Wednesday June 28th - New Officer Induction

Out with the old, in with the new.
New President Molly Cousins with Past President Carey Hite



















Mack Branham, past District Governor, inducts our new President, Molly Cousins














Committee Chair Awards
Ray Hunt, Gary Williams, Harold Crawford, Carey Hite, Ginny Barr, Larry Stohs















Club Officer Awards
Harvey Hoots, Eddie Robinson, Jeanette Coulter, Molly Cousins, Carey Hite














Special Recognition Awards
Blount Shepard, Joel Collins, Patty Cavanaugh, Judy Johnson, Carey Hite, Jeff Baldwin













80% of Success is just showing up - Woody Allen

Attendance Awards
Carey Hite, Lyman Whitehead, Lyn Campbell, Jeanette Coulter, Patty Cavanaugh, John Adair.












Your new Club Officers
Judy Johnson, Harvey Hoots, Ginny Barr, Eddie Robinson, Jeanette Coulter, Larry Stohs, Patty Cavanaugh, Mack Branham (Previous District Governor), Molly Cousins, and John Adair










Rotarians of the Year
Blount Shepard
Judy Johnson
with (now retired and past president) Carey Hite










Harold Crawford inducts our newest club member, Susie Hamm.

Thanks for a great year

Club Activities and Accomplishments in the past year.
Thanks to all our club members for being involved in our efforts. From our talk this morning I list below what you have done and accomplished this past year. Give President Molly the same great effort as you gave me. Thank you. Carey Hite
Review
05- 06 Activities and Accomplishments
We run and fund a number of Community projects
Okra Strutt – Okra Man –thanks to Jeff Baldwin and Si Amick
Okra Strutt – Ticket Sales – Thanks to Jason Brown and a host of other Rotarians
Adopt a Highway
Coordination with Blount Shepard for hosting, Jeff Baldwin and Lyn Campbell for being regulars, and to the Interact Club and to a host of other Rotarians – several successful outings
Harbison State Forest
Coordinator – Chris Joye. Thanks to Blount Shepard and numerous other Rotarians With Interact we built a trail in record time. We also donated $1100 to the project.
Dictionary project
We provided Dictionaries to local schools with help from the Interact Club – thanks to Molly Cousins, Harold Crawford, Larry Stohs and others
DJJ
Blue Blazers and Pants Suits project – donated over $1000 for project – Scholarship Awards - 2 $500 scholarships awarded.
All Star Banquet – Rotary funded this awards banquet and paid for the plaques
Rotary leadership award – was awarded at the above banquet
Earning your way Back project – rotary seed money was used to start this successful restitution project.
Adirondak chair project –bought equipment for construction of these chairs
Champion of Childrens Award – presented to member Joel Collins
Service Above Self project – bulletins for the Rotary Club of Lake Murray – Irmo – terrific success
Thanks to Joel Collins, Ginny Barr, Stacey Atkinson, Belinda McEachern
– and all Rotarians.

International Service
Jamaica Project – completion of funding of $5000 to be matched with another $5000 for Jamaica school and soccer field project – total value $10,000 – thanks to Ritchie Tidwell, Larry Stohs, Chris Joye,
Ambassadorial Scholarships – thanks to Rod Funderburk,
Youth Exchange and GSE thanks to Mike McClay and numerous other Rotarians.
Fundraising
Art Auction – great success thanks to Judy Johnson , and a host of others. Thanks to this we were able to raise money to support our numerous local and international projects.
GSE visit
Co-hosted the GSE Cruise on Lake Murray
Social gatherings
Fall Social at Inglewood Manor, and our Spring gathering was with the GSE cruise. thanks to Ray Hunt, Herb Harrison and a host of others
Dutch Fork High School
Interact Club Involvement – special thanks to Kelly Payne for her involvement. It’s a rare and wonderful event to have a teacher so involved and enthused with a high school club and Rotary. Our children, out Rotary and this community have benefited greatly from your efforts.
Scholarships Two $4000 scholarships were awarded, one to Ryan Baskins, the other to Chelsea Moses. They and their parents joined us for an awards ceremony at our Wednesday meeting. Thanks to Molly Cousins, Harold Crawford and other Rotarians for their help.
Teacher Recognition – we started out the year recognizing outstanding teachers in the area – thanks to John Adair and Nathan Ballentine

Wednesday June 21st

Skey makes a point- Opportunity for Improvement!!!


