The Rotator

A Publication of Shawano Wisconsin Rotary Club.
August 2008


Table of Contents:
Programs and special events.
Future events
Words from Terry Hilgenberg.
Hello from Felipe Freitas, our incoming Youth Exchange Student from Brazil
Awards !! at our recent Passing the Gavel Banquet
Scholarships awarded by our Club.
New Member Profile - Kathy Bruhn

More about the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars.

An update from Jussi Toivenen our inbound from Finland a few years ago.

Rotary Noon meeting Programs and special events

Aug 4 - Ann Radtke will talk and give a slide show about her experiences in Zimbabwe during her visit with Dr StoughtonWe have had a strong interest in Dr Stoughtons work in Zimbabwe, so this should be an interesting program.

Aug 11 - Scott Heffernon will talk about his experiences at the "Badger Boys State", a government "camp" held in Madison. Shawano Rotary Club provided some funding for this trip.

Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar Nick Bisley will give us an update on his plans. He leaves for Sweden to study in a few weeks.

Aug 18 - The committee for the new school referendum will provide some background on the upcoming school referendum in September

August 26 - Steak Fry.....John Kestly When: Tuesday August 26 Bar open 5:00 served around 6:15. Where: Shawano Legion Hall. Free to members and potential member guests, $20 for other guests. 2 drinks included

Future events:
September 10 Joint meeting of 5 local rotary clubs. Dinner at the Clintonville Golf Course. See the details below.

Words from President Terry Hilgenberg:

the Board accepted the resignation of long time Rotary Member, Lon Swedberg,who is having schedule difficulties to,continue to participate in the Club.
Also, we're hoping to complete Committee Assignments within the next two weeks, and look forward to everyone'sparticipation.

Joint Meeting of Local Rotary Clubs

I received a voice mail from Joe Jones, our assistant governor for Rotary, requesting a head count for any Shawano Rotarians who would like to attend the joint Rotary meeting of the Clintonville, Waupaca, Marion and New London clubs. District Gov. Tom Friese will be the speaker. We have participated at this event the last several years. The meeting is scheduled for Sept. 10 for Dinner at the Clintonville Golf Course. The only difference this year is that because of our Club size and attendence record, President Tom will be visiting our Club in September independent of the joint meeting ----- way to go Shawano Rotary. !! I am requesting Shawano Rotarians to either email or call me (526-6143 ext. 111) by August 21 if they plan on attending. Cost will be approximately $10. Thanks, Terry

Hello from Felipe Freitas, our incoming Youth Exchange Student from Brazil

Hello Shawano Rotary Club,
Here is Filipe Freitas from Brazil. Firstly I want to say thank you to host me in your club, I'm so happy to go there, thank you for everything and to all the Rotarians , I want to say a special thank you to Lynne and Richard to receive me in their house and be my First host family, thank you. Thank you Shawano Rotary Club for making my dream real. Sincerely, Filipe. "

Report on the Passing of the Gavel Celebration
Remarks from the Outgoing President, Larry Romuald.

