December 2014 Newsletter - Wilmington, NC Rotary Club #6184

December 16, 2014
Wilmington Rotary Club • Founded April 1915 • A Century of Service Above Self
Rotarians pack boxes to keep
550 children from going hungry
Many hands made fast work of packing hundreds of food boxes on Saturday morning, Dec. 6. Several Rotarians
from this club joined a small army of
volunteers at Nourish NC’s warehouse
on Greenfield Street to prepare boxes
stuffed with non-perishable groceries.
These will be distributed to the families of 550 New Hanover County
school children who depend on school
breakfasts and lunches on weekdays—
and often don’t have enough to eat on
weekends and during school breaks.
Our club has given both financial
support and volunteer labor to Nourish NC. In addition to the food boxes,
it supports a “backpack” program that
sends food home with selected elementary school students on weekends.
Working assembly-line style, in just
two hours volunteers filled hundreds of
boxes with such staples as dry beans,
rice, pasta, peanut butter, jelly and
canned vegetables.
Coming through!
Sandra Kalom, at
right, wheels flats
of canned goods
to volunteers, to
be packed into
hundreds of boxes.
Photos by
John Meyer
Mark calendar for Centennial
Mike Beaudoin and John Hinnant move a box along a table full of donated
food, loading specified quantities of non-perishable commodities at each of
several dozen stations. Four parallel assembly lines did similar work.
Events marking our club’s 100th anniversary will
begin early in 2015, culminating in early spring.
Tuesday, Feb. 10: Re-enactment of a 1915 meeting
of The Wilmington Rotary Club. Led by Julie Rehder,
this is the program at our regular lunch meeting.
Tuesday, March 10: Open House with the Herman
Blizzard Rotary archives, Special Collections, UNCW
Randall Library. 4-6 p.m.; media presentation at 5:15.
Led by Cathy Barlow and Mimi Cunningham.
Tuesday, March 24: Short film “The Shot Felt
’Round the World,” which outlines development of
the polio vaccine by Dr. Jonas Salk. Regular lunch
meeting program.
Saturday, March 28: 100 Year Celebration dinner
at the Wilmington Convention Center.
TBA: Picnic lunch meeting to be held at the Rotary
Wheel garden at Greenfield Park, April or May.
Police and firefighters honored for Service Above Self
In an annual celebration of the
region’s public safety workers,
Rotarian Ben David presented
“Service Above Self” awards
to seven public servants at our
Nov. 25 meeting. Honored were:
Wilmington Fire Dept. Master
Firefighter John Hughes.
Detective William Campbell
of the New Hanover County
John Hughes
William Campbell
Sheriff’s Office, who investigates human trafficking cases.
Wilmington Police Dept. Detective Sgt. Kelvin Hargrove,
violent crime unit supervisor
and Big Buddy volunteer.
First Sgt. Lauren White,
crime scene investigator with
the Sheriff’s Office.
Officer Lynn Hartley, Wilm-
Kelvin Hargrove
Lauren White
ington Police Dept. domestic violence specialist.
Officer Aaron Naughton and
Chief Ken Hinkle of the Carolina Beach Police Dept.
Honored for recruiting Vertex Rail Technologies, creating
new jobs, were Cape Fear Community College and Wilmington
Business Development.
Lynn Hartley
Aaron Naughton
David: District attorney
Ken Hinkle
Programs highlight health care,
football, fish farming and looks
back at Rotary Club’s history
Hight: Farm-City Week
Wilbur: Aquaculture
Frinsko: Fish farming
Both Rotarians and outside
speakers contributed to weekly
programs the past two months.
Jack Barto, chief executive officer of New Hanover Regional
Medical Center, spoke on Oct. 28
about the hospital’s current business and patient-care initiatives,
and the financial challenges in the
health-care business.
On Nov. 4, in a program planned
by our Centennial Recognition
Committee, Mimi Cunningham
presented a slide show about our
club’s multi-generational membership legacy. Several current Rotarians are direct descendants of
founding members, and we have a
number of parent-and-child pairs
on the rolls today.
Recruiting high school athletes
for N.C. State University’s football team was the topic on Nov.
11. Al Trevathan, recruiter for the
Wolfpack football program, was
the speaker.
Rotarian Al Hight returned to
the podium Nov. 18 for something
of an encore to his Sept. 23 talk,
this time introducing our annual
Farm-City Week program. This
year’s focus was aquaculture, with
presentations by Dr. Ami Wilbur, director of UNCW’s shellfish hatchery, and Mike Frinsko,
an acquaculture specialist with NC
Cooperative Extension Service.
The focus on Dec. 9 was another
Recognition Committee program,
this one about the struggle in our
club, and in Rotary International,
to diversify membership. Rotarian
Ann LaReau outlined the history
of Rotary’s resistance to women as
members, and the organization’s
eventual welcome to female Rotarians after its male-only rules were
struck down by the Supreme Court
in 1987. She also reviewed how
this formerly all-white club began to recruit and induct AfricanAmerican members in the 1980s.
The club’s female
presidents: Stacy
Ankrum, 2011-12;
Connie MajureRhett, 2007-08;
Donna Shiro, 200607; Melissa Hight,
2008-09. Not shown:
Mimi Cunningham,
1994-95; Patrice
Willetts, 2005-06.
