Omaha West Rotary Club Secretary Report for June 7, 2019:
This past Friday, Phil Schreier visited from Omaha Northwest. Also, Kevin Wycoff, who just moved to town from Hastings, is looking to join a new club. We also had several guests. Russ Iwan brought Bintoy Taal. Our newest member, Elizabeth Hallgren brought her husband John. Jill Slupe brought two guests, Ashley Hatheway and David Thompson. And finally, Manny Paz invited Frank Philips
Birthdays for June: Matt Molettiere (03), Ken Thomason (06), Gene Klein (10), Kevin Loberg (15), Ben Kratz (18), Russ Iwan (20), Jamie Summerfelt (22), Bev Karrer (27), Bob Runyon (28), Lori Benton (29), and Jennifer Jirak-Brungardt (30).
For good news, Ben Kratz reported on the success of Mustaches for Kids, who raised over $750,000! Carl Greiner just finished his mediation course and is moving from retired to semi-retired. Mark Manhart celebrated the success of their exchange student Marceline, who has a job, a car, and an apartment and who is about to have a college graduation party. Mark also wanted to thank Rotary for contributing to this success story. This is an example of the impact that can be made. Matt McKeever wanted to highlight that Manny Paz was on TV for our latest tree planting event. Matt also is accepting prayers now that his son is a teenager. Laura Thomas’ son is overcoming his fear of swimming and is starting to enjoy it. And John Massih wanted to point out that Drastic Plastic has reopened above the Monster club in the old market.
Nick closed with a joke and wished everyone a good week.
Omaha West Rotary Club Secretary Report for May 31, 2019:
This past Friday, Larry Johansen visited from the Downtown club. We also had several guests. Rebecca Miller brought Thomas Lee. Our newest member, Lucas Tieso, brought his fiancé Shelby Stryk. And Lori Benton invited Suzanne O’Donnell.
For good news, Nuzhat Mahmood had some sad news in that her sister’s husband (52) died suddenly. She reminded everyone to not take loved ones for granted and reach out more often. Nuzhat also had good news. Her son’s last day of Kindergarten was Friday. Nick Rosenberry had similar good news about his daughter finishing kindergarten. Carl Greiner is watching his 8-month-old grandson while his oldest daughter is at a conference. Deb Sepich grandson was recently born. He came early but is doing well. Luke McNeese is moving to Tennessee and this past Friday was his last meeting. He already has his application in at a club in Tennessee. We will all miss you Luke! Laura Thomas checked an item off her bucket list. She saw the giant redwoods in Northern California. She also wanted everyone to know that the flower gardens at Mahoney state park are in full bloom. Randy Parks shared that his wife is on her second round of chemo therapy and is doing well! Randy also got a new job. Starla Waite just finished her last night of orientation at the Med Center. And finally, Brett Wawers passed around two thank you cards from Skinner Magnet School and a family of one of their students, who lost their possessions in a fire. Our club was able to provide help to both from the proceeds and matching grants from Mitten Tree fundraiser we did last December.
Nick closed with a joke and wished everyone a good week.
Last week Jill Slupe introduced us to new member Elizabeth Hallgren. Elizabeth is co-founder of Mission Direct Primary Care, a membership based family medicine clinic opening in July. Previously, Elizabeth owned a healthcare marketing consultancy and was full time entrepreneurship faculty with the University of Iowa. While at the University of Iowa Elizabeth worked with 25 young African leaders in the prestigious Mandela Washington Young Africa Leadership Initiative hosted by the US State Department.
She was invited to travel to Zambia to participate in Mandela Washington Reciprocal Exchange Program with the State Department. While she was in Zambia she worked with over 80 entrepreneurs to develop sustainable business models.
Elizabeth has been married to John Hallgren for 23 years. She considers herself very lucky to have had the opportunity to live all over the US and in England and Germany as John served in the US Air Force. Their last duty assignment was Offutt Air Force Base and they now consider Nebraska to be their home.
Elizabeth has two adult sons. Henry just graduated from Cornell College and plans to be a high school history teacher and cross country coach. Jim is working on becoming a civil engineer at the Colorado School of Mines.
Elizabeth loves to spend her free time outside. She likes to hike, paddle board, and travel dirt roads with her tiny tear-drop camper.
Two weeks ago, Lori Benton introduced us to new member Lucas Tieso. Lucas grew up in Lincoln, NE. He has two brothers and two sisters and a bulldog, who is actually his mom's favorite child. He attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and graduated in 2017 and began working at Raymond James as a Financial Advisor shortly after that. Lucas is moving to Omaha within the year because that’s where his fiancé, Shelby Sturyk, is from. And just to be clear, there is no chance he will ever become a Creighton fan. Go Huskers!
In his free time, Lucas enjoys golfing, traveling, sporting events, and being active. He is also a member of the Lincoln Independent Business Association and also spend some time on the weekends volunteering at Tabitha, where he delivers meals to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Welcome, Lucas!
Congratulations to Irv Veitzer who was recognized by Bonnie Gill last week as a Paul Harris Fellow for his donations of $1000 to the International Rotary Foundation.
The Omaha West t-shirt order is ready. Thank you to Deirdre Milobar for volunteering to help distribute at Friday's meeting. We ordered a few extra. If you would like one, please let Jennifer know.
To find out about speakers at other Rotary Clubs in the area, you can conveniently see the list of Club websites here. Then click on the home icon to the left of the club name. The list of speakers are listed on their Homepage.
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