Si Amick with our speaker, Libby Anne Inabinet. Ms Inabinet spoke to us about "Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic". Full meeting report to follow.



Libby Anne Inabinet with Patty Cavanaugh



Last Meeting
June 21, 2006
Reporter – Kevin Adams
After a week’s worth of R&R and with a twinkle of glee in his eyes knowing he only has one more week to serve, President Carey Hite called the meeting to order. John Adair brought the invocation followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Lyman Whitehead then dispensed the weekly prescription of Health and Happiness. James Blake was a guest of Si Amick.
We should have doubled up on this week’s dose of Happiness because Skey Caskey got the wet noodle out and whipped us for our lack of participation in the fishing tournament. It’s a good thing the noodle had fallen in Lake Murray before he used it on us. Fortunately Barry Johns, Blount Shepard, Judy Johnston and Beetle Bailey each pitched in to help. Shakespere and Ellet Brothers contributed prizes for the tournament.
Ginny Barr reminded us of the upcoming golf tournament on July 24, 2006. So far, Indian River Golf Club has donated some rounds of golf and youth from DJJ’s Apprenticeship Program are donating chairs they have made. More prizes are needed and your help is sought in this regard. Ginny strongly suggests you help so she doesn’t have to use any donated golf clubs on us in lieu of Skey’s wet noodle.
Next, Joel Collins introduced Harold Crawford who would be filling the vacancy in our Membership Chair. Harold will be targeting classifications in order to help us build our ranks.
Today’s guest speaker was introduced by Si Amick. Libby Ann Inabinet is the SC State Director of RFB&D - Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. A Columbia native and former teacher, she now has a passion for advancing the cause of RFB&D.
To illustrate how difficult it is for those with visual handicaps, she posed the following questions: How well would you be able to eat your breakfast without a fork? If you wear glasses or contacts, how well could you drive your car without them? How well could you brush your teeth if you didn’t have a toothbrush? The fork, glasses/contacts and the toothbrush are tools to complete a task. Some students simply need the tool of recorded text books to overcome the challenge of learning. In South Carolina, there are about 55K blind and dyslexic students who need the assistance of RFB&D. More are expected because it is forecast that 49% of the current eighth graders in SC will not complete high school in 4 years.
RFB&D was organized by Ann McDonald in 1948 after she saw GI’s returning from World War II both uneducated and unable to read due to their war injuries. She saw the need and started recording textbooks for the veterans. Today it is felt that students in the classrooms have multi-sensory needs: sight, touch and audio. RFB&D is not a redundant service in this state.
Libby Ann recalled a Dillon student, Jessica Smith, who at 14 was diagnosed with MS. Subsequently she went blind. Even though she had learned Braille, she needed the assistance of recorded textbooks. With that assistance from RFB&D, she was able to graduate from college with summa cum laude honors.
Johns Hopkins has completed a study 60 effected students at Alcorn Middle School. They estimated that 38% of those students improved their scores, disciplinary problems dropped and attendance increased as a result the use of RFB&D.
To further illustrate the point, a short video presentation featuring a young man who went blind in college was able to complete his studies and become a high school teacher thanks to RFB&D. A young lady was also featured who, having been labeled as LD and told in high school she would never be able to attend college, discussed pursuing her dream of becoming a psychologist with the help of RFB&D. Then, a young boy with CP and who was blind proudly proclaimed he was able to keep up with his peers thanks to his recorded books.
Lastly, Libby Ann referred us to a 4-page pamphlet at our table. The pamphlet provided a visualization of what it was like to read with a visual disability.
President Carey concluded his next to last meeting with Happy Dollars from Ervin Ott, George Staples, Patty Cavanaugh, Si Amick, Bob Berry and Skey Caskey.

