Lafayette Rotary South

July 1, 2009 - Rotarian Tracy Richardson introduced the club's Camp RYLA attendee Brittany Mason, who spoke to the membership of her experiences at the leadership training program for young people. She said she arrived at the camp not knowing anyone, and left with many friends. (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

2009-10 Club Assembly - Club President Ken Stansbury started the Club Assemby by having the members view the Rotarian Video Magazine. Following the video, a guest of the club remarked how she "didn't know that SERVICE ABOVE SELF was the main focus of Rotary". President Ken then handed out the "Agenda of Service" for our club. Ken spoke of his plans for having a successful year and each committe chairperson gave a brief description of the direction and goals of their respective committees.

July 8, 2009 - Burnell Lemoine, Lafayette Parish Public Schools Superintendent discussed many of the challengesthat face our school system including building maintenance adn health issues (nurse shortages). Mr. Lemoine also discussed many of the successes of the school system including increased test scores, lower average classroom sizes and the discipline matrix.

July 15, 2009 Stella Theriot, District Director of Junior Achievement of Acadiana accepted a $500 donation from the proceeds of the Rotary Club of Lafayette South’s 4^th Annual Golf Tournament. (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009 Club Donations) The golf tournament was held on April 27, 2009 at Acadian Hills Country Club. “Several local organizations receive donations from the proceeds of this golf tournament, and we’re very proud Junior Achievement is one of the service organizations we wanted to help” said Ken Stansbury, club president. Ms. Theriot told the club “the purpose of Junior Achievement is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy”. Junior Achievement programs teach students K-12 age appropriate subjects such as workforce readiness, entrepreneurship and financial literacy. “Business and community volunteers have been the key to the impressive impact of our programs” said Ms. Theriot. (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

State Representative Page Cortez was the guest speaker this morning. He gave the club a legislative recap for the past summer session. Rep. Cortez informed us of the biggest issues of this years' Fiscal Session, which were devided on the spending side and the tax side. On the spending side, the Revenue Estimating Council had estimated revenues to the state based on an oil price of $49 per barrel. For every dollar drop in value from there the state looses $12 -$15 million. Last year's budget was $30.1 Billion and this year's is $28.4 Billion with many departments getting less money like Higher Education, Dept. of Transportation and Development, Dept. of Corrections, and the Dept. of Health and Hospitals. On the Tax side, they passed a Tax Amnisity Bill - the Dept. of Revenue will waive the interest and penalties if taxpayers pay their past taxes in the months of September and October of 2009; the film tax credits were adjusted and both cigarette tax bills failed. He said "Tax issues didn't have a leg to stand on because the Govenor would have vetoed them".(see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

July 22, 2009 Club past president Nick Simoneaux presented an award to member John Guilbeau in appreciation for his work on the club's 4th Annual Golf Tournament, the biggest fundraiser of the year.(see picture in Photo Gallery under Awards)

Guest speaker Lawrence Svendson, an oil and gas petroleum engineer, spoke to the club members about the Cap and Trade legislation in congress. "Cap and Trade affects energy" he said. It is a "cap" on carbon emissions on companies/entities where they "trade" (purchase) credits to allow them to "overproduce" from another company/entity who underproduces. This legislation requires an 80% reduction in carbon emissions by the year 2050. Current carbon emissions per capita are approximately 19MM tons per year. Therefore, by 2050 carbon emissions should be 3MM tons per capita per year. All livestock in the U.S. today emit 3MM tons per year. The consequences of Cap and Trade are: an increase in utility bills of up to $400/month; millions of jobs lost; corporations wil move business overseas; cost Americans $1.6 Trillion; decrease GDP by $9.4 Trillion; increase electricity rates 90%; increase gas prices by 58%. Lawrence asked us all to "Say NO to Cap and Trade" and to ask our U.S. Senators to take a public stand against it.(see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

July 29, 2009 - Club program chairman Tracy Richardson introduced our guest speaker Greg Gautreaux, Lafayette Parish Parks and Recreation Department manager and National Football League game official. Greg handed out the Parks and Recreation's 2008 Annual Report. The majority of his talk centered around his journey to become an NFL game official.