Barto: NHRMC hospital
Trevathan: NCSU football
LaReau: Rotary diversity
Youth leadership event
sponsored by area clubs
Fifty high school students from New Hanover County participated
in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards program on Nov. 15. Ten of
them were selected for the District 7730 RYLA conference in January.
Rotarian Bob Gruber, chairman of the RYLA committee, reported
on the event at the Dec. 2 club meeting. The local RYLA meeting was
held in Burney Center at UNCW, sponsored by five area Rotary clubs.
Students came from eight high schools, public and private. They met
with discussion leaders from 20 occupations, chosen to align with the
students’ interests. Most of the discussion leaders are Rotarians.
A schedule of four rotating 40-minute session gave each student a
chance to interact face-to-face with eight of the discussion leaders.
District Governor Vanessa Ervin gave a closing speech, encouraging
the students to form Interact clubs in their schools.
The discussion leaders chose ten students they considered the most
articulate and to have the best leadership skills, and invited them to attend the RYLA District Conference in January at Pine Knoll Shores.
One of the ten, Raven Goodman of Cape Fear Academy, was
awarded a scholarship. She joined Bob at the Dec. 2 meeting to talk
about the RYLA experience and her ambitions to study medicine.
Raven Goodman
Gruber: RYLA chair
Photos by Chris Hoenig
City’s holidays start at Rotary Wheel
The Rotary Wheel garden at
Greenfield Park was the setting for Wilmington’s official
Christmas tree lighting ceremony on Dec. 4.
Rotarian Lori Harris, who
has been a strong advocate for the Wheel
and the adjacent amphitheater, presided
at the ceremonial tree
lighting. Afterward, a
large crowd of families met with Santa
Claus and stayed for
a free showing of “A Harris: EmCee
Christmas Story” in
the amphitheater.
Rotarian volunteers led by
Al Hight spiffed up the park
in a Nov. 22 work day.
Photos by John Meyer
Allan Fox, left, is inducted. With sponsor Bret Paterson, Hansen Matthews, Elliott O’Neal.
New Rotarians sign on, address the club
Three new members
joined the club in November. Allan Fox was
inducted on Nov. 4,
sponsored by Bret Paterson. Allan is a commercial real estate broker.
On Nov. 11, Jim Edge
and Kyria Henry became members. Jim,
who recently moved to
Wilmington, was a 21Jim Edge
year member of the West
Raleigh Rotary Club.
His career is in international marketing. Eliott
O’Neal is his sponsor.
Kyria manages an
agency that trains and
places service dogs. She
was sponsored by Patrice Willetts.
Hobbs Sutton gave
his new-member talk on
Oct. 28. Hobbs, who is a
home furnishings retailStephen Coggins
er, noted that he didn’t
wait as long as his father, the late Billy Sutton,
whose new-member talk came more than 30 years
after he joined the club in 1953. Hobbs said his
grandfather, Ivey J. Sutton, was also a long-time
Rotarian, but had a fear of public speaking. Ivey
Sutton never did address the club.
Joan Greback Clarke, who was inducted on
July 22, told the club about herself on Nov. 4. She
is a fund-raiser and a fund-raising consultant.
Stephen Coggins gave his new-member talk on
Nov. 25. He is a lawyer and joined the club on Aug.
26. He explained how Hurrican Fran in 1996 led to
his moving to the Wilmington area.
Kudos to Live Oak Bank
President Hansen Matthews thanks Lee
Williams of Live Oak Bank at the Oct. 28
meeting for the bank’s $10,000 contribution to
Williston Middle School. Live Oak bank is also
one of several $1,000 sponsors for our club’s
Centennial celebration next March 28.
Newsletter photography by Robby Collins
Make-Ups
Kyria Henry
Hobbs Sutton
Joan Greback Clarke
Attending another Rotary meeting within two
weeks of a missed meeting entitles members to
make-up credit. Other area Rotary clubs include:
MONDAY
Wilmington East, 6:00 p.m., Bluewater
Grill, 4 Marina St., Wrightsville Beach
TUESDAY
Wilmington Central, 12:15 p.m.,
McAlister’s Deli, 740 S. College Road
Wilmington Rotary Club, 12:30 p.m.,
Coastline Conference Center, 501 Nutt St.
WEDNESDAY
Coastal Pender, 12:30 a.m., Castle Bay
Country Club, 107 Links Court, Hampstead
Wilmington South, 12:30 p.m., Cape Fear
Country Club, 1518 Country Club Drive
THURSDAY
Burgaw, 7:00 a.m., The Heritage Place, 901
S. Walker St., Burgaw
Leland, 7:30 a.m., Two Guys Grill, 2013
Olde Regent Way (Waterford)
Wilmington West, Noon, Roudabush
Room, 33 S. Front St. at Dock
FRIDAY
Wilmington Cape Fear, 7:30 a.m., Jungle
Rapids, 5320 Oleander Drive
Board of Directors Meeting Get In Touch
5:30 pm, 4th Monday of each Month
Maus, Warwick, Matthews & Co.
2524 Independence Blvd.
Wilmington, NC 28412
President Hansen Matthews 791-0400
President-Elect John Meyer 392-5228
Secretary Elliott O’Neal 397-3613
Newsletter Editor John Meyer 392-5228
Website Editor Tyler Wooden 919-880-8170
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Website
www.WilmingtonRotaryClub.org