Doll of Hope Service Project

Doll of Hope Service Project
Making Dolls for Refugees Worldwide

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Christmas the Bhutanese way is a great way to spend an afternoon!

Check out the amazing video about this whole service project/social. Thanks, wonderful Miriam Kramer, RC Millcreek Community Service Chair!

To kick off our partnership, Millcreek Rotarians spent Saturday afternoon December 10 cooking, eating, partying with the Bhutanese refugee community - and a great time was had by all.
What a lot was going on! While the kitchen at the South Salt Lake Columbus Center was brimming with busy cooks, several Rotarians and Hser Ner Moo Welcome Center staff (thanks Raunde Everett!) set up the auditorium. Thanks, Sheila & Mary Gelman, Margareta Vlasic, Laura Rogers, Andrea White, Miriam Kramer, and Judy Zone for your help with this part of the event.
Soon the delicious scents of vegetable curry, a mixed vegetable dish, rice, roti, and chai tea filled the air, and our guests began to arrive. We want to thank the City Academy Interactors, their teacher Amanda Porter, their principal (RC Millcreek member) Sonia Woodbury for their help in bringing hundreds of warm coats and items of winter clothing for the distribution to our refugee friends. RC Millcreek members did their part too, bringing quite a supply. Andrea White got some amazing ski jackets donated from the U.S. ski team!

We want to thank Salt Lake Rotaract Club president Jerika Michel, and other Rotaracters, for helping with check-in and setting up our arts and crafts table for all the kids.

The Westminster Dancers provided some wonderful entertainment and then stayed around to play with all the kids from the refugee and Rotary communities.

Rotary Club of Millcreek members showed up in full force! President Megan Dunn was our emcee, along with her sister Lonna. Linda Book brought husband Bob.

Club Secretary Christine Christine Casper and her husband Darrin (also a member) were there. Marlin Clark helped with the sound system so we could listen to traditional Nepali music. Jason Collier brought the whole fam, as did Club Treasurer Ken Klingler. Sheila and Marty Gelman came for the cooking and stayed for the clean-up! Other members present: Sarah Grant, Kathryn Christiansen, Laura Rogers, Ron Stevens, Ladd Tanner & son, Margareta Vlasic (who brought a fabulous Scandinavian ginger cake!), Julia Wee, John and Judy Zone.

A special shout out to our International Service Chair, Peter Ingle, who brought his boys Gunnar and Anders, who ran the games, including Bingo with prizes. It was great to see Kamala (our incredible liaison with the Bhutanese community) explaining Bingo in Nepalese.

While we cannot thank enough Kamala and all the Bhutanese folks who prepared so much of the food ahead of time, cooked all morning with us, and stayed to enjoy the lunch, we must also thank Miriam Kramer (our Community Service Chair) for spending a huge amount of time organizing, delegating, and generally making the event a success.

Even members who could not be there were an important part of the event. Thanks, Social Chair Annie Nielsen, for the tablecloths, VP Laurie Summers-Pisani for the holiday decorations.

If you missed this event, you missed a great party! And you missed meeting some new friends in the Bhutanese community. Many thanks to Jarna Subedi, Pumpi Khatwodia, Radika Bhatrasai, Dueeka Dhankal, Kamala Bhatersai, Sabitrai Bhatersai, Bishnu Chapiuyam, Sabitra Pondyali, Ganga Adnakari, Tuiisha Subba, Damoduar Bhatterrai, Devi Rizail, Maya Bhattersai, Januka Charnigui, Priam Dhuali, Tuka Subedi, Purna Bhatrasai, Kharka Pudail, Tapash Bastola, Kumar Thurung, Indu Dhual, Denka Poskhal, Tulash Poshkal, Sumitra Lizal, Durga, Umi, Pabi and Ghana Chapigiya. AND your kids. Everyone was -- and had -- so much fun!

Enjoy some more photos of the event:
Jason Collier and Heather Klingler with kids at the arts & crafts table.







We want to thank Utah Rotary Governor Elect Jerry Summerhays for coming to our party with his granddaughter Adri.









Bob Book, John Zone, Marty Gelman enjoy the entertainment.









Gigantic warm clothing distribution!






Significant chopping and cooking.





Prospective member Jennie Ferguson, Ron Stevents, visiting Salt Lake Rotarian Rose Defa, RC Millcreek President Megan Dunn, Laura Rogers, and Marlin Clark.




