Happy Thursday, Rotarians.

Need to Know:

1. Our Installation Banquet will be held on Tuesday, June 9^th from 6-9 PM at Donnie Crawford’s place. Adam Blanch, who has worked very hard on this shindig, has supplied me with a map & directions, which I have attached to this email.

Looks like we will have about 45 people attending. Since this is an outdoor event, it would probably be a good idea for everyone to bring his or her own lawnchair. You can also bring fishing equipment for you or the kids since Mr. Crawford has a pond.

2. Our next board meeting is on Thursday, June 25th at noon at DD Hamilton. All are welcome.
3. Our Rotary calendar year ends on June 30^th. If you want to make a donation to the Rotary Foundation for this calendar year, please get your donation to Jenny Gardner as soon as possible. You can also make donations to the Rotary Foundation online at Rotary.org.
4. Scott Jones is working on committee assignments for our next Rotary year. He sent a separate e-mail earlier this week about it. If you would like to sign up for or change committees, please contact Scott.
5. Our speaker on Tuesday will be Kris Parker from the Marshfield Senior Center. The Executive Committee (aka our Board) is responsible for scheduling speakers for June.
6. Our Niangua Interact Club needs hangers for its Clothes Pantry. So if you have any extra hangers you can part with, please bring them to one of our weekly meetings or make other arrangements with Leslie Thomas. Jason McKnight brought a bunch to Tuesday’s meeting. Thanks, Jason.
7. FYI: Ginger, our regular server at Sheila’s, is cutting back on her daytime shifts and will be serving us for the last time on Tuesday, June 16^th. I will bring a thank you card for all of us to sign for her.
8. Go ahead and put this on your calendar now: our 3^rd Annual Romance Raffle will be held on Saturday, February 13, 2016.

Meeting Recap

Our speaker on Tuesday was Robin Rader (of Rader’s Barber Shop) who discussed her work with her therapy dog, Max. Max is a 220 lb. English Mastiff (and a rescue dog!). Max is a therapy dog, not a service dog so he was unable to come to Sheila’s. Max is certified by Therapy Dog Incorporated. Robin takes Max to the psych ward at Cox North, Mercy’s Marian Center, Walnut Lawn, Webco, the Ronald McDonald House and the pediatrics ward at Cox South every month so that patients, residents and staff can pet Max. Per Robin, less anxiety medication is needed on the psychiatric ward on days when Max visits and petting a therapy dog has been shown to lower blood pressure. Max can provide comfort to patients, and Max and Robin are occasionally the only non-staff visitors that some patients receive. If you are interested in learning about how your dog can be tested for therapy work, contact Robin.

Final Thoughts

“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.”

Will Rogers (1879-1935)

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.”

Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)
Yours in Rotary Service,

Kristin Grace Krebs