Home Page | Rotary Club of Adrian

Shekhar Mehta, a member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, has been a Rotarian since 1985. He trained as an accountant and founded a real estate development company, Skyline Group, which he also chairs. But his professional title tells only a small part of the story of who he is. He is also a director of the India arm of Operation Eyesight Universal, a Canada-based nonprofit focused on preventing avoidable blindness. He helped establish more than 15 eye hospitals, in several Indian states, that together carry out nearly 50,000 surgeries each year. And he started Saving Little Hearts, a project that has facilitated more than 2,500 heart surgeries for children from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and some African countries and that is now an India-wide program.

Aruna Koushik

District Governor (Copied form District 6400 Website)

District Governor Aruna S. Koushik is a proud member of the Rotary Club of Windsor Roseland.
She is passionate about eradicating Polio.

Along with her husband Shiva Koushik, Past President of the Rotary Club of Windsor-Roseland, they have undertaken eight National immunization trips. She is the Vice President of the Multicultural Council of Windsor and Essex County and promotes peace and harmony in the community. Aruna is a professional Mediator and established the Office of Mediation for the Windsor Regional Hospital in January 2001.

She is the Artistic Director of Nupur Jhankar – School of Classical Bharatnatyam. Aruna was recognized as the “Woman of the year” for 2001, a recipient of the Queens Golden Jubilee medal in 2003, the YMCA Peace Medal in 2006 and the Athena Award recipient
for 2006. She was named Rotarian of the Year and received the prestigious Council of Governors Award. In 2016 she was the recipient of Rotary International’s Award for a Polio Free World awarded to just 10 Rotarians around the world.

RI Monthly Themes

August

Membership and New Club Development Month

September

Basic Education and Literacy Month

October

Economic and Community Development Month

November

Rotary Foundation Month

December

Disease Prevention and Treatment Month

January

Vocational Service Month

February

Peace and Conflict Prevention/Resolution Month

March

Water and Sanitation Month

April

Maternal and Child Health Month

May

Youth Service Month

June

Rotary Fellowships Month

The Adrian Noon Rotary Club is one of over 50 other clubs in District 6400. We give individuals an opportunity to join leaders, exchange ideas and to take action on important issues affecting our community, our nation, and our world. We also have a lot of fun – whether we’re socializing or working together on important service projects – Rotarians always have a great time serving others!.

We connect at weekly meetings and learn from business, political and civic leaders, and entrepreneurs, who help us stay informed on topics that are relevant to our community.

Our club meets every Thursday at noon at The Center off US223. Come join us for fellowship, a great meal, and to hear community representatives share always great and timely information.

This year's District Governor is Aruna Koushik.

Respectfully;

Kathye Herrera

Club President 2021-22

Welcome to our Club!

Service Above Self

We meet In Person

Thursdays at 12:00 PM

The Center

Corner of Wolf Creek Hwy and US223
Adrian, MI 49221
United States of America

District Site

Bulletins

Venue Map

HEH - Dennis Marsh

HEH is an acronym for Hope and Encouragement for Humanity and is a 15 year old Blissfield-based nonprofit aid group, has assisted many people in need, supporters say and was founded by Gary and Lori Phillips.

Dennis Marsh, long time resident, Adrian business man and HEH volunteer spoke to our members today by first thanking us for our generous (and speedy) donation of $1,000 to distribute milk and other items on Saturday, August 22 from 8:45am-11am at the Lenawee County Fairgrounds.

Through a network of food banks, missions, church groups and other non-profit organizations, HEH serves not only people in Michigan but across the United States and beyond — including such places as Haiti and Mexico — with food, clothing and other necessities. H.E.H. also helped places hit by disasters including hurricanes and earthquakes.

At their July 11^th meeting our club’s board of directors was approached by Chip (a board member) suggesting that our club might want to assist HEH with it milk distribution program. The board quickly approved a $1,000 expenditure to HEH. Dennis quickly put us on his calendar and told us we would need between 10-15 volunteers to distribute milk and bread on August 22.

