Rotary Club of Albion Michigan
Club Programs
July 2018-June 2019
The Rotary Club of Albion meets weekly on Thursday at noon at Cascarelli's.
MAY

Colin McCaleb, a former Albion resident and Rotary member, was the speaker for the day at the Rotary Club of Albion on May 24, 2019.  Colin now resides in Hastings and brought the members up to date with what’s been going on with him since he left Albion.  He has written a book with the title of “Androids of the State” under the pen name of Stoughton Bourdieu, PhD. The book is available on Amazon. He also has recorded a musical album that features music he has written. The album is “Eros Thanatos.”  He talked about the expansion of the KCC Eastern Academic Center.  He had two guests, Alex Lane and Kathy Doud.  Kathy talked about the early college program and the success of that program.  This year there are six graduating from the program and expectation is that there might be 25 next year.  In the photo are:  left to right – Brandy Eggleston, President of the Rotary Club of Albion; Colin McCaleb; Alex Lane, Vivian Davis (who introduced the speaker); and Kathy Doud.


Teri Nelson was the guest speaker at the Rotary Club of Albion on May 9.  She was introduced by member, John Williams.  Teri (second from right in the photo) is working on a year-long project in Albion honoring MFK Fisher, an author who has written many books about eating.  In early years, MLK Fisher lived in Albion, hence the interest in her writings.  She did not write recipe books, but rather interesting things about food.  Teri shared the “Foreword” from MFK’s book “The Gastronomical Me” that talked about why she wrote about hunger. Her writings create an atmosphere that is humorous and tells her experiences with food and hunger. Two of Fisher’s good friends were Julia Childs and Maya Angelou. Teri’s reason for honoring Fisher came from her fascination of the author.  Several events have already been held during this “year of MFK Fisher” and several more are planned. In the near future, there will be a display at the Albion Library; a Whitehouse Oven Demo and Pizza Party will be held at the Whitehouse Nature Center on May 19; and there will be a booth at the French Market in June.  Albion businesses will mark MFK’s 111th birthday on July 3 with To Be Determined specials.  On August 1, there will be a cookbook exchange at the Albion Library.  Stay tuned for details on all these events and more.  She also displayed many of MFK’s books for review.


Albion Rotary Club welcomed Julie Clawson (left I the photo) as program speaker on Thursday, May 2, 2019.  She was introduced by Carol Yeomans-Phelan (right in the photo).  Raised in Springport, she married her high school sweetheart, Lonnie Clawson, 38 years ago.  They live in Albion and have 2 happily married daughters and six grandchildren.  Julie, a licensed massage therapist, spoke on the benefits of massage and energy flow using intuitive Reiki.  She is a Shaman Practitioner and meditation class teacher.  Included was her own journey of healing and the benefits she receives in giving massages.  Her recent book, Mind, Body and Soul is available through Amazon.  In her closing she stated she is a health Guru and loves it.

April

Brandy Eggleston, President of the Rotary Club of Albion, introduced the speaker for the day on 4/25/2019.  The speaker was Edward A. Schaadt. He is a member and secretary of the Gull Lake Rotary Club and secretary for Rotary’s District 6360, which includes 53 Rotary Clubs.  His presentation was about his work with the Children’s Safe Water project – a Rotary project to provide water sanitation hygiene (WASH) in the Dominican Republic.  In keeping with the Rotary slogan “Be the Inspiration,” this team has gone to the Dominican and worked with Rotary clubs there to help provide water filtering systems, latrine construction and handwashing education to the residents in one of the provinces of Dominican – Santiago Rodriguez.  Their team has been there and talked with the residents about their needs and then working to help satisfy those needs.   He presented an interesting slide show of their 2017 trip to the Dominican. The goal for the next phase of the project is to raise $18,000 to provide a number of latrines for families there.  Donations are being accepted for this project by sending checks to “Rotary District 6360 Foundation, c/o f Jansen Valk Thompson Reahm PC, 7171 Stadium Drive, Kalamazoo  49009. Designate the Children’s Safe Water Project. 