Thanks Gunnar, Peter, Anders Ingle for the Bingo and other games to entertain our many young partiers!








For at least half those present, this was our very first Invocation in Hindu.










Many beautiful items, handmade by the Bhutanese community, were on sale. Perfect holiday gift shopping!



Thursday, December 8, 2011

Rotarians power shop with the chefs of the Bhutanese community for our holiday social

Be sure to join us Saturday Dec. 10, 10am for the cooking show at the Columbus Center 2350 S. 500 E. in the 'Senior Kitchen' where Rotarians will be observing the ladies of the Bhutanese refugee community cook up a holiday feast.

Or join us just for lunch, Noon - 2pm, in the auditorium at the Center when we celebrate the season with 22 members of the Bhutanese community in Salt Lake City. $10 per person.

Seven stalwart Millcreek Rotarians joined in shopping for the food on the evening of December 8 with four of our Nepali chefs. We went to a local Indian market for many exotic items, and then to Smith's for the staples. Thanks to Loralee Barlow, Megan Dunn, Miriam Kramer, Annie Nielsen, Laurie Summers-Pisani, Judy Zone and of course, Kamala and crew for participating in this adventure.

We'll be having yellow vegetarian curry over rice, Nepali salad, bread, and tea. Millcreek Rotarians: You are bringing dessert, don't forget! There will be peanut butter & jelly on Great Harvest bread for the many kids who are coming for the luncheon.








Sunday, December 4, 2011

Holiday Service Projects & Social are focus for our December business meeting



After our usual socializing, this meeting at Pyxis Suites courtesy of wonderful RC Millcreek member Kathryn Christiansen (since it is the holidays, Lugano's Loggia is booked for parties), President Megan Dunn opened the meeting with the official announcement of our Charter by Rotary International. Yippee! We're official!

Rotarian Loralee Barlow, who was our Chartering Club Secretary, has to step down from that post. Christine Casper willingly accepted the position, and will finish out this Rotary Year as a Board member, serving in this capacity. Chris is responsible for reporting attendance to the District & RI. Since she cannot be at every meeting, Judy Zone said she would take Minutes and post to the blog (since she knows most everyone), and she will list meeting attendance in each blog.

Vice President Laurie Summers-Pisani and our Social Chair Annie Nielsen must begin work in earnest on our Chartering Dinner, scheduled for Thursday, January 19, 6:15pm at the Cottonwood Country Club. President Megan wants us to have two business meetings in January to prepare, so stay posted as to location: Most likely we will be back at Lugano's Loggia at 5:15pm the 1st and 2nd Thursday of January 5th and 12th.

We have a tentative social scheduled with the Hispano-Latino Club Thursday, January 26 6:15pm, probably at Lugano's Loggia.

Susan Marks reported that RC Millcreek was announced at the Area Four Luncheon (our District has ten areas comprised of 3-6 clubs with an Assistant District Governor assigned to each area. We are in Area 4 with Bev Christy as our fearless ADG leader). Susan remarked that the formation of RC Millcreek has comprised 22% of the District's membership goal of 150 new Rotarians statewide by July 1, 2012. Yay for us. We rock.
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Club members were reminded that QUARTERLY DUES & FEES ($90) are due immediately. Judy Zone explained that though these dues and fees count for January-March 2012, the club needs some cash flow so that members are not footing the bill for our service projects. Treasurer Ken Klingler remarked that we already had a bill from RI for the Rotarian magazine. Contact Ken ken@klingler.com Mail check to RC Millcreek, P.O. Box 590, Sandy, Utah 84091.

If you cannot open your Statements, which are pdfs, click here to do to the Adobe website and download the software you need for free.
Community Service Chair, Miriam Kramer, reviewed our upcoming service projects and holiday social:

Thursday, December 8 5:15pm Contact Miriam miriam@youthlinc.org for location for shopping for groceries with the Bhutanese women.

Saturday, December 10 10am: Cooking class with Bhutanese women at the Columbus Center 2530 S 500 E (South Salt Lake) if you have not rsvped, do so immediately miriam@youthlinc.org

Saturday, December 10 NOON: RC Millcreek Holiday Social with the Bhutanese community at the Columbus Center. Bring your kids, warm winter clothing especially in small adult sizes & kids' sizes, blankets, canned vegies, and cash to buy darling handmade items by the Bhutanese women. Cost of luncheon TBD by cost of groceries divided by attendees at luncheon. Bring some cash for your food, @ $10 p/p

If you have not rsvped, do so immediately megan@xmission.com Evite reminders will be coming again soon, and you can rsvp that way too! Obviously, we need an accurate head count.

