The Elmbrook Rotary Club (ERC) had a meeting full of introductions on May 13, 2022.
After visiting a few meetings, Emily Jones & William (Bill) Selzer both decided to join our club. Over the next few months they will hopefully make friends with many Rotarians, as well as better understand the ways they can be involved in local to international efforts. They will have a chance to choose an Avenue of Service that best fits their interests and share their classification talks with us later this year.
Part two of our meeting was hearing classification talks from slightly more seasoned members.
Sherry Fontaine shared that she is not a new Rotarian, having been active in a club in Onalaska, WI, since 2015. She has always been someone who liked adventure. As a college student, her class was only the second to be integrated with both men and women. Although there were some challenges with culture shift, she loved being part of something new and big. She went on to travel and, amid her 30 years in academia, living in London for a stretch was particularly memorable. She focused on instructing Public Health Administration among other areas.
Lydia Miller was born in New Jersey, went to Penn State to learn to teach in special education, and realized that finance was more her speed. Investment banking allowed her to see most of the world, including S.E. Asia and Africa.
The second stage of Lydia's journey has been focusing on her two almost adult children, ages 17 & 14. Although they keep her "on her toes," they also have rooted her to the area, allowing our club the benefit of having her as a member. Lydia promises there any many stories she would love to tell in a smaller setting; so look for her at an upcoming social or volunteer event.
Tom Michalski has called this area home for a long time. He graduated from Greenfield, studied at UW-Milwaukee, and took a staff role at Marquette, which turned out to be a 30-year post.
Tom's experience in life is that things just work out. They might not make sense in the moment, but if we keep showing up, things will work out just as they are supposed to. Tom is leveraging his decades of experience in our community, both as a new Rotarian and also as a civil servant with hopes of growing positive impacts locally.