Wed June 14th

Last Meeting
June 14, 2006
Reporter – John Hanson
President-Elect Molly Cousins called the meeting to order and the invocation was given by Nathan Ballentine. The Pledge of Allegiance followed. Harvey Hoots introduced the visiting Rotarians and guests. Mr. Doug Smith was introduced as a special visiting Rotarian all the way from Belfast, Maine. Lyman Whitehead then entertained the group with his seemingly never-ending supply of jokes. The meeting then proceeded with a list of announcements about various up coming Rotary functions.
Molly announced that there are still some vacancies in the July program schedule. Rotarians who have ideas on speakers for July should contact Beetle Bailey. Beetle’s e-mail address is beetle@sc.rr.com.
Molly also announced that Susie Hamm and Chris King have been proposed as new members. Susie is Vice President of Business Development for J. M. Grace Company and is being sponsored by Harold Crawford. Chris King works for SCB&T and is being sponsored by Bill Danielson.
Skey Caskey announced that our fishing tournament will be held this weekend and he needs 8 to 10 volunteers to help Friday and Saturday. The awards ceremony will be held at 6:00PM on Saturday at the Carolina Wings parking lot.
John Adair distributed an invocation list for the coming year and asked for any volunteers who would like to assist with this vital part of our meetings.
The speaker for the day, Mr. Monty Felix was introduced by Molly Cousins. Mr. Felix is the incoming President of the St. Mathews Rotary Club, owner of Alaglass Pools and Chairman of the Small Business Regulatory Review Committee.
Mr. Felix spoke about the Small Business Regulatory Review Committee which was formed as part of the Regulatory Flexibility Act signed by Governor Sanford in 2004. The Act requires state agencies to insure that regulations don’t unfairly impact small businesses in South Carolina. In South Carolina, small businesses are those with less than 100 employees. These businesses comprise 90 to 95 percent of South Carolina’s economy.
The Review Committee consists of 11 members who are all business leaders and two ex-officio members who represent the Legislature. The Committee reviews regulations proposed by state agencies each month and each member gives their assessment of the impact the proposal will have on small business. It is estimated that small businesses spend approximately $7,000 per employee, per year complying with various state regulations. Once the regulations are reviewed, the committee notifies the appropriate business association to monitor the regulation as it proceeds through the ratification process. If a particular issue is raised and cannot be resolved with the agency, the Committee can request a hearing, a review by the State Budget and Control Board or the Legislature.
The meeting concluded with a Happy Dollar session.

Wednesday June 7th

Ben Heritage introduced Haskell Lamb of Wild Birds unlimited.

Our members enjoy our new meeting location at D's Restaurant on Columbiana Blvd.

Last Meeting
June 7, 2006
Reporter – Lyn Richards
New meeting place! We had good attendance at our new location, D’s Restaurant. Evidently everyone found us. Johnny Jeffcoat opened the meeting with prayer, John Hanson introduced our visitors. Harold Crawford and Molly Cousins both brought special visitors.
Skey Caskey reminded us all about the upcoming fishing tournament, in two weeks.
Ben Heritage introduced our speaker, Haskell Lamb, the owner of Wild Birds Unlimited on Lake Murray Boulevard. Haskell spoke to us about the hobby of bird feeding. It is one of the five most popular hobbies in the US. His goal is to help people learn to enjoy bird watching and feeding.
There are about 300 species of birds in South Carolina. Haskell and his wife have identified about 115 species right in their own backyard! The first thing to do to attract birds into your yard is to have a bird bath. Baths attract all kinds of birds. The bath should provide relatively clean water and be about 1½ inches deep. Deeper pools of water, such as fountains, can drown a bird and they are generally attracted to shallow baths.
Different birds have different diets; seed, insects, and fruit are the primary diet of SC species. There are only four types of seed that birds eat; sunflower, safflower, thistle and millet. And all of those types of seed must be fresh in order to attract and successfully feed birds. Wild Birds Unlimited gets about 1 ton of fresh seed in weekly, so their customers can be assured of the seeds’ freshness. Less expensive, generic seed can contain as much as 40% filler, which are seeds that won’t get eaten by birds, but will germinate. Squirrels can be a nuisance at feeders. Haskell taught us that safflower seed has a bitter taste that will discourage most squirrels from raiding your feeders. He also showed us a "squirrel resistant" feeder he sells at Wild Birds Unlimited. Birds cannot taste bitterness, or hot pepper, so types of feeders or feed that incorporates pepper will also repel squirrels.
Happy Dollar finished the morning, with contributions from four happy Rotarians!