Speakers at the Rotary Club of Albion on 4/11/19 were Mary Slater, Chair of the Board of the Bohm Theatre, and Nancy Doyle, Executive Director of the Bohm Theatre.  The speakers were introduced by Vivian Davis, Rotary member. Mary spoke about the history of the Bohm and its restoration efforts and successes.  It officially re-opened in October 2014 and has become a real community gathering place.  In 2015, the Bohm received a Governor’s Prize for historic preservation.  The total cost of renovation is about $4 million.  Of ticket sales at the Bohm, approximately 65% goes to the studios providing the movies.  Money is taken in from concessions, advertising, and sponsors.  Nancy then talked about the programming and told us that 23,892 individuals attended showings at the theatre in 2018.  Black Panther was the biggest for the year and Avengers came in second.  Without the addition of Bohm 2, Albion would have missed out on many movies.  In the next 46 weeks, 182 films will be released and Nancy is anticipating a good year in 2019. Kids Free Fridays will again continue all summer.  It has been a very successful program with about 120 kids at each showing.  The Bohm has also been the venue for many community events, including Blues at the Bohm.

Also at the meeting, Gerald Boehlke presented a certificate from Meals on Wheels that was received for the service provided by Rotary members.

March

Brandy Eggleston, President of the Rotary Club of Albion, introduced the speaker for the day. The speaker was Dave Huber to tell about the history of work on the Mt. Washington, New Hampshire, Cog Railroad. He talked about the beginnings of the railroad, including the person, Alexander Marsh, who received the original charter to start the railroad, and Walter Aiken, the inventor of the railroad.  This cog rail was the first mountain climbing railroad in the world.  Construction began in 1866 and was completed in 1869. The supplies were moved up the mountain by oxen and horse drawn wagons.  He described in detail the progression of the railroad and how it changed from burning wood to using coal and the mechanics of the steam engine.  A small hotel was built early on but in the 1980’s a new very modern hotel has been built at the summit of the mountain. Dave worked on this railroad as a young man and described the work – and the pay - which included room and board.  It was a very informative presentation.


Left to right, Brandy Eggleston, Karen McGee (new member), Cathy Campbell, and Annette Norris (new member).

John Kondelik (left in the photo), member of the Rotary Club of Albion, introduced the speakers for the day on March 7. He first detailed some of the history of the ordinance in Albion and the official naming of the “Friends of Albion’s Animals” organization. The “Friends” is a donor-funded non-profit organization working to humanely manage the free-roaming cat population and promote responsible pet ownership in Albion.  The speakers were Cindy Stanczak (second from right in the photo), President of the “Friends” and Jason Strong (second from left in the photo).  They provided information on the differences between Feral, Stray, and Abandoned cats and how each category is handled by the organization.  The goal is to maintain a healthy population of cats in the area.  Arrangements are made with veterinarians to spay/neuter cats to keep the population at a minimum.   It is also possible for those who cannot afford the veterinarian charge to notify the “Friends” to have their pet/house cats spayed/neutered. There are cats/kittens available for adoption or for fostering.  These can be found by going to Adopt-a-Pet.com or PetFinder.com or the facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Friendsofalbionsanimals.  Memberships in the organization are available and donations are always welcome.  This is a completely donor-funded group and receives no city/government assistance.

February

Jacob Rowzee, an Eagle Scout and Unit Support Staff for this area, was the speaker for the day.  Accompanying him was Melissa Stricherz, CFRE, Field Service Scout Executive/CEO, for the Southern Shores Field Service Council.  Jacob talked about the scout program preparing youth to become good citizens and developing leadership skills.  One goal that is emphasized is “do a good turn daily.”  He is working with Dave Huber here in Albion to build the scouting program.  He talked about the importance of the Scout uniform and how that demonstrates their commitment to scouting and lets others know that they are working toward the scouting goals.  He was introduced at Rotary by Dave Farley, who has been involved with the scouting program in Albion for several years.  There were three Eagle Scouts in attendance and family members of Rotarians were noted as Eagle Scouts.  In the photo: left to right:  Dave Huber, Brandy Eggleston (Rotary President), Dave Farley, Jacob Rowzee, Melissa Stricherz.



The Rotary Club of Albion welcomed Michelle Mueller (left in the photo) as the speaker for the day.  She was introduced by Dolores Manthei (second from left in the photo).  Michelle is the author of a book that is the biography of Harry Bonner, a longtime Albion resident. It is a story of one man’s mentoring journey.  Harry came in Albion in the 50’s, graduated from Albion High School and worked at the Dow plant in past years.  The biography includes stories/interviews with a few of the thousands of students he has mentored over the years in Albion.  The young people he has mentored are considered his “godchildren” and all have stories of how Harry led hem through struggles and helped give them hope for their futures.  The book is broken down into decades, i.e. 1980’s including mentoring, 1990’s including challenges and the 2000’s including struggling to serve.  There are 15 interviews in the book with real time stories of his “godchildren” and their successes.  A  “Go Fund Me” account has been set  up to help with publishing of the book which will be ready in November.  Go to “gofundme.com/harry-bonner-albion039s-mentor” to help support this effort.

