Posted on Aug 08, 2017
It has been a busy few weeks for our club!
 
We ended the first month of the new year with a procational and wild animals.
 
 
One of our newer members, Tom Keller, kicked the evening off. We learned he grew up in Virginia and his dad worked at NASA. He enjoys running and golfing. He played golf at the collegiate level so make sure to bring you’re a game if you ever venture onto the golf course with him. He currently works for Heritage Bank (we sure do love our bankers in our club) and enjoys living in Reno, however, ultimately he will probably venture back to the East Coast when he decided to retire.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jessica Heitt with the Nevada Department of Wildlife was our speaker for the evening. She gave us an overview of all the various things they do at the Department of Wildlife including game surveying, the fisheries and hatcheries, animal re-locations, and education classes. I don’t know about everyone else, but I thought the video of the Bighorn Sheep being relocated was pretty awesome. If you are ever out on I-80 heading out to USA Parkway, make sure to take a look for them!
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our first meeting of August was at Wolf Run. We heard from Ann McKenzie, another new member, in her percational. She grew up just over the state line in Quincy. She has worked at a few local companies, but currently is at EP minerals. She also shared that she was a foreign exchange student in Belgium while she was in high school! We are sure glad she decided to join our club!
 
 
 
 
 
 
Our speaker for the evening was Aimal Zabit, a Rotary Peace Fellow. He was born in Afghanistan in 1989 where he and his sister were raised by his mom after his dad passed away when he was only 6 months old. He gave us a firsthand account of what it was like to grow up under Taliban rule and how things changed after September 11th and the US deployed troops to fight. Aimal became a translator for the US military after learning English from watching TV and movies. After working as a translator for 3 years, he left an impression on NV National Guard and Rotarian Kurt Neddenriep, who helped to bring Aimal to Reno. He attended UNR for his undergraduate degree and his Master’s as a Rotary Peace Fellow in the UK. It was great to see the impact Rotarians can make internationally.
 
 
 
 
 
We also said good-bye to our exchange student Juanie on the 1st. In true Juanie fashion he left us with a great story and reminded us that no matter how different someone may appear, we are all humans and can find common ground. We will miss you Juanie!