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:
Sustainability
Transparency
Accountability
Financial Buy In