August 25 2010

Your perfect attendance Rotarians

The Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club presented a $2,000 check to the Irmo Chapin Recreation Commission for its Meals on Wheels program. Volunteers for the Recreation Commission deliver meals to home bound older adults five days per week. The Seven Oaks Park delivers about 150 meals per week. Rotarians from the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club participate as volunteers in this delivery program. The monetary donation was enhanced through a District Simplified Grant from District 7770.

Cruise night photos

Cruise Night-August 3rd.

The Irmo-Lake Murray Rotary hosted a unique social event for our District #7770 Governor, Rick Moore. The Rotary club joined with the Greater Irmo Chamber of Commerce for a cruise on board the yacht, the Spirit of Lake Murray. The Rotary Club was treated to a wonderful natural event, watching the Purple Martins nesting on Bomb Island which is a rest stop on their yearly migration route. Bomb Island is situated in Lake Murray which is the tourism crown jewel of the greater Irmo and Columbia areas. The cruise combined several unique features, a chance to introduce non-Rotarians to a local club, a trip to a World War II landmark and an inspiring glimpse into the natural world. All of the Rotarians enjoyed a very relaxing social event and a glimpse into a seldom seen part of the natural world.

Cruise night on Lake Murray

August 18 2010

August 18, 2010 Lake Murray – Irmo Rotary Club Minutes


The August 18th Lake Murray – Irmo Rotary Club meeting was started with an invocation by John Adair and the customary Pledge of Allegiance. Health and Happiness was lead by Lyman Whitehead including many Happy Dollars, Group Announcements and Dr. Robinson’s discussion of the Rotary Magazine.

President Judy Johnson introduced Mr. Dan Hennigman who is a Honorary Lexington County Sheriff and is very involved with the Lexington County Shrriff’s Department as well as several other important community organizations to include the Lexington Rotary Club, Honor Flight and the National Safety Council. Mr. Hennigan then introduced the day’s main speaker Lexington County’s Sherriff James Metts.

Sheriff Metts was the nation’s youngest elected sheriff at age 25 in 1972 and has been in office ever since. Sheriff Metts holds a degree in Criminal Justice and a Doctorate Degree in Education. He stated that his main focus for his office is Quality of Life and Customer service for the members of the Lexington County community. Sheriff Metts is an active Rotarian with the Lexington club. He stated that Quality of Life is a big draw for people coming to Lexington County; it has the number One schools, number One recreational opportunities, superior communities and the people of the county are incredible. However, it is not like that everywhere. Within a few miles of his area of jurisdiction are communities that are unsafe, filled with drugs and quickly deteriorating. Sherriff Metts promised that “that will not happen with me in charge of law enforcement if Lexington County! Law enforcement has been vested with the responsibility to maintain the high quality of living that citizens of the county enjoy and he and his department will work to maintain this quality of living in all of Lexington County’s communities.”

He will accomplish this maintenance through superior Customer Service for the citizens of Lexington. He encourages the citizens to become involved with the Sheriff’s Department to help maintain our quality of life and let undesirable characters know that they are not welcomed in our county. One way this involvement can be done is through the Reserve Deputy Program in Lexington County. This program used unpaid volunteers to work with the sheriff’s department alongside the staff. So far in 2010 the Reserve Deputy Program has handles over 6,000 cases and saved the county taxpayers countless dollars.

Sheriff Metts went on to introduce his Quality of Life Team members present. First was the Captain and new Region Commander for the North Region which includes Irmo, Chapin, Cayce and West Columbia - Captain Lee Marshall. Captain Marshall has been an involved member of our community since attending Irmo Elementary, Middle and High Schools. He reminded our own Jack Terrell how at age 13 Captain Marshall worked the time clock at the Seven Oaks Recreation Center with Mr. Terrell as his boss. Captain Marshall has been newly assigned to his current position in command of over 50 employees after serving for several years throughout the Sheriff’s Department in many positions. Captain Marshall added that he sees the desire for maintaining the Quality of Life throughout his department and it cannot be accomplished without community involvement. He sees his main focus and responsibility as a problem solver in our community and if we need to reach him with a problem his phone number is (803) 407-8437.