Approximately 37 years ago, while working at the Parks and Recreation Department, he volunteered to officiate area high school football games. After 15 years at the high school level, he moved up to the college level for another 12 years and then he applied to become a field judge in the NFL. He spent 2 years traveling to officiate NFL Europe games and has been officiating NFL games here in the United States for 8 years.

Greg works as a field judge in a crew of 9 officials who stay together for the entire 22 weeks of NFL games including the playoffs and super bowl. They have pre-game meetings with information from last week's games, all the plays that were challenged the week before, and they take weekly rules tests. After a game, the first thing he does when he gets to the airport is call his wife for her critique of the game. Supervisors of NFL officials grade each official on every play of a football game. All field judges must get a final grade of 97.65% or better to meet standards. Greg missed 3 out of 2,500 plays last year for a 99.88% final grade. His crew of NFL officials was awarded the super bowl with Pittsburg against Arizona this past February 2009. His call with Pittsburg's Santonio Holms catching a touch down pass at the end of the game was reviewed frame by frame and upheld. Greg recalls thinking..."control of the ball?...both feet in?...control of the ball after falling out of bounds?....TOUCH DOWN!!!" (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

Even though officiating in the NFL is a part-time job, he says "it takes concentration, focus, you get no rest, and it's draining" On Monday mornings, he's back at his full-time job at the Parks and Recreation Department. (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings)

August 5, 2009 - Art Hawkins with Boy Scouts of America accepted a $500 donation from our club; and Laura Zaunbrecher with CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) accepted a $500 donation from our club. (see pictures in Photo Gallery under 2009 Donations) These donations were made possible from our Rotary Club of Lafayette South's 4th Annual Golf Tournament, our biggest fundraiser of the year. Art told the club members of BSA's 100th anniversary and how our area's Evangeline Council has increased involvement in the Boy Scouts by 11.5%. This was "due to the great volunteers" they have in BSA. Laura told the club that our donation would be very helpful in getting more volunteer training and learning material for CASA.

Today's guest speaker was Greg Landry, District Governor for our great District 6200. (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings) Greg told the members this year's motto is "The Future of Rotary is in YOUR Hands". The strength and impact of Rotary begins at the club level. He said we "can be really proud of all the special projects" our club has...i.e. Special Olympics Louisiana, BSA, CASA, Boys & Girls Club, etc. Our membership is up, support is good, and our club exceeded the District's goals. Our challenges were membership recruitment and retention. His goals for 2009-10 are:

1. Rotary International's top goal..."END POLIO NOW" Greg said he wants us to "keep the promise to end it now." In 1988, there were 350,000 cases of polio around the world per year. He said, "by the end of 2009, there shold be less than 600. We're close, so let's stick to it and end it now."

2. Public Relations...to report our public image that we put service above our own self immage.

3. Membership...Rotary International wants an annual increase of 1 new member per club this year. Our club membership chairman, Bob Landry has set a goal of 10 new members.

4. Support for the Rotary Foundation...our donations pay for students to study abroad in the group study exchange.

5. Vocational Service..."we stand as role models with high ethical standards. The 4-Way Test is a wonderful guide," he said, "practice it in our business and our daily lives."

6. Develop Leaders...RYLA is a good example where we help develop leadership in our youth. Rotary provides membership training through such things as the Foundation Semimars and Membership Seminars and access to Rotary knowledge through the Rotary International website.

7. Strategic Planning...through continuity and planning for the future, we will have successful clubs for many years to come.

August 12, 2009 -Rotarian Dr. Pat Magee updated the club on his medical mission trip to Nicaragua (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). He said he worked very hard every day he was there except for the one day he battled with Montezuma’s Revenge.

August 19, 2009 - Dolores Broussard, coordinator for Ways To Work accepted a $500 donation from our club (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009 Donations). Delores said the donation would help their main goal to assist families with transportation problems. She thanked the club for helping support Ways To Work which was started with our club's support 6 1/2 years ago.

Tina C. Broussard, Executive Director of Lafayette Education Foundation (LEF) was the guest speaker at today’s meeting (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Twila Trahan and Amber Harper, staff members of LEF were also in attendance.