Btw, Judy will be bringing mac n cheese for your kids who cannot deal with spicy (but delicious) Bhutanese food. We need desserts, so bring them!

Rotaracters (college Rotary Club) and Interactors (our club at City Academy) will be there to help with games and clothing collection. Thank you!

Our formidable Sergeant at Arms, Dr. John Zone, ended the meeting as per our tradition, with fines.

But first, Kathryn Christiansen explained that Pyxis Suites, her business at 999 Murray Holladay Rd. was shared executive office space, hourly meeting space, and virtual office space all available for rent. There are 46 individual office suites, rented by all variety of small businesses. Many of the virtual offices are online marketing and the like, wanting a Utah business address and services provided by the shared receptionist service.

Fines: Sonia, Paul, Andrea, and Annie were fined $5 for missing the wonderful meeting at Laurie's house. When Annie protested that she couldn't attend because she was in Cabo, her fine was increased to $10.

Many members also kicked in funds to Miriam for groceries for our social on December 10, and of course to Megan to pay for the yummy snacks she bought for our meeting. Thanks, Kathryn, for supplying us with wine for the social part of our business meeting.

In attendance: Darrin Casper, Jason Collier, Kathryn Christiansen, Megan Dunn, Paul Halliday, Peter Ingle, Ken Klingler, Miriam Kramer, Susan Marks, Annie Nielsen, Laura Rogers, Laurie Summers-Pisani, Ladd Tanner, Margareta Vlasic, Andrea White, Sonia Woodbury, John Zone, Judy Zone. Guest (and we hope new member!) Mike Katsanevas.




Sunday, November 27, 2011

Meeting Minutes November 10, 2011

I would like to thank Laurie for hosting this meeting at her house. She has a beautiful home and had some great appetizers for us!

We called the meeting order.

*Reminder to pay dues!! Make checks payable to Rotary Club of Millcreek.

*Photos need to be submitted to President for our Blog Photo Album. If they are not received by December 8th, our Sergeant at Arms, John, will start assessing fines.

*Community Service Updates from Miriam:
~Shopping for Luncheon: December 8th, Place TBD Time: 5:15pm
~Cooking for Luncheon: December 10th, Columbus Center 10:00am
~Luncheon: December 10th, Columbus Center Rm 12:00pm
RSVP for any and all events by DECEMBER 1ST to Miriam: fiveyellowbellies@gmail.com

*Please continue to bring coats and blankets to the luncheon. We will be distributing them to the refugees there. Ken Klingler (along with the Interact students) will assist with donations.

*We were more than happy to introduce Jerika Michel at our meeting. She is a member of the Rotaract Club at Westminster and is hoping to help her members and ours make a permanent bond. We discussed some activities that will be happening in the spring. I am so excited to see where this relationship will blossom.

*Ladd Tanner (Youth Committee Chair) gave an update on the Interact Club based at City Academy. There are currently 15 students, consisting of Juniors and Seniors. They are anxious to jump right into service. The students are very interested in international exchanges. We hope to make this possible in the future.

Our Sergeant at Arms went around the room and issued fines to the following people:
~Ladd Tanner $3
~Judy Zone $3
~Mustafa Can Celebi $2
~Linda Book $2
~Kathryn Christiansen $3
~Miriam Kramer $3
~Megan Dunn $3
~Jason Collier $5

Total: $24

REMINDER: Next meeting will be held Dec 1, 2011 @Pyxis Suites 999 E Murray Holladay Rd

Meeting was adjourned!

Submitted by Megan A Dunn, Millcreek Rotary President

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Note from our Community Service Chair, Miriam

Hey fellow Millcreek Rotarians!

This past week, we heard from Kamala and her husband Damo. In the early 1990s, the Bhutanese government forced Kamala-- and over 105,000 others from Bhutan-- into Nepalese refugee camps, where they lived for 17 years. Kamala has 2 sons, has lived in Utah for about 2 years, has learned English, secured a job, and is a leader in her community.

