Happy Tuesday, Rotarians.

Have you started building your ark yet? We are supposed to get a lot of rain this week, so stay safe out there.

Need to Know:

1. Our Romance Raffle committee is having a “wrap up” meeting tonight at 5:15 PM at Chuck Replogle’s office. If you have any feedback you would like to share on this year’s event – things you liked, didn’t like, how to improve, etc. – please email or call me this afternoon so it can be brought up at the meeting tonight.
2. Upcoming speakers: Bob Healy from Springfield Score will be here on March 15^th to discuss entrepreneur mentorship. Dee Rose will be with us on March 22^nd to speak about the Shared Work Plan. March 29^th is a fifth Tuesday, so there will be no regular meeting on that date. We are still looking for a speaker for April 5^th. On April 12^th, Greg Fitz from the Conservation Department will be with us, on April 19^th, there will be a presentation on Marshfield Strategic Location.
3. Our next board meeting will be tomorrow, Wednesday, March 9^th, at noon. It will be held at Southern Missouri Bank. All members are welcome.
4. March has five Tuesdays so we will be having a Fifth Tuesday Social Event on March 29^th at the 1984 Arcade in Springfield from 6:00 – 8:00 PM. There will be no admission charge and all games except pinball are free. You can sign up at the next meeting or on the club website. Thanks to Brian Drane for organizing the event.
5. We will be having two new fundraisers this Spring/Summer and we are looking for people to help organize them. We will be doing Marshfield’s first “Color Run” as a joint project with Marshfield Schools. It is tentatively scheduled for May 21, 2016. Adam Blanch is heading up this fundraiser committee. We will also be doing an ATV raffle this summer. Debbie Wiese is heading this fundraiser committee. Naturally we will all need to get involved later in selling tickets, working events, etc; but Adam and Debbie need help in planning these projects, so please contact them to get involved.
6. The Marshfield Easter Egg Hunt will be held on Saturday, March 12, 2016, with a rain date of March 19^th. The gates will open at 10:30 AM and the Egg Hunt will begin at noon. The Don’t Meth With Us Committee will work concessions. We need volunteers to set up, work the event, and clean up.
7. Niangua Interact Club will be sponsoring an Easter Egg Hunt for Niangua kids on Friday, March 18^th at 1:00 PM at Niangua Schools. Set-up will begin at noon. It would be nice to see several Rotarians there to support our Interactors.
8. DARE graduation for Seymour Schools is on March 18^th at 10:00 AM, for anyone who would like to attend.
9. Marshfield Chamber of Commerce will be having a mixer for members this Thursday, March 10^th, at 5:00 PM, at Bear State Bank.
10. Marshfield Booster Club needs volunteers to work junior high track events on March 29^th, April 1^st, 11^th and 14^th from 4:00 PM-7:30 PM. Contact Betsy at 573-353-3946, if you can help.
11. There will be a Community Health Care Day in Marshfield on May 7^th. The Don’t Meth With Us Committee will have a booth at the event and will welcome any volunteers.

Meeting Recap

Our guest today was Nathaniel Finch, grandson of Jim Mayes. Nathaniel is a Marshfield resident and student at Springfield Catholic. Our club will be sending him to RYLA this summer.

Our speaker today was Kelly Coffey. Today Kelly spoke to us about an affiliated organization of Boy Scouts, Exploring. Exploring gives boys and girls ages 14-20 an opportunity to learn about and “test drive” careers by partnering with participating businesses or organizations. The idea behind it is to give youth an opportunity to get hands-on, work-site based learning about a career to determine whether that career would be something the student would be interested in as a full time vocation. Bolivar has had great success in partnering with the local fire department to give interested students an opportunity to have fire training. The partnership has been beneficial not only to students, but also the fire department, which is able to expand its pool of trained applicants for future employment. Kelly has currently met with Marshfield School officials about expanding Exploring to Marshfield.

Final Thoughts

“You must be sure of two things: you must love your work, and not be always looking over the edge of it, wanting your play to begin. And the other is, you must not be ashamed of your work, and think it would be more honourable to you to be doing something else.”

George Eliot (1819-1880), from Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life (1874)

Marshfield Rotary Club: Raising the bar through leadership, giving and education.

Yours in Rotary Service,

Kristin Grace Krebs