Nykia's Story

Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club sponsors scholarships for at-risk youth
Nykia, an articulate speaker with high academic potential, remembers making straight "A's" in school before the streets of hard knocks became her mentor and the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice her home for two years, ending in December 2005. Just weeks after her release, she was settling into college life as a freshman at Columbia College, a highly regarded liberal arts college for women in Columbia, SC and trying to put her future first.
Nykia didn't seriously envision college as an option while incarcerated. Razor-wire fences surrounded her stark prison dormitory. However, she recognized that education is the key to a better life and upon release from DJJ enrolled in college for the opportunity to make the most of her life.
While speaking at a recent meeting of the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club, Nykia spoke of the importance of scholarships and education to youth, particularly those with limited resources such as herself. "I have faced obstacles that I placed in front of myself,'' said Nykia. "I have been there. I know what it is like being in trouble, but I am still standing. I am here to let you know that opportunities and education are everything.''
Obviously, the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club agrees and realizes the struggles of Nykia and others who are facing similar situations. The club has embraced the South Carolina Department of Juvenile Justice and its work with the state's youthful offenders. One of the projects initiated by this collaboration is the commitment of the club to award two $500 scholarships each year to youth at DJJ. "The scholarship fund is structured so that the scholarships can be used as their needs permit,'' said Dr. Carey Hite, President of the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club. "We are committed to staying involved with DJJ. In fact, we look forward to continuing this as well as other projects to assist staff in their endeavors to help these young people find their way.''
Nykia knows it is to her advantage to use negative experiences to forge positive new beginnings for herself and other young people through educational opportunities.
"I don't believe that our future should be in danger because no one is willing to help. I don't think the opportunity should stop. I am here to forge a path for others to become successful law-abiding citizens and students.''

Why Rotary?

Why Join Your Local Rotary Club?

Professional Networking
A founding principle of Rotary was to meet periodically to enjoy camaraderie and enlarge one’s circle of business and professional acquaintances. As the oldest service club in the world, Rotary club members represent a cross-section of the community’s owners, executives, managers, political leaders, and professionals – people who make decisions and influence policy.
Service Opportunities
Club members have many opportunities for humanitarian service, both locally and internationally. Service programs address such concerns as health care, hunger, poverty, illiteracy, and the environment. Rotarians experience the fulfillment that comes from giving back to the community.
International Awareness
With more than 31,000 Rotary clubs in over 160 countries, Rotarians gain an understanding of humanitarian issues through international service projects and exchange programs. One of Rotary’s highest objectives is to build goodwill and peace throughout the world.
Friendship
Rotary was founded on fellowship, an ideal that remains a major attraction of membership today. Club members enjoy the camaraderie with like-minded professionals, and club projects offer additional opportunities to develop enduring friendships. Rotary club members who travel have friendly contacts in almost every city in the world.
Good Citizenship
Weekly Rotary club programs keep members informed about what is taking place in the community, nation, and world and motivated to make a difference.
Family Foundations
Rotary sponsors some of the world’s largest youth exchange, educational exchange, and scholarship programs. Rotary clubs provide innovative training opportunities and mentoring for young leaders and involve family members in a wide range of social and service activities.
Entertainment
Social activities give Rotarians a chance to let loose and have fun. Every Rotary club and district hosts parties and activities that offer diversions from today’s demanding professional and personal schedules. Conferences, conventions, assemblies, and social events provide entertainment as well as Rotary information, education, and service.
Ethical Environment
Encouraging high ethical standards in one’s profession and respect for all worthy vocations has been a hallmark of Rotary from its earliest days. In their business and professional lives, Rotarians abide by

The Four-Way Test:
Of the things we think, say or do:
1) Is it the TRUTH?
2) Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3) Will it BUILD GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Leadership Development
Rotary is an organization of successful professionals. Team building, fundraising, public speaking, planning, organization, and communication are just a sampling of the leadership skills that club members can exercise and enhance. Being a Rotary leader provides further experience in learning how to motivate, inspire, and guide others.
Diversity in Membership
Rotary’s classification system ensures that a club’s membership represents a variety of the community’s professional men and women, including leaders in business, industry, the arts, government, sports, the military, and religion. Rotary clubs are nonpolitical, nonreligious, and open to all cultures, races, and creeds.