LEF has been “Supporting Excellence in Education Since 1989” by developing supportive relationships between the private sector and the Lafayette Parish public school system; providing private sector support to launch creative education initiatives; implementing strategies to stimulate optimism and inspiration among educators, parents and students; and by encouraging and facilitating lifelong learning initiatives.

The LEF Teacher Awards is a program that recognizes an average of 400 educators who impact the lives of students and families. This program receives 600-900 nomination letters from throughout the community and LEF holds an Academy Awards style event that’s attended by over 1200 fans of education.

The LEF Grants Program utilizes innovative approaches to the ever-changing classroom challenges. The Lafayette Parish School System has received over $1 Million through the LEF grants since 1989. LEF encourages educators to try different teaching strategies to meet the individual needs of students with the Best Practices becoming LEF Model Grants. You can visit their new website at www.lefoundation.org for more information.

LEF has identified the major obstacles to learning to be: student absenteeism, students reading below grade level, and student’s lack of connection between the classroom and the ‘real world.’

To improve the absenteeism problem schools must be a safe and accepting environment for learning to take place. Here LEF programs support educators on a school wide and individual classroom basis to encourage a learning environment where students feel safe and accepted as individuals. The “Bye, Bye, Bully” program is an LEF grant for Elementary and Middle Schools whose goals are to reduce incidences of bullying behavior, promote an environment where students feel safe and accepted for who they are and increase attention to lessons; decrease behavior problems. The Parental Involvement program is an LEF grant at JW Faulk where students and families are Really Into Math with a Math Night. It’s also at Alice Boucher (Parent Literacy Night), Broussard Middle, (Explore New Worlds of Reading Aboard Enterprise and Reading Safari with Parents as our Partners).

To help the students reading below grade levelLEF provides grants such as the “Matching Struggling Readers with Books that fit” program. The goal is to increase the percentage of students reading on or above grade level by third grade by providing research-based leveled texts for reading instruction, tutoring, and reading practice at home.

In 2007, LEF was awarded $100,000 by Capital One Bank to improve reading scores among 7000 K-3 “at-risk” students in Lafayette Parish public schools. An additional $26,000 was funded with the support of ConocoPhillips, United Way Venture Grant, and Woman’s Foundation. Of the 13 schools participating, 7 reported 91%-97% of their 2^nd graders are reading on or above grade level, while 2 reported 89% and 4 reported below 89%.

Looking to the Future LEF will continue to track results and sustain K-3 Leveled texts reading program, secure funding for grades 4-8 leveled texts, evaluate the progress, provide ongoing needs assessment, explore new initiatives to provide training and support, and development of math support initiatives.

August 26, 2009 - Edye Mayers with Lafayette Middle School’s Good Behavior Program accepted a $500 donation from our club (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009 Donations) This donation was made possible from our Rotary Club of Lafayette South's 4th Annual Golf Tournament, our biggest fundraiser of the year. Edye wrote the grant proposal at Lafayette Middle School for incentives to reward good behavior of “at risk” students. She told the club “this money will go a long way to purchase incentives.”

Today’s guest speaker was Thomas K. Bond, MD, MS board –certified physician and sports medicine specialist(see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Dr. Bond spoke to the club about Proliferation Injection Therapy also known as Prolotherapy. It is a surgical injection technique by which a series of injections are used to stimulate the body’s natural healing of damaged tissues. Various proliferative substances are injected into ligaments, tendons and joints to encourage repair of damaged areas. It is used to strengthen weakened and loose ligaments and other joint-supported structures and stimulate new cartilage production with joints. As in sports medicine, it is repairing damaged tissues and rebuilding through targeted interventions.

Dr. Bond asked us “what is healing?”… it is repairing damaged tissues. When we “feel better” we experience a decrease in perceived pain levels; but the problem is we want to be pain free…NOW! We believe if we have no pain we must be healed.

There are 3 main phases of healing…

1. Local Immune Response, usually 1-7 days where you may experience clotting, swelling, inflammation, et.

2. Tissue Regeneration, usually 3-21 days where you experience undifferentiated stem cell production.

3. Tissue Remodeling, usually 3 weeks – 2 years which is unknown how it really works.

Tradition Sports Medicine’s central theme is to kill the inflammation and decrease the pain by using steroids, and pain medicine like Motrin, Alleve, Mobic, etc. but Dr. Bond asks “is this really healing?”

