Service Blog

Denali (Mt McKinley)

Many heard my announcement in early August “As of this meeting ten percent (“10%) of my term as your new President has passed AND with my personal journeys will mean that you won’t see me again leading your Thursday meeting until twenty five percent (25%) of my term as your new President on the last Thursday in September.” Now that your new President has filled his shoes to lead two Thursday meetings, thanks to our Rotary Club of Sturgeon Bay (“RCOSB”) that has gone forward with great leaders worldwide.

While on my annual journey to “Larryfest”, a bluegrass festival in the driftless “coulee” region on the west side of Wisconsin south of LaCrosse (I attended UW-LaCrosse for my first few semesters of college so great memories of that region and its people), our RCOSB welcomed our new Rotary Youth Exchange (“RYE”) inbound from Romania, Ralucca “Ralu” Dragut, whose host parents, Amy and RCOSB member Brian Stevens, are now well into it; our RCOSB needs your help finding a host or host families for our inbound RYEs so whoever you are reading this post, let our RYEO (RYE Officer) Dr. Luke Staudenmaier know the name of anyone who you might suggest as a good host or host family – that could be fore Ralu for a month or two, or for our next in 2019, 2010, or beyond.

Leadership during my journey included our three (yes 3 is the number) RYE outbound that began their own journeys in August; though no relationship with Rotary is the norm, this year all 3 are children of one of our RCOSB members:

• Graycia Carter, outbound to Finland, is 1 of 3 daughters of our RCOSB Board member Wendi Carter (BTW another of Wendi’s daughters, Maegyn, is on the Sturgeon Bay High School JV2 Girls Volleyball team with Ralu, and Jackie Herlache, daughter of RCOSB members Nell and John Herlache, is the coach of their team: LET’S SUPPORT those in our Rotary family by attending the last home game at 5:30 pm on Tuesday 9 October at the Sturgeon Bay High/Middle School!
• Sydney Felhofer, outbound to Brazil, is 1 of 2 daughter of Tonya and RCOSB member Mike Felhofer; a surprise to dad was her own determination for a medical issue while so far away in our southern hemisphere, and how she has grown into a responsible adult, not aksing for help, while so far away. our community,
• Chloe Staudenmaier, outbound to Ecuador, is the daughter of Dawn and our RYEO Luke Staudenmaier;  Dr. Luke reported last week that their daughter is having a fantastic experience representing our community in that part of the world.

RYE has these 4 as great representatives, leading peace and understanding thorugh the connections they make across our world. ers, making connections to bring peace and understanding across the globe.

Our own RCOSB leadership should be recognized too  for filling the shoes of your absent President (me) by handling one or more of our RCOSB meetings as my journey allowed me and my wife, Ann, to visit my son and his new wife (Memorial Day weekend 2018 wedding) in Seattle, then journey to Alaska to meet up with 3 other Sturgeon Bay couples (Dee and RCOSB member Eric Paulsen, Pam and former RCOSB member Dan McCluskey, and Marge and Craig Ostrand, arranged by RCOSB member Sue Werhli) and at the end of Alaska Ann and I visited with her only niece  and her family in Vancouver, B.C. (Canada) and then back to Seattle for a few more days with our son and daughter in law, Michael and Chelsea Cooper. BIG thanks to our great RCOSB leaders:

• President Elect Mark Nelson
• President Nominee Sean Linnan
• Past President Cheryl Tiemn

Each stepped to fill my empty shoes leading one or more of our RCOSB meetings so a big THANK YOU TO ROTARY for bringing such good people together across the world. The Rotary wheel turns so well, thanks to each of you in our community for your support!