October Newsletter - Week 3
Important Reminder - Rotary Social - Friday, October 27th at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of Appalachia. $15 per person (not couple) and due Tuesday. See below for more details.
Recap
This week we had Lewis Ridenour come speak to us. He currently works for the Oak Ridge City Police Department and serves as a liaison to between the police department and the Department of Energy (DOE). He has 20 years of law enforcement experience within Anderson County. He first began his career with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Department in 1993 as a reserve officer. After which, he also served as a Corrections Officer, Deputy Sheriff, Administrative Sergeant, and Criminal Investigator before being promoted to Chief Deputy Sheriff in 2002. He later transferred to the City of Oak Ridge Police Department in 2008. It wasn’t until 2011 that he began his current full-time position as ORPD and DOE liaison and support services officer. There, is he able to offer acting DOE law enforcement training and on-site help. He is married to his wife Pam and they currently reside in Anderson County.Over the years, one of his job duties included restructuring, evaluating and improving inefficient programs. One that he learned a particularly important lesson from was the Anderson County Liter Program. He learned that people tend to forget about what they don’t see and hear in front of them on a day to day basis. This valuable lesson carried over into dealing with our county’s current drug problem. Drug overdoses in Anderson County have increased over 150% within the last 7 years and are forecasted to increase an additional 12% within the next year. For the first time ever, Anderson County has a higher drug abuse death rate than deaths by motor vehicles. From Lewis’ prior experience serving on the Southeastern Meth Force, he knows first-hand that crimes against people and property are directly related to drug problems in many cases. He currently advocates for increased resources and stricter laws and punishments for drug violators.
Heroin, opioids, and fentanyl are on the rise. Even Suboxone, which was originally intended to treat opioid addiction, is now being abused by mixing it with other drugs. Fentanyl is particularly dangerous as it is 100 stronger than morphine and may times added to other drugs unknowingly to make them stronger. Unfortunately, it is cheaper and easier to make deadly fentanyl. Now they are even seeing marijuana laced and sold with fentanyl too. Law enforcement is now reporting more 30 to 40-year old overdoses now, as opposed to what has traditionally been juvenile overdoses. Today’s addicts are different than what we are used to seeing. They are working professionals from well-to-do families that you would never expect to have a problem. Sadly, drug abuse can happen very easily to anyone.
MembershipVisitors – We welcomed two visitors back that have expressed interest in joining. We were happy to have Sherri Ridenour from The Waters and Mike Holden from Clinton Middle School with us again. Thank you ET for your visitor contribution once again…and making sure we know it! 😁 |
Items of InterestThe Rotary Social will be on Friday, October 27th at 6:00 p.m. at the Museum of Appalachia. The cost is $15 per person and due by next week’s meeting. Please see Bill if you are interested in coming and have not signed up yet.Our thoughts and prayers are with Jonathan Sharp and his family. Sadly, they said goodbye to his 20-year old brother this week who passed away due to a terrible accident. Main Street Baptist Church was in charge of the arrangements. They have set up a Go Fund Me page to help with funeral expenses and to help his wife and baby. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Donate Here The date for the Children’s Christmas Party has been set for December 12th. An extra $75 should be included in your dues to go toward this. Please remember to save your receipts to be reimbursed for your expenses once you buy for your child. World Polio Day is Tuesday, October 24th. Thank you for your weekly donations as we are extremely close to completely eradicating polio! Our 2nd Annual Community Breakfast has been scheduled for the morning of Tuesday, November 21st at 8:00 a.m (Please note the time has changed) in the big meeting room of the Community Center. We will host renowned speaker Hallerin Hilton Hill again. This is open to the public and free to attend. Thank you to all the businesses and individuals that have signed up to be meal sponsors for the event! If you would still like to sponsor the event and have not signed up yet, it is $125 to help pay for breakfast. Your name and/or business will be featured on banners as a sponsor. A letter is attached that you may post and share to help promote the event. Mike Holden, a prospective new member and teacher at Clinton Middle School asked for donations on behalf of CMS students. The school would like to do a summer reading program for all 680 students, where they would like to send one book home with each child that they select themselves and read over the summer. Books will cost roughly $7-8 each for 680 kids. That means they will need to raise roughly $5,000 to fund this project. Any donations toward this would be greatly appreciated! It is once again time for the Community Action Coat Drive! We are accepting new and gently used coat donations in all sizes to help furnish coats for those that don’t have the money to buy one otherwise. You may either drop your donations off at Fox Toyota or bring them to Rotary with you on Tuesdays. The Community Center has generously donated about 100-150 coats already that were left over from unclaimed lost and found items. In the past, our club has collected about 5,000 coats each year for this. We hope this year will be no different! Please see ET with any questions. |
Upcoming SpeakersOctober 24Ernie Newberry – USS Ronald Reagan October 31Don Honeycutt – ‘Oak Ridge Then and Now’ November 7Deborah Davis - Rotary District Governor November 14Beth Farrow & Katie Banks – Helen Ross McNabb |
Rotary Club OfficersBill Gallaher Vicki Violette
Ronnie Fox
Jerry Schlandt
Mike Shrader
Gary Coleman
Tom Connolly
ET Stamey
Bear Stephenson
Leighann Green
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Clinton Rotary Club
Meeting Address: 101 S. Hicks Street Clinton, Tennessee 37716
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 524 Clinton, Tennessee 37717