August 11 2010

Emily Stanek, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, was the guest speaker at the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary club on August 11, 2010.  A Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar is a college student chosen to spend an academic year in another country to serve as an Ambassador for Rotary, their home country and their home community while taking classes at a university.  A 2008 graduate of USC, Emily recently returned to the USA after studying at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in the Masters in Communications program.  She represented Rotary and South Carolina by speaking to Rotary and Rotaract clubs, and participating in numerous community service projects in the Monterrey area.  Her presentation summarized her experiences in Mexico and served as a thank-you to the Rotary club for providing the opportunity.

Those interested in knowing more about Rotary, one of the world's largest global humanitarian organizations, should visit www.lakemurrayirmoRotary.com. For additional information contact Michael Cromer at 781-3000 or 932-9181.  The club meets for an excellent buffet breakfast and a timely and stimulating program every Wednesday, 7:30 am – 8:30 am, at Seven Oaks Parks at 200 Leisure Lane, Columbia, SC 29210.

President Judy called the meeting to order a 7:45AM. The invocation was given by John Adair who also led the club in the pledge of Allegiance. Jacqueline shared Health & Happiness with us with a funny story. Jerry Isabell gave his classification speech. Darren recognized and welcomed the visitors who were Kara Gormly, Reed Mattingly, Jackson Price, Mark Koon. Jeff Baldwin discussed the assignments of committees for the Tour De Lake in April, 2011 and ask for volunteers. Rod Funderburk introduced our speaker, Emily Stanek, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar. She shared with us the highlights of her experiences as a student and Ambassador for Rotary for the USA and South Carolina while in Mexico.

President Judy adjourned our meeting a 8:30AM

Respectively Submitted

Jeanette M Coulter

August 11 2010

Emily Stanek, Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, was the guest speaker at the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary club on August 11, 2010.  A Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar is a college student chosen to spend an academic year in another country to serve as an Ambassador for Rotary, their home country and their home community while taking classes at a university.  A 2008 graduate of USC, Emily recently returned to the USA after studying at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education in the Masters in Communications program.  She represented Rotary and South Carolina by speaking to Rotary and Rotaract clubs, and participating in numerous community service projects in the Monterrey area.  Her presentation summarized her experiences in Mexico and served as a thank-you to the Rotary club for providing the opportunity.

Those interested in knowing more about Rotary, one of the world's largest global humanitarian organizations, should visit www.lakemurrayirmoRotary.com. For additional information contact Michael Cromer at 781-3000 or 932-9181.  The club meets for an excellent buffet breakfast and a timely and stimulating program every Wednesday, 7:30 am – 8:30 am, at Seven Oaks Parks at 200 Leisure Lane, Columbia, SC 29210.

Message from President Judy

We had a great crowd last week to hear our District Governor, Rick Moore address our club. Thanks for all of you who were able to make the meeting and a special thanks to those of you who brought a visitor. Although Rick talked about a number of goals for our District, three major areas were emphasized. First, as a Rotarian, each of us should remember the motto, "Service above self" and do our part to serve our community. There are many projects that our Rotary Club supports (e.g., DJJ Interact, Dutch Fork Interact, Nursery Road Elementary, Adopt a Highway, Meals on Wheels, just to name a few). If you would like to get more involved with any of these projects, please let me know.




Attracting new members and keeping our existing new members is a second major area of focus. Unfortunately, statistics show that most clubs lose 10% of their members each year due to a variety of factors. The District has asked us to grow our members by at least one person. We started the year with 61 members so by the end of June we need to have at least 62 members. Please help us reach this goal by bringing a prospective member to one of our meetings. And when you see a visitor, please do your part in introducing yourself and making them feel welcome. Remember, each month you can bring one prospective member to the meeting and their breakfast is paid by the club.

