After a fascinating three-minute talk, retired University of Providence professor David Thomas traded in his red badge for a blue one.
Dave and his wife Cynthia, who is not only a professor but also a lay associate minister, have three kids and three grandkids. He just completed 51 years of teaching, which has also involved trips as a Fulbright scholar to far-off lands like Botswana and South Africa. He particularly enjoyed his time in South Africa. The landscape, he told us, is breath-taking, and the people are wonderful, especially the children. He marveled that these children, who live in extremely harsh conditions, come to school every morning so clean and shiny and eager to learn.
Now that his academic duties have concluded, Dave thought this was a good time to become involved in service through Rotary. With one caveat, he told us: Cynthia was driving their second family vehicle has week when it burst into flame. They only have one vehicle now, and Cynthia needed it Tuesday. She dropped him off at Rotary, but could somebody please give him a ride home? President Yturri assured him we'd take care of it.
Welcome to Rotary Club of Great Falls, David!
Coming Up This Week
The Carnegie libraries in Montana are not only beautiful, but historic. Kate Hampton is going to tell us all about them at noon next week. Join us at the country club!
We'll have our second Eliminate Polio Shredding Event on Tuesday, Oct. 22, during our noon meeting. Bring your paper to be shredded and help shred polio as well! As with the summer event, the charge is $10/box for the first two boxes and $25 for boxes 3-5.
Last Week at Rotary
Last week Gina Loss, local organizer for Project Linus, told us about the heart-warming (and child-warming) work her organization has taken on.
A Denver woman named Karen Louks started Project Linus after a conversation she had with a child who had just completed his chemo treatment. "How do you manage to get through this?" she asked him.
"My blanket," he replied, cuddling the careworn blanket in his lap. That inspired her to organize an effort to make "security blankets" to give to children undergoing traumatic experiences. Since 1995, some 300 chapters of Project Linus have donated 7.5 million blankets to children, including children in Haiti after the hurricane, children in Japan after a tsunami, and children in the United States after school shootings.
Under Gina's leadership, the central Montana chapter of Project Linus has made and donated 14,500 blankets since 2006. It's tremendously fulfilling, Gina told us and Virginia Stacey, who is part of the chapter, agreed. Gina said a 12-year-old best expressed the impact of Project Linus: "It's just nice to go to sleep with something that reminds you that somebody cares."
I'm not crying; you're crying.
Updates
A heartfelt thank-you to Keith Tokerud for taking on the chairmanship of our Rotary International Committee!
Don't forget to bring your boxes of shred-ables to our noon meeting next week to raise more money for polio eradication.
Lots to update you on with Harvest Howl. It's just two weeks away, with the usual tons of work to do and unprecedented new challenges, but we shall prevail! Stay tuned.
Milestones
The past year, especially with the addition of the evening meeting option, have been great years in terms of the growth of membership in Rotary Club of Great Falls. In October alone of last year, we welcomed these new members: Saniel Clary - Jennifer Creed - Trish Foss - Samuel Hames - Eric Hinebauch - Zach Swarts - Thomas Trunkle.
What great additions! Happy first Rotarian birthday from all of us to all seven of you!
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