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Club Announcements:
At the July 27 meeting of the Rotary Club of North Jackson, Club Service Director, Bill Osborne, announced that the club has been approached by WGBH of Boston, MA to assist with a new program for pre-Kindergarten students. The program which is named "Wombats" is a successor to the "Aha Island" program that our club members used in 2019 - 2021.
The Wombats program features an Australian animal that lives in trees. It is targeted at teaching Computational Thinking (CT) which is important to STEM education and to problem-solving. CT was also a goal of Aha Island.
"Wombats" is being offered to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at no cost. WGBH is applying for a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to develop the program. If that grant is awarded, some of our club members may need to travel to Boston to work on the program. Per WGBH, any travel expenses would be covered by the grant.
Since Wombats would be available to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at no cost and it is a successor to the work that we have been doing at Walton School, we have told WGBH that our club wants to proceed with the proposed program.
Prayer. O God of all creation, Designer of the natural order in which the phenomenon of growth gives beauty and excitement, we are grateful that in the sphere of human affairs and organized structures, growth is also a desirable and anticipated experience.
Accept our thanks for the food and friendship we enjoy today, and for opportunities to serve awaiting us beyond this meeting. Amen.
Proposed New Member Announcement. Lynette M. Suttlar has been proposed for membership in the Rotary Club of North Jackson by Uriel Pineda and is sponsored for membership by Past President Tom Parry.
Lynette is a licensed Real Estate Broker and is the Owner of 1Star Realty LLC in Ridgeland. She has lived and worked in Jackson for the past 25 years.
She holds both a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Public Accountancy degree. She is a member of the Jackson State National Alumni Association.
Lynette is a member of Toastmasters International and a number of local and national real estate trade associations.
A resident of Ridgeland, Lynette will be loaned the classification, Real Estate - Residential, after her membership is approved by the Board.
This is the first publication of this proposed new member.
Tony Jeff, President & CEO, Innovate Mississippi, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s July 27 meeting. Jeff described the situation in Mississippi where it lags all other states in businesses in the Fortune 500. Mississippi has only one, Sanderson Farms (#662), whereas Arkansas who was dead last in 1960 now has 6 firms in the Fortune 500: Walmart (#1), Tyson Foods (#80), Murphy USA (#279), J. B. Hunt (#395), Dillards (#439), and Windstream (#474).
The salient question Jeff asked is “Why can’t Mississippi companies be the biggest in their fields? He showed the slide.
He responded “We can!”. And we must “think bigger and identify bottlenecks,” Then he asked the question to the meeting attendees “What is stopping you from being the biggest in the world?”
Jeff then said “for every winner, there are dozens of losers.” He cited several technology laws, in particular Grove’s Law, “Only the Paranoid Survive!” This law was formulated by Andy Grove, the founder of Intel.
With respect to being a Shark Tank, Jeff said that in the past 36 months, 43 Mississippi companies have raised $17.7.M
The events that Innovate MS sponsors are listed on this slide:
Innovate MS considers itself a Co-Builder with entrepreneurial organizations; i.e., it is offering special events in the latter part of 2021 and in 2022.
It will be expanding its angel funds in 2022 & 2023 to include the South Mississippi area and Oxford and the delta in the next two years.
Innovate MS offers connections to capital
Innovate MS’s commercialization model is a three-phase one with technical, marketing, and business components based on the models taught in engineering and business schools.
Jeff closed by reminding the club member of Innovate Mississippi's success stories:
And reminding us of what they do and have done
And that Innovate Mississippi is Mississippi’s “Shark Tank.”
We thank Jeff for his presentation and for what Innovate MS is doing for our state. He is shown during his presentation in the following photo.
The Rotary Club of North Jackson Celebrated the 50th Anniversary of its Chartering with a Gala on July 20 at the Country Club of Jackson. Featured Speakers were Charter Year President, Swan Yerger, who spoke via video, John Germ, Chairman of the Rotary Foundation and 2016-2017 President of Rotary International, Hon. Phillip Gunn, Speaker of the Mississippi House of Representatives, and Floyd Lancia, 2019-2020 Rotary International Director for Rotary Zones 30-31 who spoke via video.
Below are some photos from the event:
Club President Uriel Pineda presided:
Shelby Greer, daughter of club member Lori Greer presented the national anthem.
Club Member Mississippi Court of Appeals Judge Virginia Carlton introduced Speaker Gunn.
Mark Anderson, 2021-22 Governor of Rotary District 6820 spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s July 13 meeting. This was his first visit to the club since becoming Governor on July 1. He was accompanied by his wife Shahla.
Governor Mark introduced the new district website Rotary6820.com and discussed the plans for the district in his term.The details of those plans are included on the website. He showed a presentation that included those details.
Following his presentation, Gov. Mark introduced Thomas Dent of the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services who introduced the principal activity of the meeting, the filling of backpacks for foster children on their first night in Foster Care. Thomas is a former club member and is the son of North Jackson Rotarian Tommy Dent. Club members brought pre-pared backpacks and filled others in the meeting.
The following photo is of Mr. Dent, Club President Uriel Pineda, and Governor Mark.
The following photo is of the club members with Gov. Mark. holding their filled backpacks.
Club Member Neelam Goel is shown below filling her backpack.
Club members Neelam Goel, Rita Sun, Collier Graham, Cooper Morrison, Uriel Pineda, and Lori Greer working on backpacks.
Club members Larry Anderson, Tom Parry, Ben Walton, and Kevin Russell filling their backpacks.
This was a very well-received activity by the club and will be very helpful to the children entering foster care.
Gov. Mark’s presentation and the entire meeting may be seen at the following link: https://vimeo.com/574984995.
The Rotary Club of North Jackson recognized four new Paul Harris Fellows at its July 6 meeting. The new fellows are shown in the following photo with Past President Lee Carney who presented the recognition awards. Shown from the left are Carney, Neelam Goel, Nelson Atehourtua, Pat Vivier, and Lori Greer.
Paul Harris Fellows are people who have donated to the Rotary Foundation or for whom donations have been made of $1,000. Multiple Paul Harris Fellows are those individuals who have donated or for whom multiple $1,000 donations have been made. The Paul Harris Recognition was created by the Rotary Foundation in 1957. There are now more than one million Paul Harris Fellows worldwide.
Club Executive Secretary/Treasurer Don Roberts, MC for the recognition ceremony noted that North Jackson Rotarians donated an average of $200 each in the 2020-2021 Rotary year and that Club members have donated in excess of $600,000 to the Foundation in the club's 50-year history.
We congratulate the new fellows. The recognition ceremony and the complete meeting may be viewed at the following link: https://vimeo.com/572273112