We as Rotarians know the needs in our communities and the world. We as Rotarians provide unselfish service above self.
This was exemplified with Cap Wallrich being designated at the District Conference as a recipient of Rotary Shares Award from District Governor Maynard Bowers.
This past year saw many accomplishments of the Shawano Rotary Club and it was my pleasure to be a small part of them.
Our membership continued to grow. We ended the year with a positive membership growth. The is no small achievement when viewed at the declining membership in other District 6220 Rotary Clubs. Our membership has taken on a new look. We have more gender diversity and the average member age is getting younger. This bodes well for the future as we take on more community projects that require a higher energy level and commitment.
Financially we ended the year with a surplus. This gives Terry additional money to fund special community projects. Our Reverse Raffle again was a success. Special thanks go out to Rob Michelson. Adeline Brath should be commended for obtaining Wal-Mart's $1,000 donation in conjunction with the Raffle. As a result, we were able to honor our fourth payment to the City for the Trail at Kuckuk Park. One payment remains. I encourage you to go down there and see the beautiful granite signs that have been placed at both ends of the Trail. We continued our support of the Stoughton Mission in Zimbabwe. We pray that troubled country will find a way to end its conflicts and permit the Stoughton's to return.
Our Youth Exchange Program continues to be strong. Cap Wallrich has to be commended for a job well done. We have an outbound student in Bailey Schreiber going to Finland. We have an inbound student from Brazil arriving in August and my thanks to those that have stepped up to be host families.
From my exposure at District 6220 Conferences, I have become keenly aware of the impact The Rotary Foundation is having. From the eradication of Polio to the miracle of Power Flour, Rotary is making a difference in undeveloped countries. The international focus remains to alleviate Health and Hunger, increase Children Literacy and secure Safe Drinking Water. One of my goals for the past year was to increase our membership monetary contributions. This was accomplished and now we have 17 sustaining members making contributions to the Foundation. Let us expand upon this commitment in the future.
I would like to close my remarks with a special thank you to Sherry Strahl from our CRI Staff. She has been very helpful in helping me with my Rotary duties over the past 6 years. This past year was a success. I thank you for your support and look forward to the coming Rotary Year.

Paul Harris Fellow Awards
Shawano Rotarians of the Year

Bill Ross and Joe Gellings received Paul Harris Fellow awards, while J.R. Habeck was named Shawano Rotarian of the year recently at The Gathering.
Ross noted that Rotary had done much to eradicate polio from the planet, which had a personal impact on him. Polio caused the death of his childhood cousin, which affected that boy's parents for years. Polio commonly causes crippling effects but is a threat now is less than 5% of the world thanks largely to a partnership between Rotary International and the Bill Gates Foundation. When he was growing up, Ross remembered polio outbreaks that caused closing of parks, swimming pools and water fountains.

Gellings was recognized for his years of service which have included time working on the foreign student exchange program. He also edits and creates the monthly club newsletter.
Habeck was given endowment recognition for a Paul Harris fellowship after contributing to the endowment fund, where the principal remains invested, with earnings distributed to causes such as power flour, quality drinking water and emergency shelter around the world.
Habeck had previously served as a club officer, has driven the club float in parades, contributes articles to the newsletter and media, helped with Mountain Bay trail cleanup and planting of trees at Kuckuk Park. He has emceed each Reverse Raffle held by the club, where participants win prizes, eat, drink and laugh.
Rotary was founded in 1905 by Attorney Paul Harris, who practiced in Chicago but grew up in Racine. Currently, there are Rotary clubs in about 166 countries and in each continent except Antarctica.

Scholarships !!

At a recent meeting held at The Gathering, college scholarships of $750 per student were awarded by the Shawano Rotary Club to Chris Culhane, Lacey Carlstrom and Courtney Machmueller.

Dr. Paul DIbley presented Machmueller the Emmereth Brunner Award, noting that she earned recognition by writing an essay detailing her academic and public service activities.

Brunner was a Green Valley farmer that personally helped advance agriculture in eastern Europe countries, coordinating Rotary club efforts.

Machmueller has been active in helping nursing home residents in this area. A Clintonville High School graduate, Courtney also has been active in her church, 4 H group and Salvation Army. The daughter of Jeff and Kim Machmueller, she will attend UW Whitewater and study early education.

Rotarian Steve Miller introduced scholarship recipients Carlstrom and Culhane. They were co-valedictorians at Shawano Community High School and selected from the top 10 boys and girls in their class.

Culhane excelled in academics and athletics, participating in 13 sport programs while in high school, earning awards as captain, all conference and MVP in various sports. He intends to run cross country and study at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. Chris is the second in his family to win a Shawano Rotary scholarship, following his brother Dan, a student at Northwestern. Dr. Kevin and Muffy Culhane attended the ceremony with their son.

Carlstrom excelled academically, musically, on the stage and was noted to have been a powder puff quarterback. The daughter of Jim and Kelly Carlstrom, she plans to attend UW Madison to study business.

