We Mourn the Loss of Jim Bennett and Tom Baird

In the last two weeks we have lost both Tom Baird and Jim Bennett. I'll try to have special articles on each but sufficient to say they will be missed. Tom had just received his 46 year perfect attendance pin the week before. His widow says he wore it on his lapel to his grave. We have ordered duplicates to present to his two daughers.

Kevin Mays takes the Reins

Kevin is the former head of the local National City Bank branches. When his job was to take him out of Bowling Green he resigned and took a job with Holland CPA's. We are delighted that he elected to stay in Bowling Green. In my opinion Kevin is a natural leader and "do gooder". His whole life has been in service to others and his deep spiritual anchor makes him a treamendous asset to our community and to Rotary in particular. I look for active, forward looking leadership from Kevin during his tenure.

One of the first things Kevin did when he took over as our club president was to outline the challenges ahead and speak about his plan to meet them. He said we need to address the financial challenges of our club and make some difficult decisions. (Spoken like a true banker.) He wants us to help the international organization match the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation challenge grant by assessing $130 from each member.

Kevin wants to improve the quality and quantity of our membership during his tenure. We were one of the few clubs over the last year that actually had a net gain in membership. Hang on to your hats fellow Rotarians we're in exciting and challenging times during the next twelve months. Good Luck Kevin.

Margaret Curtis Talks about Teaching in China

Parapatetic Dr. Margaret Curtis, a retired Professor of Eastern Studies from Western Kentucky Unitversity, spent a block of time over the last twelve months teaching at two universities in China. We have published some of her correspondence on this blog. Those entries can be seen by checking the archives. This time we got a splendid power point presentation from Margaret herself and the audience was captivated. What I took away from Margaret's comments is how beautiful and collegiate her students looked. She obviously became very attached to them and I suspect it had a lot to do with their sincerity and enthusiasm. She commented during her presentation that it was the best group of students she had ever had.

Although Margaret was afforded very comfortable living conditions in heavily polluted industrial cities, the students attended classes in modern looking classrooms that Margaret said were neither heated nor cooled. It rained abundantly during the time she was there. One student is trying even at this moment to get here to Bowling Green to attend Greenwood High School. Let's hope things work out so she can and we'll keep you posted on that story. Thank you Margaret for such important work towards international understanding and for your great presentation at our meeting.