Teresa Miley opened our August 26 meeting with prayer and then the group Pledge ofAllegiance. Zeke Riddle enlightened the club with Health and Happiness of a storyabout "Common Sense" and Lyman Whitehead then quizzed members with questionsrelating to the August Rotarian Magazine.Two club announcements came from Jim Wellman and Kelly Payne. Jim informed membersof a new service project the club has committed to this year: Meals on Wheels. EveryThursday starting at 11:15 one (or two members) will need to meet at Seven Oaks Parkto receive the meals to be delivered that day. The route should only take 30-45minutes. Kelly Payne spoke about the upcoming Interact Project. Her students willbe at the Five Points Fountain from 12-4pm Saturday.Before our guest speaker was introduced, Teresa Miley gave her classification talk.Among other things, Teresa shared with us that she was reared in the LowCountry, amother of 3 boys (19, 16, 12), has a State Farm Agency in Irmo and has been a clubmember since 2005.Rod Funderburk then introduced Ashley Rhoderick, Rotary Scholar. Ashley is a 2008graduate of USC with a degree in Chemical Engineering.
The club sponsored here witha Rotary Culture Scholarship that allowed Ashley to experience life in Cairo, Egyptfor 3 to 4 months.The first thing Ashley noticed when she arrived to Cairo was the heat and how largethe city is. During the daytime there are 30 million people in the city and at nightthe number drops to 20 million people. Her host Rotary Club was the Wadi DeglaRotary Club (Ashley brought us a banner from their club) and she had severalwonderful memories to share. She crossed the Nile twice each day for school (whereshe spent 5 hours each day learning the language). Ashley experienced Ramadan(fasting from sun-up to sun-down), went to Alexandria, Siwa (an oasis in the desert,30 minutes from Syria), and had her dad come visit when she went to Luxor and Aswan.Her favorite part of her stay was time spent in The Sinai and the thing she wantedto do most was scuba diving in the Red Sea (which she did!). Of course, she saw thepyramids and experienced life in the city by riding in a "women's car" on the metroand seeing how retail is done on a "cash basis." (She only used her debit/creditcards at ATMs to get cash).Her class had students from around the world (Sweden,Australia, Pakistan), and during their time together she learned an Irish Dance andsoaked up all the culture she could by trying various dishes (they often didn't eatdinner until 10pm!)Ashley plans to continue her experience overseas by working with Campus Crusade forChrist while in Lebanon.It's obvious, she is a bright young lady with a great future of serving others! Ourclub sponsorship has not only benefited Ashley but others she will touch throughouther life!
Nathan Ballentine
Nathan Ballentine
