After the Pledge of Allegiance, led by LAMR President Claude Kendrick, the Invocation was given by Larry Stephens, and Happy Bucks was handled by Tammy Bonifield.
14 club members and two guests were present, 9 “live” Rotarians and five “Zoomers (also “alive”)!
Bob Carris noted that 56 of our soccer balls were sold at PETS (President-Elect Training Seminar) in Kalamazoo this past weekend. Bravo to Bob, Tammy, and Bill Friske for selling those “signature” soccer balls.
Dave Stechholz, at PETS as President-Elect, affirmed that PETS was an outstanding training seminar.
On behalf of District 6400 Governor, Russ Jones, Dave presented two banners
and a citation for our Club’s outstanding 100% participation in TRF (The Rotary Foundation).
Mike Ladwig, our Membership Chair, mentioned that April is our Club’s “Bring a Friend to Rotary” Month. Let’s each try to bring someone to our non-Assembly April Rotary meetings, featuring outstanding speakers, such as we had today (March 20th).
Also, a couple of our members are attending tonight’s Rotary Grants Seminar.
Several Club members attended the annual “State of the City” Address on the first day of Spring, March 19th at Schoolcraft College’s VistaTech Center, featuring our own Club member, Mayor Maureen Brosnan. A few of us watched Maureen’s presentation on live-streaming.
In view of today’s presentation, Susan Paluchniak has graciously stepped up to be Chair of our new Passport To Safety Committee.
Passport To Safety
Cheryl Bowker – an All State agent and one of the co-founders of “Passport to Safety” in 1999 – and Sgt. Jayson Scarantino of the Livonia Police Dept. (LPD officer in charge of community outreach events) presented on the annual Passport to Safety event. This event is the largest safety event in the country!! 2,000 to 5,000 attend annually. The upcoming Passport to Safety event is Saturday, June 8th, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Livonia Police Department and Livonia Fire Dept. parking lots.
The Passport to Safety event helps families to learn safety. For example, a family got out of their burning house without loss of life because they, especially the children, were trained at a previous Passport to Safety event. Kids, ages 5-11 have fun and learn. They each get a passport and get it hole-punched as they visit 10 “learning” stations.
Learning about proper 911 calling;
Car safety (such as children and pets not being left in a car that can be 160 degrees on a hot Summer day) and car seat fitting;
Bike safety (and with a free gift helmet);
Choking and poison;
Cell phone, phone (child predators), and internet safety;
Water safety; and so much more.
At each station there is a “message” for the parents and one for the kids.
Gun safety may be a future topic for consideration. The event also features K-9 Police Dog and Jaws of Life demonstrations and drawings.
Cheryl and Sgt. Jayson’s talk and slideshow was simply great, and our Club’s Giving Committee has already approved a donation, subject to Board and Club approval shortly.
We closed with the Rotary Four Way Test and Greg Greene’s corny, par-a-dox-ical jokes.
Dave Stechholz, Scribe
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