After some group discussion, we came up with the following list to support the Bhutanese community as they resettle:

· Help them find jobs through developing computer skills, internet use, writing up resumes, etc.

· Teach English

· Partner with our Vocational Committee to teach vocational skills (massage, hair cutting, basic accounting…)

· Collect winter items (blankets, coats, sweaters, gloves, socks, etc.) that a refugee family might need. We’ll deliver items at our December 10th event!

We have a few events coming up, so please RSVP to me before December 1st.

1.) December 8th @ 5:15—shopping for Nepalese food with some Bhutanese ladies! Meeting place is TBD.

2.) December 10th @ 10:00am—cooking class on Nepalese food. Meeting place TBD.

3.) December 10th @ 12:00pm—delicious Nepalese food will be served at a location TBD. Families are welcome! The women will be displaying their handmade products. Think holiday gifts, and bring some extra cash just in case. Check out www.globalartisans.org for more photos.

Thank you for all your help!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Marlin Clark is so much fun. We are so happy that Marlin is joining Rotary Club of Millcreek!


Dr. Marlin R. Clark has been the Dean of Students at Salt Lake Community College since 2005.  He came to SLCC from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington as the Director of Career Services. 


Dr. Clark was raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Dr. Clark served in the Air Force from 1968-1988.  Following his time in the Air Force, he earned an A.A. degree in Sociology, a B.S. degree in Criminal Justice, a M.S. degree in Human Development with an emphasis in Teaching; a M.S. degree in Human Relations in England and in 2006 earned his Ph.D. in Leadership Philosophy.


 Dr. Clark has a great deal of experience in communication, diversity, leadership, management, administration and organization involvement.  He has developed and implemented strategies, programs and services to ensure education of the whole person.  He has experience establishing policies and procedures, developing curriculum and utilizing student development theories to determine learning and outcomes in the classroom. 


Marlin has a great deal of concern for the students here at SLCC and works very hard to make sure their educational experience is a success.   


He enjoys going to dinner, sporting events and movies. 

Monday, November 7, 2011

Meeting Minutes - November 3, 2011

What a great meeting!

Judy Zone's husband, John, exercised his duties as Sergeant at Arms by imposing fines. Julia Wee incurred a $1 for RSVP-ing her attendance to the Halloween party, and not attending. Various other fines were issued for random acts - so be on your best behavior around John. The funds will be collected by Ken Klingler and added to our account. Also, in order to learn everyone's names we will be creating a photo gallery of each member. Be prepared to be quizzed by John at future meetings and events!

President Megan Dunn outlined upcoming events. Please contact Megan with any comments, suggestions, or concerns. She is eager to listen! Her phone number is 801-633-3747 and email is megan@xmission.com. She does teach pre-school during the day, so leave a message if she is unable to answer.
  • Next meeting is November 10th at Laurie's home
    • 355 Crestline Circle, 84103
    • 801-455-1242
  • Shopping with Bhutanese refugees activity - December 8th
  • Cooking with refugees the morning of the 10th with lunch at noon on the 10th
  • Chartering Dinner is January 19th at the Cottonwood Club
Loralee Barlow distributed information regarding the Rotary International Interact video contest to Laura Rogers. Click on this link for more information. Interact Video Contest

Ken Klingler presented the budget for the annual club dues. If your dues are a business expense to a company, they are tax deductible. If not, the tax deductible limit is $100 per year.
  • RI dues - $52.00
  • Rotarian magazine - $12.00
  • Legislative Council - $2.00
  • Insurance - $3.74
  • EPL Insurance - $0.80
  • District Dues - $31.58
  • Foundation - $100.00
    • Total Annual Dues - $202.12
Monthly dues will be invoiced at $30.00 per month, billed quarterly. This will cover the RI annual dues as well as Lugano's fees and a very small slush fund for activities. (John is working on increasing the slush fund with fines - so study hard!)

Miriam Wee introduced her guests from the Bhutanese community. Kamala expressed her thanks to Miriam for the assistance she has already provided as well as the future opportunities we offer. She presented the possiblity of the Community/Vocational/International committees joining forces to provide assistance to the existing refugee communities in the area. A list will be compiled by the refugees of areas they are seeking assistance and we will create a list of skills we can share. Some ideas presented included:
  • English - speaking/reading
  • Job search skills - resumes/cover letters
  • Money skills
  • Babysitting skills
  • Opportunities within the hotel/hospital housekeeping vocations
We welcomed our newest member Dr. Marlin Clark! He's a very engaging man with a great sense of humor. You will often find him trying to convince an audience that a "cabbit" is a real animal. Look it up!