January

Jim Seidl introduced the speaker for the Rotary Club of Albion on January 24.  The speaker was Jennifer Wood (second from left in the photo).  Jennifer is the Local History Archivist at the Albion District Library.  She manages the Library’s Local History Room.  In addition to managing the Local History Room’s collection, which documents the heritage of Albion and its people, she provides historical outreach and programming to the local community.  The collections include artifacts of Albion’s history, newspaper, records of organizations and businesses, along with other interesting and historical information that forms the history of our community.  She shared interesting stories of visitors to the History Room as well as interesting stories of the many artifacts that are stored at the Library.  The hours are listed on the Library website and Jennifer is willing to take historical information, share historical information, and store those items that are relative to Albion’s history.


Kelly Rice, Albion Insurance Agency, introduced the speaker of the day for the Rotary Club of Albion. The speaker was Tim Krause, Executive Director of the Albion Community Foundation. Tim announced that the Albion Community Foundation (ACF) in 2018 distributed $200,000 in grants that were solely from the endowments.  The ACF has developed a strategic plan with four particular areas of focus. They are: (1) youth and education, (2) workforce development, (3) leadership development, and (4) community vitality.  He also announced that is the 50-year anniversary of the Foundation. It was officially founded on March 17, 1969, During this year there will be a celebration of that anniversary. The celebration will be coordinated with the Albion Library, celebrating it’s 100th anniversary.  In May there will be a gala celebration also commemorating these anniversaries.  Watch for more information.  The ACF is doing great work in the Albion area and appreciates the continued support.  Tim also reminded us that grant applications for the new round are due March 1, 2019.

November

Joe Verbeke (second from left in the photo), from ACE Investment Properties, presented the program at the Rotary Club of Albion on November 16.  He was introduced by Dr. Ralph Cram (left in the photo), a member of Rotary.  Joe’s topic was to bring us up to date on the new Peabody Block Lofts.  The lofts are luxury apartments located on the second level of Peabody Square.  The apartments feature stainless steel appliances, high speed internet, individually controlled heating, cooling, etc, and lots of other amenities.  He also talked about the history of the Peabody Block building and showed visuals of the “before” and “after” of the lofts.  The goal was, and is, for the changes to “let the building tell the story.”  The Peabody Blocks are part of the historic restoration project happening in downtown Albion.  There are other projects working through the ACE Investment Properties as part of the downtown improvement.


The Rotary Club of Albion hosted the Marshall Rotary Club at its meeting on November 1.  The topic of discussion of Interact Rotary clubs was led by Albion President Brandy Eggleston and Marshall President Beth Martin.  Interact is a Rotary Club within a high school and is led by high school students. The Marshall and Albion Rotary clubs co-sponsor an Interact group at Marshall High School.  There are currently 22 students involved.  They have created bylaws, created goals and are diligently working on projects. The Albion Rotary representative for the high school Interact is Vivian Davis and the Marshall representative is Aaron Cope.  The Marshall High School advisor is Audra Granger.

 Albion Rotary President Brandy Eggleston on the left and Marshall Rotary President Beth Martin on the right.

October

Gerald Boehlke (pictured) introduced Paige Young (pictured with Brandy Eggleston, President of Rotary) as the speaker for the day at the Rotary Club of Albion on Thursday, October 25. Paige owns the EBMY Farm near Albion where she cooks and bakes items for sale and is the person who will be baking for the upcoming bakery in the Peabody Building. She currently is working with the owners on kitchen design, layout, recipes for the brewery, for the new bakery and for Albion College.  Her items include several kinds of chutney which can be purchased online from the Farm. The website is EBMYFarm.com.  When the bakery opens, the plan is to have a line of sandwiches, doughnuts, homemade breads, cakes scones, muffins, and of course coffee to go with those.  Paige has a degree in Marine Biology and in Horticulture and then went to Culinary School.  Her husband, Steve, is an instructor at Jackson College.




