This week featured a presentation from Mark Tucker on the trip to Honduras. Mark will be sharing more details in an upcoming eBulletin, so stay tuned!!
Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to go into law enforcement? Have you ever gone on a ride along, and wished you could learn more? Here is your chance! Join us this Thursday, 7/31/14, for our program presentation by Captain Valerie Weiss of the Ottawa County Sheriff's Office and learn about the Citizen Police Academy.
"The Ottawa County Sheriff's Office began its inaugural Citizen Police Academy (CPA) in 2009. It gave a chance for a small group of business and community leaders an inside look at law enforcement." To read more, click here:
There was no eBulletin last week, so the presentation was a welcome surprise. Apologies to our speaker, Rotarians, and friends for not distributing the eBulletin, but we were having some technical difficultly. If this happens again, you can always check our website, www.hollandrotary.org, for the full schedule of speakers.
Last week we heard a refreshingly honest take on the football industrial complex in America from our own Kent Fry. Kent challenged us to think about the safety and equity concerns in modern day league, school and professional football. He recommended that we all read the book Friday Night Lights (later made into a successful movie and television series), where H.G. Bessinger chronicles a season of high school football with the Permian Panthers in Odessa, TX. According to Amazon, in the reading of this book you will: "Return once again to the timeless account of the Permian Panthers of Odessa--the winningest high-school football team in Texas history. Odessa is not known to be a town big on dreams, but the Panthers help keep the hopes and dreams of this small, dusty town going. Socially and racially divided, its fragile economy follows the treacherous boom-bust path of the oil business. In bad times, the unemployment rate barrels out of control; in good times, its murder rate skyrockets. But every Friday night from September to December, when the Permian High School Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true. With frankness and compassion, H. G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires--and sometimes shatters--the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms."
If you are one of the countless Americans who derives great joy from decking oneself out in school colors on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons each fall, while at the same time bemoaning the potential financial corruption and lack of safety in football...you would have enjoyed Kent's presentation and his request to have us all really think about common sense reforms.
Recently Holland Rotarians John Shea, Gary Bogle, Misty Hudgins, and Chris Dake bicycled from Holland to Indianapolis to support the Rotary Raffle. The complete trip was about250 miles on back roads, bike trails, and when unavoidable Highway 31.
After arriving in South Bend, Indiana, Gary remembered that he was no longer 30 years old (or even 55!), so he decided to drive the "sag wagon" part of the rest of the trip. He ended up biking about 175 miles during the four day adventure.
Happily, the challenge brought in the sale of several more raffle tickets to support the charity budget of our club.
