Provo Rotary Weekly Bulletins

October 13, 2016 Bill Barret, a professor in the BYU computer science department, came to speak with us this week about how computer tools have revolutionized family history research. BYU has created tools that compare and even compete with many of the popular online family history programs. He has also helped with extensive research on compression, recognition, and extraction of digitized information contained in microfilm for family history research. If you'd like to read more about Bill Barret and his work, here is a link to his blog on the BYU website:   https://cs.byu.edu/ faculty/barrett .

October 6, 2016 At Provo Rotary this week our very own club member, Charlotte Clark, spoke with us about her employer, Squire. She informed us about the ins and outs of the Squire financial services offered as well as many of the fun things they do and how most of their employees volunteer in the community. We'd like to say thank you to Charlotte for sharing about her work with us and here is a link to the Squire webpage: www.squire.com.

September 29, 2016 This week at Rotary we heard from Cindy Jenkins and Danny Pragar about how to use the Rotary International website. Many club members started created their online profiles during the meeting and we hope to use this as a way to help get the Provo Rotary Club recognized on an international level. Thanks to all those who helped out that day.

September 22, 2016 This week at Provo Rotary Jill Jenkins came to speak with us from LDS Employment Services. There you can look for or get job training. It is possible to get a referral from an LDS in order to take courses at no cost as well. This is a great program for those with disabilities or for anyone. Jill also told us some about her life, specifically about her 9 month trip to Uganda for her PhD project. As there are few teachers and many students and few resources, it is difficult for the children to have books they can learn from outside of school. In order to help alleviate this issue, Jill worked with teachers to come up with a program where children write their own books. This way the children can take the books they write home in order to study. When Jill returned to the US she started a nonprofit called Children Writing Books to Read in order to help children in a similar situation to those in Uganda.

September 8, 2016 This week we were fortunate to receive an update on the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio (held last July) from our very own Don Savage. He gave a very thorough report. In addition, it was United Way Day of Caring and many Rotarians were able to participate as we helped build a storage facility at the Franklin Community Center in Provo. Please check out the Fellowship and Fun side of the blog to see more photos from United Way Day of Caring.

September 1, 2016 This week Shaun Michel, the Rotary District Governor, came to speak with us. We discussed some great things like how u se your time wisely at meetings in order to create relationships and inspire those who attend meetings. This is a good way to get out of your comfort zone (or get out of your bubble - see the bubble photos below) and do something good and increase the number of your relationships. It may not be convenient, but it will be a blessing to your life. In addition, Shaun told us about how he went to the Hopi Indian reservation and did service there with his family, which helped change his life in a number of ways. 

August 25, 2016 Ronnie Daniel, Executive Director of the Alzheimer's Association, Utah Chapter, noted that incidence of Alzheimer's disease is increasing dramatically while the other major diseases are all decreasing. 10% of Utah senior citizens have Alzheimer's, and women are twice as likely as men to develop it. Three caregivers are needed for every patient, are often stressed, and many die before the patient does. Alzheimer's costs Utah $205 million annually, but research could reduce those costs and be a good investment.  No cure is available, but preventive measures include exercise, cardio-vascular fitness, healthy diet, enough sleep, mental challenges, social interaction, and quitting smoking.  A short "Walk to end Alzheimer's" will be held at Riverwoods Mall on October 15 at 9:00 am.