Ann Arbor Briarwood Rotary

Japanese Ambassadorial
Scholars Visit

Pictured above are Hiroko Kawashima, Briarwood Rotary Club President Beth Marshall, Yuri Mano, and Jun Usaka.

Hiroko is studying linguistics at the University of Michigan. She told us about the three seperate character sets in the Japanese written language.

First, there are the Kanji, which are Japanese characters borrowed from the Chinese language.
Second, there are Hiragana characters, which are characterized by a cursive style, and are typically used for words native to Japan.
Third, there are Katakana characters, which are characterized by a more angular style, and are typically used for words borrowed from other cultures. Katakana characters have a "consanent-vowel" format for pronunciation of the words. For example the English word "strike" is pronounced "sutoriku" (note the consanent-vowel format). "Something" is "samusinngu." "Hot dog" is "hotto doggu."

Yuri is a preforming arts student at Eastern Michigan University. She told us about her beautiful home town of Yurigaoka, which means "many lilly." Yurigaoka is located 40 minutes from Tokyo.

Jun, is enrolled in the Ross Business School at the University of Michigan. He told us about the tradition of the Japanese culture of calling a person by their last name first, followed by their first name. Jun is from Okayama City, which is know as the site of Karakuan Garden and Okayama Castle.

Russian Restauranteurs
Learned From Ann Arbor Area
Casual Dining Experts & Sponsors
in Rotary PEP Program

The Rotary Clubs of Ann Arbor hosted a delegation of 11 Russian restaurant owners and managers, along with their team facilitator and an interpreter, from Oct. 4 to 20, 2007. The Russian entrepreneurs will benefit from the training and advice in American strategy, marketing, operational practices and techniques from many local businesses and organizations. Participatnts include Zingerman's, Domino's Pizza, The Chop House, Palio, Carlyle Grill, Moe's Southwest Grill, The University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, Metro Group Architects and NSF International. The delegation is part of the Productivity Enhancement Program (PEP) administered by the nonprofit, nongovernmental Center for Citizen Initiatives. PEP is a nationwide program that brings Russian entrepreneurs and business owners to the United States for intensive industry-specific business training and cultural exchange. Click on Casual Dining Management Education for further details.

We're Honored For 5 Consecutive
Years of Service to
the Ronald McDonald House Fitzgerald, Marshall, McDowell

Dave McDowell, (right) director of the Ronald Mc Donald House, presented President Beth Marshall (center) and Director of Community Service, Larry Fitzgerald (left) with a certificate of appreciation at the Aug. 3 meeting. "Families in distress sometimes don't think of the need to have nutritious meals, so groups like the Briarwood Rotary Club provide a beneficial service at the Ronald McDonald House," McDowell said.

The Ronald McDonald House helps families from all around the world who need a caring place to stay while their children are being helped at Ann Arbor area world-class hospitals. 600 families a year are served by the Ann Arbor Ronald McDonald House. It was opened in 1985 and operates with a 97% occupancy rate.

Construction has started on a new $525 million womens and childrens hospital at the University of Michigan. With an increased focus on family needs, part of the Ronald McDonald House will be located adjacent to the Intensive Care Unit in the new hospital.

Fitzgerald has been instrumental in coordinating the monthly dinners for the past five years, and is appreciated by the Ronald McDonald House, the families being served, and the Ann Arbor-Briarwood Rotary Club for his caring contributions of time and effort.

How Zingerman's Came To Be...

Paul Saginaw, one of the founders of Zingerman's Deli, gave us an interesting history of how they came up with the idea for the famous deli, how it was almost named Greenberg's Deli, and their operating philosophies that have made them recognized and appreciated locally and around the world.

Group Study Exchange Visit To Parana, Brazil by Mary McDonough

Mary McDonough, Business Editor for the Ann Arbor News,

shared her experiences as a member of a Rotary Group Study Exchange team visit to Parana, Brazil in 2002. For five weeks, the team experienced life in Parana, a state in the southern part of Brazil. She mentioned how they were treated as celebrities. Their Brazilian hosts had busy days planned for them visiting local businesses, organizations, beautiful sites, and Rotary meetings - their days often began at 7 a.m. and ended at 12 midnight. Mary attributes her community involvement to this day to the experience she had through this Rotary program, and can't say enough about the value of the GSE program.

The Group Study Exchange (GSE) program of The Rotary Foundation is a unique cultural and vocational exchange opportunity for young business and professional men and women between the ages of 25 and 40 and in the early years of their professional lives. The program provides travel grants for teams to exchange visits between paired areas in different countries. Team members experience the host country's institutions and ways of life, observe their own vocations as practiced abroad, develop personal and professional relationships, and exchange ideas.

What if someone uses excessive fertilizer and pesticides in their yard, or worse yet on their waterfront property, or neglects to have their septic tank cleaned for 20 years?

