Program for July 23, 2012: Kathy Hill and the Iowa Department of Economic Development

Invocation by: Barb Christensen

Guests today: Paul Brooks, Casey O'Kelly and Dana Yerington

Your Rotary Board: President, Kelly Garvin, Keith Porter,Sarah Ingstad, Secretary, Brooke Mehaffey,Treasurer ,Mike Ruby,Tony Joseph, Scott Ingstad, Steve Jameson and Mary Odell.

Kelly read a thank you note from Caren Luke in regard to her time as Secretary and her enjoyment in living in Muscatine and being in Rotary.  Kelly also reminded the club of the Celebration at WineNutz for Caren and Larry on Tuesday evening in honor of their retirement and move from Muscatine.

Jessica Wittman then explained our "Fun" Activity...name that cereal!!  It was a crunchy activity that provided a lot of fun interactivity as all tried to list and name all the cereals in the cereal aisle in order to win the contest!!

Happy News:  Diana Gradert is proud of her grandson and his being on the Augustana Honor Roll and her granddaughter for her lettering in college level track!! Doug Schnoebelan thanked Rotary for helping support the 40 Chinese Students who will visit with him at the Lucille Carver Biological Station and share lunch with other students from MHS. Jessica Wittman is happy that Zach Johnson won the John Deere Classic and she had the privilege of being there and seeing it.

Program for Today: Bob Allbee introduced Paul Brooks who as the Executive Director of the Flickinger Learning Center shared many interesting facts and updates.  Many Rotarians have connections with the Center and or Paul has been in Muscatine long enough that he knows many of us Rotarians!!  He thanked us for the $500 gift for the Summer Program.  Over 90 persons volunteer with at least 8 per day helping the kids get their homework completed or listen to them as they read.  The message trying to be communicated is that Success is what school is about!! 

Students complete homework and work on various computer programs to reinforce or learn new skills.  Supper is at 5:30 and is called Supper with a Smile!!  Paul noted that it costs about $1000 a year per student for food and $369 a student for the summer program.  Paul indicated that the students last year read 8477 books and 46 out of 52 students completed them with a score of 80% or above on the AR test  Over 7000 meals were served and 8 million words read!! 

The key is food, praise and that means Success!!