Presiding: Caitlin White

Inspiration: Jim Wilkinson

 

Meeting Room setup/takedown and general problem solving: Tom Mangan and Ron Van Ekeren

 

Introduction of Guests: Talisha Mottinger

 

Guests:  Todd Pearson introduced prospective member Brad Enzi

 

Humor: Terry Roark

 

Foundation Drawing: Larry Struempf won $10 with $750 in the jackpot and 33 cards in the deck.

 

O’Dwyers Drawing: Paul Heimer won a $20 gift card from O’Dwyer’s.

 

Rotarians of the Week: President Caitlin nominated Larry Struempf and Ron Van Ekeren for jumping in at the greeting table at the last minute.

 

Rotarians of the Month: Christie Roberts and Tony Hoch for their work on the Pilot Hill Project.

 

 

Songs – Jan Lawrence

 

September 27th – City Manager's Office - Laramie's 5th Penny Tax on the Ballot

October 4th – Brooke Benson, Cathedral Home for Children’s Extended Families Program

October 6^th: District Assembly in Cheyenne

October 11th – Shaye Moon - Employment First Program Consultant

 

Program: Dr. Maria Kidner, Rwanda LEAP Program

 

Introduction of Program:  Jim Wilkinson

 

Dr, Kidner began with a brief recent history of Rwanda, a small country in south-central Africa.  It is a rainy, equatorial country which suffered an episode of genocide in 1994 when the majority class Hutus, murdered about 10,000 Tutsis per day for 97 days.  She says the country is healing, but they have a long way to go.  Because of disease, Rwanda has a very young demographic structure, with 42% of the population being 0-14 years of age, with a median age around 18. 

 

Her program: LEAP, stands for Leadership, Engaging, Accountability, Professionalism, which instead of directly helping people, creates leaders and teaches the people to help themselves. As a nurse practitioner, Kidner, started working primarily with nurses, and empowering them to believe they are important and can make a difference.  She teaches them to work with patients to get their history and do physical evaluations.  Kidner can’t do it all herself, so she has built a leadership team of hand-picked Rwandans including a nurse, a pharmacist, an engineer and an educator.  What started out as a 5 day training course trained 124 nurses and nursing students, and 32 engineering students in 2015-2016.  She also has support from the Rwanda School of nursing and Duke University, where she has also brought her leaders for more training.

 

She teaches nursing skills, but also skills of empowerment, self-confidence, and a sense of ownership, to truly help the country get on its feet.

 

She seeks to make the program self-sustaining and is working to find partners in the US to help get it going.

 

Dr. Kidner gave one of the most inspiring presentations of the year and we appreciate her time in traveling to Laramie to share her story.

 

Responding for the Club: Randi Downham

 

 

 

 

 

Spoke Editor: Tony Hoch, 307-760-9386 or tony.hoch@lrcd.net