I am a member of the Oshkosh Rotary Club. This is not a sales pitch for Rotary, though we are always looking for new members. For those who are not aware, Rotary is a service club. Oshkosh Rotary Club is nearly a century old. We work to make Oshkosh — and the world — a little bit better place to live.
Monday’s weekly meeting was our annual holiday celebration. We always have a musical group to entertain us at this meeting. We also invited two special guests to the meeting.
I mention this because I was so impressed by the four young adults who grew up in Oshkosh, and are excelling in vastly different fields. I am not sure of their ages. But all are at least four decades younger than I am, which qualifies them as youngsters in my book.
The first is Katie Sell, an Oshkosh North graduate fighting for a spot on the U.S. Judo Olympic team. I happened to sit next to her for lunch. I demonstrated my ignorance of judo. She patiently responded to my questions.
Katie began judo at the age of 6, at the YMCA. She started competing the next year. Fast forward to 2012, when she missed making the Olympic team in her last match. I cannot imagine how devastating it must be to come so close to a dream. Then having to wait four years for the next opportunity.
She has been training hard ever since for the upcoming Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. She will be leaving in mid-January to compete in Cuba, Europe and South America. The goal is being on the team in Rio in August. I will be following her progress. She is a classy young lady.
Bethany Lerch is an Oshkosh West and UWO grad. She earned a master’s degree from St. Andrew’s University in the UK on a Rotary scholarship. Bethany has visited our Club a few times in the past. She is home from Afghanistan for a Christmas visit with family and friends.
Bethany, too, is a remarkable young lady. She has worked in the Pentagon, taught English in Palestine, besides the current stint in Afghanistan, where she will be returning after the first of the year. Space does not allow me to list all her accomplishments.
She contacted local Rotary Clubs last month to raise money to help an impoverished Afghan family, a widow with four young children. The husband/father was killed by a suicide bomber. Now the family struggles to get by. The oldest child, an 8-year-old boy, shines shoes to earn an income for the family. None of the children go to school, a luxury they cannot afford.
Bethany collected about $600, which she used to buy a stove to heat the house, and firewood for a month. She still has money left, which will be used for firewood and food going forward. That family demonstrate the true cost of war. God bless Bethany for her efforts to help at least one impoverished family. Though I am sure there are thousands more in the same dire straits.
Matt Beecher, son of Club member Mark Beecher, and Jessica Anderson provided the musical entertainment. Both are accomplished musicians with backgrounds in all types of music. Matt sang; Jessica played the keyboard and sang. They entertained us with a variety of holiday and seasonal tunes, both old and new.
They are a couple, as verified on Facebook.
I left the meeting amazed at what these four young people have accomplished in athletics, humanitarianism and the arts.
Courtesy of: The Northwestern