Micah called the meeting to order and Julian Griffin led our prayer and pledge.
Announcements
- If anyone is interested in switching program dates with Joseph Williams for January 10th, please let Micah know.
- Thank you Penn Corbett and PIP Printing for printing our 2016-2017 Directory.
- For those who are planning to attend the Family of Rotary event at the Elon basketball game, a buffet will be available. Let Micah know if you are interested.
- Gary Brant reported the results from our blood drive on 12/29. We collected 16 units which will in turn help 48 people in need.
- Rotary Board meeting is next week at 11:00.
Happy Clams
- Micah honored the life of Joseph Williams’ dad, JL Williams, who passed away last week. Over 1000 people attended the funeral including partners from India, Nepal and Haiti. Joseph’s father-in-law passed away the week prior so please keep his family in your prayers.
- Micah is happy to be home from Kansas (17 hour drive each way!) but was happy to meet his 3-month old niece for the 1st time.
- Merry Christmas from North Star Marketing – Micah distributed a Christmas card to everyone!
- Stuart Sioussat celebrated his daughter’s first semester at ACC – looks like she will have a 3.6 GPA. Stuart and his wife enjoyed a day off yesterday while the kids were back in school!
- Dick O’Donnell is a representative for Spectrum which now owns Time Warner Cable. Spectrum is offering special pricing with no contract for businesses looking for internet services. Talk to him for more details.
- Brian Dement drove 1700 miles to Tuscaloosa and also stopped in New Orleans and Atlanta. Although he didn’t attend the game, he stayed in the same hotel as the football team.
- Gail Moore gave her grandson tickets to the Peach Bowl to cheer on his Crimson Tide for his Christmas gift.
Member Spotlight – Chantelle Stoughton
- Chantelle is originally from the DC area and is one of eleven children in her family. She has been in NC for six years. She and her husband are quick decision makers – they moved to a new city, graduated from college, planned a wedding and bought a new house all within 2 1/2 months!
- She and her husband own a property management company and recently moved into the commercial market.
- Nerdiest thing you like to do in your spare time? She’s an organizer and a little OCD admitting to adding labels to her storage containers.
Member Spotlight Up Next Week – Mac Williams
Alamance Achieves – Our Children, Our Future
Richard White is originally from Asheville and is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill. While at UNC, he was a member of the marching Tarheels. He has served as Elon’s Town Manager for three years. He has been married to his wife Stacy for 18 years and they have one daughter.
Richard introduced our speakers, Tracey Grayzer and Barbara Massey with Alamance Achieves.
Alamance Achieves is a “cradle to career” program designed to create a world class education system with world class community support. They are utilizing Strive Together which is a partnership based in Cincinnati. Strive Together will provide the framework to incorporate into our community.
Alamance Achieves has 4 Pillars of Success:
- Engage community
- Focus on eliminating locally defined disparities
- Develop culture of continuous improvement
- Leverage existing assets
The goals for the program are as follows:
- Every child is well, healthy, and ready for school.
- Every child succeeds in school.
- Every student graduates, prepared for post-secondary learning.
- Every learner is on track to achieve their career goals.
60% of Alamance County students are on free/reduced lunch. The program will also work to ensure every child regardless of where they live in our county has access to resources such as libraries, parks, museums. etc.
Visit the website at www.AlamanceAchieves.org for more information and to sign up to receive their newsletter.
Card Drawing
Julian did not draw the winning Ace of Spades card.
The meeting was adjourned and we all stood to recite the Rotary Four-Way Test. Until next week…