The Honorable W. Lee Fowler, Judge in the 5th Judicial District in Lyon County, will be presenting an interesting program this week at our club meeting.
A work day is being planned at Camp EE, the girl scout camp northwest of Emporia. Watch for announcements as for the day and time. Our Rotary Club is teaming up with the Kiwanis and Lions clubs to get the camp spruced up. Work includes work on the kitchen, painting the cabins, mudding the ceiling, installing new ceiling fans, repairing the gazebo, tree trimming and miscellaneous other things. Our club is focusing on painting the two cabins inside and out for starters, while other the other clubs are focusing on other parts of the overall project. Barbara Wry is organizing the work details.
Susan Rathke and Nancy Horst presented to our club meeting a summary of the All Veterans Tribute activities in the Emporia area during the week of Veterans Day. Emporia was the first community in the United States to celebrate Veterans Day back in 1953. Then in 1954 the rest of our country began celebrating that holiday. Now it is a week of activities throughout our community. In our schools, there are essay contests and poster contests, letters and post cards written to veterans. There is the Quilts of Valor, in which custom quilts are made and distributed to local veterans (the quilts are displayed in the Emporia Public Library this week). There is the Tablets of Honor being sold at the All Veterans Memorial, as well as other veterans and memorial displays there. The All Veterans Art Display is at the Emporia Arts Center. On Sunday is Freedom Fest, which includes a 5K run/walk, organized 16-mile and 40-mile gravel bike rides, and the 5K run & 40-mile gravel bike Spur. For more information on these and many others, go to the All Veterans Tribute website.
Since we cannot meet at our regular spot on January 3, we have arranged to meet at the Salvation Army for lunch. We will get an opportunity to experience the area that we updated last spring. It should be a fun time!
Building hope and confidence for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities is a theme that carried throughout Kevin Fish's presentation on The ARC of Sedgwick County. One of 650 chapters across the U.S., the various programs administered by The ARC gives these people opportunities for relationships, socialization and an improved quality of life. This chapter in Wichita serves 3,900 individuals, of which 2,000 are youth and 1,900 are adults.
Among the 500 events and activities each year include the Circle of Friends mentoring program, which matches a regular student with disability kid. This program has enabled those with a disability to gain confidence with people who see through their disability and recognize them as a regular human being. Another event is the Unstoppable pageant, which builds hope and confidence for the participants.
The ARC is the largest case manager in Kansas with 10,000 calls received annually for their services. The waiting list for their services in Kansas is seven years. Kevin indicated that there are 1,000 people in Emporia with developmental disabilities. The ARC's funding is diversified, including the United Way, Sedgwick County, private pay and private fund raising events.
Thanks, Dennis for bringing us your son to provide a worthwhile program for our club.
Eight Rotarians socialized at Mulready's Pub in a fun, informal get-together. Those who participated included Teresa Maley, Jim Kessler, John Korsak, Tom Mais, Marshall Miller, Greg Seibel, Stuart Symmonds and Jim Wayman. Our Rotary Club is planning to continue these informal outings monthly on different days of the week through our current Rotary year. Come join us if you can!
Tim North has organized our Dictionary Project for several years. We distribute dictionaries to all of the third graders enrolled in the Emporia schools. This year the students at the Interact Club at Emporia Middle School will be assisting us on November 14th by placing labels on all of the dictionaries. Everyone is invited to join the fun at 3:30 at EMS. Our club is providing pizza for everyone.
On November 15th, all of the Emporia principals are coming to our Rotary meeting. We will distribute the dictionaries that afternoon to all of the students from 1:00 to 3:00. Make plans to join the activities at the Emporia Middle School or after our meeting as we distribute the dictionaries at each of the Emporia schools. It is a fun and worthwhile project, and to get to visit with the students.