Dave R opened the meeting at the Lake Mills EMS building at 12:20pm and led the group in the Pledge of Allegiance followed with the Four-Way Test.
Guests
Nela - Visiting rotarian and speaker
Student Rotarians
Happy Bucks
Karen - Bill K has passed from complications of lung cancer. Service on saturday from 9-11 at the moravian church
Ed - Happy to know Bill
Janine - For Karen
Jim W - Happy to have known Bill who helped his family immensely
Pam - Bill was her sons mentor. Response and support for the bomb threat. Evacuated schools in less than 12 minutes
Dave - Evening assembly last week at the grist was great, Bill K was a special person and will be missed in our community, bomb threat response and professionalism, great beer / wine event
Fines
None
Birthdays
Jenn,
Birthday Raffle
Winners: Gene and Aaron
Committee Reports and Announcements
Scholarship committee meeting right after meeting today
Beer / Wine - Silent auction $9286, 453 people attended, 497 tickets sold, total profit has not yet been determined
Speakers - if they are a non for profit let Janine know so we can donate to them
PROGRAM
Nela Kalpic, visiting Rotarian from Madison spoke on the topic Marsys Law for Wisconsin. She is originally from Yugoslavia/Serbia. She fell in love at 19 yo to a man from Egypt. She later realized her relationship was abusive. They had a one year old child when her husband moved the family to Kuwait. There was no support for a woman in her position and she didn't know how to get away. She lived this way for almost 10 years with two more kids. When the Egyptian government was overthrown, she was able to convince him to coming to the US. They arrived in New York with a tourist visa. Her first time seeing the statue of liberty gave her a sense of freedom she had never felt before. She got a drivers license and drove her and her kids to Madison, WI. They received political asylum with the US. She started doing community work and got an interview in the state capital. She got an internship at the state senate. Through her work, she was offered a job in the state senate. She now works for Marsy's Law and she urges everyone to go out and vote in April on this important subject matter. Marsy's Law for Wisconsin – Outreach Director (you can find a bunch of the info on Marsy's Law online).
