District Governor International President
Larry Boyd Dong Kurn Lee
Brentwood, Tennessee Seoul, Korea
Rotary 2008-09
Make Dreams Real
June 19, 2009
Today,
Union City Rotary welcomes Mark Welch. Mark is currently Program Director of WKMS radio at Murray State University, he will be speaking on the Public Radio’s national mandate - WKMS’s regional mission and specific projects underway this year, including new signals coming from Fulton & Madisonville, KY,and digital conversion within the system. WKMS is on the verge of providing Public Radio service to Obion, Lake and Weakley Counties this fall with the installation of these new signals. He says there used to be a broadcasting tower in Dyersburg that provided service but it hasn’t done so in many years. He will be explaining the Public Radio Mission, programming and their plans for our area.
Mark was born in Detroit Michigan but was raised in Fulton, after his family transferred with Ferry Morse Seed Company in 1959. He graduated for Fulton High School in 1974 and from Murray State Univeristy with a B.S. in Journalism in 1978 and an M.S. In Mass Communication in 1986.
Mark and his wife will celebrate 30 years of marriage this July. They have two sons, Marshall and Luke. Mark has ties to this area, as his sister Lynne, is married to Mark Lowrance, here in town. Mark and Karen co-pastor a non-denominational bi-racial church in Murray and also own a professional office and special events facility off the Murray court square.
Next Week, Glenn Vanderford will be on hand for our program, which highlights the "Changing of the Guard" for another year. Our new officers will be installed and Union City Rotary will no doubt enter into 2009-2010 with another banner year in it’s future.
The past year, under President Conley, Union City Rotary has experienced an excellent year as far as new membership is concerned, a record year as far as money being distributed to our scholarship program, and just recently, being named the "Club of the Year" for District 6760. There were various other awards handed down at the convention, but above mentioned brought an extreme amount of pride to our Club.
New Officers to be installed are;
Randy Barnes....................................President
President Elect.............................Gary Houston
Secretary.......................................Al Creswell
Sgt.-at-Arms....................................Jody Kizer
Ascending Director.....................Richard Graham
Last Week,
long time Rotarian and Paul Harris Fellow, Newell Graham brought to Rotary an informative history and background of the Coca Cola Industry.
He first introduced a personal logo, which each bottler who has a 100th anniversary comes up with, Newell said he wanted to emphasize the rural setting of this area, and also the attractions here, it had several settings which did this.
He said Coca Cola was created in 1886, by a man by the name of John F. Pemberton, on a three legged pot in his back yard, he was a pharmacist, and sold it to several fountain establishments in the area. "The rights to the formula were sold to Aca Chandler for $2600, in 1891", he said.
The first bottler who put Coca Cola in bottles was Joseph Edenhorn of Vicksburg, MS, in 1894. Later the bottling rights were sold for $1.00, but the seller held the syrup rights and began selling this syrup to the bottlers.
"Coca Cola comes from a Cola Nut and the Coca Leaves, but the old rumor of Cocaine being in the product has never been acknowledged by the Coke Co.", he said.
He used a picture of his Grandfather, Richard Newell Poyndexter, to begin the history of the local company which began in 1904, with the purchase of the Meridian MS. Franchise.
Hugh (Coca Cola) Smith, Newel’s Great Uncle, bought U.C. Coca Cola and covered 6 Counties, with a Coke Plant in several surrounding communities. He had pictures of the old Coke Plant, showing unpaved street in Union City, which was down by Jimmy Jones’ Furniture Store. In 1915 they began bottling in the contoured bottle. "Hugh died in 1940" he said.
Hardy Graham married Newels mother in the late 30’s, and began palletizing, with a fork lift in 1946, therefore handling his product in bulk.
The new plant was built in 1968. Later in the 60’s Hardy converted from paper cartons to plastic cartons. Newell returned from the Navy in 1972.
The local plant stopped bottling in 2007. He furnished Rotarians with some of the last bottles they produced as souvenirs , but warned, they are too old to drink.
Coming Attraction
June 26 - New Officer Installation
July 03 - No Meeting
July 10 - Danny Jowers, Obion County Emergency Management Director
Welcome New Member
Wes Kennedy
Birthdays
June 20 - Jim Glasgow, Jr.
June 21 - Charles Hutchinson
June 24 - Johnny Bacon
Anniversaries
June 19 - Jim and Mary Nita Bondurant
June 19 - Wright and Samantha Jernigan
June 19 - Gordon and Amanda Bruff
June 19 & 20
Union City Greyhounds travel to Tradewater to take on the Tradewater Pirates
