At 12:30, President Mark Ouimet called the meeting to order in the Anderson Room and on zoom (29 attendees). Tom Strode led us in “God Bless America”. Inspiration was provided by Sarah Strader who said “Tout ce qui est fait pour moi, Mais sans moi, Est contre moi” which translates to “Everything that is done for me, but without me, is against me”. In all our work to make the world a better place, we must ask ourselves: Am I working for people in need, or with them? Am I supporting today’s beneficiaries to become tomorrow’s leaders.
Shelly MacMillan led us in today’s musical selection “Let There Be Peace on Earth.” All guests stood to be acknowledged as there were many in attendance at the full Anderson Room. The following volunteers who assisted with today’s meeting were recognized: Meeting Coordinator – Dawn Johnson, Zoom Support: Sara Maddock & Leo Shedden, Set up: Shirlee Kipp, Mic runner: Don Deatrick, Greeter: Mary Avrakotos & Marcia Lane, Attendance: Nishta Bhatia & Pattie Katcher (Zoom), Reporter: Jennifer Fike and Photographer: Fred Beutler.
Past president Susan Froehlich introduced Dawn Johnson, recipient of the Distinguished Service Award. Here are Susan’s remarks: “Dawn Johnson, has been central to the success of our Club in the past few years. But first, let me tell you a little about the path that brought her to our Club. Dawn’s first college degree was in History and Art History, but her masters was in Healthcare Administration. The first part of her professional life was spent in this latter area of study. Receiving her masters in Boca Raton, FL she decided to stay in the state and worked at three different Retirement and Assisted Living institutions, the last two in the role of Executive Director. While still in Florida Dawn decided to return to her first love of the arts. Dawn had spent some of her growing up years outside of New York City and was a frequent visitor there. Her father and his wife are both artists. Many of the skills she had developed in healthcare, such as facility management, Human resources and financial management, were also valuable in arts management. From 2001 through 2012 Dawn took on several different positions with the Tampa Museum of Art, rising to the position of Deputy Director in her last two years with the organization. In June of 2012 Dawn made the decision to take the position of Associate Director for the U-M Kelsey Museum of Archaeology. Before living outside of NYC Dawn had lived in Toledo, so she was familiar with the Midwest. Dawn was also interested in moving to Michigan because her father and his wife had settled here and Dawn liked the idea of being closer to them. Sensing, I’m sure, the great professional capability of Dawn, two of our members, Lois and Len Stenger, met her on a Kelsey trip to the Detroit Institute of Arts and started the process of recruiting her to become a member of RCAA. As a part of that process they introduced Dawn to Norman Herbert and he helped to convince her to join the Club. Dawn was with the Kelsey until 2022 at which point she took her current position with the UM Museum of Natural History as the Associate Director for Operations and Revenue. In this position Dawn handles building infrastructure, Darwin’s Café, financial management with the Director, revenue generating programs and human resource management. In our Club Dawn has served on our Board of Directors as the Director of Club Service which oversees the Program Committee and the many moving parts of our weekly meetings such as attendance, music, inspirations, greeters and room set up. When we moved into hybrid meetings after COVID the details of our meetings became even more challenging. In addition to her prescribed duties as Director of Club Service Dawn also volunteered to organize and lead the first River Clean up in fall of 2021 and lead the winter 2022 search for a new Club administrator. Her experience in dealing with HR in her UM positions made her the perfect person to lead us in that endeavor. Prior to serving on the Board of Directors Dawn served as chair of our Program Committee and chair of the Membership Committee before that. Dawn would like you to know that she is thankful to be a part of such a supportive community that has such a positive impact on local, national and international initiatives. She feels it is “always a great day to be a Rotarian”. Dawn has played an important role in many aspects of our Club and it is a distinct pleasure to be able to award her with this Distinguished Service Award.”
Leo Shedden & Ed Johnson provided a wrap up of the successful Adopt-A-Highway event held on Earth Day, April 22. There were 19 RCAA members & 2 guests. The fall event will likely be held on September 30. If there are comments or suggestions for improvements adoptahighway@a2rotary.org
Next up, Ashish Sarkar discussed the Robert S. Northrup award. Due to technical glitches, we were unable to view the video of Robert S. Northrup, but Robert’s wife was in attendance in the Anderson and recognized.
