Club Business
Katie Dukeshire, an esteemed past president of our club, filled in for President Jim Cartner, who is on special assignment. Pete Beck led the invocation and the pledge of allegiance to the US flag. We had a second reading for Cathryn Hartwell, a broker with Real Estate Experts. She is being sponsored by Dick O’Donnell. Katie welcomed Brooke Carpenter on his first day as an official club member.
Brooke is a financial advisor with Betty Andrews’ company. He attended Western Alamance High School before going to West Point. Brooke spent seven years in the Army, participating in Desert Storm. He worked in structural engineering for twenty-seven years before changing to his present occupation, which he enjoys. He will have been married for thirty years this summer. He has two grown children and loves our club.
Katie welcomed seldom seen member, District Governor Elect Randy Perkins. It is always great when he can join us for a meeting. Check below to see upcoming birthdays and anniversaries in March and program responsibilities going forward. Next week Stuart Sioussat is on tap.
Katie announced that Alamance Country Club will host the installation banquet for Randy Perkins on Tuesday, June 18, from 6-9 pm. This is open to any club member. Registration will soon be open.
Click here to see all scheduled program dates and responsibilities.
March Birthdays and Anniversaries
11 | Matt Patel | 8 | Francois and Andrea Masuka |
20 | Ben Wooten | 27 | Joseph and Susannah Williams |
30 | Susan Watson |
Happy Dollar Announcements
- Randy Perkins paid to announce that Mark Maloney, the next Rotary International President, will be a keynote speaker at the upcoming President Elect Training meetings in Greensboro. Randy invited Mary Thomas Gilbert, our next club president, to be present at this event.
- Micah Fox rejoiced in UNC’s sweep of Duke during the regular season. Someone in the crowd said that there is no asterisk to it. I suppose that means that Duke would not have done any better even if they had had the services of its best player both games. Congrats to UNC!
- Paul Mauney let us know that tonight the ACC – Times-News Current Events Challenge, which our club sponsors, will be held. Everyone is welcome.
- Master Lee congratulated Brooke Carpenter for being a part of the club. He said the initiation, which no one warned Brooke about, is to receive 100 kicks from the Grand Master himself without falling down. How about just one? On a serious, yet happy, note, Sang told us that his son has been accepted to Governor’s School and was recently elected to be the next president of the Western Alamance H.S. Interact Club.
- Mikey Morrison also paid a dollar to gloat over Carolina’s win, stating categorically that no team who loses the second meeting of this great rivalry has ever gone on to win a national title. Since the past nearly always guarantees future outcomes, Mikey feels pretty confident Duke cannot win it all this year.
- Carolyn Rhode told us that cookie sales are winding down. Isn’t that what she said the past two weeks? She remembered Marti Asher, who recently died. Every year she purchased one box of each flavor of GSA cookies to distribute to the Homeless Shelter. She will be missed.
Member Providing Our Program: Carolyn Rhode
Carolyn Rhode attended Carleton College and later earned her MBA at Dartmouth. She has worked at Alamance Community College for fifteen years, where she is currently the VP for Institutional Advancement. Carolyn also has served invaluably as our club’s secretary since 2006. She is a Girl Scout mom of two daughters, who are in the sixth and a ninth grades. She is married to Mark Tosczak and is a Paul Harris Fellow.
Program: Dr. Michael Brennan – Rotary and the American Academy of Ophthalmology
Dr. Brennan served as 2009 American Academy of Ophthalmology president and was the Academy’s international envoy for many years and served on their Global Advisors Committee. Dr. Brennan has a special gift for motivating and connecting people. While secretary of state affairs (1997-2004), he helped establish the Academy Leadership Development Program, which prepared state and sub-specialty society leaders and created a network of leaders who work together. These connections reach throughout the world through several subsequent international ophthalmology leadership-development programs, modeled on the Academy’s program.
A graduate of West Point, Dr. Brennan served as an Army Aviator in Vietnam. After receiving a master’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University, he served as an instructor at West Point and became a finalist in the NASA space-shuttle selection process.
After turning to medicine, Dr. Brennan earned his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Texas, San Antonio in 1978. He completed his residency in ophthalmology at Brooke Army Medical Center, Ft. Sam Houston, in San Antonio and later served as chief of surgery at Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. From there he joined the Alamance Eye Center in Burlington, North Carolina, where he enjoyed single- specialty group practice with his partners, staff and patients from 1986 thru 2016. He continues to host ophthalmologists from around the world through the Academy’s Rotary Host Program.
Dr. Brennan is a past president of North Carolina Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons and a member of several international ophthalmology societies. His interests include developing physician leaders and empowering physician organizations. He has conducted leadership programs for many Latin American, European and Middle Eastern countries and also collaborates with the Sub-Saharan and Asia Pacific Academy of Ophthalmology’s leadership development programs. He also directs volunteer physicians who collaborate with a variety of Middle East national medical and surgical specialties to provide continuing medical education and professional development.
Dr. Brennan said Dr. Paul Abernethy brought him to Burlington to be part of the Alamance Eye practice, which he told us was a great career move. Dr. Brennan has four children and eight grands.
Rotary and our club in particular has partnered with the American Academy of Ophthalmology over the past several years to bring into the country over two hundred promising third world doctors to receive further training and to develop life enhancing relationships. He said that the personal relationships are perhaps the most important aspect of the program. Reciprocal invitations are extended, which allows our doctors to visit other nations as ambassadors of good will.
In the early days of the program, Beth Powell played a big part, ferrying doctors to various places, hosted them in her home, and being generally committed to making things work. Dr. Brennan mentioned several individuals who have come to the USA as part of the program, including some names familiar to our club: Dr. Reshad Sediqyar from Afghanistan, Dr. Tara Rashid from Iraq, and Dr. Jeannine Srourian from Aleppo, Syria.
Dr. Brennan thanked Rotary and our club for its support over the years. He informed us that the reason he has not brought participants to our meetings over the last few years is because Wake Forest Medical has been running the schedule. He also thanked Carolyn Rhode for the invitation and her ongoing friendship.
Conclusion
Katie presented our speaker with a book to donate to an individual or institution of his choice in support of literacy. We did not have a drawing today; so, the Queen of Diamonds is safe. Only 51 cards left! Katie adjourned the meeting by reciting the four-way test.