April 2, 2002

NEXT MEETING, APRIL 8… Our speaker will be Katrina Christ, Executive Director of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at Harvard Medical School.

LAST MEETING, APRIL 1… When our scheduled speaker, Don Phillips, suffered a horse-riding accident only days before his scheduled talk (he's okay, by the way, although still hospitalized), Program Chairman Danny Williams went to his friend and fellow Rotarian Billy Redd to fill in. Billy, who is Director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Mississippi, did so admirably. He traced the history of his organization from 1860 in Hartford, Connecticut, to the now more than 350 clubs in all 50 states and several military bases overseas. The predecessor Boys Club (the name was changed in 1990) was formed in Jackson in 1936, and has served several generations of boys and girls very well, often making a considerable difference in their lives. There are now 6 clubs and a large camp in the Jackson area, providing a place for kids from age 6 through age 18. Their simple mission statement says it all: they provide a Positive Place for Kids. And there are a lot of those kids - 800-900 a day during the school year, and 1100-1200 in the summer, supervised by a paid staff of between 70 and 90 and hundreds of volunteers. Thanks to Billy for an outstanding program, and to Danny for arranging and introducing it.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR NOW… for our next Rotafest. It'll be held on the evening of Monday, May 6, at the usual place: Costas Lodge. You'll hear more about it later, but be sure to clear your calendar now so you can attend.

HAVE YOU NOTICED… how often you find that people you look up to and admire just happen to be wearing a Rotary button on their lapel? The button doesn't make them smarter or more capable, of course, but it often recognizes that they indeed are. And so are you! So be sure to make it a habit to wear your Rotary button daily, so the people who look up to and admire YOU will know of your association with the world's greatest civic club.

PRESIDENT-ELECT HOWARD CATCHINGS… circulated a Committee Preference sheet at the April 1 meeting. Howard asks that each member carefully consider which Rotary committee they wish to serve on during the forthcoming Rotary year, beginning July 1. So far as possible, he'll put you on the committee where your interest lies. But you have to let him know! If you didn't fill out a form at the April 1 meeting, be sure to do so at one of the other meetings between now and the deadline of April 22.