Norma Sarkar then introduced this year’s recipient, Dr. Nelson Edwards.
The nominations for Dr. Edwards were provided by Mary Sloan, Rotary Club of Clarkston member and Lee Halsted a Highway M36 Rotary member. Dr. Edwards was recognized for serving in multiple Rotary International areas of focus, including Disease Prevention & Treatment, Maternal & Child Health, and indirectly, Basic Education & Literacy. As a practicing optometrist for over 30 years, Dr. Edwards continues to lead vision care missions throughout the world. His efforts include over 45 trips to often remote areas in Central & South America and Africa. Dr. Edwards’ involvement is from the ground up, including spreading the word of his missions with Rotary clubs; facilitating connections with the local Rotary Clubs in the territories being served; raising funds; obtaining & shipping medications, supplies, eye glasses & equipment; & gathering volunteers, both professionals & lay persons. He is active with the visiting teams for six, 9-hour days providing vision tests, eyeglasses & medications. The teams care for up to 2,700 patients during a visit, & provide up to 2,000 pairs of glasses.
Dr. Edwards works to ensure the sustainability of the missions with support of the local Rotarians to follow up with the patients for delivery of glasses, with educating the local nurses on the correct follow-up procedures, with providing hands on experience to local optometry students, and by mentoring other doctors to take over the clinics. One of his first missions is still going after 20 years! Improved vision allows the patients to read, learn, and productively work in their homes & communities.
Service to others is long in Dr. Edwards’ history. His service history includes: Lieutenant Colonel, Retired US Air Force; member & past president of VOSH International; Rotarian since November 1, 1991, past president of the Fowlerville Rotary Club; previous Boy Scout assistant leader; previous World Medical Relief board member. He is the recipient of the Ferris State College Optometry Alumni of the Year award for his work to bring vision care to those in need.
He shared slides of the international mission trips including the recent mission trips to Guatemala, Kenya & Egypt. The Kenya Eye Care Missions has been operating for 15 years and is connected with an optometry school in Kenya. This past year there was an optometrist from Somalia (who is one of only 4 optometrists in the entire country of Somalia) who was volunteering. The Wisconsin Lions Foundation provides the over 6,000 pairs of glasses that are refurbished to be donated. Screenings are conducted in the schools and many elderly people attend as well. Additional services provided are wheelchairs and other needed medical equipment. The projects lead to so many connections on these outreach missions. The mission is assisted by many Kenyan Rotary Clubs along with Kenya Rotaractors. This year they worked with Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST), College of Optometry in Kakamega Kenya. Over one week, 2000 patents received services. The volunteers had great accommodations, great food & two days of world class safaris in national parks.
During the Egypt Eye Care Mission, the group worked with a local ophthalmology clinic and saw about 4500 people over the course of 5 days. One of the best outcomes of the trip are the friendships that are made. Rotary Clubs of El Tharir, Alexandria Rakouda & Sohag all assisted and over 2000 patients were screened.
Next trip is scheduled from January 8-21 to Egypt. The best way to help is to go on a trip to volunteer your time.
In order for these missions to be a success, there is on-the-ground support to handle the logistics including lining up work sites, obtaining appropriate permits, and advertising properly to handle approximately 500-1000 people per day. They work with an agent to handle some of the volunteer logistics.
What inspired Dr. Edwards to do this work? Went on a trip to Haiti when he was a student. It’s important to engage students when they are in school as 80% of students who engage in a project during school will do a project after they graduate.
What is needed to participate? Vaccinations will depend on which country will be visited – talk to your local county health official about what vaccination is needed. The cost of the trip is Guatemala is about $1500 and Egypt is about $3900 + airfare. Kenya’s mission cost is about $4900. The group applies to Rotary International for grants to provide equipment & supplies.
Shelly MacMillan shared information about the upcoming “Wine, Women & Song” event scheduled for May 11 which is a special event for RCAA members and guests only. See Kathy Waugh or Shelly to obtain tickets. You can also contact Kerrytown Concert House directly to purchase tickets.
Next week’s speaker is U-M Athletic Director Warde Manual talking about leadership. Quote of the day was from Helen Keller who said “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision”.
Respectfully submitted by,
Jennifer Fike
