Rotary Club NEWSLETTER
October 14, 2026
104 Years of Service Above Self
Welcome to the Rotary Club of Petoskey. President Sharon Schappacher officiated this week’s meeting.
If you did not get the chance to attend, you can read about it in this newsletter.
Patriotic Song: Howard Richards led us in God Bless America
4-Way Test: Steve Brown
Invocation: Neil Bidwell
“Kind words can be short and easy to speak, but their echoes are truly endless.” — Mother Teresa
Calendar Winners Read Off By: Andrea Koch
Calendar Winners October 14, 2026
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Prize | Cal# | Calendar Winner | City | Sold By |
$50 | 2386 | Maud Still | Petoskey | Petoskey |
$50 | 2733 | Payton Beauchamp | Harbor Springs | P. Sunrise |
$50 | 2533 | Marty Hill | Rochester, NY | Petoskey |
Visiting Rotarians: None
Guests: None
Life Events: Jean Frentz gave an update on Chris Hammond. She is receiving hospice services now at her home. She’s in less pain and sleeps a lot. Their son is here and hopes to stay a couple of weeks. Please remember them in your thoughts and prayers.
Birthdays:
Megan DeWindt
Jeff Leslie
Rich Perlberg
Elaine Keiser
Anniversaries:
John Emley – 12 Years
Lyle Peck – 38 Years
Singing/Song: Howard Richards led us in Happy Birthday and Smile
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Rotary Club of Petoskey Centennial Grant — Now Accepting Applications. The Rotary Club of Petoskey has launched its Centennial Grant Program, making up to $277,000 available for a bricks-and-mortar community project in Emmet County. Eligible organizations — including nonprofits, municipalities, educational institutions, and public agencies — are invited to apply. Projects must be shovel-ready and capable of completion within 12–24 months of award. This is a capital investment grant; events, programs, and operational funding are not eligible. Applications are open now through November 1, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET via the Petoskey-Harbor Springs Area Community Foundation's SmartSimple grant portal. An optional Zoom information session will be held September 24 at 1 p.m. ET. Visit petoskeyrotary.org to learn more and apply.
Get ready! The Rotary Great Grocery Giveaway Raffle officially kicks off August 26.
Tickets are $25 each, and every Rotarian is asked to sell at least 10 tickets.
1st Prize: $100 a week for a year — $5,200
2nd Prize: $50 a week for a year — $2,600
3rd Prize: $25 a week for a year — $1,300
Tickets and everything you need to start selling will be available at our regular meeting on August 26. Get ready to sell!
Members are encouraged to keep selling raffle tickets. Anyone who sells tickets will be entered into a drawing for a special prize as an extra incentive!
Karen reminded everyone that we have the potential of making $75,000 from the raffle sales if we sell all 3000 tickets. We’ll get about half of that if everyone sells only their required amount. If everyone would just try to sell a couple more tickets, it would make a big difference.
Grocery Raffle update: Rotarians now have a fabulous opportunity to sell our grocery raffle tickets outside of D&W grocery store! A signup sheet is forthcoming. Remember, if we sell all 3,000 raffle tickets, we will raise $75,000 for Club activities. Congratulations to our Seller of the Week, Steve Brown, who has sold 68 raffle tickets so far!
Oct. 14 Club Mixer with District Governor: Save the date! On October 14 from 6:00 - 8:00 PM, all Rotarians from Petoskey, Inland Lakes, and Cheboygan clubs are invited to join our District Governor for a mixer. It will be at Bob's Place Restaurant in Alanson.
Good news! We’ve been approved to set up a Rotary booth at the Downtown Petoskey Holiday Open House on Friday, December 4, from 6:00–9:00 p.m. It is FREE. We’ll have a tent in Pennsylvania Park near the chamber and stage where we can sell grocery raffle tickets and can hand out cookies, cocoa, or another holiday treat. This is just a heads-up for now. I’ll announce it to the full club and put together a volunteer sign-up as we get closer. We’ll need people to staff the booth and some bakers willing to donate cookies. The timing should be great since it’s just a few weeks before the ticket sales deadline and drawing, so hopefully we can move a lot of those last tickets! Just wanted to get it on everyone’s radar and calendars.
October 28 Meeting: Don't forget to wear your Halloween costume to our October 28th Rotary lunch!
Member–Hosted Community Events
Member Induction: None
Paul Harris Fellow: Dibby Smith presented Becky Phillip-Kranig with her first Paul Harris Fellow and challenged all of us to follow in Becky’s footsteps. Congratulations, Becky.
Member Spotlight: None
PROGRAM: Shane Horn, Village of Petoskey
Our speaker today was Shane Horn, the City Manager for Petoskey. Shane oversees 77 fulltime employees and another 52 part-time summer employees. The city has almost a $40 million budget, with the general fund budget at 12 m. There are 24 parks, 33 miles of street, and 144 slips at the marina. In 2025 there were 2025 calls for public safety services.
Shane reminded us that the voters elect a mayor and city council members and they hire a city manager (Shane). The council sets policy and he and his department heads are the implementers.
There are 7 priorities:
- Parks and public spaces
- Infrastructure
- Economic Development
- Downtown Development
- Sustainability
- Affordable Housing
- Community Engagement
The most expensive capital improvement projects include the full reconstruction of the Bay & Rose street areas ($4m), Advanced metering infrastructure ($3m), and getting a wheel way fix ($1m). Kendall’s department has lots of projects underway and he proudly talked about the public art projects.
There’s a lot going on, on behalf of Petoskey citizens.
Next Week’s Program: Doug Craven-Elk Expansion in Michigan