Mike Kim's son is a member of Boy Scout Troop 815 and they are collecting items to assemble Chemo Comfort Packs for distribution to the Aurora facilities in both Grafton and West Allis.

Troop 815's project is in conjunction with Ovarian Cancer Awareness month (September) and Breast Cancer Awareness month (October).

Here is where we need your help. Please drop off your donated items (see the list below) at our club meeting on 9/27 or 10/4.

Suggested Items:

• Personal sized hand sanitizers
• Personal sized hand lotions
• Lip Balm
• Hard candies or gum (preferably with Xylitol)
• Small tissue packs
• Fuzzy socks
• Adult coloring books
• Colored pencils
• Crossword puzzles
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Eye drops
• Inspirational or humorous books

Thanks you in advance for your support!!!

Lynn Streeter and Steve Lettau

MEQUON — The Mequon-Thiensville Sunrise Rotary honored member Brian Monroe recently with its Service Above Self Award, which recognizes Rotarians who have demonstrated exemplary humanitarian service, with an emphasis on personal volunteer efforts and active involvement in helping others through Rotary.

Monroe has been involved with the Sunrise Rotary for 20 years. He said he has worked to embrace Rotary’s goals of peace, understanding, goodwill
and leadership development. He has served in multiple roles over the years, including club president in 2007-08.

Monroe is currently membership chairman and club trainer.

“I continued growing at the district level and participated in eight trips to rural Guatemala as a member of a Rotary humanitarian project,” Monroe said.

At the District level last year, he was the tree planting coordinator for the planting of 6,600 trees.

“I currently sit on the District Membership Committee, and assist clubs with strategic planning, called Visioning.”

Monroe, who is uncomfortable talking about himself, said there are more than 50 other club members who are worthy of the Service Above Self Award.

“I am just one of many who are working to make the world a better place for all.”

The discovery of an unknown sibling introduces the possibility of a new kind of kinship

By Sarah Long

One morning, I got a text message from my brother, asking me to call him before work. I asked if he was OK. Fine, he assured me.

“So, I have this Ancestry account,” he said. “Ancestry?” I repeated. In my mind, this DNA-testing service was for people who organized multigenerational family reunions with 200 attendees in matching shirts. His wife had given him a membership, he explained. He had spit into a tube, mailed it, and received confirmation that our ethnicity was essentially the same European brew outlined on the family trees we had drawn in grammar school. The results were so anti-climactic that he had forgotten about the membership until he received a message titled “Close Family.”

“So, kiddo,” he said. “It looks like we have a half-sister.”