Volume LXVIII, Number 003
PROGRAM this Wednesday, July 20th, will be brought to us by Jeff Todd and will feature our former member the Rev. Dr. Harold Lawrence. We know we will all be glad to welcome him back amongst us.
PROGRAM last week was brought to us by Charis Acree and featured Glenn Gantner to tell us about his experiences, and his wife's, in the Peace Corps recently. His wife is our former member April Garrett Gantner. They were originally going to someplace like Azerbaijan, we seem to recall, but ended up going to Fiji. Normally one does a two year stint for the Corps but April became ill and had to be medical-emergency airlifted home. Glenn is a Columbus native and another prime example of the quality graduates turned out by our LaGrange College. He and April are moving to Florida, as we understand it. He wore a traditional outfit from Fiji to give his speech in, which looked very similar to a typical shirt and a wrap around skirt. He gave us information about the Peace Corps itself, started under President Kennedy to help develop world peace and understanding as well as send out "missionaries for democracy." Those who serve do so without compensation, other than housing and food and medical care and sign up for two years. They were stationed on an island called Vanua Balavu which they had to get to via plane, but the only plane they could use to get to it was from a neighboring island that is owned by Mel Gibson, who let his pilot fly them to their final destination and who also lent them a boat to use while on the island. Glenn taught school and April worked at the hospital. Most of the time they lived in the hospital compound. One of their goals was to teach "family living" by example to a culture where women seem to be less than equals and domestic violence is not seen as abnormal. Something else they had to counter among the locals was that Americans were not all like the Kardashians, which is apparently a popular television show there (and if we misspelled their name, it's because we have never watched the show; the promos for it were sickening enough for us). The average age of a Peace Corps volunteer is 28 and only 5% are married, which made the Gantners special. Housing consists largely of thatched roofs over open walls on platforms. [we wanted to say "rooves" but our spellcheck, which decided to notify us for once, wouldn't let us] Another problem in Fiji is that their concept of nutrition is non-existent and they tend to trend more to processed foods with high sugar and salt content, even though they live on an island where one would think they would have a fish heavy diet. The fishing areas are fairly well under-fruitful and the expense of gasoline to run fishing boats out far enough is prohibitive for most. Their life expectancy is about 59 with obesity and diabetes running rampant. Glenn told us they learned a lot themselves while there, about living with another culture and seeing things with a different aspect.
Vice President/ President-elect David Fowler presided last week, saying it wasn't a coup, just that President Jake Jones had a vacation someone was making him go on.
Guests and Visitors last week (with thanks to Larry Brack for handing us the list) were: Jared Rickets, guest of George Stefenelli; Darius Jackson, guest of Ken Gordon; Kathy McCullum, a Macon Georgia Rotarian, guest of Dan McAlexander; Judson Holston, guest of Joe Ragland; Mekos Denson, guest of the club; and Jerry Martin, a Rotarian from Manassas, Virginia, who brought us a banner from his club. Jerry is also the father of Ginger Zachry, who many of us know. He told us they had a saying where he is from that "Kiwanians might rent the town, but Rotarians own it."
Happy Dollars [since it is the beginning of another Rotary year, let us remind our gentle readers was an invention of our former member, Maryalice Lenmark, who also made the clever globe we use as a receptacle] last week began with our own Jim Thornton, Honorable Mayor of the City of LaGrange, dropping in a "fiver" and announcing that the council had appointed a new City Manager the previous evening. He told us that the Citizens of LaGrange, in referendum, voted to create a Mayor/Council/City Manager form of government in 1949, from a strict Mayor and Council form. The first City Manager, 1950-1965, was Herb Crane; next was Bruce Lovvorn, 1965-1982, Jim Hanson 1982-1994, and Tom Hall 1994-2016. He noted that having had only four in 66 years helped bring stability to LaGrange. The new City Manager is Meg Kelsey, who makes history as our first woman City Manager, and who has been doing the job since Mr. Hall's death, and very admirably we might add. We congratulate our city on having the good sense to recognize her value to our town. Meg is, also, one of our Rotariannes, being the wife of our own Brant Kelsey. Next, Yvonne Lopez contributed to honor Lou Dekmar, her friend, the LaGrange Chief of Public Safety (Fire and Police) for the excellent work he does with his police department working to build trust and good relations within our entire community. She said where she came from it was a different story and she was distrustful of police but added "since moving to LaGrange, I have never hugged so many police in my life" and is thankful for the positive point of view he helps create here. [What a wonderful testimony coming at this most volatile time in our nation's history; it made us all proud to live here]. Jennifer Shook added $5 to talk about the Azalea Storytelling workshop presentations and to remind us of the upcoming Lafayette Theatre Company presentation of "Grease," happening July 21-24 and July 28-30 at LaGrange College's Price Theatre (named for our own former member, Lewis Price, father of our own Bill Price). Tickets may be had by calling 706 882-9909 or at www.lsparts.org. She also had cards on the table with their entire 2016-2017 season schedule and reminded us that we may get season tickets too! Bill Bowling contributed to salute the presence of his good friend from Virginia, Jerry Martin.
Scott Landa announced there will be a public meeting Tuesday (probably tomorrow as you read this) July 19 at Del'avant at 5:30 regarding the planned cross town walking/riding pathway greenspace named "The Thread."
The Veep, alias David Fowler, read us a letter of thanks from the young person we sponsored at RYLA this summer. He also praised our own Drew Gay for handling our first project of the year, serving as Marshals for the Sweet Land of Liberty Parade again this July 4th, and all of us who showed up to do it.