John Williams introduced Jane Bradley(pictured on the right), Treasurer of the Albion Interfaith Ministries (AIM), as the speaker of the day.  Jane talked about the 20 years that AIM has been in existence in Albion.  They came together to meet the needs in Albion.  The mission statement is “seeing to it that we feed as many people as possible, get clothing to people whose resources are limited, helping the people in our community—especially those in real need.”   It Is a faith-based organization with the goal to reach out and help people in need.  The kinds of assistance offered are: family assistance, utility help, travel (if needed), temporary housing, food, and clothing for school children.  AIM is a self-sustaining organization.  To help out, they maintain a thrift store on Superior Street and have been able to make ends meet to date.  It’s the only place in Albion to provide this service.  Any monetary donations are certainly welcomed to help out.  Barb Frederick (pictured on


Dave Farley (left) welcomes new Rotarian Dave atchison.


Vivian Davis (on the right) introduced Richard Lindsay, Executive Director and Legal Community Affairs for Oaklawn Hospital, as the speaker of the day.  Mr. Lindsay brought us up to date on the new signage and registration area at the Hospital in Marshall. The new area is designed to make the registration process more efficient.  He also reported that a clinic will be opening in Coldwater next week, so services will be available in that community.  He then announced again that the clinic in Albion at the Munger Place is on schedule to open in January.  There will be radiology equipment available there to aid patients to have that capability available here without travel to Marshall.  The clinic will be on the first floor of Munger Place with entrance through the north door.  The after-hours clinic will be open until 9:00 p.m. and will be open on Saturday. It was very informative information for our community.

September

Joelle Abbotts (on the right in the photo), Fund Development Specialist for the Girl Scout Heart of Michigan office was the speaker for the day.  She informed us of the many programs for girls in the Girl Scouts, including the emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math), Life Skills, Outdoors, and Entrepreneurship.  Girls as young as kindergarten and through high school are assisted in various levels of involvement and training. Girls are taught good values and business skills to make them more successful as adults.  Girl Scouts gives them the tools to become great leaders.  There are two girl scout troops in Albion.  Joelle would like to have more and she is working with Harrington School to attain that goal.  Volunteers are needed in the Albion area in order to accommodate more girls into the Girl Scouts.   Barb Frederick (on the left in the photo) introduced Joelle. If anyone is interested in volunteering, Joelle can be reached at the Heart of Michigan office at  gshom.org  or 800-49-SCOUT.

Also attending as a guest was Lyse Gaultier (left in the photo), visiting from our sister city in France.  She was introduced by Vivian Davis (right in the photo).


Cliff Harris, President, Walk the Beat, and a professor of Chemistry at Albion College was the featured speaker at the Rotary Club of Albion on September 6.  He started out by thanking the Rotary Club on behalf of the hundreds of volunteers, venue owner, employees, musicians and sponsor who make Walk the Beat Albion possible. Walk the Beat is a FREE street festival, a fundraiser and a music contest on Albion College’s homecoming weekend.  This is the fourth year for this event in Albion and it is growing each year. The money raised from the event is for the support of music and literacy programs in Albion.  There are 22 locations on Hannah Street, Michigan Avenue, Superior Street and Clinton Street on October 5 and 6.  There are many door prizes and just lots of fun and music.  The first ever Walk The Beat Kickoff Concert, sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, will be held on the Friday night before the music festival, on the Quad at Albion College.  It is FREE.  The music will be the Accidentals from Traverse City and local legends Airtight will open for them.  Please join in. Kelly Rice introduced the speaker and he was accompanied by Nicholas Schwindling who has been assisting Cliff and the Walk the Beat team with marketing and other tasks.

August

The Rotary Club of Albion had the privilege of hearing from two local Boy Scouts, Ian Lee and Jack McClure.  Both are nearly completed with the requirements to become Eagle Scouts. Both spoke about the opportunities they have encountered as boy scouts and the impact it has had on their lives.  Ian particularly talked about the leadership opportunities, the friendships and just personal experiences he has experienced in boy scout experiences   Jack especially mentioned the leadership opportunities he has had and that he was especially proud of his “senior patrol leader” patch.  Both will have their Eagle Scout projects completed this fall.   Dave Huber, the Boy Scout troop leader, and Dave Farley, who has been involved with Boy Scouts in Albion for many years, both praised the efforts of these two young men as well as another in their troop who is working toward Eagle Scout status and the other Scouts in the Albion area.  Other guests at the meeting were Dominic Gualtiere, Development Direction of the Boy Scouts of America, Southern Shores Field Office Council, and Bobby Lee, Sports Information Director at Albion College, and a member of Michigan Crossroads Council of the Boy Scouts.  During the meeting, past president Mike Bearman presented a grant from the Rotary Club of Albion to Dominic Gualtieri.


