Invocation - Chris Franklin

The 4 Way Test – Scott Dews

Pledge – Nicole Herndon

Rotarians Larry Levi and Richard Poole joined the ranks of the "scholarship contributors", as we continue to search for that Ace of Diamonds. Tune in next week, when we draw closer to the end of the deck....... we'll start with

$497 in the pot and 36 cards in the deck

Rotarian Richard Payton introduced our first student speaker of the year, Evan East, who is a senior at Fountain Lake High School.
East has lived in Hot Springs and attended Fountain Lake his whole life.
He began by acknowledging the impact on his school with the recent tragedies of two wrecks that took lives too early, as well as a teacher who passed away from cancer. Please keep Fountain Lake and Mountain Pine schools in your prayers.
With a 4.1 GPA and scoring a 27 on the ACT, East is also a very outgoing athlete, competing in football, basketball, baseball, track, tennis and golf. He would like to play football at the collegiate level and plans to go to an in-state school, as yet undecided. At this time, he plans to go into some type of medical field, possibly Physical Therapy, which he could fit in with athletics. Whatever his future, he wants to find something to fulfill his heart and his checkbook. But he would love to come back to Hot Springs and likely the Fountain Lake area. He has really enjoyed the Rotary meetings, especially missing AP Chemistry.

Jim Randall introduced Jaley Anderson, a senior from Cutter Morning Star High School, for her second visit and J. J. Galloway introduced Anna Moreno from Hot Springs High School for her first visit. We look forward to hearing from Jaley next week!

The Board and Membership Committee have approved the following prospective member. If there are no written objections sent to the secretary within 10 days of this first publication, he will become a member at our September 28 meeting.

The next Board meeting will be held at the Hot Springs Country Club on Thursday, October 13 at 11:45. As always, all membership is invited to join us, especially new members who are trying to earn that coveted Blue Badge! Please let Donna K know if you plan to attend.

We began our meeting this week with a moment of silence for those who’s lives were lost, those still suffering and their families from the attacks on our nation on 9-11. This past Sunday marked the 21^st anniversary of this awful day when 2,977 innocent citizens perished. 125 of them at the Pentagon, 226 on the various jets used as weapons, and the balance at the world trade towers. Many of those included firefighters and police officers who, as we are reminded, ran toward the danger. And that figure does not include those who died from the lingering health impact of those attacks, including other first responders.
I know you won’t be surprised to know that Rotary responded, as well. The Rotary Club of New York started a disaster relief fund that raised over $1.4 million dollars in a matter of weeks. That included contributions from our club, as Liz Robbins found in a past edition of the BathTub. Thank you, Liz, for looking that up. Dennis Smith was the club President at that time. He told me this morning he remembers the Club Meeting – which was the day after the attack. Our club sang only one song that day, “God Bless America”. The program was then Secretary of State Sharon Priest, who ditched her prepared comments to talk, instead, about how her staff and the Capitol, in general, were responding that day. You’ll remember there were concerns about the possibility of other attacks.
The Rotary Foundation formed an advisory committee to work on identifying the best ways to help. Interestingly, they worked with the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City, drawing on their experience after the bombing of the federal building there. They also started a program so Rotarians could donate their “miles” from frequent flier clubs to help those impacted with their travel needs, be it family coming to New York or Washington – or victims needing transportation to specialty clinics for treatment.
On a more current matter, there was more good tourism news today, as reported by Arkansas Business. The 2021 state tourism numbers are out. Last year, tourism in Arkansas was up 29.2 per cent from 2020. And here in Hot Springs, visitation at the National Park was up 23 per cent over the prepandemic year of 2019. Of course, you’ll remember last year the National Park celebrated it’s 100^th anniversary.
I'll end with two quotes, both the words of Queen Elisabeth II, who, of course, died this past week.
During her Christmas Broadcast in 2008, she said “When life seems hard, the courageous do not lie down and accept defeat; instead, they are all the more determined to struggle for a better future”.
She also said, in 1991, during her Christmas Broadcast – “Let us not take ourselves too seriously. None of us has a monopoly on wisdom.”

The most important decision you can make is to be in a good mood.