President Mark Foster rang the bell to open this meeting that welcomes four new members. Tom Strode tuned us up with The Star Spangled Banner. Kinnari Shah introduced us to The Guest House, a very thoughtful poem by the Indian poet Rumi.
In his poem Rumi teaches us to embrace, rather than fight, whatever shows up in our experience and recognize that you are a guest house, and that every thought, feeling and emotion is a temporary visitor that comes and goes. Ingrid Sheldon chose a river theme to complement our speaker – Moon River. President Mark introduced guests, thanked the people who make the meetings run smoothly, and announced birthdays.
Membership Chairman Barbara Eichmuller called sponsors to introduce our new members. Alexis Antracoli, the new director of the Bentley Historical Library, Michelle Julet, Director of the Entrepreneurship Center at Washtenaw Community College, Emily Olson, Development Director at Kerrytown Concert House, and Amber Siglin, Research Lab Specialist Associate at Michigan Medicine Microbiology and Immunology are all ready to jump in and contribute to our club and community. Seek them out to learn more about these wonderful women.
Mike Burwell from the Kids Coalition Against Hunger, who will be organizing our Send Hunger Packing activity on October 28, told us a bit about the history of Kids Coalition. His father started the Coalition in 1998, seeing hunger in his community and the world. It is a Michigan-based 501 c 3 humanitarian food relief organization whose mission is to significantly reduce the number of hungry children in the USA and feed starving children throughout the world. They started small and by now have provided more than 4 million meals of vitamin fortified crushed soy, dehydrated vegetable blend, chicken flavored vitamin powder and whole long stem rice. Kids’ Coalition provides the food and the supplies and community volunteers line up in assembly lines to package it. Our club will join other clubs and community volunteers to package a target of 5,000 meals on October 28 at Pioneer High School. Volunteers are still needed, so contact Rob Shiff if you have a couple of hours on a Saturday morning to help people and have fun.
President Mark announced that October 25 is world Polio Day. We will celebrate this promise to the children of the world – to eradicate polio – with a Sock It to Polio Wednesday on October 25. Find some funny socks and join the fun, and remember Polio Plus with a donation.
Notes from the Speaker
Marie Klopf, President, and Susan Pollay, Treasurer, of the Lower Town Riverfront Conservancy updated us on the plans and progress of Broadway Park West, being built on the 14 acre parcel between the Broadway Bridge and Argo Park. The seven acres for public use as a park is funded through contributions, grants; the project will have and earned revenue when finished from condos, parking and a hotel on the other seven acres. The site was heavily contaminated, and remediation is almost completed. Twenty million dollars have been raised for the park project, with one million set aside for ongoing maintenance. More is needed to complete the public portion of the project and the Conservancy is seeking partnerships with local organizations. The base park is projected to be complete in 2024. It will contain a 1200 foot riverfront trail, a 300-person pavilion suitable for year around use, an ice ribbon, a pedestrian bridge to the Argo Cascades, and event lawns. Trails through the park will be part of the Border-to-Border trail.
President Mark closed our meeting leading us in reciting the 4-Way Test.
