Category Archives: 6. Youth

Annual Rotaract Holiday Party on December 7

Posted on December 12, 2013 by | Leave a comment

-submitted by Dick & Noel Pearson

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“This event was absolutely the best ever!  As each student walked in the door, they were asked to hang at least one ornament on the tree.  We have an All-Faith Christmas tree!

They all got together and tied knots on 15 no-sew fleece fringe blankets to be given to First Responders in a few weeks.  They also made a blanket with US Army fleece, for Rotarian Lew Harned, but he was not in attendance.  Moses Altsech will help  figure out how to get it to Lew.

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One of the  highlights of the evening, was the “Who  has the ugliest Christmas sweater” contest.  Moses was the judge.  His commentary was hilarious.

Each student brought a gift for  exchange.  They all gathered around the Christmas tree while Brittney read aloud “The  Night Before Christmas.”  She added the words “left” and “right” every so often.  When either left or right was spoken, bags were to be passed in that direction.  The anticipation and excitement at the passing of each gift bag  was fun to see.  The reactions of the students as they had to pass a bag with a gift they wanted to keep were very creative.

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Dan Larson selected a nice variety of pizzas from Glass Nickel.

When some of the students realized we have a dog and a cat, they politely asked if I would let them visit Ralph and Peter.  Ralph, the cat, was his usual 20-pound nonchalant self.   Peter, the 2-year-old black  Lab rescue, loved and hugged everyone in sight.

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Each student gave me a hug as they left and expressed thanks for a wonderful party.”

Our thanks to Dick and Noel Pearson for hosting this event at their home on December 7.

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 3. Committees, 4. Fellowship Groups, a. Rotaract, Rotaract

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Celebrating 100 Years: A Look Back in Our Club’s History on Ethics Symposium

Posted on July 22, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Rotary Club of Madison-Centennial LogoOur History Sub-Committee continues to take a look back in our club’s rich history and is sharing highlights from the past century.  This week’s message is shared by committee member Jerry Thain:

Ethics LogoEthics Symposium Became One of Club’s Signature Events in the 21st Century

The earlier centennial blog posts dealt primarily with events of the Club in its first 75 years. While such “look backs” provide perspective for today, one of the Club’s major events was developed within the last 15 years and remains an ongoing cornerstone of Club outreach. What is now the annual Rotary Ethics Symposium for high school juniors in Dane County was developed by Melanie Ramey and other Club members beginning in 1999. The first such event was held in October 2000, and there has been one every academic year since then. The first ones were held in October, and the Symposium was held on days when meetings of teachers provided a non-school day for the Symposium. Notably, the schools soon recognized the academic value of the program and allowed students to attend it in lieu of school so the Rotary Ethics Symposium in recent years has been held in February or March. The first program was at the Concourse Hotel; lately the Monona Terrace Convention Center has been the venue.

Ethan Ecklund-ParaThe Rotary Ethics Symposium has been constantly evolving and continues to evolve in its particulars even today. However, it has always involved intensive looks at specific ethical problems by the students and a great deal of preparation and participation by a large number of Rotarians, a few of whom have been involved in every program held to date. Instead of an opening address by a noted scholar or professional specializing in ethics, which was the pattern in the first years, the Symposium now begins with the staging of an ethical problem pertinent to high school students by the First Wave Drama & Music group of the UW-Madison followed by discussion of that and then, as always, breakout sessions of the students into smaller groups that each deal with an ethical issue before returning to a plenary lunch and opportunity for feedback.

DSC00257The Rotary Ethics Symposium, acting in conjunction with academic specialists in ethics such as the Santa Clara University Center for Ethical Studies, developed an R.O.T.A.R.Y. framework for studying ethical dilemmas and five widely utilized but differing approaches to decide them. The emphasis has always been on advising students that there often is no single “right” answer to an ethical question and that different approaches may yield different results, even though both or all may be considered an ethical solution to the problem.

The R.O.T.A.R.Y. framework, in brief, is as follows: Recognize an ethical issue; Obtain pertinent information; Test alternative approaches from the various ethical perspectives; Act consistently with your best judgment; Reflect on your decision; Yield to your ethical judgments.

The Rotary Ethics Symposium now involves not only the volunteer activities of many Club members but also of non-members engaged in analysis of ethical problems in business and the professions, as well as Rotaract participants. Although it seems certain that fine-tuning will continue each year in an effort to continue to improve the program, it clearly has been a success from the perspectives of both students and Rotarians since its inception. Consider the reports in Club newsletters about the initial ethics symposium in 2000 and about the most recent one on March 1, 2013, attended by 213 students from 19 Dane County high schools.

