April 10th – Ankeny Hill Nature Center and beyond!
Get ready to have fun learning about the National Wildlife Refuges in your backyard, up and down the Willamette Valley from Salem to Corvallis! See, hear, touch (and maybe smell?) some of the wonders of nature that await you every day at the Ankeny Hill Nature Center and the surrounding Ankeny National Wildlife Refuge. Bring your calendar to mark free special events that you, friends and family will want to experience!
Bobbie Allaire and her husband, Pat Allaire are Volunteer Coordinators at the Ankeny Hill Nature Center just south of Salem off 1-5 Exit 243. Bobbie and Pat are both Oregon Master Naturalists. They have experience creating and presenting nature programs at wildlife refuges, state parks, school events and community events on topics ranging from banana slugs to beavers, native plants to oak trees and more!
Program Chair: Doug Parham
Meeting Location: Willamette Heritage Center – Dye House
It is Rotary Environment Month!
Greetings, Fellow Rotarians! I hope this note finds you well!
Thank you so much for prioritizing our weekly Wednesday lunches – it is a big deal that you are making it a big deal to get there. There is so much positive, fun energy in the room – I feel like those meetings are fun and rejuvenating! YOU matter, as a Rotarian, so thank you for the smiles and fun energy you bring to share with your fellow Rotarians on Wednesdays!
Hats off to Program Chair John McCulley for putting together our panel of speakers last week – and special thanks to club members Dale Penn, Tammy Dennee and Ozzie Rose!! Your presentation was well-organized and informative! Ozzie, allow me to publicly apologize for having to conclude our time before you wanted to make your last remark. When I apologized to Ozzie after the meeting, he told me the last thing he wanted to say was that a bill was passed that will put cameras on school buses so police can ticket drivers who fail to stop for school buses that are transporting children (see House Bill 4147: https://olis.oregonlegislature.gov/liz/2024R1/Measures/Overview/HB4147).
What an important reminder for all of us to slow down and pay attention to our responsibilities as drivers in order prevent a senseless tragedy. Thank you, Ozzie!
This week we will turn our attention to our environment and I’m so excited for what Program Chair and President Elect Nominee Doug Parham has put together for us about the Ankeny Hill Nature Center! I’m a geek about nature and the environment! Did you know that April is Environment Month for Rotary? Check it out! www.rotary.org/en/our-causes/protecting-environment. Everything we can do to learn about and support a healthy partnership with our planet and its wildlife will contribute toward responsible sustainability. I look forward to seeing YOU at our meeting on Wednesday!
Yours in Rotary Service,
Kindly,
