Antarctic Marathon

We had a fun presentation last week from Nick Pacha on his recent trip to Antarctica. 
Nick was John Moenck's guest this past week and is our Washington City Parks Superintendent and this Spring he had the chance to go to Antarctica and participate in a marathon.

John Moenck and his guest Nick Pacha

Nick showed us many pictures and videos from the trip.  Highlights included a few days in Buenos Aries, a long two day boat ride, running with penguins, seeing seals on the shore and a polar plunge!  

Nick presenting some of his pictures from this trip of a life time!

We also had a couple of guests with us last week.  Teri Hartzler's daughter, Ashley, was in town from Texas and John Moenek brought his wife Karen.

Teri and Ashley Hartzler

Upcoming Events:

May 

30: Cheryl Kurtz

June

6: Randy Fehr

13: Ed Lins

20:

26: Awards Dinner @ Country Club

27: No Meeting

Electronic Options at the Library

We had a great turn out last week with Washington Public Library as our guest speaker and several other guests were able to join us as well.
Our guests last week were all Horaks!  Paul Horak had both Claire and Mary Kate Horak with him.

Paul Horak with all our Horak guests!

 David Collins also had Brennan Horak as a guest!

David Collins with Brennan Horak

Bryna Walker and Allie Paarsmith were our guest speakers from the Washington Public Library.  They have purchased 17 books for the library with Rotary donations this year!  They also presented us with several different reading options through the online library portal, Bridges, for electronic or audio books.  Bridges is an online portal for the state of Iowa's public libraries to share electronic materials.  You can access the material on the library's website or through the new app, libby.

Bryna Walker, Library Director, and Allie Paarsmith, Adult Services Librarian, present to our group.

The libby app can be used on any mobile device with a valid library card and any library staff is happy to help anyone if they have questions installing or using the app. 

The library will also be busy in the upcoming months with the summer reading program starting the first of June and they have several fun family activities planned throughout the summer!

Upcoming Events:

May

23:     John Moenck

30:     Cheryl Kurtz

June

6:       Randy Fehr

13:     Ed Lins

20:

27:     AWARDS DINNER – NO MEETING

Trafficking In Iowa

This past week Dick Colby invited Chad Ellis to join us and talk about human trafficking in Southeast Iowa.  Chad is the Washington County Investigator and also speaks to groups to make communities aware of different types of human trafficking.  By doing this, Chad hopes that active members in each community have an awareness for what this may look like in their community, and would be able to recognize if a situation may be part of a larger trafficking ring.

Dick with Washington County Sergeant, Chad Ellis

Chad wanted to make sure that we were aware of labor trafficking and that this may be a situation we see in Southeast Iowa.  As defined by HumanTraffickingHotline.org, labor trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which individuals perform labor or services through the use of force, fraud, or coercion.  Labor traffickers use violence, threats, lies, and other forms of coercion to force people to work against their will in many industries.

Chad talking about trafficking to the group.

We also got an update from Paul from the District Conference held May 2nd through the 4th in Des Moines.  Paul said he attended a presentation about literacy Friday morning.  He enjoyed the lunch speaker, Suku Radia, and attended two afternoon sessions.  One was focused on Rotary membership; focusing on diversity and younger Rotary members.  The other was on club fundraising.  He was also able to sit with a Rotary group from Keokuk who is working on a publication of letters from 1931 and 1932.  Thank you, Paul, for attending this conference and representing our club!

Paul reporting back on the District Conference 

Upcoming Events:
May 16: Kathy Salazar
May 23: John Moenck
May 30: Cheryl Kurtz

June 6: Randy Fehr

June 13: Ed Lins