There is every reason to believe that the Symposium will be a signal activity of the Club in its second century of “service above self.”

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 3. Committees, 6. Youth, Annual Ethics Symposium, Centennial Celebration

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13th Annual Rotary Ethics Symposium on March 1, 2013

Posted on March 4, 2013 by | 1 comment

Our club’s strategic plan includes a goal which states, “Identify and focus on up to four areas of need toward which the Club will dedicate its service, attention, and financial resources to optimize impact and make plain our role in the community.”  One project that our club continues which helps us achieve this goal is the annual Rotary Club of Madison Ethics Symposium.

DSC_0018On Friday, March 1, at Monona Terrace (left), there were 213 high school juniors in attendance at our 13th  Annual Rotary Ethics Symposium, and they came from 19 Dane County high schools.

This year, our planning committee, chaired by Dora Zuniga, worked closely with Edgewood College Prof. Denis Collins and Edgewood College Rotaract students to develop the day’s activities to help teach these high school juniors how to work through ethical dilemmas using a R-O-T-A-R-Y Six-step Framework.  We also welcomed back the First Wave Group for our opening session, and the students gave high marks once again to this group.  The First Wave Hip Hop and Urban Arts Learning Community is a cutting-edge multicultural artistic program for incoming students at UW-Madison.

DSC00248  DSC00261  DSC00265(Pictured above are various breakout sessions.)

We’d like to thank the following 50 Rotarians who helped out during the day’s event: Steve Aune, Ken Axe,  Brian Basken, Sean Baxter, Donna Beestman, John Bonsett-Veal, Scott Campbell, Sharon Chamberlain, Karen Christianson, Nelson Cummings, Dave Ellestad, Jed Engler, Neil Fauerbach, Jim Fitzpatrick, Rico Goedjen, Dick Goldberg, Cary Heyer, Donna Hurd, Steve Johannsen, Mary Kaminski, Paul Karch, Karen Kendrick-Hands, Robyn Kitson, Ranette Mauer, Kathryne McGowan, Gregg McManners, Renee Moe, Tim Muldowney, Dick Pearson, Laura Peck, Maggie Peterman, Marty Preizler, Melanie Ramey, Bill Reay, Mary Romolino, Joe Sensenbrenner, Bob Shumaker, Larry Smith, Bob Sorge, Wes Sparkman, Ross Squires, Tim Stadelman, Jim Taylor, Jeff Tews, Jerry Thain, Ellis Waller, Mike Wenzel, Marcia Whittington, Bill Zeinemann and Dora Zuniga (chair).

DSC_0028  DSC_0021  Edgewood Rotaract Students
(Pictured above from left:  First Wave Group from UW-Madison; General photo during Opening Session; Edgewood Rotaract Students: front  row from left to right: Michelle Karn, Victoria Ortiz, Ashley Schoenoff, Abby Trollop, Chelsea Culver, Lauren Carpenter; back row from left to right:  Ben Sheperd, Cory Kundert, Nick Walusayi, Aliou Traore, Bill DeVault)

In addition, our thanks go to Edgewood Prof. Denis Collins and Amy Gannon, along with the following Edgewood College Rotaract students:  Lauren Carpenter, Chelsea Culver, Billy DeVault, Michelle Karn, Cory Kundert, Ashton Lareau, Victoria Oritz Sayago, Ashley Schoenoff, Ben Sheperd, Aliou Traore, Abby Trollop and Nick Walusayi.

From the evaluation forms completed by students at the end of the day, we heard some favorable comments.  Here is a sampling:
–  It was very inspiring and I appreciate it very much.  It changed the way I think about these situations.
–  This was a meaningful experience for me, and I will never forget it.
–  I was surprised by how much fun it was.  I thought the all of the discussions were very fun.
–  This was a wonderful experience. I was open to so many new things.
–  I loved the entire experience and cannot express that enough.  The world needs more people who think this way.
–  I really enjoyed it and met new people while learning about problems at my school that I wasn’t fully aware of.
–  It was intriguing and brought me together with new people.  I was a little confused and uncomfortable at the beginning, but it quickly got better.  Thank you for the opportunity!
–  Thank you for the event.  I feel like it has made a positive difference for my ethical decision process.
–  I think the sessions were effective and the student based discussion was key.