See you next week!


Sunday, November 6, 2011

Millcreek Local Service-- Spicing up your Holidays!


Hey fellow Millcreek Rotarians!  We've got some fun service projects coming up:
Kamala
This past week, we heard from Kamala and her husband Damo who arrived to Utah almost 2 years ago.  In the early 1990s, the Bhutanese government forced Kamala-- and over 105,000 others from Bhutan-- into Nepalese refugee camps, where they lived for 17 years.  Kamala has 2 sons, has learned English, works at a thrift store, and is a leader in her community. 

After some group discussion, we came up with the following ways to support the Bhutanese community:
Help them find jobs through developing their computer & internet skills, helping with resumes, etc. 
Teach English
Partner with our Vocational Committee to teach vocational skills (massage, hair cutting, basic accounting…)
Collect winter items that refugee families may need (blankets, coats, sweaters, gloves, socks, etc.) .  We’ll deliver items at our December 10th event!

Photo of some Bhutanese beauties
Here are our upcoming events.  Please RSVP to me before November 24th.  I’ll send out details soon.
 1.)  December 8th @ 5:15—shopping for Nepalese food with a few Bhutanese ladies 
2.)  December 10th @ 10:00am—Nepalese cooking class at Kamala’s home
3.)  December 10th @ 12:00pm—delicious Nepalese food & fun.  Families welcome!  The women will be displaying their handmade products so think holiday gifts & bring extra $$.

Teddy bear
Winter vegetable hats
Thanks everyone for all your enthusiasm and great ideas.  Your excitement is contagious.  See you next week.  






Miriam Kramer
Local Service Committee
801.824.9855
fiveyellowbellies@gmail.com

Friday, November 4, 2011

Rotary Club of Millcreek Member Photo Album

As per the request of our Sgt.at Arms, the eminent John J. Zone MD, here is a photo album of Rotary Club of Millcreek members so we can all brush up on each other's name and visages (i.e., faces). Not every member is here, yet, but we'll update as new photos come in.

As the club's 'Special Representative' of the District Governor (that's Rotary talk for 'I wanted to invite some of my dear friends to regular meetings of a social/service organization so I could see them more more often'), I can't be more proud of the enthusiasm and drive of this group. Also, they are so much fun.

Megan Dunn is a pre-school teacher at Challenger. She is the club's chartering President. She is a 30-something... low 30s, late 20s.. who knows... not polite to talk about a woman's age. She has taken the ball and is running with it. She will be a dynamic new leader for our club. She is pictured here with a whole bunch of coats in the background. We are collecting coats for our new Interact Club at City Academy. They are doing a Coat Exchange for Thanksgiving. We are also collecting any warm clothing or coats for the Bhutanese refugee community.
Laurie Summers-Pisani is a retired teacher. She is also Vice President of Rotary Club of Millcreek. Laurie is such a dynamo. Not only did she run the first 'official' meeting after the Board was elected, she has volunteered to have our next club meeting at her home in the Avenues. Lugano's Loggia is not available because they are hosting a holiday event in the space we normally use. Stay tuned for directions to Laurie's house. Check the blog and don't forget our next meeting Thursday, November 10 5:15pm at Laurie's house!
Loralee Barlow is our club Secretary. She is amazing. She has been spending time on the Rotary International website rotary.org downloading all kind of pertinent information for the Board and Committee Chairs. Wow. Loralee is a commercial interior designer. She has two children, Samantha and Nicholas, who have participated in our New Roots Refugee Garden service project. We are very lucky to have her in an important position in our club. She will not just take and post minutes on the blog, take attendance, and register us all with RI, she will keep us all on our toes.
Ken Klingler (yes, we do allow men to serve on our Board and be members :-) is our esteemed Club Treasurer. Ken is a CPA and has his own firm. Ken has opened a P.O. Box for our Club. As soon as we get our charter from RI (soon, soon) he will open a bank account in the Club name. Ken will be emailing our quarterly Statements, so you will get to know Ken very well. Look for your first Statement on November 15. Please send a check made out to Rotary Club of Millcreek for $90 for this first quarter (and every quarter) of the club's existence. Wow. Cheap enough. Most Rotary Clubs are three times or more that amount. All of this is a tax deduction, a cost of doing business for any member with a profession. Most of this charge is RI and District fees & dues. $10/month pays for our appetizers at Lugano's Loggia for our two business meetings a month. Yay, Ken, for keeping us current with the District and RI and of course, with Greg Neville at Lugano's.