Finally, the third major area of focus is the Paul Harris Fellows. Ginny will be discussing her plans to support this effort in the weeks ahead. She is going to need all of our support as we work together to support our local and international projects.



See you in the morning!

August 4 2010

Reporter: John Adair August 4, 2010

District Governor Rick Moore was our special guest today.  He was introduced by Rod Funderburk our Assistant Governor.

DG Rick told the club something of Ray Klingsmith the current President of Rotary International and this year's theme: "Building Communities and Bridging Continents"

Since DG Rick is in the rubber business he pulled out an ORANGE (He's a Clemson man) rubber ball and used it as an object lesson to illustrate that it was always moving and could not sit STILL." Rotary is like that", he said, "We should never sit still, but always be moving about living out our motto Service Above Self".

In a more spirited manner Rick recognized Beetle Bailey who was wearing, as usual, his bright orange Clemson shirt.  Rick said, "Now isn't that a shirt, or not?"  Jim Wellman (noted Carolina man), sitting close by, gave a quick rejoinder "Or NOT!!"  Good chuckles followed from through out the room.  All to confirm one of DG Rick's main points of his speech: Fellowship in Rotary is important.

Rick titled the subject of his speech: Building Stronger Clubs (In other words GROW!)

He stated there were FIVE CORE values to do this:

            1. Fellowship: Two district wide socials will be planned this year.  The first to be at the                 Citadel October 2, 2010.  The Second to be next April 2011.  Details to be announced                       later.

            2. Membership:  North America Rotary Clubs are in a 10 % decline.  Not good!

               His goal is for each District Club (78 clubs) to gain net one new member this year.        Rick then presented to our wondrous Past President, Ginny Barr, and a "Membership           Recognition Award" for her fine work in this area last year.

            3. Foundation:  Last year District 7770 raised $1,060,000.00 for The Rotary Foundation.    WOW!  That is a lot.  This coming year our District will receive back from The Rotary         Foundation $446,055.00.  These monies will fund our Polio, Peace Builder, Scholarships,       GSE Matching Grants and District Simplified Grant programs.

                        At this point, DG Rick called President Judy Johnson forward and presented her   with a $1,000.00 to be used in our "Meals on Wheels" program.

            HEY, I LIKE THIS GUY RICK MOORE!  If he is going to keep handing out checks like                        that...let's invite him back.

            4. Leadership Training:  I don't know what he said here.  Things were getting a bit muddy             in my head.  The next thing I heard was "Pirates Know More" and Rod Funderburk            started walking around passing out mini chocolate candy bars.  Then DISTRICT    CONFERENCE was coming strong from DG Rick.  Soon (it was 8:30) Rick said AMEN             and Prez Judy thanked him with all her grace and the bell was RUNG!!!

I kept sitting at my table wondering what the FIFTH core value was.  Maybe it was the candy bar.  I asked President Judy, "What was the fifth core value?"  She smiled, patted me on the head and said, "You're a good man, but where did you get that mustache?"

Well that was Rotary today.  Wasn't it great?  Being a USC grad, I sure liked the color of DG Rick's new coat.   So long...John Adair, Reporting

July 28 2010

Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club Minutes

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

 

President Judy Johnson called the July 21 meeting of the Lake Murray-Irmo Rotary Club to order. 

 

Jeanette Coulter discussed plans for the Lake Murray cruise next week.

 

A word of special thanks was expressed to Larry Stohs for his work in putting together such an attractive and informative bulletin for our club for this year.

 

President Judy explained etiquette recommendations involved in standing to honor the District Governor, who will be presenting our program next week.

 

Dr. Eddie Robinson gave a classification talk.

 

Ginny Barr introduced our speakers Captain Joseph Pellicci and Ray Carci. They accepted a check from our club from the Tour de Lake proceeds, as they were partners in this project. They then presented a very interesting program on the Special Olympics and especially on the Law Enforcement Torch Run for the Special Olympics.   The Torch Run began in Kansas in 1981 and has spread to 35 countries around the world. This project raises money and awareness for Special Olympics, which makes a big difference in the lives of many involved athletes.