Sarah Wasil, Director of Advancement and Development for Starr-Commonwealth, was introduced by Barb Frederick as the speaker for the day.  Sarah is a graduate of Albion College and holds a Masters degree from Western Michigan University.  Sarah brought the Rotary Club members up to date on services that Starr-Commonwealth provides in addition to the young people who are housed there. Some of the programs include a summer reading program, training to teachers and school districts in order for them to better meet the social and emotional needs of students   The Albion Marshall Resilient Communities Project (AMRCP) theme of “Common Thread” is an attempt to connect Albion and Marshall.  Over the past two months,  Albion and Marshall individuals have been interviewed to hear their truths about the past, present, and future, and to identify any common threads. To view the first “clip”  head to YouTube and complete a search for “Community and the Common Thread – An AMRCP Clip.”  Starr will be celebrating 105 years with an event at the Detroit Zoo on Saturday, October 6, from 6-9 P.M.


Eryn Lewis and Victory Stovall were the honored guests and speakers at the Rotary Club of Albion on August 9, 2018.  They were introduced by Vivian Davis.  Eryn and Victory are seniors at Western and Marshall High Schools, respectively.  Both were sponsored by the Rotary Club of Albion to attend the 2018 Rotary Youth Leadership Academy (RYLA) at the Battle Creek Outdoor Education Center in July. Both told us about themselves and then about their experiences at RYLA.  Both are outstanding students at their respective high schools and both are athletes, as well.  Eryn Lewis along with her sister participated in a Junior Olympics event recently and excelled in a few of the track events.  Part of their experience at RYLA was an introduction to Rotary. As a result, Victory is expecting to start a Rotoract (student Rotary group) at her high school.  Their experience at RYLA included working on projects where they selected a problem facing the world today and figuring out a solution to that problem. Both were very enthused and thankful for their opportunity to attend the Academy.  Other guests at the Rotary Club were Beth Martin, President of the Marshall Rotary Club and Blake Bambach, member in Marshall.  Also attending were Eryn Lewis’ parents and sister.

The keynote speaker at the Rotary Club of Albion on August 2 was Lynda Zeller (left in photo), Deputy Director of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. She provides policy leadership for public behavioral health and developmental disabilities services and provides oversight for operations through the Bureau of Community Based Services, Bureau of Hospitals and Administrative Operations and the Children and Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders Section.  Lynda talked in detail about the three levels of work that the state is doing to deal with these issues – treatment, early intervention, and prevention.  She was introduced to Rotary by Shirley Zeller (second from left in photo).  Brandy Eggleston, President, of the Rotary Club of Albion is at the right in the photo.  Also attending the meeting on Thursday was Mike Turner, member of the Jackson Breakfast Rotary Club and member of the District Rotary Foundation Board.

July

 

Amy Reimann, Vice President of the Rotary Club of Albion, introduced the speaker for the day.  The speaker was Richard Lindsey, Executive Director of Legal and Community Affairs for Oaklawn Hospital.  His topic for the day was to describe the clinic project planned for Albion at Munger Place.  The Marshall and Albion communities have been working together on health issues here in Albion.  The health care is being expanded to include Albion College students and Albion residents.  The vision of President Ditzler at Albion College was to expand the health care to include both.  Senator Mike Nofs has been instrumental in securing $850,000 in the state budget to facilitate the clinic.  Another $75,000 has been received as a grant and altogether $1,050,000 is available for renovation of Munger Place to provide a community clinic.  The clinic will be considered an after-hours clinic and will have service from 8:00a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11:00a.m. to 8:00p.m. on Saturday. Plans are for the clinic to open Munger Place in January 2019.  Physical therapy services will continue at the B Drive North location and the Dialysis Center will operate at its current location.  The plan is to set aside some hours (not determined at this point) for free clinic to serve the underprivileged and uninsured.  Parking is being worked out in the planning stages.  There has been collaboration with many partners to make this happen, the State, various Foundations and other donors.  The discussion was very informative and thank you to Richard Lindsey for sharing with us.


At a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Albion, Cathy Campbell introduced the speaker for the day.  The speaker was District 7 County Commissioner Gary Tompkins.  He enlightened the members of what's going on in the eastern side of Calhoun County.