Author: Indy Rotary

Rotary Legacy – Be A Gift to the World.

Did you Know?

• 300,000 women die each year giving birth
• 2.6 million babies are still born each year
• 700,000 children die each year from diarrhea , or 2,000 each day
• 775 million adults are illiterate in the world
• 21% of the world’s population lives in extreme poverty

By being a gift to the world, you can help Rotary fight these conditions!

Mark will discuss several areas of Rotary International Foundation focus:

• Disease Prevention and Treatment
• Economic and Community Development
• Water and Sanitation
• Maternal and Child Health
• Basic Education and Literacy
• Peace and Conflict Prevention / Resolution

Mark Blade became a Indianapolis Rotarian 2003. Mark is a Rotarian “because of my love for mankind and because I passionately believe that it is my purpose in life to make a positive impact upon the lives of other people. Leaving foot prints in the sands of time is the legacy of Rotary and more importantly for me as a Rotarian.”

Connie Lawson is Indiana’s 61st Secretary of State. A tireless advocate for improving elections in Indiana, increasing Indiana’s financial literacy and protecting Indiana investors, Secretary Lawson is also directing substantial innovation and leveraging cutting edge technology to improve how businesses interact with government which is what she will discuss at Rotary on Tuesday.

Secretary Lawson will offer Rotary members a review of Indiana’s new crowdfunding rules, which give entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn about new ways to raise capital and give investors an opportunity to learn about new ways to invest in Indiana. She will also talk about her office’s Business One-Stop project, which will allow Hoosier business owners to connect to all of state government from one portal.  Finally, she will discuss Benefit Corporations, a new way to structure a business with a defined social or environmental purpose.

Secretary Lawson lends her substantial leadership experience to help great organizations.  She is a regional vice president of the National Association of Secretaries of State, an honorary governor of the Richard G. Lugar Excellence in Public Service Series, the honorary chairwoman of the Lupus Foundation of Indiana, and a co-chair of the Hendricks County United Way to name just a few.

Prior to serving as Secretary of State, Lawson served in the Indiana Senate for sixteen years, where she accomplished significant legislative success. Respected across the aisle, she quickly earned the admiration of her colleagues and made history in 2006 when she was selected as the first woman to serve as Majority Floor Leader in the Indiana Senate.

Greg McCauley, Executive Director, Link Space Science Institute
Chasing Pluto: The First Mission to the Last Planet 
The Pluto program was recently featured at this summer’s Indiana State Fair in the Glass Barn. The $700 million NASA New Horizons mission launched in January 2006, was tasked with lifting the veil on a world that has remained mysterious since its 1930 discovery. Traveling 9 1/2 years and nearly 3.2 billion miles, it’s one of the most ambitions and historic NASA unmanned missions of exploration in history.

Built as a private planetarium the Link Observatory at one time fell into the hands of a few amateur astronomers. Greg McCauley sat on the board of this group and saw a vision for the observatory that would both honor the trust and enlarge the capabilities of the program. The Link Observatory has launched an ambitious program backed up with a dedicated mission, staff and volunteers to ignite curiosity, learning, fun and new interest in how space science touches our every day lives among school children in central Indiana. Their ultimate aim is to impact a far wider region of the United States.