Peter Ingle is our International Service Chair. Pete wants to integrate what our club is doing to help the local refugee population with international service that our club plans. Pete is a professor and adminstrator at Westminster College. His background is in special education. He has, among other things, worked in professional development and project-based learning at the college. Pete is very funny, and he lives in Park City. He also takes groups of kids to Thailand every summer as part of Westminster's May term. Pete's wife Krista is a special educator in the Park City school system. They have two sons.
The lovely and talented Miriam Kramer is our Community Service Chair. Miriam is the driving force behind our club's focus on the local refugee community. As part of her Master's, Miriam worked with Bhutanese refugee women to help them assimilate to our culture and find meaningful work to support their families. Miriam is all about sharing culture, and helping people help themselves. She is also the International Service and Development Director for Youthlinc, a Utah based service organization for youth. Miriam was the Rotaract (College Rotary Club) president for Salt Lake. She is pictured here with a really nice basket that the Bhutanese women make as purses, bread baskets, or cute ways to store children's toys or random things. We'll have some of these for sale at our Saturday December 10 Holiday Luncheon with the Bhutanese ladies... who are making us delicious traditional foods. We can shop with them Thursday Dec. 8 after 5pm, and we can cook with them Saturday morning, Dec. 10 too! Check the blog for more details!

Ladd Tanner is our Youth Service Chair. Ladd is a financial planner and insurance broker. He has his own company. Ladd used to be a member of Park City Sunrise Rotary Club, but he lives and works in Salt Lake City now. He has two kids and a really nice wife. Ladd has worked to form Interact (high school Rotary) Clubs in the past, and he is starting off by helping to charter an Interact Club at City Academy, a charter high school in Salt Lake City. He is working with Sonia Woodbury, the principal and also a member of Rotary Club of Millcreek. Ladd has spent some time explaining Rotary youth programs to the club, especially Youth Exchange where secondary students can spend up to a year living in another country, hosted by Rotarian families.

Laura Rogers is our Vocational Service Chair. Oftentimes clubs struggle with defining what they should do for vocational service. Though Rotary was formed as a business networking organization, the focus on service sometimes makes Rotarians shy about sharing their professions, or professional expertise. Not so for our club! Laura plans on having us use our business connections and knowledge to work with the local refugee community for job training, shadowing, and actual jobs. Laura would also like to see our club reaching out more to our new Interact Club and Salt Lake based Rotaract as mentors and role models of our professions. Laura's background is in marketing, especially in the health science area.
Annie Nielsen is a hairdresser extraordinaire at Steur & Friends in Salt Lake City. She is our Club Service -- or as we like to call it -- Social Chair. Being social is a big part of the Rotary Club of Millcreek. While you might have to get there early at other clubs to socialize, for us, the social part is 50% of the time. Heck, life is short. We must enjoy each other's company. We make that easy by having a 'happy hour' club, an after work place to decompress and enjoy your favorite beverage. But once a month we also have a social -- usually the last week of the month. We have already had a dinner at Lugano's restaurant, a Halloween party. We are all looking forward to our Holiday Luncheon with the Bhutanese community on Saturday December 10 and our Chartering Dinner at the Cottonwood Country Club on Thursday January 19 at 6:15pm. This club is so friendly, so relaxed, so 'not your formal meeting'-- Annie is the perfect Chair for this group.

Last of our 'official' Board roster, but certainly not one to be overlooked, is our Host with the Most,  the person Rotary International designates to keep decorum in our club -- our Sgt. at Arms Dr. John Zone. John debuted his talents at our Thursday November 3 business meeting, and he was hilarious. John is one of the nicest people on the planet, and if the rest of the Board did not convince you that this is a Rotary Club like no other - one you need to join - then you have not seen John regal us with his dry wit. We might go over our appointed hour meeting... but it's worth it. And he raises a little bit of money for our club coffers in the process. Thanks, John! (Full disclosure: he is my wonderful husband.)