Rotarians met 26 outstanding scholars at the June 1 luncheon. More than $388,000 will be awarded to the 2022 class of Madison Rotary Foundation scholars over the next four years.
Laura Peck, Chair, introduced the scholars; President Teresa Holmes presented each with a certificate.
Daniel Obi, 2017 French Scholar, gave a keynote. He shared how his Rotary scholarship and mentor relationship with Neal Fauerbach made a real difference helping him work towards becoming a Physician’s Assistant.
Roger Stauter was also inducted as a new member. His introduction included he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma. The meeting was sponsored by Jen Savino, KW2.
WI Sec. of Agriculture Randy Romanski gave Rotarians an overview of the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) and discussed the impact of agriculture on Wisconsin’s economy.
In addition to advising and providing financial support to farmers, DATCP regulates food safety, animal health, consumer protection laws and the meat packing industry. Agriculture is critical to our economy, with one in nine Wisconsinites employed in agriculture. Wisconsin is fourth in the world in cheese production.
Romanski’s presentation included a visit from Alice in Dairyland, who promotes Wisconsin agriculture products. He gave shoutouts to past Alices in attendance, including our own Carol Koby.
If you missed our Rotary meeting last week, you can watch the video here. (Our thanks to WisEye for videotaping our guest speaker last week and for allowing us to post it on our club’s YouTube channel.)
Alan Klugman and Joe Shumow shared details May 4 of their humanitarian visit to the border of Poland and Ukraine. They visited four refugee centers, meeting with volunteers and some of Poland’s three million Ukraine refugees as part of a Jewish Federation delegation.
Their visit lasted only 48 hours, but they heard stories of a lifetime. They met a refugee who told of meeting family with a son paralyzed from the neck down. The family took turns carrying him for three days, finally collapsing. With help from many, they were able to finally emigrate safely to Warsaw.
Another moving story was an 87-year-old-woman, left at the border with volunteers by her son who went back for family. This made the elderly woman relive World War II memories. Happily, her son was able to reunite her and his family.
It was powerful, they said, to sit in Warsaw and feel safe, as this is an historically war-torn
area. The Polish government paid for two of the refugee centers and other resources. Over three million refugees have been accepted in Poland; 300,000 Poles have opened their homes to offer safety at their own cost.
Volunteering is also needed; local volunteers were all races and religions of people who had a previous connection to Ukraine who wanted to give back. They were often sharing a sweater, a blanket, a cup of coffee, and a hug. Volunteers are needed who speak Russian.
Maier-Bascom Professor Dhavan Shah, Director of the Mass Communication Research Center at the UW-Madison proposed that modern digital and social media make it harder to compromise in politics. Our politics were developed in a different time, and modern technology actually degrades political debate. It is harming the ability to engage in reasoned deliberation. For instance, his research indicates that audiences react to dynamic style rather than substance. We live in “an attention economy.” Negativity gets the attention on social media. The angry and the bombastic get the online attention and this, in turn, is picked up by the larger media, amplifying it.
From left: Jess Cavazos, Jason Ilstrup, Peggy Gunderson and Matt Gerding
The March 23rd program was a panel discussion of “The Post Covid World” that consisted of Rotarian Jess Cavazos from Wisconsin Latino Chamber of Commerce, Matt Gerding from FPC Live (Frank Productions) and Peggy Gunderson of Strategic Brand Marketing with Jason Ilstrup serving as emcee. After providing their organizations’ experience with the pandemic, there followed a discussion of how they were moving forward. Space does not allow a just description but in essence, they described changes reflecting heightened importance of relationships, changes in the use of various technologies, and increased optimism for the future.
The program on March 9, 2022, was provided by Arjun Sanga, President of WiSys, a not-for-profit organization that supports undergraduate research at Wisconsin’s 12 regional universities. Mr. Sanga explained his organization’s four areas of concentration; to connect student researchers to grants, help market their research ideas, inspire students to achieve and to foster a culture of innovation.
He provided examples of recent student research projects such as one that worked to develop sensors for early warning of landslides. Students also compete with others at their schools and between schools in the system with regard to the quality and importance of their specific projects.
Rotary Club of Madison, Wisconsin 