Gerald Klonglan is our guest speaker this week. Gerald is a member of Rotary Club of Ames and will present an update on our Water Project, with information about potential future projects.
FEATURED EXCERPT FROM CHAPTER 11, "IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT THE MONEY"
In 2016-17, The Rotary Foundation turns 100. That's a century of helping Rotary members change lives and improve communities all over the world.
Throughout the year we're posting excerpts from "Doing Good in the World: The Inspiring Story of The Rotary Foundation's First 100 Years." You can purchase the book at shop.rotary.org.
To learn more about the Foundation's centennial and find tips and resources for celebrating, visit www.rotary.org/foundation100.
From Chapter 11, "It's Not Just About the Money":
In 1944, Paul Harris created a charitable trust, which stipulated that the income would accrue to him during his lifetime and to his wife, Jean, after he died. Upon her death, the balance of the trust would go to The Rotary Foundation. Jean died in 1964, and the Trustees accepted the bequest and honored Harris' request that the money be used to educate underprivileged children.
Others have designated that their gift be used to support a favorite Rotary Foundation program in the name of a loved one. Sir Angus Mitchell, the first Australian to become president of Rotary (1948-49), helped launch this tradition in 1949, when he established a scholarship for an Australian student in honor of his wife, to be known as the Teenie Robertson Mitchell Memorial Fellowship. Thus began a long tradition that continues to this day.
Bruno Ghigi wanted to honor his father, who had been a member of the Rotary Club of Rimini, Italy. Throughout his childhood, Bruno listened to his father regale the family with wonderful stories of Rotary's work. After leaving school, Bruno joined his father in the family business and he later branched out to form a software company that became one of the most successful in Italy. Bruno joined Rotary and became club president and a Rotary Foundation Major Donor. In 1988, on the 20th anniversary of his father's death, Ghigi donated $350,000 to The Rotary Foundation to establish an endowed fund to benefit refugees, the sick, and street children in Africa and Brazil.
Some recipients of the Foundation's benevolence have later felt inspired to pay back so others could enjoy that same experience. For example, Sadako Ogata, one of the first Rotary Foundation scholars, later donated $10,000 to the Foundation in appreciation for the scholarship it had bestowed on her as a university student. "Rotary set me on a course that I am still continuing. If I had not gone to the United States as an Ambassadorial Scholar," she said, "I don't think I would have pursued the study of international relations."
Richard Illgen, an Ambassadorial Scholar from Mainz, Germany, studied business and economics at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, USA. After graduating, he joined Kraft Foods, where he enjoyed a very successful career. Wanting to provide a similar scholarship opportunity for others, Illgen and his wife, Irene, made a gift — matched by Kraft Foods — that provided $23,000 for a scholar from his home district in Germany to study at Northwestern.
Des Moines area Rotary clubs have again partnered with the Iowa Energy Basketball team to help raise funds for the eradication of Polio world wide. Iowa Energy is offering discounted sideline seats (regularly $20) to Rotary for $16 dollars.
$8 dollars of each ticket sold will go directly to Polio Eradication. The Iowa Energy game is Saturday, January 28, 2017 at Wells Fargo Arena. Come and enjoy a fun night of basketball and ROTARY fellowship! Call Ron H. to purchase tickets..
PS: If you cannot go, purchase one or more tickets to allow disadvantaged area youth to attend.
I joined Rotary as an engineer. There are almost as many classifications in the profession of engineering as there are in Rotary, but I happen to be a mechanical engineer. A mechanical engineer calculates the heating and cooling loads for a new building, makes sure the right lights are in the right places, and plans the plumbing so your hot water pipe doesn’t end in a drinking fountain.
Mechanical engineers don’t stand out in a crowd, and they don’t call attention to themselves with what they do. You probably haven’t thought much about the engineers who designed the buildings you use, the car you drive, or the traffic patterns you follow. But every time you get in an elevator, turn the key in your ignition, or cross the street when the light says go, you are entrusting your life to an engineer somewhere whom you’ve never met. You trust that your elevator will open at the floor you want it to. You trust that your car will start and stop as it should. You trust that the traffic light is going to turn red before the walk light goes on. Every day, you put your life in the hands of people whose names you do not know and whom you might never meet. You might not think about them at all – but they touch your lives every day.
I could draw the same parallel to any number of other vocations – ordinary occupations with the same kind of life-changing impact. In so many ways – some of which we see and some we don’t – our vocations allow us to help other people live better, safer, and healthier lives.
Just like the work we do in Rotary.
Through our vocations and in our clubs, in our communities, and across continents, we are touching the lives of people we don’t know and might never meet. And in every part of the world, every single day, whether they know it or not, people are living better, safer, and healthier lives because of the work of Rotary.
The people we help might not have met a single Rotarian. They might not even know that Rotary exists. But they are drinking clean water from a bore well that Rotary dug. They’re learning to read with books that Rotary gave them. They’re living lives that are better, happier, and healthier – because of Rotary Serving Humanity.
State Public Defender Adam Gregg from our State's new Wrongful Conviction Division, has a 25 minute presentation titled “Under the Microscope: Identifying Wrongful Convictions in Iowa".
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