Gary Benmark John Kenny
Springfield, TN Grangemouth, Scotland
Today, The Union City Daily Messenger’s (High School’s Gridiron Guru), (Fantastic Football Prognosticator), Mike (Hutch) Hutchens heads the guest list, and brings with him a collection of both entertaining and humorous tales of past experiences covering local high school, collegiate and professional athletes.
Mike recently completed his 27th year of covering both local athletes and teams - as well as those on a regional and national level for The Messenger. During those years he has collected over 100 awards personally, statewide in writing, design and photography competitions, with the Sports Department of the The Messenger taking 165 awards total under his leadership.
He is currently the president of the Tennessee Sports Writers Association and the only person to serve in that role twice in the organizations history.
Mike has spoken on numerous occasions to teams, groups and civic organizations in both motivational and entertainment roles during the past decade, and has been a co-host on WENK’s popular "Countdown to Kickoff" radio program for the past 20 years.
Mike is a graduate of South Fulton High School and attended Motlow State College in Tullahoma.
Next week,
we are entertained by another local, as Christy Passmore, currently the Director of Vanderbilt University’s Athletic Department visits U.C. Rotary.
Prior to her assignment in Athletics, she served eight years as Associate Vice Chancellor for the Shape the Future Campaign where she managed the day-to-day operation of the institution’s comprehensive campaign to raise $1.75 billion. In addition to staffing the campaign chairman, the late Monroe Carell, Jr. And the Campaign's 21 member volunteer committee, Christy also managed the planning and implementation of former Chancellor Gordon Gee’s schedule for all travels and activity related to development and alumni relations.
Christy joined the Vanderbilt development team in 1990 as director of development for the School of Nursing. For 11 years, she served in the Medical Center as a major gifts development officer with various responsibilities including leadership and management of the first campaign to raise $50 million to help build the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt. The hospital opened its doors in 2004.
Last week, was "Verhine Scholarship Day", one of the biggest days of the year for Union city Rotary.
As Guest Speaker, Jeff Agee, President and Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens National Bank, was on hand to speak to the recipients of the scholarships in a motivational tone, and that he did.
Jeff left the Students and Rotary Members as well with a path to follow and some very inspiring thoughts to ponder as they build their careers and adult life.
Jeff began by congratulating the students and young adults present on their accomplishments thus far in their lives. He briefly went through a few things using the theme "Your Future With a Purpose". "Ambition fueled by compassion, education, and core value is a powerful force" he said. "Core Value is left out of so many things today", he said. He told the students they were going to school at a perfect time, saying these present times are some of the toughest times small businesses, banks, etc. have dealt with in our entire careers, right in the middle, toward the end, hopefully of a great recession. He spoke of the short supply of jobs in this area and other areas as well, "so this is a great time to be in school", he said. He said, "hopefully by the time you finish school, times will have gotten better and you will have many opportunities for good paying jobs". He told the students they have probably already faced many challenges financially and otherwise, and warned them they would face many more from now until the time they have passed away. In other words he told them "you have many challenges coming in your lives and the way you handled these challenges will make you, hopefully, better persons and citizens by overcoming these challenges". He also challenged them to trust their abilities, and have an inner confidence telling them they could do anything they want, by putting fourth an extra effort to overcome those barriers.
Coming Attractions
