Danville Rotary Club

Our own P. T. Wilson will be giving an update on the International Committee at this Thursday’s meeting. See you then and bring a friend.

Ali King will be our guest speaker Thursday at noon.  She is with the Indiana Youth for Christ.  Please come and find out what this organization is all about.  Hope to see you there.

Krista Kraemer, Program Manager for the Hendricks College Network will be our speaker Thursday, March 4th.  She will be talking about HCN Virtual College and their Career Fair, also about the new trade school facility opening soon in Plainfield.  Come and find out what opportunities are available and find out if you really can “teach an old dog new tricks”.  Hope to see you there.

Brian Bilger, the Executive Director of the Hendricks County Economic Development Partnership, will be our speaker this Thursday at noon. Hope to see you there.

Thursday would normally be our “Apple for Teacher Day”.  Our host, Tom Swords, is still graciously providing apples and thank you cards to all of our Danville teachers and their support staff.  He has volunteered to drop these off to each of the Danville schools from our Danville Rotary Club.  Please take a moment today to thank an educator!  Our speaker this week will be Jeff Corder.  He is the Public Health Preparedness Coordinator for Hendricks County.  Please bring any questions that you may have and hopefully he will have the answers.  Hope to see you all there!

Camrand Tucker with R & I Home Services will be our speaker this Thursday. His company does home inspections and he will be talking about some of the common issues that he sees when he performs home inspections. Even if you are not currently buying or selling a home, hopefully, you will gain valuable information about maintenance and problem areas to watch. Hope to see you there.

Today’s Rotary program highlighted Sycamore Services and the contribution they have made to our community. Flory recognized not only the players but the sponsors and volunteers from this years outing. Amy Kettering highlighted the various services they provide to their clients and families & Pat Cockrum, CEO and fellow Rotarian expressed his gratitude for the donations Rotary has given to support their children services.

Danville Rotary has supported this organization since it was formerly known as Opportunity Cottage, with the Harold Martin Golf Outing. Many have asked why it is called this so I have compiled with the help of many others this history for your enjoyment.

History of the Harold Martin Golf Outing

Named after our 13^th Rotary President

Harold Martin was a local businessman for many years working in his later years in Real Estate development. He openly declared he hated golf. Stories have it that during the year of 1989 the local duffers would gather around the center table at what is now Mayberry Cafe and swap stories. While Harold would join them for coffee he continued to make fun of those golfers who would chase a little white ball all over the course. Four of those golfers Harold Hiser, Leroy Rutledge, Denny Petri & Doug Catt decided to take Harold out one day in late 1989 to play his first round of golf. It’s told they didn’t win him over to want to return to the course with the white balls. Early the next year Harold passed away and as a way to honor a longtime friend and Rotarian they started the Harold Martin Golf Outing. The rules were a little different from the rules and courtesy afforded today’s golf courses. There were hammers used as putting irons, swivel bar stools were sat upon to tee off, another hole a ping pong ball was used to putt, and on another hole the person winning the shortest drive was the winner of a burial suit for a year donated by Weaver Funeral home only to return it and hope they didn’t win it the next year. Another hole was the luck of the roll of dice to choose the club that would be used for the play during that hole from teeing off, chipping and putting all in the name of fun and in remembrance of their dear friend. Several years later it’s rumored that during the outing the current Rotary President went around with a super soaker baptizing those as they attempted to tee off from various holes, not sure who but it’s rumored that a Cat was involved!

A couple years later the idea of this fun golf outing was passed on to the Rotarians to organize and honor their good friend and fellow Rotarian as they continued to support one of his favorite charities, Opportunity Cottage, now known as Sycamore Services. Our current records reflect since 2010 with the leadership of faithful Rotarians we have been able to raise and donate over $100,000 to this worthy organization through the Harold Martin Golf Outing.

We were fortunate to have his son Jeff Martin, Danville Rotary’s 32 President, with us today as we not only recognize his fathers’ contribution to our community but to remember his legacy with this Golf outing.

Our own Rotarian, Pat Cockrum, will be our speaker Thursday. He will give us an update on Sycamore Services, Inc. and how our donation from our 2020 Harold Martin Golf Outing will be used. We have also invited Golf outing sponsors and special guests from the Sycamore Service Center. Hope to see you there.

We are really going to SHAKE it up this Thursday.  Greg VanLaere has invited our own, Kevin Hill and also Tim, with Flavorburst, to talk about the new ice cream shop that is opening in Danville.  This program is sure to be COOL!  Hope to see you all there.

The Annual Bake Sale (to raise money for scholarships) will be from 5:30 – 7:30 pm on Thursday, November 05, 2020 at the Hendricks County Fairgrounds. We are asking for homemade baked goods, purchased baked goods or even a gift certificate to someplace that sells baked goods! Please let Jessica Scott know if you, your spouse or significant other will be in attendance. She needs to let Brad know by Monday how many plan to attend. More details will follow. Thank you!