Greg Podd was the guest speaker at our Centennial Celebration on February 25 at St. Peter's Tucker Hall in Kerrville. He is a trustee of the Rotary Foundation, and has served in numerous positions in Rotary International.

 

Greg acknowledged our club's many projects and accomplishments, including the Veterans Breakfast, Josh the Otter water safety program, Walk a Fun event, Highway and River clean up, College Scholarships, and support for international programs for polio eradication and clean drinking water. He encouraged us to look to the future, and imagine what Rotary fifty years from now would look like. We can look forward to health beyond polio, and concentrate on preventing disease including malaria, HIV and cancer. We should also continue to work for clean water and sanitation for those who lack it.  

 

Technology of the future will be unrecognizable to us today, and this power should be harnessed for the good of humanity. Greg concluded by emphasizing that Rotary's greatest asset is people all over the world working towards a better future.

 

 

 

 

Stockton Williams led us in a prayer to start the event.

 

 

Kristi Shepherd provided the pledge.

 

 

George Eychner provided a song appropriate for the occasion. 

 

 

Robin Miears led us in the Four Way Test.

 

 

A big thanks goes to Greg Faldyn and his committee for working over the last year to put the Centennial Celebration together. Thank you also to Tammy Prout for publishing the newsletter and history of our club, with valuable research from Rosa Lavender about our club's accomplishments and past presidents.

Wayne Uecker introduced our speaker Teddy Roosevelt.

 

 

Joe Wiegand, aka President Teddy Roosevelt, provided a great program on the 26th U.S. President, who served in that office from 1901 to 1909. Joe is a thirty year member of Rotary International and  travels the country as a keynote speaker at conferences and Rotary clubs.

 

He lives in Medora, North Dakota, where he works for the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation.  His performance tour is highlighted in summer by a daily matinee in Medora, gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

 

Although Roosevelt was the poster child for the strenuous life, he was born a frail and asthmatic child. He managed to overcome his frailty, and achieved notoriety as a fearless leader in the Spanish American war.  Roosevelt was the youngest United States President, ascending to that office when President McKinley was assinated. Teddy was elected for another term in 1904. 

 

Amoung his many accomplishments in office, he established five national parks and eighteen mational monuments.