President Tim Tholen, welcomed all to the Club with the Camp for Kids at our now comfy meeting room at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. We stood for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by an invocation by Terry Harvey. We joined song leader, Tom Woolwine, in singing “Happy Birthday” to the July celebrants. Mandy Sheldon then introduced and welcomed our guests. The following Club anniversaries were recognized: Charlie Rogers (35 years); Randy Sisk (26 years); and Scott Holsman (5 years). President Tim then provided our new member, Sarah Beyer, with a new member pin and certificate. I would have sworn this happened years ago! Tom Woolwine gave a recap of the successful Regatta Kickoff Party at The Ship last night and thanked all who attended. Ted Higgins then gave a report on the status of the Higgins Brothers Surgical Center in Haiti, which continues to function with a full staff of doctors during the crisis and sees a reduced patient count of 1200 patients/month.
Paige Thomas, a Girl Scouts’ Gold Award recipient, gave a presentation regarding a project she is seeking to fund and install at the Youth Camp. The Percussion Project will see installation of various weather-resistant percussion instruments installed between the dining hall and the bath house which will, among other things, encourage group musical play. The goal is to install the equipment sometime this fall. If interested in donating, please contact Camp Director, Laurie Mozley.
Sally Bibb then introduced Emma Buck-Murphy, a recipient of the Tony DiPardo Music Scholarship this year, and then introduced our speaker, Carolyn Glenn Brewer.
Carolyn is a musician, writer, tutor, and retired music educator at St. Elizabeth’s. She wrote a great book on Lee’s Summit native, Pat Metheny, one of the world’s great jazz guitarists, entitled “Beneath Missouri Skies.” The book covers Metheny’s early years as a student from 1964-1972 and recounts the tutelage he received from KC’s local jazz artists. Carolyn’s presentation today centered on the importance of playing an instrument. She talked about the traits that a music education helps to nurture such as discipline and preparation of working long-term assignments, working and playing in front of audiences, developing sentence structure akin to musical phrases, working with others, and following directions. Carolyn gave examples of well-known men and women who have an instrumental background. Music has been a uniter of people in diverse cultures. She gave an example of how Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, and Dave Brubeck, among others, were employed as “musical diplomats” in the 1950’s and visited Russia and other countries. Anthony Blinken, the current Secretary of State, plays bass after working on complex issues during the day for the purpose of building relationships across cultures and blowing off steam. Pat Metheny started off as a French horn player but was drawn to the guitar. Although his parents were not initially supportive, Metheny earned money to buy his first guitar. As they say, the rest is history! Despite his natural talent, Metheny credits Keith House, his band teacher at Lee’s Summit High School, for instilling a practice discipline and teaching him rehearsal techniques, which Pat would later use with the Pat Metheny Group, among others. Carolyn is currently working on a book about Bob Brookmeyer, another well-known jazz musician from the KC area. Brookmeyer was saved from a lonely childhood by the trombone, of which he became a master. Ralph Yarl, the high school student who suffered a gunshot wound to his head after knocking on the wrong door, plays the bass clarinet and is yet another example of a kid whose development of prowess on an instrument has brought him to great stages in life - recently with the preeminent cellist, Yo-Yo Ma.
President Tim reminded us that the 4th Thursday on July 25 will be a social event at Minsky’s, the Westside CAN Center back-so-school event is Friday, July 26. If interested, please register as soon as possible. Lastly, Rotary Night At the Zoo will be held September 26. Today’s quote is from Bruce Springsteen: “The best music is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.” We said the Four Way Test and the meeting was adjourned by the resounding percussive sound of the Rotary Bell.
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