Rotary File for October 13, 2015

 

Mike O'Leary-- Guest of Jim Peterson

Lara Celeghin-- Rotary Youth Exchange

Roxie Mitchell-- Guest of Deb Galbraith

Pat Barrens-- West Chester PA Rotary

 

 

Myrene Hoover dedicated her President's Minute to a history of Oktoberfest which began October 12, 1810 as a celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig and now attracts millions of people each year to Munich and other locations in Germany.

 

Deb Ockenfels announced that the coats for Project Warm would be delivered tomorrow.  A sign-up went around for those willing to help with the unloading or distribution process.

 

Deb Dunkhase will bring a sign-up next week for those interested in helping with gift wrapping at Coral Ridge Mall on December 24 between 1 and 6 pm.  We should raise several hundred dollars from this project.

 

Nut sales for RYLA student support is in process and Brian Adamec will turn in orders next week.  We should have enough profit to support 4 students.

 

Peggy Doerge has tickets for the Noon Club's raffle.  Get them before the end of the month.

 

A signup was circulated for those interested in going to a Community Theater presentation.

 

The next IC AM Board meeting is Oct. 22 at 6:45 a.m. at the Hy-Vee Waterfront community room.  A separate meeting with DG Loring Miller will take place the evening of the 26th before his visit to the Club on the 27th.

 

 

Rick Dobyns was endorsed by the Gazette for his second term on City Council.  Dave Parsons had an article published in the PC about the Alumni Band.

 

 

Too numerous to detail, but there were some highlights.  Happy birthday to Vernette Knapp and happy anniversary to Chris and Vernette! We're glad that Lara Celeghin is so active in school events in Mt Vernon, including the concert choir which will perform at Cornell this Sunday, her upcoming audition for All State Orchestra, and her participation in the school play "Things My Mother Taught Me" to be presented early in November.  The Schultz's enjoyed taking Lara to see the Arch in St Louis.  There were many happy bucks devoted to sports teams including the 6/0 Hawks. Go Hawks! We were pleased to hear from Deb Ockenfels that John's mother appears cancer-free and that next week Deb will be done with another coat drive.

 

 

The Schultz family had quite a "crazy" adventure this summer biking and driving their RV across America from San Francisco to Virginia Beach in 10 weeks. 

 

John explained that in high school he had been into sports more than music and was even a competitive bike racer.  He had planned to do a bike trip across the US in 2008, but instead took the GSE trip to Taiwan and thus got involved in Rotary.  This summer was the first year since 2008 when he and the family were in a place where they could take the time for this trip.  Rebecca was in charge of the RV and the kids while John clocked thousands of miles on board a bike over deserts, mountains, forests and highways narrow and wide.

 

There were many highlights and a number of challenges.  Highlights included the Sierra Nevadas and the American River Bike Trail; the weird Salt Flats of Nevada; the wonderful national parks in Utah; meeting and riding with other bikers (including one riding for Rotary); several beautiful spots in Colorado; the countryside and the kind people in Missouri; seeing friends and relatives along the way including Rebecca's grandmother in North Carolina.  They will not miss Kentucky, where John had a minor accident with a careless driver, met a number of mean dogs and had a trailer hitch stolen. 

 

John has probably ridden up enough mountains to last a lifetime.  Rebecca has probably driven into enough narrow campgrounds to last a lifetime.  They were able to convince Graham that the trailer was home for the duration of the trip, but Charlotte knew better and missed home quite a bit.  In fact, they were all glad to get home (and we are all glad they are back!)