Petoskey Rotary Noon Club NEWSLETTER

March 10, 2021

1921 – 2021         100 Years of Service Above Self

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Petoskey via Zoom on the world wide web. Ashley Whitney, President officiated the meeting. If you did not get the chance to attend, you can watch it from this:  Recording

Pledge/Anthem:  Howard Richards Played “America the Beautiful”

4-Way Test:  Karen Ragland

Invocation:  Jean Frentz

Reading from The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates

If a plane crashes, three hundred people die, and it’s tragic for the families, and

there’s an article in every newspaper. But on the same day thirty thousand children

die, and that’s tragic for the families, and there’s no article in any newspaper. We

didn’t know about these children’s deaths because they were happening in poor

countries, and what’s happening in poor countries doesn’t get much attention in rich

countries. Millions of children were dying because they were poor, and we weren’t

hearing about it because they were poor.

We realized that vaccines developed in the United States would take fifteen to

twenty years to reach poor children in the developing world, and diseases that were

killing kids in the developing world were not on the agenda of vaccine research back

here.

The problems of poverty and disease are always connected to each other. There are

no isolated problems.

Calendar Winners:  Read off by Bob Metzger

Calendar Winners March 10, 2021

    
    
Prize
Cal#
Calendar Winner
City
Sold By
$50
265  
Susan Wirgau
Petoskey
Petoskey
$50
516  
Parry Ragland
Petoskey
Petoskey
$50
1615  
Sandra Sauture
Charlevoix
Petoskey
$50
1055  
John Logan
Harbor Springs
Petoskey
$50
215  
Alanna Honkanen
Waterford
Petoskey

Visiting Rotarians:  Too many to list but many throughout our District including Sault St. Marie, Canada

Guests:  Eric Leister; John Smarge, Naples, Florida, Speaker

Life Events:

Rotary Care List:

Birthdays: 

Chris Etienne

Jeff Bodette

Anniversaries: 

Nikki Devitt – 1 Year

Tim Dykstra – 19 Years

Chris Etienne – 30 Years

Singing/Song:  Howard Richards led us in singing Happy Birthday & Smile.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Save the Date:  Ashley Whitney shared that April 24th is Earth Day:  Great Lakes Watershed will be doing a Clean Up, Our Club will Clean the beach at Petoskey State Park, Other clubs such as Charlevoix may join us in the endeavor.

100 Acts of Service:  This year our club aspires to complete 100 Acts of Service for our 100 years. If you did something to serve others in the last week, please be sure to record it in our online survey -- click here. Thank you!

Centennial Service Project Fundraising Committee:  We need to form a committee similar to our usual Diamonds & Denim committee, except this one will be devoted to fundraising for our centennial service project (the Winter Sports Park upgrades). While it may involve grant writing, event planning and direct solicitations, it will not involve collecting any silent or live auction items!! We have had several volunteers but could use a few more. Please contact Ashley Whitney if interested.

4th of July Festivities:  Sunrise Rotary has taken over Petoskey's annual 4th of July festivities. They are asking other service clubs to become involved -- cash contributions, or join the program committee to plan the parade, etc. Sunrise Rotarians Andy Hayes, Carlin Smith and Brian Wagner are leading this effort. Please contact Karen Ragland or Ashley Whitney if you are interested in helping with this on behalf of Noon Rotary.

Ashley Whitney - Harbor-Brenn has donated $1,500.

Reg Smith - Stafford's has donated $1,000.

The Board has had a discussion about doing a cash match with more info to follow.

Spaghetti Dinner:  Save the Date! On April 22, 2021 we will hold our annual spaghetti dinner at the Grand Unity Events Center (1106 Charlevoix Ave., Petoskey). We will be offering carryout service only, from 3:00 - 7:00 PM. To celebrate our 100-year anniversary, this year's spaghetti dinner will be FREE for the community. There will be no ticket sales. Members will be billed $100 this year (instead of $90). We recognize that not selling tickets means members may not have the chance to recoup their individual $100 expense. If this creates a hardship for you, please don't hesitate to say so -- contact Christian Smith directly.

Petoskey Rotary Club Charities Inc. (PRCCI):  Every year PRCCI makes grants (usually in the $1,000 - $4,000 range) to a variety of local nonprofits. The PRCCI grant application is now available on our club's website. The deadline to apply is March 15. Please contact Dianne Litzenburger if you have any questions -- and be sure to let local nonprofits know about this opportunity! 

District PETS:  John Catlin reported on the upcoming PETS virtual conference to start on March 11th with several breakout sessions.

COVID Anniversary:  Nikki Devitt shared that all Michiganders are asked and encouraged to turn on outdoor lights tonight, March 10th from 8-9 pm in remembrance of the first case of Covid.

PROGRAM John Smarge – Haiti Project – Jane Millar

John Smarge from Rotary of Naples FL

He served as President from 1992-93

District Governor 6960 during 1995-96

International - 2010-2012

Founding member of Hanwash

Haiti National clean water Sanitation and Hygiene Strategy

This program is a 2.3-billion-dollar program. The intent is to provide clean portable water to every citizen in Haiti. Currently only 30% of the people have access to clean water and 24% have toilets. He reports that 50% of the country’s deaths are related to polluted water. He also shared that half of the water and sanitation infrastructure does not work.

In 2018 Hanwash was established

Umbrella that brings together 4 entities

     1. NGO - Nongovernmental organizations

     2. Donor agencies

     3. Dinepa - Direction Nationale de l'Eau Potable et de l'Assoinissement

     4. Rotary

It is successful because they follow a business model.

     F - functional

     R - Responsibly Managed

     A - Sanitation Covered

     P - Potable

     I - Inspected

They collect data using a system to identify what is functional (green), broken (yellow) and not potable (red). By April the entire country will be mapped using this system to determine the water sources. Each commune needs to “buy in.” It is hard to change the culture.

The core values include:

  1. Sustainability

  2. Transparency

  3. Accountability

  4. Financial Buy In

He made an excellent point that we do not do projects, we do programs. When this project is complete, every man, woman and child will have access to usable water.

Ways to get involved:

     1. Support a Global Grant

     2. Contribute to Hanwash Inc, a 501c3 non profit

     3. Be an advocate for Hanwash

We can also become a Champion District. There are currently 3 communes left.

Next Week’s Program:  Jake Manthei – Aster Brands

Parting Shots:  Howard Richards closed with 1997 Squirrel Nut Zippers “La Grippe”

There's a flu bug getting passed around
Spreading like fire through this town
There's a virus holing up inside us
Each one that I know is coming down
There's an Asian influenza
Infecting us all by the scores
And it's turning into pneumonia
We must go out once more
There's a fool moon howling at the night
And each bark is much worse than each bite
So we must go out and dance around

Yes we must go tonight
So the doctors came on the evening train
With their flasks and their caskets and vials
Mass psychosis was their diagnosis (yes)
So we all cashed our checks and went wild
There's a fool moon howling at the night
And each bark is much worse than each bite
So we must go out and dance around
Yes we must go tonight
La Grippe!, Salsa!