Plaza Rotary at a Glance

Posted 
on Jan 06, 2016
 
 
 
Happy New Year Plaza Rotarians!!!
 
This Week’s Speaker
Kim Young, President, KC Animal Health Corridor
 
Kim will share with us what the KC Animal Health does and the impact it has on Kansas City and the region.  The Corridor, anchored by Manhattan, Kansas, and Columbia, Missouri, is home to more than 300 animal health companies, representing the largest concentration in the world. In fact, 56 percent of total worldwide animal health, diagnostics and pet food sales.
 
 
The Plaza Rotary T-shirts have Arrived!
They will be available for pick-up at this Friday’s meeting.  The cost is $18.95.  Please bring cash or a check made payable to the Plaza Rotary Club.  If you cannot attend this week’s meeting, Frances will bring them to the next meeting.
 
You will want to wear your t-shirt whenever our club is working together on a service project and other events. This is a great way to promote our awesome Plaza Rotary Club!
 
Thank you, Frances, for organizing the t-shirt orders!
 
Kudos!
Kudos to the Plaza Rotarians who prepared food for Bridge Home for Children.  Your efforts and contributions ensured that the children living at Bridge Home had home-cooked meals during the Holidays.
 
For those of you who are new to Plaza Rotary, our club has long supported the Bridge Home, a non-profit founded by former Plaza Rotarian Jesse Watson and his wife, Beverly. Since 1990, the Bridge Home has provided life skills, self-esteem, educational support, and a loving family environment to children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
 
Many thanks to Eric Dickinson for leading this effort!
 
Feb. 5 -- Tour the J. Rieger & Co. Distillery

Friday afternoon on February 5, 2016, the Plaza Rotary Club will tour the facilities of J. Rieger & Co.'s distillery in Kansas City (2700 Guinotte Ave, KCMO).  Following the tour, plan on sampling J. Rieger spirits plan on gathering for Happy Hour at a Cross Roads Art District pub before heading out to see the First Fridays art exhibits. Jacob Rieger & Company was founded in 1887 in Kansas City’s West Bottoms Livestock Exchange district. The brand offered over 100 alcoholic products and offered mail-order delivery services, until Prohibition was enacted in 1919.  In 2014, Andy Rieger formed a partnership with Ryan Maybee that has resurrected the iconic J. Rieger & Co. brand here in its Kansas City birthplace. The distillery tour will take a deep dive into the history and legacy of J. Rieger & Co., the East Bottoms, and the ins and outs of the liquor industry.
 
 
Gregory F. Yank Selected as RI Director 2017-19
 
Greg Yank, from the Rotary Club of O’Fallon in District 6510, is the choice of the Zone 31 Nominating Committee for RI Director for 2017-19. He will succeed RI Director Karen Wentz from the Heart of America Zones (30-31).
 
Jerry Venters served as the D 6040 delegate on the Nominating Committee that selected Greg at the Zones Institute in Baton Rouge in September.
 
An active Rotarian since 1978, Greg has been a member in three different Rotary Clubs – Kirkwood, Mo., Muskegon, Mich., and O’Fallon, Ill. He served as President of the O’Fallon, Illinois Rotary club in 1992-93. He has been Governor of District 6510 twice, in 2001-2002 and again in 2010-11.
 
District 6510 is comprised of 48 clubs and 1600 members in Southern Illinois. He currently is the Regional Membership Plan Project Plan Lead (Membership Chair) for Zones 30 and 31 and the Chair of District 6510’s Club Visioning Initiative. He served as an International Training Leader twice, and Membership Coordinator for Zone 29 and Rotary Institute Chair.
 
Greg is married to Past District Governor Catherine Taylor Yank. The Yanks are members of the Arch Klumph, Paul Harris and Bequest Societies. Greg was honored to receive the Service Above Self Award in 2014.
 
The Yanks are avid St. Louis Cardinal baseball fans. Greg has been a proud Green Bay Packer fan since 1957, and owns one share of the team. Catherine is the owner of Jim Taylor Inc. a roofing contracting company located in Belleville, IL. The Yanks have three grown children, one who works in the family business, and three grandchildren.
 
Professionally, Greg is a business coach working with seven business owners on a monthly basis. He is the principal in GY Consulting & Facilitation Services, specializing in business coaching, strategy, facilitation, strategic governance and board development/education. Greg is also actively involved in his community. He is a member of Memorial Hospital’s Foundation board and its investment committee; a Commissioner of the Metro East Parks and Recreation Board; the community facilitator BEST (Building Educational Success Together); the Advisory Board for the Nielsen Healthcare Group in St. Louis, and is a Board Member of the O’Fallon Shiloh Chamber of Commerce and Chairperson of its strategic planning committee.