Not only did members graciously volunteer to work that say, over $1,100 more was raised on the spot by members which will allow us to either distribute yet another full truckload of milk and bread that same day or wait and do another distribution in the near future. Patty said that she had just participated in the 4-H Pig Auction and offered to give away one-pound packages of sausage as well that day. Thanks so much, Patty!

Share the Warmth - Kelly Castleberry

Kelly Castleberry, Adrian City Commissioner and new Director of Share the Warmth since this past April, spoke to our club today about her new role and all that the organization continues to do since the passing of Helen Hendricks.

The organization, she said, will be looking at how the organization can move forward. A case management program has been developed to help begin the process while consulting HUD, MISDA, Salvation Army, the State of Michigan, etc. They are applying for an Emergency Program Grant. Their work with HUD allows them to tackle housing first, Kelly said. Therefore, anyone coming to their facility is signed up so they can determine how they can be placed in permanent housing. Kelly knows that people need to have their basic needs met before they can be productive at doing other things. Once there they are fed and clothed and given basic hygiene items. People arrive each afternoon at 5pm. They are allowed to do laundry there, take showers, etc. They are then free to play games and socialize. Kelly encourages volunteers to hang out with them if they'd like.

Staff work with all residents on long range plans and assisting them with finding employment with the help of Michigan Works, qualifying for Social Security, medical and mental health care with the help of Lenawee County Mental Health. They are constantly placing people with outside resources to take care of their needs and break down the barriers that may have caused them to lose shelter in the first place, she said.

The shelter, Kelly said, started approximately 18 years ago in some of the local Catholic churches to take care of people mainly during the cold months. It then moved to the Salvation Army facility. Residents were also housed at Bohn Pool. Following a successful fundraiser, the organization bought the former Moose Lodge in 2018 where it is today. Kelly said that the organization has benefitted from using many volunteers in the past. Top floor is their dormitory space while the bottom floor is their kitchen and dining facility. All of this, she said, has been due to volunteers and not staff.

COVID did impact volunteers help in 2020. They are in great need of them now more than ever, she said because a number of those who did help did not return. The new grant, if approved, will allow them to bring in more paid staff and case managers.

Tunnels to Towers Foundation - Tony Cruz

We were delighted that Melissa Parson’s hubby, Tony Cruz, was able to join us today and speak a=on this important cause. Tony said that he was a 20-year veteran as a volunteer firefighter and works with three different agencies and has also worked in law enforcement at the local as well as federal level. He is an electrician by trade.

Tony recounted the story about how this organization originated following 911 in memory of Brooklyn firefighter Stephen Siller, a firefighter and Rescue 1, who left after his shift early that morning and was looking forward to playing golf later that day with his brothers. On the way home, he heard about what had happened in New York City and headed to Manhattan. Along the way, Tony said, he was not able to get through a major tunnel so he put his gear (65 pounds in weight) on and ran the entire rest of the way to the World Trade Center towers which happened to be an exhausting 4 miles away! Unfortunately, Stephen along with 9 others from his unit died that day when the towers collapsed.

The Siller family wanted to do something to honor their family member who was the youngest of 7 children who decided to help people by becoming a firefighter in the City of New York. It began with a local 5k run which raised a few thousand dollars, Tony said, which was donated to the local burn center. The next year attendance doubled. Since 2002, he said, there are 70+ events around the world! The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation was founded to help people all over the world.

The foundation provides free homes to catastrophically injured veterans and pay off the mortgages of families of law enforcement officials who have lost their lives in the line of duty. Tony mentioned the Dall 5 – police officers who were killed in the line of duty. Frank Siller, Stephen’s father, went the very next day to Dallas to inform the families of these officers that their mortgages were being fully paid off by the foundation.

The Gold Star Family Program was another program the foundation founded, Tony said. This program was designed to help families of fallen young soldiers killed overseas who have a spouse and small children. In these cases, the family is set up in a modest, mortgage-free home to live in. To date, there are 68 Smart Homes for those having suffered catastrophic injuries with another 21 in progress, he said. The foundation has paid the mortgages of 56 First Responders across the country and have purchased 40 homes and have given them to Gold Star families. The foundation has also set aside $5M for a COVID-19 Relief Fund.

