April 24, 2009

Today, Jim Rippy vacates his seat in the Southwest corner of Hampton Centre on Fridays, and takes to the podium as our speaker. Jim is a lifelong resident of the area, with a long history of leadership for our community. He is also C. E. O. of Westan Insurance Group, here in Union City.

Jim will be discussing some of their experiences while he, his wife, Robert Kirkland an his wife were on a trip to Egypt, traveling on the Nile River and visiting the Pyramids and Temples of ancient Egypt.

He will relate to the observations of Egyptian life that dates back over six thousand years, and also describe the ancient life on the Nile River and the Pyramids, temples and tombs of the Kings and Pharos and how some of these ancient symbols and traditions have affected us today, he will also relate to life on the Nile River and in Egypt as it is lived today.

Jim said among the people who were on the trip, there were four choices as to who would present the program today, and as luck would have it he drew the short straw. In any case today’s program should be very educational and interesting.

Next Week, Union City Rotary will be very busy on two fronts, as the Rotary Relays will be taking place at the Union City High School track, and we will be entertaining special guests, as our Rotary Group Exchange Visitors will be in town. Our special guests will be housed and hosted by Bill and Linda Simrell.

The Rotary Relays began in 1978 and have become the best run, best organized high school track meet in West Tennessee. Each year hundreds of high school athletes from West Tennessee and West Kentucky gather for the event, as a prelude to their various regional and state track meets.

This years chairman of the event is Randy Barnes, he is asking the different chairmen of events to please contact him if you have any questions as to your assignments, and at the beginning of the day’s events, he will be assigning some of you to fill in where there are last minute vacancies.

Lets all try to make this years event the most successful ever.

Last Week, President Steve Conley presented two of our newest members, Matt Turner and Michael Calfee with their packets, welcoming them to the club. He went on to say that he had submitted several items from our club for the Presidential Citation program at the up-coming District Conference.

Randy Barnes introduced our guest speaker, Harry Lane of the Davy Crockett District of Boy Scouts of America.

Harry began by introducing his guest, James Townsend, who was traveling with him on a tour of his district, which includes several counties in Northwest Tennessee.

He said he was a salesman, so to speak, selling character to many many young boys throughout his district, and making the Davy Crockett district as self sustaining as possible, therefore "I could work myself out of a job" he said. He also said that Rotary and Boy Scouts were partners, as both organizations work to serve young people, and the four way test of Rotary and the motto of boy scouts also have basically the same challenge. He went on to say that Rotary Clubs charter 1400 scouting units and serve over 50,000 youth members across the country.

He used a brochure passed out to demonstrate what scouting does here in West Tennessee and Obion County. He also said that 50 cents of every dollar raised for scouting comes from individual donors.

Harry said we was very excited about the growth of scouting in Obion Country, as in 07 there were 5 Cub Scout Troops, now there are 6, and also in 07 there were only 2 Boy Scout Troops, now there are 4. serving 430 youth here in Obion County, and he was most excited about a new Troop which has begun in Troy.

May 01 - Rotary Relays and Argentina Exchange Visitors

May 08 - John Rufli, Executive Director of Friends of Land Between the Lakes

May 15 - Rotary Scholarship Banquet

May 22 - Art Sparks, New Member Roast

May 29 - Dr. Wright Jernigan

April 28 - Phillip Creswell

April 24 - Jack and Susan Parker

April 25 - David And Shelia Parks

April 30 - Sam and Kim Bradberry

April 30 - John and Jane Hale