Years in Rotary:   I've been in Rotary for 25 years.   Bernie McKinley encouraged me to join back in 1994 when we both worked for the Cedar Valley Partnership, which is now the Grow Cedar Valley.  

 

Hometown:   Waterloo.  I've lived half my life in Waterloo and half in Cedar Falls.

 

College:   University of Northern Iowa

 

Job:  Black Hawk County Supervisor

 

Fave Food:  Brownies (like potato chips, I never eat just one).

 

Fave Movie:  Recent favorites include Green Book, the Upside, and Cold Pursuit.

 

Fave quote:   As long as you're breathing, it's never too late to do some good."  Maya Angelou

 

Fave thing about Rotary:   Networking with new and old members who want to make our Community a better place.

 

Something unique about you:    I enjoy participating in the Precieux Art Jewelers Treasure Hunts with my family.   Last fall, we found 7 of the many hidden treasures.  This picture is of one of our "finds" - a gold nugget.   We also found two gift certificates ($50 and $100) , an opal, a red sapphire, a blue topaz, and a diamond.    Thank you, Dave Cutler.

 

 

Dear Rotarians,

 

Saturday, March 30th, I and several others from our District Leadership Team attended a fundraising event held by the Cedar Falls Rotary Club.  The proceeds will be used to fund a global grant to provide water wells in several Honduran villages.  During the event, an eight year-old girl named Lyra Benjamin was honored for her charitable work to help people in need.  To celebrate her First Communion, she chose to raise charitable funds instead of receiving personal gifts.  Lyra raised nearly $1,800 to help victims of Hurricane Irma.  The really impressive thing she and her family did was to research which charitable organizations she could trust to handle disbursement of the funds.  What did her research tell her?  Trust Rotary International! 

 

Lyra gave the funds to the Cedar Falls Rotary Club to make sure the funds made their way to the disaster fund of The Rotary Foundation.  We are honored and humbled by Lyra’s story.  If you are inspired by her story, you are welcome to give to Rotary’s Disaster Response Fund at rotary.org/en/donate.   Thank you, Lyra, for your inspiration!