President Joyce called the meeting to order and our patriotic song today was America the Beautiful – sung by Matt Boylan with his acoustic guitar.
Collyer Smith provided our inspirational message today about maintaining civility in difficult conversations. Collyer shared six steps that he learned recently that could help us get through our next challenging conversation:
- Don’t judge.
- Don’t interrupt.
- Use reflective listening.
- Watch for verbal nonverbal cues.
- Find common ground.
- Don’t get mad, stay calm!
Today’s musical selection was provided by Matt Boylan, playing his acoustic guitar and singing ‘Here comes the sun!’ This classic tune was written by George Harrison (The Beatles) in 1969. What a beautiful and joyful song, sung beautifully by Matt!
President Joyce welcomed several guests today, including a prospective member to be welcomed in the April class. We acknowledged four members with birthdays in the next week and four members with anniversaries – all over 15 years.
Remember! Our Book Swap is next week, March 12th. Bring a book, browse and take a book that you’d like! Reuse & Recycle!
Thank you to all of today’s meeting helpers: Rob Shiff, John Juroe, Agnes Reading, Ella Dunajsky, Melissa Foster, Shelley MacMillan, Shirlee Kipp, Jim Egerdal and Pattie Katcher
Next, Rotarian Edith Too gave a short presentation on the Rotary Club of Nairobi’s Surgical Camp. Edith provided an overview of this five-day surgical camp held in Kenya to serve underprivileged communities. During the camp, over 500 eye and goiter surgeries were performed at three different locations. Our club provided $7,500 to help transport patients to the camp.
A Moment in Rotary History
For today’s moment in Rotary history, John White gave us a short history of polio in the U.S. The first documented outbreak occurred in Vermont in 1894, and in 1916, a major outbreak in NYC killed 2,000 people. The Iron Lung was invented in 1929 which served as a respirator for patients.
President Franklin Roosevelt contracted polio at age 39, the March of Dimes was created in 1937 and in 1952 the epidemic peaked with 58,000 cases and 3,000 deaths. On April 12, 1955, in the Rackham Auditorium at the University of Michigan, Thomas Francis of the U-M School of Public Health, announced that the Salk vaccine was safe, effective, and potent. With widespread vaccination, and advent of the Sabin vaccine, the US was polio-free by 1979, but remember, polio is just a plane ride away. Learn more at endpolio.org. Click here to see John’s slides.
Steve Kesler reminded us about Rotary Fights Summer Hunger and that collection bins are all around Ann Arbor schools and Gretchen’s House. If anyone has information about additional locations where we can place future bins, please let this group know. He is also putting out the call for donations – please check our website for more information. Todd Kephart & family will match donations up to $15,000.
Shelley MacMillan: Wine, Women and Song – reminder to buy your tickets! The event is coming up on Wed, April 9 at Kerrytown Concert House.
Reentry through relationship
Our speaker today was Adam Grant, the Executive Director of A Brighter Way. A Brighter Way was founded in 2016 with the focus on working with formerly incarcerated individuals. The nonprofit provides social support and service connections. Their motto: Reentry through relationship.
Grant informed us that since A Brighter Way was founded there has been a significant improvement in recidivism rates in our county. The organization has grown over the years, and they now help more than 150 people per year, both men and women. They provide what they call navigation (similar to mentoring), services and advocacy (help with various resources available in the community), locating subsidized housing, health care, transportation and long-term transitional housing. They hope to soon have paid internship programs to offer their clients.
Good reentry is good public safety – and these concepts are not in opposition. Grant then provided a bit of information on his background: between 1982 – 2020, he was either on probation, parole or incarcerated. He was incarcerated for 27 years for bank robbery. His story is characteristic of many and is a great example of a successful ‘reentry’. In describing that reentry, he says that we can’t expect people to feel safe and belonging if their most basic of needs, like food and shelter are not met. We may want to refer someone to various community services, but if their most basic of needs, such as going hungry, is not addressed, they can’t begin to fathom the other services offered.
Grant then turned to our Rotary 4-way test to demonstrate how similar they are to the initiatives of A Brighter Way. #4 is especially important to Adam – is it fair to all concerned. Throughout his journey, Adam has come to realize what his purpose was, which is to be a beneficial presence!
Our meeting ended with the membership reciting the 4-way test.
