Bulletin #5
February 5, 2026

 
 
"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it."
-Club President Ron Auxier
 
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph met this week at the beautiful Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art.

There was an awesome crowd of 36 in attendance today, including guest of Matt Porter, Micah Carter, who works at American Family Don Tolly agency. 

Please keep a couple of Rotarians in your thoughts and prayers. 

Julie Cobb is still recovering from cancer surgery, but has recently returned to working half-time. 

Faith Parker's father passed away recently. The obituary can be found at https://www.ruppfuneral.com/obituary/ernest-ernie-robinson-jr. 

The lunch spread this week was garden salad with a few choices of dressings, rolls, green beans, mashed potatoes (thank goodness no nacho cheese was in them), beef and noodles, and ham. A decent winter spread. Catering was conducted by Spanky and Buckwheat's. 

Vice President Oakley Coleman passed around the Spaghetti Fundraiser sign-up sheet again this week. Please remember to sign up to help during lunch prep as well as dinner prep if your schedule allows. We are doing carry-out lunches again this year. 

Tickets have been distributed, along with sponsorship forms and lunch order forms. If you need more tickets, please first turn your money in and then ask Oakley for additional tickets to sell. Please think of any businesses or individuals that we can hit up for sponsorships as well as any families who may want to attend with ticket sales. Any charitable groups or youth organizations also always enjoy donated tickets, if you would like to donate the cost of them by paying for the tickets to the club and giving them away.

The tickets are $15 for all you can eat spaghetti, breadsticks, salad, and delicious desserts. Kids are $7, 5 and under are free. Carry-out lunches are $8 each. 

Customers and businesses can purchase tickets for lunch, dinner, and sponsorships online at https://rotary-club-of-st-joseph-east.square.site/
 
 
Black Bowls donations for this quarter (1/1/26 through 3/31/26) go to the Care Portal. which connects churches with people in need to make a difference. Contributions to Black Bowls may be made at meetings with cash or check, or online at our club's Square site. 

Meals on Wheels delivery assignments for 2/12 are Mike Schumacher with Oakley Coleman and Dana Matt needs a sub. Heather will send out another email on this.  
 
Upcoming Key Rotary Dates:
 
  • Wednesday, February 11:  Regular club meeting at Noon at the AKMA... Speaker is TBA
     
  • February 18:  Regular club meeting at the AKMA...First wave Rotary Blend candle orders due (Shoes for Orphan Souls fundraiser)
     
  • February 19:  Rotary club fun committee social at the Bunker Club in Savannah (on the square) from 4:30 p.m. to ____? They have indoor golf and a bar. This should be fun. 
     
  • February 21:  Work day for the Life Unlimited garden beds district grant project at Spaeth Construction (2021 St. Joseph Avenue)... bring work gloves, all tools provided... Amy assures us that the shop is heated... Bill says that even if you can't make it when we start at 9:30 a.m., come when you can and stay for however long you can, whether an hour or the entire time
     
  • February 25:  Regular club meeting at the AKMA
     
  • Friday, March 6:  43rd Annual Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser at Ashland United Methodist Church- carry out lunches and dine-in or carry out dinners 
     
  • Saturday, March 7:  Sleep in Heavenly Peace lumber cutting and staining work day at MWSU at 9 a.m. 
     
  • March 11:  Regular club meeting at the AKMA... speaker is Past Rotary International Director Elizabeth Usovicz, presenting on the Rotary Peace Fellows program
     
  • Friday, 4/24 and Saturday, 4/25:  District Conference at the Rotary Youth Camp (Shoes for Orphan Souls Roll Call on 4/25)
     
  • Wednesday, 5/6:  Rotary scholarship luncheon for our 5 high school scholarship recipients at Noon at the AKMA
 
District 6040 recently published out 2024-2025 Rotary Foundation Annual Report. Our club utilized 4 different district grants last year! It's worth a read to see what else other clubs did, and the international service that was made possible through the Global Grants:

District 6040Annual Report 2024-2025 Link.
 

Sergeant Kirby Brooner collected Happy Bucks today:

  • Josh Middendorf for his upcoming 40th birthday on Sunday and a daddy-daughter date at Ricky Dean's
     
  • Ryan Jones for not a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty, but for simply having a glass
     
  • Dana Matt for being happy to be back from somewhere 
     
  • Susan Campbell for spending the past weekend with her family in St. Louis. She is assisting her mom with her house and her dad sadly has terminal thyroid cancer. 
     
  • Matt Porter for Kristen possibly moving to Denver soon. We aren't sure if Matt is moving or not :)
     
  • Don Gladhart in honor of Mary Cornett, former Club 32 Rotarian
     
  • Ryan Dowell for getting to attend his first Rotary Club of Saint Joseph meeting after having 8 flights cancelled out of Texas to get back to Missouri. He didn't he hop a freight train? 

We heard from 3 more members about their personal and Rotary stories today.

Greg Hatten:


Greg grew up in St. Joe. Hod Symes introduced Greg's dad to Eastside Rotary back in the 1960s. 

Greg later went on to become a VP at Hallmark and had a successful career there. He helped turned around another company and then sold it. 

Greg's passion is boating and fly fishing. So much so that he has published over 50 articles about his adventures on wild rivers with wooden boats. 

Recently, Greg worked closely with Julie Gaddie on the development of the Children's Discovery Center. This new museum downtown has exceeded everybody's expectations so far. 

Tammy Rivera:

Tammy is friends with Shelly Hulet, who invited her to Rotary. She is a North-ender, a graduate of Lafayette High School, and also MWSU. 

Tammy is a Realtor for Berkshire Hatheway Home Services Stein and Summers. She enjoys bike riding and running, and has 3 cats:  George, Josie, and Julio. She also enjoys volunteering.  

Bill McCammon:



Bill is another North-ender. He followed his grandfather's footsteps and knew he wanted to be a St. Joseph Police Department officer since he was a little kid. After serving 20 years on the SJPD (and also graduating from MWSU), he retired as a Sergeant. 

Bill once swore he'd never work for his dad's business, Midwest Mobile Radio Service, but alas, he has served as the President since 2011. 

Bill and his wife Shelly have 2 boys, Robbie and Luke. Bill also serves as our Club's President-elect, to serve as President in 2026-2027. 

Today's program was presented by Kim Cordonnier, Children's Program Director of United Cerebral Palsy.

UCP offers several programs, including an Adult Day Program and an Employment Program.

Kim shared updates about the Early Intervention, therapy, and preschool programs. The pre-school is about 50 % for children with disabilities and 50 % for children who don't have disabilities. "Children see friends, not disabilities." Having an integrated and inclusive environment is an important goal of this program. 

To learn more, please visit their website at https://ucpnwmo.org/ or Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/ucpnwmo. 
 
Shoes Cheerleader Amy Spaeth reports that our club remains at 803 pairs of shoes (counting the 70 that Tim Curry has to get turned in) collected. For the moment, that is. We hope to have an exciting update to share next week!

Our goal is to exceed 2,000 pairs this year.