New Member !!

Kathy Bruhn joined Shawano Rotary on a good note.
Kathy studied music notes at UW Madison (bachelors) and UW Milwaukee (masters) before teaching it at New London and Racine. Kathy also served as a school adminstrator for 15 years and currently volunteers for the music programs at Zion Lutheran church. She also has volunteered at Olga Brener Elementary School.
Kathy and her husband Chuck have two daughters and three grandchildren.
Having been named a Paul Harris fellow while at the Racine club, Kathy expects to contribute to our Shawano projects.
In her spare time, Kathy follows the Badgers and Packers and in season, she enjoys cross country skiing.


More about the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars.
from the District 6220 newsletter.
By John Weting, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship Sub Committee Chair
We find ourselves at a time when we must say farewell to Alessandra Brignola. For the past two years "Ale" has been our Inbound Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from Genoa, Italy studying at Michigan Technological University in Houghton Michigan. In May she earned her Masters degree in Industrial Archeology and was also named as the "2008 Woman of Promise by the Department of Social Sciences". For those of you who got to know Ale, know that we are saying farewell to a wonderful individual and an excellent Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, she has excelled not only as a scholar but also as an ambassador. We can all be very proud of her. Ale, we wish you the very best of luck in the future and please stay in touch with us!
Our 2008-09 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars, Kim Martino and Nick Beasley. Nick is from Gresham, WI and is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Shawano. He will soon be headed off to Sweden to study sustainable development in the Masters program in Strategic Leadership at Blekinge Institute of Technology in Karlskrona, Sweden. In May, Nick graduated from UW River Falls, congratulations Nick!
Kim is from Lisle, IL and is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Marquette Breakfast. She will soon be headed to Delhi University in Delhi, India where she will be studying Biology. Kim is presently a student at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI.
We wish both of them the very best of luck in their Rotary Ambassadorial year and I am confident that they both will be excellent Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars. We will update you throughout the coming year on their experiences.
Juliana Hagembe, our 2007-08 scholar is completing her year at the University of Hong Kong where she has been studying Public Health. Juliana is a citizen of Nairobi, Kenya and was studying at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI where she earned a Bachelors degree and has nearly completed her Masters Degree in Biology. She is planning to return to NMU for a semester to complete her research, thesis and Masters degree. Once Juliana has returned and is available to present programs on her Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship year we will let you know how to contact her to schedule a program.
We wish all of our scholars the best of luck in the future and the scholars join me in thanking all who have supported The Rotary Foundation. Your contributions have made this amazing opportunity available to them and are helping to make the world a better place one person at a time!
On April 19, a committee composed of DG Maynard Bowers, DGN Mary Schwaiger, Kim Martino, Nick Beasley and I interviewed six amazing applicants for the 2009-10 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship. After lengthy and thoughtful consideration, we selected Nicole Weber from Tomah, WI as the District 6220 2009-10 Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. Nicole plans to study for a Masters of Public Health at the University of Geneva in Geneva, Switzerland. She is currently studying at Northern Michigan University and will be receiving her Bachelors degree in May 2009. The Rotary Club of Marquette is sponsoring Nicole. Congratulations Nicole!
For those who want to catch up on our past scholar Glen Young, he has recently updated his blog at
http://unipogocycle.spaces.live.com/

An update from Jussi Toivenen, our inbound from Finland a few years ago.
from an email to Lynne and Dick Kuepper (with permission)

Good for your grand daughter Maris, she seemed like a smart girl from very early on, she will have a bright future if she's going to work hard, and go to College. There she can also apply abroad, which will improve her chances of becoming what I call a "world citizen" in this globalized world.

So very nice of you to write such a long letter, and as always, it's a pleasure to read them. I can't believe that you are taking in another exchange student, but I must admire your bravery. I hope you the best of luck with this new Brazilian boy, and I am sure that he will come to adore you as I did. I bet he'll enjoy entering the Braun's home also. At least he'll have the gang (the girls and Nutmeg) welcoming him with open arms.