Tony encouraged anyone who would like to give to the foundation through tunnel2towers.org. Prior to the pandemic, Tony was one of the directors who were planning the Stephen Siller 5k Run & Walk in Jackson scheduled for May 16which was postponed. Thanks, Tony for a great presentation!

Oppression in China - Fenfen Zhang

Fenfen Zhang, guest of Chip, was our presenter today. Her presentation started with a very moving yet disturbing video about the outright oppression and deaths taking place in China today. Fenfen said that she grew up in China and came to the US in 1989 and is a citizen.

She is trying to increase awareness of the effort in her native country, from which she and her husband are now “blacklisted”, to harvest and sell human organs from people who are being targeted and killed for that purpose.

Fenfen referenced House Bill H.R. 1592 written and introduced in early March this year to “combat forced organ harvesting and trafficking in persons for purposes of the removal of organs, and for other purposes”. The bill still needs to be voted on. She urged us to write our congressional representatives about this and encourage them to support this measure.

For more information, go to www.congress.gov

Highwire Farms LLC - Eric Kennedy

Melissa Parsons introduced Eric Kennedy, owner of Highwire Farms LLC in Adrian, wo spoke abut his new venture and operations in Adrian. He is originally from Indiana. Eric owns the new retail location on South Main Street (4-acre parcel) as well as the manufacturing facility on West Beecher near the intersection of Sand Creek Highway and Beecher Road. This, he said is a parcel of approximately 38 acres and is a marijuana grow facility of 15,000 square feet where he grows 6,000 plants. “We’re creating jobs there”, he added. The facility employs 80-100 people. That operation requires 5 separate licenses. Starting wages at each location are around $15/Hr.

He spoke about the chemical Turpene Profile, THC, cannabis, distillates and CBD. He spoke about the difficulties he had as a grower and seller with local banks. He spoke about the taxes he has to pay as a business owner in this industry. Eric said that he services customers from a rather wide radius especially from Ohio. At his retail location on South Main Street, Eric said he employs a store manager, 2 assistant managers and 10 other people. For more info, visit their website at https://highwirefarms.com

Rotary Woodworking Warriors – Luke Barnett

Our own Luke B. took to the podium, having been asked at the last minute (Thanks, Luke!) to update members on this flagship program. He began, though, announcing that the Woodworking Festival scheduled for May 2 and 3 has been cancelled due to the virus issue.

Luke said that if anyone would like to see some totally interesting stuff, he has made a Facebook posting and that “you should follow the comments some of which are not very complimentary”. Yet, in spite of the critics posting these negative comments, Luke said he knows that this program has had a huge impact on those who participate in it every single week.

Some of the data he shared with us included: as of last Wednesday some 114 people have signed up to participate at the workshop. Anywhere betwee 25 and 35 (20% participation rate) show up every Wednesday to work on projects or just sit and drink coffee and fellowship with others., Luke said. He said that when 35 of them are there at one time, things can get pretty crowded. Lastly, 97% of participants in the program, Luke said, were men.

Luke said the annual cost to run this program is about $50,000. “When you take the number of total number of people signed up, that comes out to be $7.14 per person/day. It gets them free education, free wood and other materials, can use every piece of equipment, and free coffee! So, it’s working out very well for us”, Luke said.

Luke shared with the audience the funding information saying that as of today they have received $33,000 in cash. When they reach $35,000 that is the bare minimum needed to continue the program, Luke said. They have set a goal of $50,000 which is the ideal amount and annual goal so as not to “have to run on a shoestring budget”. With some veterans requiring more needs than others, he said, they have had to purchase items like walkers and other necessities.

One of the audience members asked Luke how he got involved in this to which he answered that he actually tried to launch this 4 years ago but it “just didn’t take” at that time since they didn’t have the infrastructure. Luke felt that the workshop was a good thing for the community and he wanted to “share it with as many people as possible and especially with veterans who are in need which seemed like a really great fit”. “Because the environment is not too formal, not too sterile, it’s actually therapy disguised as woodworking”, he said.

