Last week Brad Livingston, newly named President of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce, told us a little bit about himself and his vision for the Chamber and the community. Brad was born and raised in Great Falls and remembers fondly those childhood days when you rode off on your bike mid-morning and didn't get home till dinnertime ... and nobody worried. After high school he joined the Montana Air National Guard and fell in love with the mission and the work. He rose through the ranks, ultimately agreeing to leave Great Falls to serve as the top executive to the Adjutant General in Helena.
Upon retirement, Brad returned to his hometown and dipped his toe into public service in the last mayoral contest. Although he did not succeed in that effort, he saw Great Falls with new eyes in the process. So when the Chamber presidency opened up and someone suggested he apply, he did so.
Brad sees Great Falls as a vibrant community full of great business stories and opportunities to connect and grow. We hope he'll join the tradition of previous Chamber presidents and become a Rotarian!
The meeting featured not one, but two winning opportunities - a Chamber raffle for a gift won by Greg Holt, and of course the ever-popular 50-50. Carey Gray won the 50-50 ticket draw for the second week running, but also for the second week running, failed to draw the winning card for the $74 pot. The meeting closed with scads of happy moments ... a good note to end on!
This Week at Rotary
Join us at noon at the country club for our weekly meeting. Ben Wight will be our featured speaker. He'll tell us about the Service for Armed Forces program at American Red Cross.
Pleased about PETS
As part of his preparation for the presidency, President-Elect Colin Lee attended Rotary's PETS session (regional leadership training) last weekend, accompanied by Secretary Carol Lindseth and President-Elect Nominee Dean Boyle. Colin was very impressed with the training, but left with a new appreciation for what a great club we have right here in Great Falls.
"At one point," he told us at Tuesday's meeting, "the clubs were reporting on their fundraising efforts, and what we do here just really hit home. We are really #1 in this category. In fact, the #2 club felt pretty good about raising $20,000 last year." We more than tripled that amount last year. Love that Harvest Howl!
Rotarians Stand Out!
We saw many familiar Rotarian faces at the recent awards banquet of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce, but two were up front and center stage. The first was Nicole Jemming, one of 9 young professionals who took the stage to tell us what they love about living and working in Great Falls. You did us proud, Nicole!
The second was Jim Senst. Jim's business, Star Radio, was recognized as the Business of the Year in its size category. Among the reasons Star Radio won were its creative programming and community service ethic. Both are illustrated by their Graduation Matters program, which features local high school students talking about what motivates them about their schooling and ultimate graduation. The program is very interesting ... and the more students we get across the graduation stage, the more prosperous they are and we are as a community. Congratulations, Jim!
Milestones
With all the excitement earlier in the month, we've neglected Rotarian birthdays. Here are our March celebrants to date:
We saw many familiar Rotarian faces at the recent awards banquet of the Great Falls Chamber of Commerce, but two were up front and center stage. The first was Nicole Jemming, one of 9 young professionals who took the stage to tell us what they love about living and working in Great Falls. You did us proud, Nicole!
