A little song, a little dance — no one is safe, regardless of stance! The 74th Annual Rotary Show is bringing back edgy local satire to lace a delightful evening of variety entertainment, featuring the News at 9ish with Stone Petoskey and Maria Benzonia, the baffling powers of magician Ben Whiting, eclectic indie folk rock blues fusion phenom Blake Elliott (Wednesday and Thursday nights), 10-year-old bluegrass prodigy Nic Carman (Friday and Saturday nights), Drive South, and so much more. Proceeds are used to grant money to local organizations doing important things in arts and culture, basic human needs, education, the environment, health and safety, and recreation.

This year’s Rotary Show will be held Wednesday, April, 27 to Saturday, April 30 at State Theatre in downtown Traverse City.The pre-show begins at 7:30 pm, followed by the Mighty Rotary Chorus taking the stage at 8:00 pm.

Reserved seating tickets are available for $15 through the State Theatre box office, either in person or online here.

View from the deck of oil tanker in Valdez, Alaska

While attending the Great Lakes Maritime Academy, Wes Clanton was a member of Sunrise Rotary . . . he graduated . . . and he sailed away . . . to Alaska!

Wes was in town last week and it was great fun having him drop by the club to provide an update on life as a merchant marine.

Having landed what he considers to be the best job available, Wes is now enjoying a 60-days on, 60-days off schedule with a home-deck aboard an Alaskan crude oil tanker. He is 3rd Mate and helps oversee loading/off-loading their cargo traveling from Alaska down the west coast, to Hawaii and back. Wes has an apartment in Nashville, TN which is 'home base' during that 60-days off time but, from what we understand, he tends to use that time to wander the globe.

Here's a little teaser from his 2015 Year in Review:

When it was all said and done, I logged 190 days at sea traveling over 50,000 miles on the Pacific Ocean and delivering more than 9 million barrels (378 million gallons) of Alaska North Slope Crude oil to the US West Coast to be refined. During my time off, I spent 7 full days in the air traveling almost three times around the globe and logging over 71,000 miles in the sky. My air travel included 50 flights on 9 airlines across 26 airports and 6 countries. I added new countries to the list including Thailand, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Tanzania, and the United Arab Emirates and enjoyed some great time with family and friends.

You can follow his travels at http://thewanderingsailor.com/

Visiting Rotarians: None

Guests: Maureen Pfaller (Goodwill Industries), Nicole VanNess (Traverse City Parking Administrator), Wes Clanton (former Sunrise Rotarian) and Dominic Clark (future Rotarian).

50/50 Raffle: Tom Krause was the lucky winner of $35.

Announcements:

• Calling all curling fans - 2nd Annual Cherry Bombspiel takes place April 22 - 24
• Club Board Meeting will take place Tuesday, April 7th, starting at 5pm at Linda Raetz's office.
• Craig announced there will be an all Traverse City Rotary meeting at noon on Friday May 20th, noon, at Park Place Dome. This meeting may replace our regularly scheduled weekly meeting (to be determined). Our featured speaker will be Dr. John Modlin, Polio Eradication Director for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation who will be in town delivering the International Affairs Forum program Thursday evening May 19th.

Program:

Lisa Mann from Traverse Life Center presented on Life Works, a program to reduce generational poverty by providing life and employment skills for at-risk youth.  Life Works is a summer program for youth 12-15 years in age that are too old for child care and too young for work. The program lasts for 8 weeks during the summer and is 5-days a week for young men and 3-days per week for young women. The reduced schedule for young women is due to staffing restrictions. The emphasis of the program is to establish self-worth, introduce skills, discipline, and respect for authority that is necessary for employment.  The program partners with local businesses to provide exposure to different occupations. 

 

As a Rotarian in this 5-county Grand Traverse region we have the amazing opportunity to double our charitable contributions with a 1:1 match through the Rotary Charities Matching Gift Program (up to $250 annually)!

Recipients must be non-profit, tax-exempt organizations with operations in the five counties of Antrim, Benzie, Grand Traverse, Kalkaska and Leelanau and fit within the guidelines of the Rotary Fund. Ineligible organizations include fraternal, social, union, political or veteran groups, university or college alumni associations and church operating funds. 

Deadline for this cycle is December 1st.

Click here to access the forms (located on home page and at left side of bulletin).

If you aren't sure if you've already used your $250 please ask our Club Treasurer, Lilly Clark.