Courtesy of Ray Leisy, Club Historian
On July 2, 2001 the gavel was passed to in-coming President Steve Shapiro for the Wooster Rotary year 2001 to 2002. President Steve announced his theme for the year “Think Outside the Box.” President Steve also mentioned his five major goals for the year: bring in 18 new members, work hard to integrate the new members into Wooster Rotary and involve them in projects and activities, adopt a new community service project, increase the size of our endowment fund and take on a new world service project. The Wooster Rotary budget was set for the year at $109,518.00 and the Wooster Rotary Foundation at $50,100.00.
One of the more interesting and timely programs was presented on December 31st by Gordon McCormick who teaches counter-terrorism to Navy Seals, Air Force Delta Force students and Army Special Operations. His topic was “Fighting Terrorism in Afghanistan.”
One of the more interesting and timely programs was presented on December 31st by Gordon McCormick who teaches counter-terrorism to Navy Seals, Air Force Delta Force students and Army Special Operations. His topic was “Fighting Terrorism in Afghanistan.”
It was announced that an audio visual committee of Wooster Rotary had been formed to video tape each program. Any Rotarian could ask to borrow a copy if they were unable to attend a meeting.
Wooster Rotarians Kyle Gustafson and Christopher Buehler were raising funds with the Wooster Rotary Interact Club though the “Flamingo Flocking” program. Rotarians could give the names of their friends and neighbors and a minimum donation of $10 and the Interact Club would place a flock of Flamingos on the designated lawn. At a subsequent meeting the Interact Club announced a successful collection of $400. No flamingos were lost in the project.
At the April 1, 2002, meeting Karen Edwards, assistant dean of students at the College of Wooster and four Muslim students spoke on the topic of “Understanding Islam.” The program was prompted by the attack of September 11th. Karen began the program by quoting J.W. Fulbright who said “Perhaps the greatest power of educational exchange is the power to convert nations into people and to translate ideologies into human aspirations.” Murat Sagine from Turkey, Naveed Ahmad from India and Asayia Tejani and Jamal Haidar, both from Pakistan, described the feelings within their own countries and the role Islam plays in their respective countries.