Today, the Rotary Exchange Students, Heather Nicole Simpson, Chelsea Boyd, Stephennie Groen from Wolvega the Netherlands, and Mariana Noguera, who is from Sao Joao da Boa Vista, SP Brazil, will be on hand and fill us in on some of their experiences while participating in the program.

Seventeen year old Stephennie, is in the last year of school, attending Linde College in Wolvega. She will be here until Aug. 16. She is with Chelsea Boyd, who is a Senior in High School at Obion County Central, who was in the Netherlands from June 27 - July 22.

Some of the experiences since being back in Tennessee, include a visit to Lambert’s Restaurant, Wickliff Indian Mounds, UT Knoxville Campus, Music Row in Nashville, The Biltmore in North Carolina, Graceland, and Ruby Falls.

Mariana is the guest of Heather Nicole Simpson, who traveled to Brazil June 2nd and returned to the US July 10th. Mariana and Heather have been busy also since returning to TN, they have had some exciting Tennessee experiences, such as a tour of the Jack Daniels Distillery in Llynchburg and she also got to go frog gigging, just to name a couple.

Heather is a graduate of Union City High School, and said while on her trip she made friends with several other Rotary Exchange students from South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Indonesia and several other countries.

Next week, we look forward to a visit from our new District Governor, Gary Benmark. Gary is a member of the Springfield Rotary Club. He has served as a District 6760 Assistant District Governor and is a member of the Executive Committee for Multi-State PETS and the District 6760 Finance Committee. He is also and alternate member of the District Nominating Committee and has served on the ad hoc Will Manier Scholarship Committee.

Gary is a charter member of the District 6760 Paul Harris Society and is a Rotary Foundation Major Donor. He has had an excellent attendance record in several Rotary Clubs and has served in most Club positions including Club President on three separate occasions.

In 1963, Gary joined the Trenton, TN Rotary Club and at that time was thought to be the youngest Rotarian in District 676 (as of 1991, District 6760). While a member of that Club, in 1967 he led the District’s first Group Study Exchange Team (paired with New South Wales, Australia).

Gary is truly an outstanding example of the Rotary motto, "Service Above Self".

Last week, we had the distinct pleasure of hearing from our new State Representative, Judy Barker. We also had the pleasure of having her husband Wayne visit as the guest of Dr. Cameron.

Judy began by saying, "when I was elected to be your representative I made a promise, and that promise was to work my heart out for the people of Northwest Tennessee". She said her responsibility as our public servant was to "keep the focus on our district". "We have some big projects going on right now" she said, such as Interstate 69, she said that she had been told that it would be let for construction Aug. 7, however the date has been advanced to Sept. 18. She went on to explain what "Let for Construction" meant.

Judy said when she went to Nashville her first priority was to be put on the Transportation Committee, she explained why she wanted on that particular committee was because of the numerous projects going on in our district at the present, such as the I-69 project, the Airport project and the Cates Landing project. The Riverport, she said is very important to our region because of the Industrial Site to be built there, and the number of jobs which will be created at that port. "Therefore we are into several Regional Projects at the present time, and the cooperation of the counties she represents is a very important issue to her", she said.

She spoke of the Tourism we afford here in West Tennessee and said "we have a natural wonder here in the form of Reelfoot Lake, and it should be promoted to the fullest, she said. She also informed us of the progress being made on the Spillway Project. Dement Construction has been awarded the contract, and after the mitigation is complete the Spillway is going to be built according to her information.

Representative Barker then talked some about the "Rural Caucus", which consists of Rural Legislators who she said have to stick together in order for Rural Tennessee to have a voice on Capitol Hill, because of the difference in the number of votes a rural community or county has compared to the number of votes a metropolitan area such as Shelby County or Davidson County has, and "it is not as much as Republican vs Democrat as it is Rural vs Urban," she said.

She spoke briefly of the new budget just passed and the cuts that had to made, "but Education, Small Business and the Developmentally Disabled were supported strongly", she said.

Aug. 14 - District Governor Gary Benmark

Aug. 21 - Air Force Col. Glen Baxter Swift.

Aug. 28 - Rotary Tour Group

Aug. 08 - Bill Stephenson

Aug. 11 - Scott Critchlow

Aug. 11 - Dwight Phillips

Aug. 13 - Matt Goodrich

Anniversaries

Aug. 12 - Roger and Juli Williams