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(Pictured above from left: Denis Collins (center) consulting with Rotaract students; and breakout session photos) 

As 2013 Ethics Symposium Chair Dora Zuniga closed the event, she drew a name of one lucky winner from the audience for the iPod prize drawing, and Jeffrey Reinholz from Verona Area High School was pleased to be the recipient.  Our thanks to Ranette Mauer and the Hilton Madison Hotel for donating this door prize.

 

 

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 6. Youth, a. Rotaract, Annual Ethics Symposium

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Mixer Magic – Rotary Scholars Came Together with Mentors on January 9

Posted on January 10, 2013 by | Leave a comment

–submitted by Ellie Schatz, Rotary Scholar Mentor Committee Chair

Most members of the club are well aware that we have 80 scholarship recipients attending college with our support. But where are they; what are they doing? On January 9, we found out. About 40 scholars and mentors spent an hour learning about each other and sharing their stories. Kyle Gallagher Schmitz graduated in December and has new wheels to show for it, according to mentor Bob Shumaker. From our mixer questionnaires we learned that only Kyle has a motorcycle, only Dick Lovell eats oatmeal for breakfast and Brian Basken eggs!

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(Pictured in 3 photos above from left: Dick Lovell, Danielle Greenfield, Leslie Villarreal, Sharyl Kato, Lin Rohr and Ana Selenske)

The question of how mentors might better help their scholars resulted in the only moment of silence during the whole hour. But when reworded to ask what has a mentor done that you consider awesome, the scholars all seemed anxious to share: Sharyl Kato has been there for Leslie Villarreal day and night. Being that they are neighbors (how did that happen?) Ismat Bhuiyan and Deb Raupp take walks together regularly. Khadim Niang is proud of Tom Popp’s work in Malawi, and Sharyn Alden is proud of Emma Crawford’s trip to help provide dental care in Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Raven Wood likes shopping with Melanie Ramey and Jazzmin Franks thanks Mike and Pat Wilson for finding her a job in the administration office at Madison College.

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(Pictured in 3 photos above from left: Patrick Mather, Ana Selenske, Sergio Becerra-Ramirez, Lily Gonzalez, Jazzmin Franks, Khadim Niang and Kyle Gallagher Schmitz)

We had fun trying to figure out who had traveled the furthest in 2012 and who was born the furthest away from Madison. Ismat thought she might have the record with both her birth and her recent trip back to Bangladesh. Several people thought Mike Wilson, our kiwi, might have it. With no geography expert in the room, neither could claim the prize. Pa Done Yang, born in Thailand, kept her claims for distance silent. She told me she hasn’t been back and instead is seeking scholarships to go to China to find her Hmong people’s roots. Internet research shows Christchurch is about 600 miles further than Dhaka, and although Christchurch has it over Bangkok by a hair, it had to be some distance to the refugee camp. Hats off to all three!

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(Pictured in 3 photos above from left: Juan Becerra, Karl Gutknecht, Kalia Winkle, Pa Done Yang, Julius Starlin and Mike Wilson)

Sergio Becerra-Ramirez thought it unusual that he and Juan Becerra were unrelated and shared a last name. Pa Done Yang and Chie Yang, also unrelated, said that’s not unusual — Yang is a common name in their culture. What they do share is a mentor — me, and I share the common-name syndrome with them, given my maiden name — Smith!   The bottom line: our Foundation scholarship money is being well invested in supporting these scholars. And, the mentors agree that their time is just as well invested. It was indeed Mixer Magic to spend time together with all these scholars and mentors.

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(Pictured in 4 photos above from left: Ismat Bhuiyan, Deb Raupp, Ellie Schatz, Chie Yang, Mary Rouse, Lily Gonzalez, Jazzmin Franks, Club President Wes Sparkman with Ellie Schatz)

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 3. Committees, Scholars & Mentors

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Highlights from 6th Annual Rotary Mentor-Scholar Picnic

Posted on July 19, 2012 by | 1 comment

–submitted by Stu Levitan

About 25 Rotary scholars and their respective club mentors enjoyed themselves at the now-traditional summer picnic at Nate Brand and Regina Millner’s beautiful Fuller’s Woods home on July 15. The kitchen crew of Kevin Hoffman, Mike Hoesly and Jim Ruhly, led by co-chair Gary Peterson braved the sweltering heat to staff the grill, as members supplemented the menu with salads, sides and desserts. Admiral Dick Pearson, who with Noel, hosted the first two Mentor-Scholar picnics, took several groups on tours of mighty Lake Mendota in his deck boat.  A fine time was had by all.