Some of the participants, Luke said, come as far as one and a half to two hours away every Wednesday! Luke said that while most of the participants won’t come right out and say how this program has changed their lives, he did say that a Veteran Navigator from the VA told Luke personally that he heard a couple of the guys in the program whose names he could not divulge said that they were contemplating suicide and that the Rotary Woodworking Warriors program helped pull them out of it!

Luke concluded by responding to a question about whether or not he was looking for a larger building to which he responded “yes”. He also said he was in contact currently with Aget Manufacturing for a new dust collection system. By itself, he said, it would cost over $50,000!

ASO Update - Libby Watson & Bruce Riesling

Libby spoke first and thanked us for inviting them to speak so they could update members on the upcoming schedule of performances. Music Director, Bruce, then went on to talk about the first half of the season mentioning the concert last October – The American West; last November – Tchaikovsky; the Christmas Chorale last December. The second half of the ASO season will feature Marvel-ous Heroes on February 15; Mendelssohn & Mozart on March 13; Picture it! On May 1; Old Friends on June 5.

Bruce was able to tell some very colorful stories around each of the concerts to put us in the mood to attend! Always great to have them visit our club and how fortunate we are as a community to have such a renowned group of total gifted and professional musicians.

Extemporaneous Presentation - Gerry Burg

Here are Gerry’s fine comments (word-for-word) at today’s meeting:

“We don’t often get to thank each other for all of the difference you make. You’d be amazed at the number of times I hear individual names and many of whom are sitting here today from kids who I run into at Adrian High who say ‘Do you know so and so? They made a difference in my life.’ We often hear the difficult stories but you’d be amazed at the things that have happened with our Junior Rotarians and what they say about this group to their friends. There are great kids in Lenawee County and in Adrian Michigan. And you’re making a difference. And I can site each one of you and say ‘This is what I’ve heard. This is the difference you made’.

So, my program is, any chance you have to work with kids, and many times have to work with kids who have serious problems – there’s no doubt about that, but also there are a lot of kids are, for lack of a better term, BC kids who are going to be then salt of this earth, they’re going to make good citizens and anything you can do to help them along the way – be a mentor – doesn’t have to be time intensive, just be a mentor by just asking them ‘How you doing?’ you’d be amazed at the feedback that I hear out of the Rotary Club of Adrian. It’s simply amazing. The scholarships that we give have gotten tremendous feedback as a way of promoting the 4-Way Test.

Monday I was sitting with four of the Junior Rotarians and an item came up and I hear out of two of them ‘Is it the Truth, Is it Fair……..’ But you wouldn’t necessarily know that. So, as a retired educator, thank you for everything this club does and anything as small as you might think it is, has a tremendous ripple effect . So, that’s my point! Thank you!”

Lenawee County Child Advocacy Center - Kelly Castleberry

Sue Lewis came forward to introduce today’s speaker, Kelly Castleberry, but before she did she thanked members for their past support of the Child Advocacy Center and announced that they have achieved full accreditation through the National Children’s Alliance – all within 2 years in operation!

Kelly, she said, is the newest addition to the CAC and is a Victim’s Advocate (Kelly prefers to use the title Family Advocate). She is a native of Adrian and the daughter of Terry Collins. She entered the military following high school where she traveled the world and returned to work for Mary Murray at Bigby Coffee. She was involved in human trafficking work and from there went to the Child Advocacy Center.

She provides services to children who have been abused physically and sexually, she said. It is a multi-disciplinary team effort involving law enforcement officers, Child Protective Services and other key players. Assessment interviews are held with victims as well as the parents to understand exactly what happened.