Therefore he uses Regenerative Injection Therapies-

1. Proliferation Injection Therapy or “Prolotherapy” – (the first phase) an injection technique used to induce healing by increasing cellular proliferation

2. Platelet Rich Plasma Injection Therapy or “PRP” – (the second phase) an injection technique to induce healing via delivering signaling proteins to the damaged area. “Drawing blood, spinning it down and apart, then enrich the platelets and then re-injecting it.”

This can be done with arthritis/joint pain, ligament dysfunction (ACL, spine, etc.) cartilage damage (meniscus, knee) and tendon problems (tennis elbow, Achilles, etc.)

Dr. Bond tells us he is experiencing a paradigm shift in sports medicine away form anti-inflammatory/anti-healing thinking towards stimulating natural healing at an accelerated pace. Regenerative injection therapy is more readily performed in sports medicine. It works via stimulating the body’s natural healing. You cango to his website www.totalcare-la.com for more information.

September 2, 2009 – Gabrielle Bodin, Outreach Project Leader, IAP World Services, Inc., USGS National Wetlands Research Center was the guest speaker at today’s meeting (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Gabrielle told the club members Coastal Wetlands have a variety of important functions and values. Wetlands serve as storm buffers, scientists believe that for every linear 3 miles of marsh, hurricane storm surge is reduced by approximately 1 foot. (data from 1960’s)Wetlands serve as flood control devices- similar to sponges absorbing excess water from the land. Wetlands purify and replenish groundwater for drinking and irrigation. The wetlands are nature’s water filter. Louisiana wetlands provide habitat for a host of plants and animals including over five million migratory waterfowl each year. Wetlands are unique ecosystems with unique characteristics.The Mississippi River drains the interior of the United States. The Mississippi River delta was formed as the river system picked up and carried sediment southward from 32 interior states and southern Canada. Over thousands of years, huge amounts of suspended soil was depositedin the shallow Gulf of Mexico waters, eventually creating new land in Louisiana. Soil samples and borings help scientists age date the four major deltas of the Mississippi River through time.

The four lobes of the delta from oldest to youngest include:

Teche –This delta began building about 5000 B.C. and peaked at about 2500 B.C. The river jumped its bank and moved east creating the St. Bernard delta.

St. Bernard – The greatest growth occurred near 1000 B.C. At one time, this delta extended out past the Chandeleur Islands. During this time, the Teche delta began to sink into the Gulf.

Lafourche- The maximum build out of Lafourche occurred about 1300 AD. This lobe of the former delta is currently experiencing great land loss.

Modern Delta - This current delta is often referred to as the Birdsfoot Delta. The Mississippi has occupied this course for approximately 700 years.

What will the future hold for our Louisiana coastline? In order for legislation to be enacted by Congress, the importance of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands had to be shared with citizens and legislators. Wetlands were once thought of as wastelands but we now know that wetlands provide a variety of resources.

A barrier island is usually a ridge of sand that runs mostly parallel to the main coast but is separated from the land by an inlet like a bay or lagoon. These islands form a barrier that protectsthe shore from the open Gulf of Mexico.

Louisiana Wetlands have great economic value. Louisiana wetlands provide:

$4.2 billion in seafood revenue which includes both commercial and recreational fishing activities. $16.4 million in alligator sales which includes a harvest of both hides and meat, $220 million in hunting and hunting related revenues. Fur resources such as trapping generate approximately $1 million annually.

Timber resources, farming and ranching also provide additional revenue for Louisiana. The waterborne commerce along coastal Louisiana carries nearly 500 million tons of materials. Navigation is huge industry in Louisiana. Coastal Louisiana wetlands provide storm protection for 5 of the top 15 U.S. ports.

You can go to www.lacoast.gov for more information on Louisiana’s coastal wetlands planning, protection and restoration act.

September 9, 2009 – Today’s guest speaker was Tommy Miller who spoke to the club on Business Ethics (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Tommy had with him his father Huey Miller, Sr. The family is originally from Basile, LA They opened the Service Master carpet cleaning business in September of 1958 in Lafayette with an initial investment of $1,100 and first years sales of $6,000 with three brothers and three sisters helping.