Through the use of a groundwater flow model showing soil layers and aquifers beneath the surface of the earth, our June 1 speaker, Aistis Tumas, dramatically demonstrated how our groundwater can be contaminated.

With 50% of Michigan residents depending on groundwater, we appreciated Tumas' thorough presentation of the risks to groundwater and surface water contamination.

Tumas is an AmeriCorps volunteer educator with the Michigan Gropundwater Stewardship Program and the Washtenaw County Conservation District.

Rotary... leading the way
with our own bus message to make people aware of the good things Rotary does around the world and in our community!

John Copeland, Ann Arbor-North President; Jim Campbell, Ann Arbor-Briarwood Past-President; Peggy Windsor Ann Arbor-North Past-President ; Joyce Williams of the Ypsilanti Rotary Club; and Ingrid Sheldon, Ann Arbor-Downtown Past-President

Ann Arbor-Briarwood
and Ypsilanti Rotary Club
Purchasing $5,403 Food Cooler
To Help Provide Nutritious Food
To Families In Need

Pictured above (left to right) are: Manish Mehta, Assistant District Governor; Fran Prescott, SOS Community Services; Les Heddle, Ypsilanti Rotary Club President; Nancy Shore, SOS Community Services; Jim Campbell, Ann Arbor-Briarwood Rotary Club President; and Hal Flynn, Assistant District Governor.

A critical need in our community is helping families who are struggling to provide nutritious meals.

The Ann Arbor-Briarwood and Ypsilanti Rotary Clubs joined together in a special project to purchase a walk-in cooler that will make it possible for the SOS Food Pantry to distribute dairy products, fresh fruits and vegetables and meats.

The Rotary Clubs each held fundraisers, and secured grants from the Rotary Foundation to raise the $5,403 needed for the purchase and installation.

We are proud to support the SOS Community Services Food Pantry Progam for many reasons, including:

Their ability to leverage donations to purchase food-For every $1 donation, they are able to purchase $4 worth of food for families in need, through their partnership with Food Gathers.
Their focus on helping homeless families, which is the fastest growing segment of homelessness.
Enabling families in need to come to the Food Pantry up to four times a year, to get groceries, that will help them in their struggle to make ends meet in their family budget.

Nearly 20% of the world lacks access to safe clean drinking water and basic sanitation.

40 children die each day in Nepal from water related diseases, according to Unicef.

John and Eileen Heasley, Rotary District Coordinator for the International Water Filter Program spoke to us on their experiences with biosand filters to provide clean water for people in Nepal. The biosand filters have a relatively low cost, they remove 95% to 99% of harmful bacterias, according to a MIT study, and can be assembled almost anywhere.

Every Rotarian is encouraged to become aware of water-related issues. We hope to participate in a water or sanitation project.

How is Great Commission Air doing?

View her latest video on You Tube! Click the forward-arrow below the picture....

�� Their Fifth Annual Auction Dinner was a great success!
Thanks to all that donated items, volunteered time and to all that attended. They raised enough funds for about six months of fuel! That fuel will be used to save lives and serve missions.

�� New Engine Donated for the 336!
A generous Christian family in Windsor, Colorado donated a nearly new IO-360 engine to replace the old front engine! What an amazing blessing! It is now being inspected and prepared for the field, with lots of help from many: John Solo, who owns and operates Solo Aviation is donating maintenance services and hangar space. Jason Owens, who owns and operates Bear Paw Lodge on Kodiak Island during the summer, has been donating time to do repairs and the engine swap. Russ Rinaldi, an aircraft mechanic from Marquette, MI is using his vacation to help work on it as well. There are so many people that contribute time, talent, funds, prayers and support that there is not enough room to list them all - they are very grateful!

�� T337G Skymaster Donated!
A 1973 Cessna T337G was recently donated to GCA by an incredibly generous individual from Muskego, WI. This is a beautiful aircraft, well maintained, pressurized and turbo-charged. Its is very similar to the 336 currently being prepared for service in Guatemala. This new aircraft will be used to support missions and provide humanitarian service elsewhere. It will save lives and serve missions and the donor may be justifiably proud to be part of that!
See attached video.

Please Note: They are accepting suggestions regarding a service area for this new 337. The ideal situation would be an area where a mission aviation project already exists but could be augmented with help from GCA, using this aircraft. Please forward this request to your overseas missions. Perhaps they can suggest the perfect role for this high-flying beauty.

Visit their Great Commission Air Website.

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Great Commission Air provides lifesaving humanitarian relief flights in rural Guatemalan villages. Read about their efforts at www.GreatCommissionAir.org
WOW Energies has new products that remove 85% of the Mercury from electrical power plant flue gases. Wow Energies is meeting the World's Energy & Environmental Challenges. Pictured here is WOW President Mario Romero.
SOS Community Services responds with care and respect to families in need by working in partnerships that result in economic, family, and residential stability.
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