Team Leader Melissa Koch hails from St Joseph, and is a member of RC St Joseph East with 57 members. Her father was a Rotarian. St Joseph is well known for being the relay station for the pony express in 1861 (but for only 18 months) and the home of outlaw Jesse James who lasted a bit longer but also met an untimely end. Two special Rotary District projects are
Lisa Deatherage belongs to Kansas City Plaza Club with 76 members. Kansas is renowned for jazz, fountains and BBQs. Her club meets at a shopping centre and raises money through KC Games for Good (fitness related). She was recently involved in training for Malawi and is the Shelter Box coordinator for the mid west. She has been married for 17 years, has kids and is a software insurer.
Cutter Gale hails from Lee's Summit with a population of 100,000.....and is in tornado alley. He is a member of Lee's Summit Sunrise Club which was established in 1999. Their international projects include water purification and books for South America. On the local front they are into raising money through a chilli fest and improving local nutrition of kids....presumably without the chilli. His father is a Rotarian and Cutter works in the Gale Communities family business which is into sustainable green wave development. He graduated from Missouri State Uni. 
Susanne McCambridge also comes from Lee's Summit and is a member of that club which has 135 members and was established in 1961. The club has several programs: Hillcrest which helps people suffering from physical and economic hardship to get back on their feet; the Harvester Food Bowl which is like our FoodBank; and raising money through a 5k fun run. Another major activity is SCRYE which is an international short and long term youth exchange. Susanne has a special love of horses and started a program called Returning Glory to assist people recover from illness. She has been married for 35 years and has two daughters.
Ashley Starrett was born on a farm and comes from Unionville a rural town of 2000 people. Missouri is a big beef and grain producer. Her Unionville club has 29 members and the most recent well received initiative has been beautification of the town with planter cradles. Her first encounter with Rotary was with Interact and she then established a Rotaract club. She is proud of her achievement to deliver a baseball field for the disabled. Her career sights are set on equine dentistry.
Introducing
Innovation through Rotary
Posted on March 28, 2019 by Rotary International
By Alexandria Ritchie, a member of the Rotaract Club of Virginia Commonwealth University and the Rotary Club of James River, Richmond, Virginia, USA
RI President Barry Rassin and Rotary directors with Rotaractors at the Rotaract Turns 50 Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, USA.
Both Rotary and Rotaract have contributed so much to who I am as a young person. The spirit of innovation that I’ve found in this family has been instrumental to my journey.
During my very first meeting as a member of an Interact club, I listened as our faculty adviser talked about the project the club had just finished. They had raised funds to provide livestock to a family in South America. The livestock would benefit the family for years to come because it would help provide goods that they could sell in a local market for profit. I remember thinking how amazing and different this type of service seemed. Looking back, I now realize that I was falling in love with this idea of sustainability.
I came away from Interact feeling inspired because our service was going to help people with a sense of permanence. A big part of my early love for Rotary came from the fact that sustainability allows for intentional relationship-building. I learned that sustainable service requires a sense of bold innovation. As I joined Rotaract, and then later Rotary as a dual member, I always kept this idea with me because it gave me a sense of empowerment and a belief in possibility.
I owe so much to my Rotary family because all my experiences have energized my love of service, belief in leadership through inspiration, and change through creativity. As I pursued a degree in biomedical engineering with a goal of becoming a physician, I started applying these Rotary values to my life outside of Rotary.
I chose the degree I did in a large part because of my mom and brother. My brother Oliver was born with a chromosome anomaly that sadly cost him his life. He is such a huge part of my drive to become a doctor. Amid this struggle, my mom had a negative experience with the epidural she was given to numb the pain during delivery. The epidural was not placed correctly resulting in a lot of additional pain. I have had the incredible opportunity to help create a potential solution to others suffering this problem, that has since developed into a company. I have Rotary largely to thank for our success thus far.
Without Rotary, I would not have been brave enough to embrace bold innovation. Rotary helped me develop the skills I need to be able to be successful both in medicine and with our product. I have learned how to interact with people from a wide variety of backgrounds, properly function with a large team, and convey the value proposition of something I believe in. Being a Rotarian has also taught me the importance of collaboration. Bringing together people of diverse talents and ideas under a common vision makes innovation possible and it’s what gives us hope for a better future. Thanks to Rotary, I have a deep appreciation for the value of innovation within the field of medicine.
Looking ahead at Rotary’s future, I see us as Interactors, Rotaractors, and Rotarians embracing this sense of collaborative innovation and unity in all things including membership, engagement, leadership, and of course, service. We owe it to the organization that we love so much to challenge ourselves by thinking outside of the box when it comes to engaging people of different backgrounds and visions. It is this spirit of diversity and collaboration that allows Rotary to stay relevant, and impactful to the world around us. When we as Rotarians challenge ourselves to be creative, bold, and intentional in our efforts to recruit and engage new people in Rotary, we secure our future for years to come.