I am always happy to hear that your piano students are doing fine. Only a good teacher can bring out the best!

I for one, am doing pretty good. Planning to graduate with a Bachelors degree from my university this coming December, and I am currently carrying out my internship in a global company called Metso Minerals. They specialize in crushing and screening of rocks for mining, civil, and construction projects worldwide. I have been mapping out processes of a distribution center that supplies with spare and wear parts for the machinery. It's been interesting, and I have acquired great business process related skills with the process work I have conducted.

In my free time, I have fallen in love with dancing as a serious hobby. I dance almost ten hours a week different styles of SALSA dancing. It's a couple dance originating from Caribbean countries like Cuba, and Puerto Rico. It's been developed further in the US, and I am dancing more or less the styles that come from the US. The dance itself is vibrant, usually fast, with a world of different turns and moves. I fell in love with the music of Eddie Palmieri (Jazz salsa) prior to dancing, but now dancing combined with great rhythmic music, I am have been born again! I also play Golf, but I would have to say I am a better dancer than a golfer. A lot better!

I still play piano and the guitar, and have been finalizing many of the pieces I have been composing during these couple of years. I am going to give you Lynne a two hour concert, watch out!

I never made it South Carolina; my new boss buried that idea, which was a shame, because I really looked forward to working in the US for the spring. I will have to look again next year, spring 2009. I may also get shipped to the Asian counties, where at least you get paid really well. Let's see what happens, I'll keep you posted.

Remember to say hi to everybody from me! All the best and take care! Jussi

Quotes,

"The simplest toy, which even the youngest child can operate, is called a grandparent."

- Sam Levenson

"A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it."

- Albert Einstein

"The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but has no vision."

- Helen Keller

Rotary Pictures
Joe Gellings has some Rotary photos posted on the internet. You can view or download them at http://picasaweb.google.com/shawanorotary
James Habeck has lots of photos in an album of our club history. It is available to see upon request.

Shawano Rotary Club Blog.

To see present and past newsletters, photographs, special announcements, etc.
Get on the internet and go to: http://shawanorotary.blogspot.com

The Other Club Fund Raiser

If you use a professional lawn care service or if you've ever considered using one this is your chance to get a beautiful, weed-free lawn and support Shawano Rotary Club at the same time! Community Lawn Care is locally owned and has fertilization, weed control and insect control services custom designed for the turf grasses in the Shawano area. And the good news is that 10% of every dollar you spend goes to support Shawano Rotary Club. Every lawn that we sign up represents a significant contribution to our cause! The Community Lawn Care services are competitively priced and completely guaranteed. So if you're interested in services starting next spring, sign up for a free, no obligation lawn analysis now at:
http://www.communitylawncare.com/agv/src/
Sign-up sheets will also be made available from John Kestly. Please forward this information along to anyone in the Shawano area who you think might be interested in supporting Shawano Rotary Club.

Officers, Board of Directors and Key Committee Chairmen.
for july 1 08 - june 30 09.
President: Terry Hilgenberg
President Elect: Judy Judd
Secretary: Rob Mickelson
Tresurer: Rick Karl
Program Director: Al Kuck
Director at Large: Steve Miller
Director at Large: Judge Tom Grover
Past President: Larry Romuald
Social committee chairman – Jim Zierden, Katie Mead - sub committee chariman.
Membership Development - Aaron Wallrich
Fund raising - Rob Mickelson
Sergeant at Arms - Randall Schmidt.


Internet sites to visit:

- For information on our Rotary District 6220 happenings and plans and club officer lookup: http://www.ridistrict6220.org
- District 6220 Youth Exchange Info: http://www.rotaryyouthexchange.us
- Rotary International Web address: http://www.rotary.org
- Rotary Int. General Information phone number: 847-866-3000.

Information gathered and distributed by Joe Gellings 524 2407
jgellings@gmail.com