With fellowship in hand, we took our seats and began another gathering of this eternal winter with John Flynn welcoming us and showing us videos of members explaining how the Rotary inspires them. The invocation from the writings of Theodore Geisel and then the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance and the Rotary 4 Way Test was provided by David Aase.
Jody Kern introduced our guests. Today’s guests were hosted by Sutton McGraw, Joe Hayes, Bjorn Freudenthal, Jennifer Hendrickson, Deirdre Kvale,and Jody Kern. Lisa Walker extended to us all a rousing invitation to participate in an Irish dinner to be held March 9th 6-9 pm at the Avidor Welcome Center. Lisa urged us to arrive early before the array of adult Celtic beverages are depleted to naught.
David Clynes and Susan Stiles introduced our newest Paul Harris Fellows: John Buttolph PHF+1 PHS,
Brandon Azbill PHF+1, Jim Ryman PHF+4 PHS, and Kris Maser PHF+8 PHS, and Luther Amundson PHF+8 PHS
Answering the call to serve in a dual capacity, Jody Kern introduced our speaker, Greg LaVallee of Just Drive Inc. (www.justdriveday.org) who spoke about distracted driving. After their son was killed by a distracted driver, Greg and his wife determined to work to educate the public about the causes of distracted driving. For, besides the obvious examples of texting and hand-held mobile phone usage, distracted driving includes eating, drinking, conversation with passengers, hands-free phone usage, and focusing on roadside events. Greater still is the threat of “cognitive distraction” – that is, being so absorbed in thought that our awareness of the road becomes impaired. We can avoid distracted driving by turnng our phones off or enabling the “Do Not Disturb While Driving” settings; and by not eating, or drinking, or taking our eyes off the road to reach for items on the floor. We all know what to do – now just do it and save a life.
Tom Bach thanked the speaker and John ended the meeting with a quote from Linda Poindexter: “Make the world safer – start with yourself.”
.jpg)