The center, she said, had started to set up a Needs Closet to provide basic items should people need them. Following the interviews with the children, they are given a snack and a blanket since the interviews can be quite emotional and tiring. Debriefing by staff occurs after every interview, Kelly said.
Children, she said, are screened for special needs. Kelly said she gives victims her personal cell number so they can stay in touch. The center also is involved in all aspects of placement in coordination with CPS for such things as therapy and with foster homes in the county. In the event children as victims are required to appear in court, Kelly said she will go with them which does not happen very often.

The CAC, she said, builds resiliency in children to help with the on-going effects of the trauma they experienced all in an effort to reduce the chance they will engage in juvenile crimes later on and decreasing school dropout rates. On a typical day, she said, the center will see 3-4 children a day Monday through Thursday, There are days they will not see anyone. In 2019 alone, the center saw over 200 children!

Lenawee Now - Randy Yagiela

President Nelson introduced Randy who is a former Adrian Noon Rotarian, the father of 2 children with 3 grandchildren and has 30 years of experience in workforce and economic development and has secured over $12M in grants over the course of his career. Randy worked in Hillsdale prior to coming back to Adrian in 2015 to work for Lenawee Now.

Randy began by paying special tribute to his long time mentor, Frank Dick, and Greg DuMars who served on Randy’s LTEC board some years back. “Talent” he said, “is THE #1 economic development challenge today not just across this country but internationally”. Randy said that Lenawee Now’s primary focus is on building a talent pipeline “because there are more jobs than there are people” which equates to what is called a “talent disruption” – now a nationally-used term. Their focus is more on “labor participation” (those who are working or looking for work) than on the “unemployment rate”, Randy said. In Lenawee County that rate is 62% (lowest level since 1941) which means that for every 100 people, 62 are working or are eligible to work, while 38 people are not working. This is impacted by transportation – people who just can’t get to a job consistently, Randy said.

Lenawee Now, he said, enjoys partnerships at the local, regional and state levels which include Michigan Works, and LISD. Lenawee Now has won major awards over the years through the International Economic Development Council for their work in marketing.

“We continue to lose people to other states for jobs which was a net loss last year in Michigan of 31,000 people”. This, of course, negatively impacts employers in Michigan looking for qualified people. By 2030, Randy said, it is projected that overall deaths will outnumber births. The turnover cost per employee earning minimum wage, he said, is about $4,000 - $5,000. Through Lenawee Now’s Talen Pipeline program the focus will be to inform employers of this statistic while working with local schools to insure people have the necessary skills to find viable employment. Randy then shared retirement statistics stating that more Baby Boomers will be retiring soon further negatively impacting the number of people who will be looking for work.

Then, he said, there’s also the issue of drug abuse and the fact that opioid abuse is “really affecting job candidacies”. It ranks second in the nation in terms of the state with the highest opioid rate next to Washington DC. “In Michigan most recently, the state is telling young people it’s okay to smoke dope at 21 but not if you want to work!”

Randy said he was at Madison schools last week talking to parents and students and told them that it was an awesome time to be a young person and a junior and senior in high school because of the scarcity of people currently in the job market. “This is one of the best economies ever”. Colleges in general, he said, are going to be in trouble with this declining population. Some in the state have already cut back their curriculum. Central Michigan University, for example, has already cut a third of their curriculum out. Yet, manufacturers are still looking for qualified people. Factories today, he said, are not dark, dirty and dangerous places like their parents have told them. They’re incredibly clean and well organized. Lenawee Now is trying to change the image that people have of manufacturing facilities.

Lenawee Now is scheduling a Carrier Con on March 24^th at Adrian High School’s Performing Arts Center geared primarily to parents who once thought the worst about factories and to let them know their kids can make a lot of money working in a factory. “The message will not be ‘we don’t want you to go to college’ but rather than going there and running up a huge bill for a degree when you don’t know what you’re doing there”. Many employers, Randy said, offer tuition rebates. “If you don’t have the means to go to college, don’t give up on that, but find a job with an employer who can give you $5,000 a year to go to college”. Randy said that he doesn’t think parents are aware of these options and he’s convinced the students don’t either because he’s talked with them.

