Micah called the meeting to order and Joseph Williams led our prayer and pledge.
Announcements
- Welcome our guests, Pierre-Louis Guillot (exchange student from Belgium) and Fairfax Reynolds.
- Welcome new member, Chantelle Stoughton.
- Young Professionals Summit for our Rotary district will be Nov. 18-19.
- We will “pass the bucket” next week for Dr. Mike Brennan. Dr. Brennan is working on a project for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
- Rotary Board Meeting next week at 11:00.
- New Member Orientation is scheduled for 10/25 at 11:00.
Happy Clams
- Jim Cartner shared September 24th was his wife’s 7th “birthday.” She was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and received her stem cell transplant 7 years ago.
Member Spotlight – Carolyn Rhode
- Back in her “previous life,” Carolyn served as a Management Consultant in Sweden. During her time in Europe she was able to go north of the Arctic Circle and south of the Equator. She visited the Ice Hotel in Sweden for a team building exercise and then took a safari in Kenya.
- In addition to the basic skills classes offered at Alamance Community College, ACC also offers advanced math and physics classes to include Mechanics Thermal Dynamics and Calculus 3.
- Favorite outdoor activity – Hiking
Member Spotlight Next Week – Angela Parham
Program Schedule
- October 11 – Peter Sargent
- October 18 – Dan Seller
- October 25 – Stuart Sioussat
- November 1 – Philip Smith
Alamance Wellness Collaborative – Ann Meletzke and Marcy Green
Carolyn Rhode introduced our speakers, Ann Meletzke and Marcy Green from the Alamance Wellness Collaborative. Ann is the executive director of Healthy Alamance, a non-profit partnership between Cone Health – Alamance Regional and the Alamance County Health Department. Leading the community health assessment process, Ann guides the community work necessary to address the priorities identified in the assessment by building collaboratives. Marcy serves as the Program Director of Impact Alamance, a health conversion foundation. Marcy oversees the foundation’s programs and serves as a convener and collaborator in the community. Ann and Marcy are the co-chairs for the Alamance Wellness Collaborative and Carolyn serves as the Alamance Community College representative on the committee.
The Alamance Wellness Collaborative was formed in February of 2015 and consists of 30 members with representatives from all the Alamance County governments, parks and recreation, city planners, health departments, ACC, Elon and ABSS.
Built environments (sidewalks, bike and walking trails, etc.) were one of the group’s first priorities. It is important to focus on built environments in order to make our community healthier. The Splash Park was the Collaborative’s first initiative and had 43,000 visits the first summer.
Other focus areas include the following:
- Increase access to trails/active transportation – educate the community as to what’s available.
- Support healthy school environments – Working to have “joint use” for school playgrounds to be used by the community outside of school hours. We are 1 of 6 counties in NC to have this.
- Find and apply for funding
- Advocacy at the local government level for policy change
The Collaborative offers partnership grants for member ideas. Members work together with the opportunity to win $150,000 to fund their project ideas. A few of the projects that have been awarded funding include: adding 1.5 miles to the Haw River Trails (Valley Road Trailhead), improving signage at the Town & Country trail in East Burlington, building a multi-purpose court at Alamance Community College and adding bike racks throughout Mebane, and organizing a tool sharing program among small, local farmers at Benevolence farm.
The meeting was adjourned and we all stood to recite the Rotary Four Way Test. Until next time….