause. (If you’d like to review the slides Etta used in her presentation, click here.)

President Mark concluded the meeting by inviting the Club to stand and recite the Four-Way Test together: Of the things we think, say or do,
1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Steffek Blaske
Reporter