Good morning Rotarians!

This Friday (2/20) we will be inducting new members including our very first corporate membership.  All MT Sunrise Rotary members are encouraged to attend this meeting and support our newest members.

As always, the schedule for Greeter, Thought of the Day and Rotary Minute are accessible (click here). please be prepared when it is your turn and find a replacement if you are unable to attend when you are scheduled. 

Thank you, have a great day!

In a world of tweets and celebrity sound bites, the founder of StoryCorps, David Isay, wants people to sit down and listen to each other. In 2003, he raised money to install a soundproof recording booth in New York’s Grand Central Terminal, where anyone could reserve a spot to interview a relative or friend. Since then, his nonprofit venture, StoryCorps, has captured about 55,000 interviews, each of which is archived at the U.S. Library of Congress.

Many were broadcast on NPR and published in Isay’s four books. The storytellers include people like George Hill, who was homeless for 12 years before getting help. “I can’t even begin to tell you the misery of the rain,” he said. “Now when it rains and I have keys in my pocket, I have a joy [for] life that you cannot believe.” Another, Patrick Haggerty, told his daughter Robin about growing up on a dairy farm, and about how his dad surprised him one day with some advice. “Of all the things a father in 1959 could have told his gay son,” he said, “my father tells me to be proud of myself.” StoryCorps also offers training to help businesses and nonprofits tell their stories; clients include Rotary International.

In 2008, StoryCorps inaugurated a National Day of Listening on the day after Thanksgiving, as an alternative to the Black Friday shopping spree. “My dream is that we’ll be the country that listens a little better and becomes stronger, more compassionate, and more accepting,” Isay says. Julie Bain interviewed the radio documentarian, who has won six Peabody Awards, a MacArthur “Genius” Fellowship, and the $1 million 2015 TED Prize, at the StoryCorps headquarters in Brooklyn, New York. Read More ... 

The League of Women Voters recognizes Women's History Month by remembering the achievements of women in the past and celebrating the successes of women today. A Women's History Month Brunch will be held at the Ozaukee Country Club with speaker Dorothy Quincy Thomas on Saturday, March 7, 2015 from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Ms. Thomas is a life-long feminist with deep ties to U.S. and global women's movements. She is a former director fo the Women's Rights Project of the Human Rights Watch in New York (1990-1998). Thomas applied the fact-finding and advocacy tools of the international human rights movement to the task of documenting violations of women's rights.

She has played a pioneering role in redefining internal standards for human rights and has made abuses against women, including domestic violence, a matter of international human rights law. Thomas gave visibility to the plight of women internationally by guiding and conducting research - demonstrating systematic abuses and portraying the effects of those violations on the lives of women and their communities. Ms. Thomas is a Board Member for the British institute for Human Rights and Advisory Board Member for Lambert Foundation, ACLU Human Rights Program, and Strategic Philanthropy.

The Women's History Month celebration will begin with a social gathering which will give guests time to meet and visit with Ms. Thomas. This will be followed by a delicious brunch before Ms. Thomas speaks. Afterword,there will be time for you to ask questions regarding her talk or about any women's rights issues in the U.S. Registration Here.