- Good Afternoon & Happy Tuesday!
- Welcome to Rotary-Pledge of allegiance and 4-way Test
- Welcome all Visiting Rotarians, Guests, Zoomers
- Nicki Kelly of Farmers and Merchants State Bank.
- Jack is on zoom.
- Happy Bucks and fines
- Jenny, Anita, and Tom V. attended the FA Rotary meeting yesterday. Great lunch and fellowship. Mentioned they are looking for speaker’s 2nd and 3rd Monday of the month.
- Andy can be at a meeting again for the first time in a while. He is excited about Fat Tuesday and brought beads.
- Mark is happy to have welcomed a new granddaughter.
- Raina gave a happy buck for the Legendary Lake Mills Knickerbocker Ice Festival. It was great to see volunteers step up, the event chairs killed it, and the weather did not damper the fun.
- This week’s Birthdays
- Andy Barnes’ Birthday is on February 18th.
- Please bring Birthday Raffle items next week so that we can have a drawing.
- This week’s Anniversaries
- Emily Watson has been with rotary for 2 years.
- Student Rotarians
- LMHS
- Lorenzo Moreno is from Lacrosse. He has siblings, one attends Lake Mills High School, and one lives in Lacrosse. He will be graduating in June. He plays soccer and has been captain each year. He’s even played soccer in Las Vegas. He has also played in St. Louis which is his favorite city in the US. He hopes to major in mechanical engineering as he loves math.
- Rayne Smyers is a senior at Lake Mills High School.
- LLHS
- Quentin Jewell plans to study finance at UW Lacrosse because he grandparents live there. He has a skill in math and is very active in sports.
- Mackenzie Syvrnd wrote a book for her Girl Scout project.
- Club Business, Committee Reports or Announcements
- New Member Induction
- Fort Blood Drive at the Community Center on Monday, Feb 19th
- The next blood drive is April 2nd. Reach out to Brian if you can volunteer.
- Tuesday, Feb 20th at 7 am Rotary Foundation Board Meeting at Nicole’s office
- All are welcome to attend. She has the best coffee each time!
- Night meeting on Feb 21st at night
- Two non-profits will be speaking looking to be Pyramid 5K fund recipients. New Beginnings and Rock River Clinic are speaking. They will choose one as recipient for the Pyramid 5k proceeds.
- Calendar Raffle
- Barb & Gerard will co-chair are looking for sponsors with are $250 this year.
- A meeting occurred after the lunchtime meeting.
- Megs Lunn (dist. 6250 administrator) is visiting our district and staying in U.S. for 4-6 weeks. Will be visiting several clubs in WI, Colorado, LA,
- Feb 23rd Multi-club Social
- Meet at Pyramid for Social at 7:00pm and karaoke will begin at 8:00pm.
- March 10th Fort Interact Club is hosting a Pancake Breakfast
- Registration is open for Tri-Con April 18-20th in Green Bay
- Districts 6220, 6250, & 6270
Program Speaker: Greg Renz
Greg Renz was a fire fighter in Milwaukee for over 20years. He retired as the Captain of the Fire Department. When he retired, he was an avid reader and decided to write his own book. He remembers thinking “how hard could it be”. He went to classes in Madison and learned what it takes to put thoughts on paper.
He ended up writing and publishing an award-winning novel. Twenty-eight years ago, he recalled getting a call in a sleet storm in Milwaukee. The fire team did not get too excited as they got many calls with many false alarms. This changed when they found out that there were two children trapped in the basement of the burning home. The only way to get to the basement is to go down the stairwell which is much like a chimney. It’s blistering hot at the top, and once getting into the basement it is not as hot. He has many experienced fire fighters on the rig.
He was praying not to crash as he knew they would be the first rig on the scene. He knew if they crashed, the children would not make it. They arrived on the street and saw a street full of smoke, they could not even tell which house was in flames. Finally, they found the house as a woman ran out saying that there were two children stuck in the house. When Greg and the team arrived at the back of the house, they saw thick black smoke rising. His immediate thought was that there were no ways the boys were alive. He made a quick decision against protocol to enter the house on his own, as the woman stated that they had been calling for help just minutes before they arrived.
When he entered, he yelled their names with no response. He thought it was too late but did not want to leave without the boys with him. He started working his way through the basement on all fours, and he went to bed. He reached under the bed and flipped the mattress over with no look. He started rifling through clothing and found what felt like a ragdoll. He investigated the face of a young boy who was surely gone. He made his way to the foot of the bed and found another lifeless young boy. More firefighters joined in the blinding smoke to act through a “full rescue” to ensure there was no one else in there. About 45 minutes after arriving the fire had gone down and they were leaving the basement.
He walked up the stairs thinking of his own children and how unfair it is that these boys had to lose their lives in this way. He knew he knew what he would see when he went outside. Crying, screaming in pain, and devastation. He was surprised to see that there was nothing there. He found that the two boys were resuscitated and headed to the hospital. Greg shared that was an amazing feeling, it must have felt like winning the superbowl.
Later that evening Greg broke down because he realized that he was part of something divine. He did not follow protocol as he typically would head immediately to the back wall, but stopped at the bed in which the boys were found nearby.
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