Today, they cover the entire Acadiana area with 30 service trucks and 36 full time employees and have plans to expand into the Alexandria, Louisiana area. They also have several divisions within the company besides the carpet cleaning. They include (with many services overlapping): Water drainage restoration, Smoke damage restoration, Mole remediation, HVAC duct cleaning, and a Large loss division.

They deal a lot with ethical issues such as in smoke/water damage and insurance companies. Their crews must ease the customer’s fears, let them know you care, be professional, wear uniforms, turn in paperwork for insurance claims, and above all, charge only for what you do. If you advertise it, then do it. Don’t expect your crews to do something you wouldn’t do yourself. Rotate the calls between all employees including off-time calls. Insurance adjusters don’t go out as much to inspect damage, so they have to do the inspecting. They do what they need to do honestly, and correctly.

They are a Christian based company whose objectives include: Honoring God in all they do (being ethical), pursue excellence (if not done right, do it again), and help your employees develop.

Today, they are a top 50 Business in Acadiana with over $29 Million in sales last year and on track for over $40 Million this year.

September 16, 2009 – Today, the club installed a new member, Joshua Carlson (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Joshua is the son of Beth and Rotarian Jerry Carlson and is married to Kelly. Together they are the Youth Pastors at Hope Alive leading more than 300 young people. Joshua is the owner of New Wave Technology which he began in December of 2007. Joshua is a recent graduate of UL Lafayette with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration.

Our guest speaker was an encore presentation by Gregg Gothreaux, President & CEO of LEDA (Lafayette Economic Development Authority). This was a continuation of his August 12^th presentation that he was not able to finish due to too many questions and comments from club members(see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings).

Gregg informed the club of the Equifax, August 2009 report of the Lafayette MSA being among the 15 metro areas in the U.S. with the fewest small business bankruptcy filings between June 2009 and 2009. The average annual sales price of single family residential homes for 2009 year-to-date through June is $172,544 which is $4,766 more than in 2008. According to Forbes Magazine, March 2009 Lafayette is among the best places for business and careers because Lafayette’s cost of doing business ranks 32^nd lowest, income growth ranks 19^th best and job growth ranks 24^th best among the largest 200 U.S. metro areas. The ACCRA Cost of Living Index second quarter of 2009 for Lafayette is 97.6 (100 is the national average). Based on the Lafayette Consolidated Government’s fiscal year ending October 31^st , the Lafayette Parish Codes Division’s Construction Valuation year-to-date total is $61,413,656 more than the total for the same time period for the previous fiscal year. It’s year-to-date construction value is $333,593,573. Year-to-date stock prices for four out of five selected oilfield companies are up from year end 2008. Lafayette is one of the top 50 small cities in the nation to start a small business based on the number of small businesses and start-ups, workforce, universities and patents issued, among other measures (source: Business Week.com, March 2009). The Factors to Success here in Lafayette are: Good banking environment, wildcatter mentality, hub of energy production, influential creative class, high concentration of wealth-creating industries, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, low government employment, and low property taxes. In closing, Gregg tells us “No matter what you do…find your niche. Remember what made you successful and do more of that.”

You can view his Power Point Presentation by going to www.lafayette.org under “data & reports” then go to “Presentations” and look for his presentation to the Rotary Club (started on 8-12-09).

September 23, 2009 – Today’s guest speaker was David Hostetter, curator of the Lafayette Science Museum(see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). David gave a very interesting speech on the Hubble Space Telescope and its pictures. It was launched in 1992 with an expected lifetime of 15 years, which it exceeded in 2007. Its diameter is about 94”, not huge but 24 telescopes were larger when it was launched. It could outperform those telescopes in many ways because it was not peering through Earth’s turbulent atmosphere. At first, Hubble’s mirror had been made incorrectly. After the first repair mission, its capabilities became staggering.

Hubble got detailed images of Jupiter’s atmosphere shortly after Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 passed so closely that the comet broke up in to pieces. Nearly two dozen chunks hit the planet, each one causing an explosion equivalent to setting off all the atomic bombs on Earth at the same time. Hubble got detailed images of what looked like black dots that were sooty regions caused by the impacts in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Some of the dark areas remained visible for weeks.

