Highlights from Two Weeks Ago – January 23, 2015

Posted by Mark Zalewski

on Jan 27, 2015

Now that most of us have moved through the 5 Stages of Grief after last Sundays Packer loss, we are ready to move on. Brewer Spring Training starts February 20th! This morning, we listened to one of our newer members, Gwen Condon as she presented her Classification Talk to the Club, (for more on Gwen, see the story below). Gwen transferred to ERC from the Lake Country Rotary and while she misses the friendships she had at Lake Country, she's glad to be part of a club with a high-level of community and international involvement.

Gwen is a Financial Representative for MetLife, lives in Hartland with her husband Ken, and has 4 adult children. Gwen has been particularly active in Rotary’s Student Exchange Programs. Her kids were Outbound Exchange students and she and Ken have hosted half a dozen Inbound students over the years. And just a few weeks ago, the family flew to Brazil, where they attended the wedding of one of Rotary Exchange Students. Gwen is a strong proponent of Rotary’s international focus and the lifelong ties they forge among the participants.

This was a good lead-in for today’s program speaker, our Club Secretary Linda Edelstein. Linda spoke about her trip last November to Antigua, Guatemala, to represent the Club at the graduation of our sponsored student – Esvin Hernandez. While there she had a chance to visit a number of the Common Hope facilities, participate in student activities and celebrate, with the family and Common Hope staff, the joy of Esvin’s achievements.

Linda also had a chance to meet our Club’s newest sponsored student – Yenifer Garcia. Yenifer is 17 and a Straight A student. She will be graduating in November 2015.

We also bid “Adios” to Club Members, Linda Wickstrom and Kate Bloomberg, who are leaving on Saturday for Antigua to spend a week at Common Hope as part of a Vision Team from their Church. Our own Vision Team will be heading down to Guatemala on February 21.

Our speaker next week will be John Carlson – Project Manager for Brookfield Water Utility.