Recap from the May 24, 2021 Club Meeting:
Invocation: Paul Fitzpatrick
Guests: Mark Roberts was the guest of Erika Cox. Steve Dakin our District 6000 Governor was with us on Zoom.
Happy News/Announcements: John Kuhl was happy that his daughter graduated from High School this last weekend. John also said thank you to Mike Wedell for giving out the Rotary Scholarships at the graduation ceremony. John Kuhl also was happy to let us know that Rob Yant will be joining the Rotary Board. Erika Cox thanked Discover Muscatine and MCC for helping to plan the high school graduation ceremony. Erika also thanked all the Rotarians that attended the MPW energy forum. Harvey Allbee put in $1 because he forgot to last week and then he put in another $1 for forgetting. lol - thanks. Rick Gosney wished the following Rotarians happy birthday - Charla Schafer, Harvey Allbee, Mary Wildermuth.
Club Business: Rob Yant presented the club with a banner from his previous Rotary Club in Marshall Minnesota. Megan Francis wanted to let us know that the club will be helping out with a blood drive - more info to come. Rick Gosney gave an update on Muscatine county covid rates - they are heading in the right direction.
Program: Our speaker today was Tony Loconsole - Communications, Marketing, and Community Engagement at Muscatine Community School District (MCSD). Tony has been in Muscatine for 9 years and him and his wife have 3 children ages 9, 6, and 2 1/2. The school year of 2020-2021 saw the merging of the West and Central Middle school in becoming Susan Clark Junior High. Having the school year with Covid 19 restrictions. The new STEM wing at the High School opened. 2021 graduation took place outside at the football stadium - so did prom and CAPE. Tony shared some video of the graduation ceremony and the STEM wing(video can be found on school district you tube site). Going forward for the MCSD - Muskie SPARK - summer program for kids, over 500 are scheduled to participate. Bilingual pre-kindergarten. Kindergarten through 6th grade - STEAM. Kinder academy. Portrait of a Muskie graduate - individualized graduation plan/preparing for the secondary path for students. And Tony was very excited to let us know that they are working on a brand new Muscatine Schools website, it is scheduled to be launched in September. Thank you Tony.
Reminder: There will not be a rotary meeting next week in observation of Memorial Day. June 7th our program will be our very own Dr. Manasi Nadkarni - our global grant India project.
Have a great week.