On a clear, cold, Wednesday, January 22^nd, President Rosemarie rang the bell calling the Rotary meeting to order. After a stirring rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner,” Christina Ferris gave an inspiration evoking the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, his accomplishments and his legacy. Joanne Pierson, backed by the strong tenor voice of Steve Pierce and accompanied by Tom Strode, led the Club in a song, “Back to the Union” with lyrics by Joanne to the tune of “Under the Boardwalk.”

President Rosemarie gave a memorial tribute to our late, esteemed member and past president, Bob Kerry. The Club stood and joined in a moment of silence and contemplation in Bob’s memory.

The following are announcements that were made of upcoming events:

• Bob Kerry’s memorial service will be on Saturday, March 7, at 1:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church.
• Shelley MacMillan gave a reminder of the annual “Wine, Women and Song” rehearsal/reception event which was on Thursday night January 23^rd.
• There will be a Rotary Happy Hour at The Session Room on January 29^thfrom 5-7p.m. to celebrate the Club’s last meeting at Weber’s.
• Norma Sarkar announced the last day to nominate new members for the spring class is February 11^th.
• Our longtime member, Jim Miller, was honored with a fine tribute by Collier Smith and was made an Emeritus member of the Club. (This is a link to a video of the presentation on Facebook.)
  
• Dan Lewan, current chair of International Humanitarian Projects Committee, gave a presentation about one of our Club’s global grants (matched by the District) that paid for shipment of arm-powered mobility carts to Gabon. Dan’s presentation included a short video. These simple carts give independence to those who are unable to walk.

The program speaker for the meeting was Joe O’Neal who was introduced by Norman Herbert. Joe O’Neal, founder of O’Neal Construction Co., spoke about the Treeline project (<TreelineA2.org>). Treeline is envisioned to be a citywide, non-motorized greenway trail, extending from Argo Dam and Border-to-Border Trail to downtown Ann Arbor and beyond (not to infinity, but close). Joe O’Neal emphasized how the greenway would benefit the community health wise, esthetically and economically. Also involved in the presentation was Heather Seyfarth.

President’s Rosemarie’s closing thought: “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” Ann Frank

(Notes by Greg Stejskal, photos by Fred Beutler)