Roger Fraser inspired the meeting with the 1980 New Year’s message from Sydney J. Harris, a writer for the Chicago Daily and later, the Chicago Sun-Times. Mr. Harris’ message is titled “Resolutions I’ll try to keep if you’ll try to make.” It was a sobering piece calling us to be clear eyed and humble.

Don Duquette and John Ackenhusen tuned us up for Valentine’s Day with Let Me Call You Sweetheart and Funny Valentine.
President Greg opened the meeting with thanks to all who make the meeting run smoothly. Visiting Rotarians included Assistant District Governor Sparky Leonard. We had several guests.
The first Golf and Tennis Outing planning meeting will be next Tuesday, February 19 at 9:30am at Bank of Ann Arbor on Plymouth Road. Many hands are needed to pull off our only fund raiser, scheduled for September 9, and new ideas are very welcome. Contact Ashish Sarkar for more information: adsarkar@comcast.net.
Committee meetings for Program and Rotaract next Wednesday were announced. Program will meet at 11:00am; Rotaract will meet at 1:30pm.
The Rotarians at Glacier Hills will meet on Friday, February 15 at 9:45am. The presenter will be Sara Wedall, Collections Director for the Ann Arbor District Library. Cookies and coffee will be served when doors open and the program will begin at 10:00am. Let Shelley know if you are coming.shemac@glacierhills.org.
Abbey Edwards, Rotaract President, told us about their upcoming Spring Trip to El Porvenir, Honduras. This is the second time the group will go to El Porvenir so they are looking forward to continuing their work on the school and playground. They will be taking school supplies and some soccer balls, as well as other small gifts. We can contribute supplies that can be conveniently purchased at a dollar store. The list of requested items can be found here. Rotaractors will be collecting the meetings of February 20 and 27. The trip is the first week in March with reporting back at our March 20 meeting.
Paul Smith asked members to think about their international travel and interests and suggest projects appropriate for Global Grants. The deadline for District matching for Global Grants is May 15 so please send ideas to Paul by April 30: psmith6641@aol.com.
Marcia Lane conveyed the thanks of Meghan Gupta, a former Junior Rotarian now studying at Yale, for support of the Native American Powwow celebrated in New Haven.
Notes from the Program
Dennis Powers introduced our Speaker, Jim Cain, with the story of his sister-in-law Megan, who found an imaginative homegrown solution to a big problem. She and husband Richard had moved to the South Bronx in the late 1970s to do community organizing. They were living just blocks from the notorious 41st precinct. They saw apartment buildings abandoned by landlords, heat and power cut off for non-payment, and despair in eyes. Megan organized the tenants into squatter cooperatives which were able to escrow rents which were used to make needed repairs and upkeep, which shamed Con Ed into restoring service. The City regularized these self help tactics so that buildings seized for non-payment of taxes could be sold to tenants who came forward with a realistic proposal to stabilize the building as a growing concern.
The breakfast Program at St. Andrews was brought to financial stability by this same selection of an opportunity close to heart. Our Speaer, Jim Cain, took our program from there. Jim was a founding member of the Board of Directors for Breakfast at St. Andrews in 1982 and has been active with the organization ever since.
Jim’s talk was titled “Fighting Hunger with Music: How Volunteers and Local Business and Activists Joined Forces to Fight Hunger”. He recounted the heartbreaking statistics of the economy in the early 1980’s, noting that many of the same statistics on food insecurity are the same today. The Breakfast at St. Andrews started out to serve breakfast three times a week but it was the need for more breakfast was immediately apparent, and the volunteers responded. Jim described the Breakfast program: volunteers arriving at 6:00am to prepare a simple but nutritious breakfast with supplies available to make brown bag lunches for typically 150 people – every day for 36 years – not one day missed. Not all the people are homeless; many don’t earn enough to eat even two good meals a day.
The program was sustained by individual donations and a grant from the City until 2009. The need to plug the funding hole was stark. Jim convinced the board to leverage the reputation of Ann Arbor’s Ark as a sought-after venue for local and national music talent. Artists were asked to donate or discount performances, local businesses were asked to underwrite and publicize the first event in February 2009. March 16, 2019, will be the 10th Anniversary Concert, adding to the more than $100,000 that has been raised over the years. Coincidentally, $100,000 approximates the cost of the Breakfast Program for one year.
Jim remains active in the Breakfast Program but has turned attention to Acoustic Routes, a program hosted by Saline’s Stony Lake Brewing Company, presenting new local artists. The emphasis is on Michigan music and the roots and branches of traditional music. The Saline Fiddlers are a good example of the kinds of program Acoustic Roots seeks to develop and mature. All proceeds go to the artists at this time.
There were many Rotarians who knew of the beginnings of the Breakfast program and the history of The Ark. It was a very informative program made lively and memorable by Jim’s engaging speaking style.
President Greg closed the program reminding us that “Character is Destiny”.
