Today’s meeting was called to order by President Dawn and together we sang our patriotic song. The membership then proceeded to recite the 4-way test.

In her inspiration, Barbara Niess-May reminded us of how easy it is, when we are cheering on elite athletes or Olympians, to not think about all of the preparation, hard work and discipline it takes to get to that level of performance.  Similar thoughts apply to her non-profit organization, Meals on Wheels, where volunteers/staff must commit to the same discipline and resilience.  Small acts can change lives and what satisfaction is achieved when we work towards something bigger than ourselves.

Today’s music was provided by Matt Boylan as he strummed his guitar and led us in a John Denver classic ‘Take me Home, Country Road’.

President Dawn and the Club welcomed several visitors and family members today.  Two birthdays – Don Duquette and Nancy Margolis – and three anniversaries – Glenna Miller, Nancy Harrison and JoAnn Barrett – were announced and we offered thank yous to the helpers for today’s meeting.  We also held a moment of silence for long time member, Tom Conlin, who passed away on March 24.  We’ll have a tribute to him at a later meeting.

New members

Today, we were introduced to three new members:

• John Greden, a retired psychiatrist and founding Director of the National Group of Depression Centers, and who was instrumental in establishing UM’s Depression Center. 
• Derek Jankowski, who is returning to Ann Arbor to raise his young family and is active in several non-profit organizations. 
• Jon Strite, a long time Ann Arborite who is now retired from A2 Public Schools where he spent many years as a PE teacher and track & field coach at Huron HS.

Dennis Powers then introduced Owen Bierlein, a UM freshman, who told us about his experience with RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards).  In describing his experience, he discussed learning from established professionals about various leadership topics, while also managing to bond and have some fun with other campers.

Sliding for the gold

Liesel Baker, an aspiring Olympic athlete, is a ‘slider’ whose sport is the skeleton.  This winter, she competed in the North American Cup, had four podium finishes, and is currently ranked 41st in the world! Liesel was raised in Saline, MI and attended college in Vermont where she participated in women’s ice hockey.  She later became interested in sled/sliding sports after college. 

Liesel began with the definitions of the three sliding sports:  skeleton, bobsled and luge.  She originally tried out for bobsled but was too short for that sport so she switched to skeleton.  Skeleton involves pushing and driving, where you push the sled (fast!) and then hop on, face down and ‘drive’ down the track.  She played a video of what it looks like, to her, to go down the track thanks to a camera on her sled where she reached a speed of 79 mph! 

As an athlete, she sticks to a strict schedule that includes early mornings, workouts, work (she works at Kiwanis), playing with her dog, recovery and then to bed.  Because of the toll on her body, she can only do limited runs per day.  

Liesel also spoke to us about how this sport and athletes are funded, and how it’s a significant financial challenge for athletes.  This is a self-funded sport and many athletes and Olympic hopefuls go into debt to be in this sport.  Olympians win some money but not enough to recover from the debt incurred to buy equipment, travel and race.  Some athletes have sponsors and donors, but not all.  For Leisel, though, her employer, the Kiwanis Club, holds a fundraiser each year to raise money for her to continue to participate in this sport she loves.

Our meeting was then adjourned at 1:30pm.