Nine hardy Rotarians and guests braved the blizzard to meet at The Session Room on Jackson Road, Ann Arbor, on the afternoon of December 13, 2017. As shown in the picture, attending were (from left) Joan Knoertzer, Karen Driggs, Fernando Ortiz (guest at noon meeting of Dallas Dort), Ruthie Ackenhusen, Steve Pierce, John Ackenhusen, Annie […]

by Peter Brown Ken Wilson kind of fell into his business by doing something he enjoyed and was good at. Ken was working at a cell-phone company in his hometown of Youngstown when he started doing drawings for employees’ birthday cards. Then his boss asked him to put together a map of the company’s coverage […]

By Ashish Sarkar Recently, you heard Endowment Chair, Norm Herbert, tell us how your generous donations to our club’s endowment help us make a difference in lives of people here locally and around the world. Now, I’d like to explain how our club takes some of those funds and leverages them with the help of […]

After our peace conference in February 2017, Bev Sieford challenged us: What Will YOU Do for Peace? Taking up that challenge, the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor joined the Rotary Club of West Bloomfield, to honor Holocaust Survivor Martin Lowenberg, with our Distinguished Service Award. Martin has traveled all over the state of Michigan, the […]

Tom Strode opened the proceedings with a lovely piano prelude, followed by the “The Star-Spangled Banner.” A packed Anderson Room rose swiftly to belt out a particularly fine rendition of our national anthem. Inspiration Ruthie Ackenhusen came to the podium and delivered an emotional recital of the poem, “Just a Common Soldier,” A. Lawrence Vaincourt’s […]

Past President Collyer Smith writes: 2016-2017 was another banner year for the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor in serving our community- whether our community is here in Ann Arbor, or elsewhere, like El Salvador, or Sierre Leonne. We allocated over $245,000 for scholarships, community grants, international projects and celebrated our 100th anniversary with the opening […]

Rotary International’s slogan is Service Above Self. Kiwanis’ motto is Serving the Children of the World. The Lions Club’s motto is even simpler– We Serve. This exhibit revolves around the Ann Arbor Rotary Club’s celebration of 100 years of their history, dedicated volunteers and great work. The spotlight also shines on the Kiwanis Club of […]

The recently-published Ann Arbor Rotary Foundation brochure not only makes the case for giving to our foundation, but also details how to give. The brochure notes that our foundation has supported: A $1,000,000 universal access playground for children and their caregivers, located in Gallup Park, serving the greater Ann Arbor community $61,000 in community grants […]

Interact Day 2017 was held on November 11, 2017 at Rochester High School. This year Pioneer High School Interact Club was represented at the event by Ethan Mielock, Lena Lee, Lukas Johnson, and Amelia Costanzo. Rotary liaison Ed Wier also attended with the students. Unfortunately, Huron High Interacters were unable to attend this year. One […]

UPDATE 1/1/18: With donations from Rotarians and non-members we ended 2017 still short of the goal of raising $5000 from our club. Accordingly, Ian has generously extended the challenge grant end point. There is still time for you to support this project by sending your check to Ann Arbor Rotary Foundation with Ghana Orphanage on […]