Rotary News

February 12th, 2007

President Drew welcomed Rotarians and the many guests and local officials who had gathered for fellowship, lunch, and the opportunity to hear Kalamazoo's Mayor Hannah McKinney present the annual State of the City address.

Doug Vernon offered a special invocation in celebration of President Lincoln's birthday.  President Drew reminded Rotarians of the upcoming "Family of Rotary" event on February 18 at Timber Ridge and invited Anne Drummond to make a special appeal.  Rotarians are asked to BRING JARS OF PEANUT BUTTER to Rotary for the next two weeks to be shared with Kalamazoo's Loaves and Fishes food pantry.  Or -- bring a monetary donation!  Greta Williams also appealed to Rotarians to BRING NEW, SINGLE BED SHEETS during the next two weeks for Rotarians to deliver to the Casa Amparo orphanage.  Watch the upcoming Rotarian magazine for Barbara Walters' article about Casa Amparo. 

The audience was treated to a special showing of Janice Brown's televised interview with CBS' Katie Couric about The Kalamazoo Promise, compliments of Ed Sackley, which was the perfect segue to the mayor's comments.  After a brief introduction by Barb Miller, Mayor Hannah McKinney acknowledged the great teamwork among many in the room and the contributions of those individuals and others.  She noted that we are NOT an unlikely place for The Promise to happen because we create movements in Kalamazoo and change to meet circumstances.  City Manager Ken Collard explained how the city administration has managed to create a plan that has fulfilled the four promises made by Hannah last year:  to develop a multi-year, outcome-based budget; to focus on essential services; to build partnerships; and to live within our means.  Ultimately, we are creating a sustainable community.