Randy concluded his presentation by saying that Lenawee Now secured three grants last year totaling $1.4M and will be working with the LISD and various districts to talk about certification and credentialing. Current pilots, he said, are in Adrian, Madison and Sand Creek. Lenawee Now is trying to get employer reps into schools systemically as well as students going out to employers’ locations to have more common conversations about skills.

Lenawee County Update - David Stimpsom

David Stimpson from Tecumseh and represents District 1 and chair of the Lenawee County Board of Commissioners spoke to members today about a myriad of issues facing the board. Dave has served on the County Commission since 2005. Dave also runs a law practice in Tecumseh and Ann Arbor. He has been in the area for the past 20 years, is married and has four children.

Dave spoke about the different county departments. Dave passed around copies of the county’s monthly newsletter. The commission, he said, was basically the Legislative and Judicial branches of Lenawee County. Public Safety (70% of the overall budget) and General Government are their responsibility. The county budget is just under $30M. Their source of revenues is from property taxes. Dave made it clear that the County Commission does not have authority over the roads in the county and that it is the responsibility of the County Road Commission who are all elected officials.

Regarding the Department of Human Services, Dave said that there are about 300 investigations per month conducted in conjunction with the State of Michigan on cases of child abuse. WIC and housing programs are also the responsibility of this county department.

Dave spoke about the issue the county’s Health Department has had to deal with of late and that is the raw sewage that has been found to exist in a section of the county and with fourteen property owners specifically. They are now forced to pursue condemnation procedures, he said. This case is currently moving through the court system.

When he heard about our Woodworking Warrior’s program, Dave mentioned that the county’s Veterans Affairs office has, in the past, levied a Relief Fund Millage. While it has not been levied for the past 4 years, there are funds available organizations can access.

Dave concluded by speaking about the new Sheriff and their new Sheriff’s Department offices. He also spoke about the county’s Landbank and its impact on blighted property which rests under the auspices of the County Treasurer’s Department, he said.

Share the Warmth - Helen Henricks

Posted by Chuck Chase

Helen Henricks, president of Share the Warmth shelter at 427 W. Maumee St. (the old Moose Lodge) spoke to us today and said that her father was a Rotarian! She thanked for our past support of the outdoor enclosure as well for the effort serving meals at the shelter every other month. The Noon and Morning clubs, along with folks from the NAACP, Helen said, were the only service organizations helping with this. Others, however, are helping out financially.

Helen refers to it as an emergency shelter since no ID is required nor is a criminal background check. “That is the reason that we can’t serve families”, she said. Rather, they are put up in hotel rooms to assure their safety. Some guests “could still be active in their addictions”. Guests are told they will never be kicked out of the shelter because of their addictions but because of their behavior (threatening or disruptive behaviors). If anyone is asked to leave, they will be off for three days the first time, seven days the second time, and thirty days for the third time. Even then, she said, it is not an automatic return, the individual would have to meet with a staff member and stipulations are imposed.

The shelter operates on an all-volunteer staff except for one paid fulltime employee who is a case manager, she said. She works with setting a number of very small goals for some of the guests and does collaborative work with other agencies like Community Mental Health and Pathways.

The shelter has been in operation for one year now. Up to that point, 275 people were served representing 13,000 bed nights, 13,000 dinners, 13,000 breakfasts! Capacity at that time was 55 guests per night, Helen said. Total allowed is 60 guests per night. Presently, they have served 292 individuals for a total of 15,000 bed nights and they have had to turn people away, she said. Over 5,000 hours have been provided by volunteers the past year, she said.

Recovery meetings are held on site for guests with addictions. During the Phase 2 building project rooms were added in the downstairs area that included an activity center, office for agency reps to come in and meet with guests, board room and training room for the volunteers. There are also classrooms for budgeting training and a recovery room for meetings with AA representatives and Celebrate Recovery will begin soon there.

Some people stay for a while, she said. The meals are great and many times there is leftover food that will be distributed to local area food banks and The Daily Bread, Helen said. "We are all extremely proud of Share the Warmth and could have not doe it without the help of Lenawee County. Ninety percent of the money for the building came from Lenawee County.