Carmi Rotary Club meeting
Courtesy of Randy Adams
Thursday, September 12, 2019
For the program at the Carmi Rotary club’s Thursday meeting, a past member, and past president addressed the large gathering with three separate topics, each extremely interesting and well told.
Past President, Richard Roser was the day’s speaker, and he kept the club entertained for thirty minutes with stories from past and present.
Richard started off by telling the club about the incredible Rotary year of 1969. That year, 50 years ago, Richard was the club president. That same year, Carmi held the Rotary District conference in conjunction with the Crossville club. It was a two-day event, that featured a golf tournament at the Carmi Country Club, a dinner at Two Tony’s, a ladies’ dinner at the Red Geranium, and finally the conference which took place at Washington school.
Richard presented the club with several mementoes from that year, including a photo of the club and tickets to the four conference events.
Next up on the agenda, Richard and Rotarian Randy Douglass told about playing in the Wabash Christian golf outing. Randy explained that he was never much of a golfer, but after becoming friends with Richard, and taking tips from him through the past few years, he has actually improved his game. The two were paired with Jeff Hosick and Steve Norris for the charity event. They had a great day, finishing eleven under and placing 10th out of 20 teams.
Richard explained to the club how the event’s Mulligans worked, and also a very interesting little helper: strings. As Richard told the club, players could each buy two strings, and during the tournament they could use them one at a time or add them together to improve the position of their ball, sometimes turning a par putt into a birdie.
Finally, Richard told the club that this past Monday was one of the greatest days of his life. He went on to elaborate, that he had been saved at the age of thirteen, but broke his arm the week he was supposed to be baptized. He was sprinkled, but had always wanted to be immersed in the Wabash river, near where he had grown up.
With work by his daughters, this past Monday he was taken to the Indiana side of the Wabash along with Randy Douglass, another pastor, and members of his family and was baptized at the age of 90.
Richard ended by saying that he has experienced a lot at the age of 90. Earlier this year he and Randy Douglass took a week’s vacation to Jupiter, Florida to attend the St. Louis Cardinal spring training. He remarked that since the Redbirds are doing so well this year, he’s sure they will be invited back next year as good luck charms.
In club business, Todd Drone won the 50/50 drawing but did not claim the day’s cash prize. Cindy Conley was named as the day’s phantom.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