Hubble found evidence of stars and planetary systems in the actual process of formation. In 2001, Hubble astronomers for the first time, were able to study the chemistry of the atmosphere of a planet around another star, and in 2009 were able to make the first visible light image of a planet orbiting another star.

Astronomers now know that black holes with the mass of millions-even billions-of suns exist at the centers of many galaxies. They even have a strong effect on the motions of stars and gases near the centers of their galaxies. Supermassive black holes may be related to quasars, solar system sized objects that outshine entire galaxies of hundreds of billions of stars. Discovered in 1963, quasars are tremendously distant and hard for astronomers to understand how such small objects could give off so much energy.

Hubble has taken pictures of galaxies never before seen. Since their distances have been measured at billions of light years, we are seeing them as they were billion of years ago. Looking at galaxies at different distances helps us to understand the evolution of galaxies and what they were like when the universe was young.

Before Hubble, astronomers could only measure the age of the universe as between 10 & 20 billion years old. Viewing several Hubble pictures of the same area in space you may commonly see a stars varying in brightness called a Cephied variable. These stars have a relationship between how bright they are and how long it takes them to vary their light. Using this, they can figure how far away they must be. These observations helped astronomers figure out the rate of expansion of the universe and pin down the age of it to be between 13 and 14 billion years.

Dark matter is mysterious stuff we cannot see that interacts gravitationally with normal matter. Observations of extremely distant supernovae (exploding stars in galaxies) revealed that the expansion of the universe is accelerating rather than slowing down as expected. The unknown force causing that to happen is called “dark energy” and it may make up over 70% of the universe.

Hubble has reached the end of its lifetime, and technology is starting to pass it by. There are now over 50 ground-based telescopes larger that Hubble and more advanced. The repair mission in 2009 was the last one. Sooner or later the Hubble will wear out and cease operations, probably between 2015 and 2018.

A replacement telescope called the James Webb Space Telescope is under construction with plans for launch in 2014. James Webb was the Administrator who guided NASA through the Mercury, Gemini and early Apollo programs. The Webb telescope is much larger than Hubble and will primarily image in infrared rather than Hubble’s visible wavelengths and will orbit the Sun. Webb will reveal more galaxies, a lot more data, and ultimately a lot more understanding of the universe.

The web site for the Lafayette Science Museum is <www.lafayettesciencemuseum.org> , where people can find planetarium schedules, exhibit information, school program information, star maps, information about night sky events and times when we will have telescopes out for public viewing (several coming up in October), and more. Facebook members can join the Lafayette Science Museum page for occasional updates about programs and sky events (non-members can also see the page by searching for it on Google).

The Lafayette Science Museum has started a Young Astronomers Club for teenagers. It's an after-school activity that meets on the 2nd Thursday of each month at 4:00 in the planetarium. There are no dues, and any teens really interested in astronomy are welcome.

September 30, 2009– Today’s guest speaker was Stan Dutile, LSU Ag Center Research & Extension - County Agent/Parish Chairman for Lafayette Parish (see picture in Photo Gallery under 2009-10 Meetings). Stan reported on the AgCenter’s ties with the Cooperative Extension Services, the parish school board, and Lafayette Consolidated Government. They have made some changes like renaming the County Agent to Parish Chairman and Home Economics has been renamed the Family Consumer Science Agency. They do a lot of work in Agricultural Chemistry, Agricultural Economics & Agribusiness, Animal Sciences, Audubon Sugar Institute, Biological & Agricultural Engineering, Entomology, Experimental Statistics, Food Science, Human Ecology, Plant Environmental & Soil Sciences, Plant Pathology & Crop Physiology, Renewable Natural Resources, and Veterinary Science. Part of their community work is programs dealing with Public Policy, Leadership, Disaster Recovery & Assistance, Disaster Resilient Communities, and Community Rural Development. Their “Master Gardener” program teaches gardeners among other things, to be more environmentally friendly. It is a 14/15 week program where graduates must contribute 40 hours to the Horticulture Department. They help tremendously with 75,000 hours of volunteer time. Master Gardener’s hold a plant sale at the Ira Nelson Center on Johnston Street.

Meeting Highlights 2009-10 Qtr 1 (July-Sept)