Reported by Phil Thoden
Students from Dawson Elementary School’s Early Act First Knight (EAFK) service club called the Rotary Club of Austin (RCA) meeting to order, led the pledges, offered a thought for the day, and then led the Four-Way Test. President Dale Lowe then resumed our “standard” meeting format, recognizing Aaron Schmidt as greeter and Margaret Curtis as the hostess, who then introduced guests and visitors.
President Lowe then called up George Mihalcik from RecognizeGood who presented the Club with their Lighthouse Award in recognition of our community service and philanthropic efforts in the Austin and global communities. In addition to award plaques, the Club received two tickets to next year’s Ethics in Community Business Awards Luncheon, as well as a $250 check for the Austin Rotary Club Foundation.
President Lowe then reminded everyone:
- continue checking in to meetings via Facebook and MeetUp.com
- the next Breakfast Cluster meeting this Thursday at Waterloo Ice House
- annual dues statements have been sent
- Mark Kapner is under the weather and a get well card for him is available to sign
Michael Portman led the Thank Goodness Basket and Ronney Reynolds was first in line to thank District Governor Bruce Golden for leading an excellent end-of-year District Governor’s Conference. Next, Barry Curlee proudly reminded everyone that Texas Tech won the Big 12 baseball championship. Last, James Gavin thanked Foundation Communities for recently processing over 19 thousand tax returns for local citizens.
Mary Reynolds then kicked off our Program featuring the EAFK service club from Dawson Elementary. Each student introduced him or herself, and then talked about their efforts to serve their school, local and global communities. Their local projects were a canned food drive and then promotion of Colin’s Hope, a swim safety program, to other students at school. For their international project, they collected $778 in change to help buy filters for a drinking water project in Guatemala. President Dale surprised them with an additional $500 contribution of personal funds, as well as $400 from our Club Foundation account.
EAFK founder Randall Parr and Lady Amber, his wife and one of the Knights, then came forward to recognize each student as a Knight, a Champion, and a Member of the Gallery of Champions. Congratulations to each student!
Next week’s meeting will feature ARC member Roger Williamson for a talk about “Inside Outer Space.”