 

 Following are quotes from those attending the picnic:

“Ismat and I had a great time seeing scholars from last year and welcoming new scholars. The food, fellowship, boat ride and hospitality (thanks Nate and Regina) were wonderful! It was good to connect with a couple scholars who were having challenges during their freshman year away from the Midwest. This event allows for both celebration and problem solving.”  —Deb Raupp 

“The beauty of the lake and the gracious hospitality of Regina and Nate provided the perfect setting to celebrate and share with some absolutely amazing young adults! As I left I told my husband, this is another reason why I am grateful to be a Rotarian!”  —Lin Grace Rohr 

“We had a super GREAT time at the picnic and we felt it was the best ever. Leslie loved the opportunity to get to know the other students and she loved the food, the BOAT RIDE and the beautiful home of Regina and Nate!!!! Sharyl loved the opportunity to connect with the other students and other Rotarians as we don’t often have a chance to relax and chat at Wed lunch meetings. Sharyl REALLY loved the food, it all seemed extra yummy this year and special thanks to the “grill guys” who grilled to perfection on such a hot day!! Best, Sharyl Kato

                                                                

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 3. Committees, 4. Fellowship Groups, 5. Members, 6. Youth, Kitchen, Scholars & Mentors

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Rotary District 6250 Annual Conference

Posted on June 14, 2012 by | Leave a comment

Rotary District 6250 Annual Conference, June 8th & 9th in LaCrosse, WI

June 13, 2012 //
Submitted by Jacqui Sakowski
 
When I accepted President Paul’s invitation to car-pool to LaCrosse the environmentalist in me leapt at the chance.  I learned so much about Paul’s life – his family, his aspirations for the future, his perspective on Rotary as he approaches the passing of the pin. What a bonus!

We arrived for the Business Meeting where we got to vote on the budget and other operational issues, before attending a very fun and inspiring lunch. We were addressed by a remarkable woman – Rotary International’s first female corporate officer and cancer sufferer, who was clearly in poor health, but spoke with confidence, energy and passion about the origins of the Four Way Test.  She was to address us 4 more times before the conference ended. A display of resilience that we were all proud to witness!

Afternoon presentations on The Holocaust, the plight of children around the world and programs that help youth adopt and live by life-enhancing values made for a very informative and fast-paced afternoon. Inbound RYE students shared cultural insights about their country before supper. Our first Oktoberfest in June, was colorful and celebratory, as you can see …

It’s June 8th it must be Oktoberfeste!

Lots of connecting and re-connecting over dinner, made for lively breakfast meetings the next morning. After you dined with a District Governor clad in leiderhosen, it’s hard to stand on ceremony ever again! We celebrated gifts to the RI Foundation, and were in awe of the impact of RI dollars, and the creativity of clubs around the district who had doubled and quadrupled funds by leveraging Rotary and non-Rotary grants to expand their reach.

Mary Kessen shares the RI Foundation update.

Jerry Mcnellis tells us why Polio is one of the gifts of his life.

Rotary Club of Madison’s Honored Hero, Nelson Cummings

At lunch on Saturday we honored Rotarian’s, selected by their own clubs as Heroes. Here Nelson Cummings is greeted by Emily, a very bright RYE student who presented him with a certificate.

The afternoon flew by with programs on wellness, Rotaract, Interact and Rotary Youth Leadership Awards – the future of Rotary and the world seems to be in great hands if the young people who addressed us are the measure.

The faces of Rotary’s future. Pauline, Charlotte and Emy.

At dinner John Hewko and Betsy Demaray spoke about the importance of documenting Rotary’s true impact in the world, before the conference concluded with the (slightly early) installation of Rob Stroud as 2012-2013 District Governor.

Rob took the pin and then the stage, from where he invited Rotarian’s to assemble in Madison on May 31st and June 1st next year to celebrate 100 years of Rotary Service and Fellowship in WI, at Monona Terrace.

Paul and I headed out of LaCrosse at about 9;15 p.m. As we compared experiences on the journey home we realized that we each had new friends, new appreciation for the works and opportunities of Rotary, and an invigorated Rotary spirit to bring to our best efforts in the coming months.  I am already excited for next year!

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Posted in 2. Meetings, 8. Honors, a. Rotaract, District 6250 Conference, History, Youth Exchange

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