Cooper Siner - Rotary of Fort Walton Beach Main Page

ROTARY ROSTER
Bill Alexson
Military Operations Commander
Ross Hamilton
Education-College
Roger Peadro, PHF SM RotY 
Pastor
Jack Yeiser, PHF SM
Mortgage Broker
Robert Anderson, SM
CPA
Sallie Hardy, PHF SM
Commercial Properties
Mary Plummer, PHF SM
Real Estate Sales
Russ Youngblood, PHF SM 
Psychologist
Jack Arthur, PHF SM
Insurance
Tom Hayes, PHF SM
Financial Services
Lyndon Poff, PHF SM RotY
Paint & Body Shop
Spencer Barnes
Insurance
Jody Henderson, PHF SM 
Accounting/Auditing
Diane Poff
Paint & Body Shop
James Bass, SM
Funeral Director
Mitzi Henley, SM
Retail Shopping Center
Jan Pooley, (8) PHF SM RotY 
Department Store
Neal Bern
Insurance
Ken Hinrichs
Non-Profit Administration
Charlie Potts, PHF SM 
Jeweler
Debbie Bodenstine, PHF SM RotY
Economic Development
Jeff Hooton, PHF SM
Commercial Lending
Kathy Pritchard, PHF SM
Commercial Banking
Board of Directors
Ann Boynton
Vacation Rental
Stephanie Jones
Financial Advisor
Fred Pryor, PHF SM RotY 
Utility Service-Gas
President:
Charles West
Joseph Brewster, PHF SM
Cable Television
Laura Kirby
Business Development
Dusty Ricketts, SM
News Media
Vice President and Secretary:
Katie Sharon
Frank Brutt, PHF SM
County Planning
Richard Kunkel, PHF SM
Education
Katie Sharon, SM
Commercial Banking
Mack Busbee
County Government
Chuck Landers, PHF SM
Certified Public Accountant
Eulice Shelley, PHF SM 
Moving & Storage
Tom Butcher
Honorary Member
Ross LeBlanc, SM
Certified Public Accountant
Scott Smith, PHF SM 
Chiropractor
Kevin Cagle, SM
Office Machines
Tony Leonard, PHF SM 
Retail/Musical Instruments
Whitney Smith, SM
Attorney
Gerry Chalker, (7) PHF SM 
Pension Administration
John Linn, PHF SM
Kitchens-Retail
Allan Stearns, PHF SM 
Travel Agent
Andy Corbin, PHF SM RotY 
Electronics manufacturing
Ted Litschauer, PHF SM
Public Safety
Rick Stevens, PHF SM RotY 
Surge Suppression Systems
George Dorris, PHF SM
Dentistry
David Macdonald, SM PHF 
Shopping Center Manager
Randy Stokes, PHF SM 
Architecture
Jeff Dunford
Banker
Jamey Mattern, PHF SM
Architect
Kent Tinsley, SM
Commercial Banking
J.T. Edwards, PHF SM RotY
Landscaping Owner
JR McDonald
Defense Contractor
Herb Tinsley, PHF SM RotY 
Savings & Loan Management
Cliff Ennis
Business IT Management
Julie McNabb, SM
Developmental Disabilities
Forrest Townsend, PHF SM RotY 
Veterinarian
Ralph Fallin, (33) PHF SM RotY 
Dairy Products
Joe Meyer, SM
Retail/Computers
Alex Trum, PHF SM
Orthodontist Retired
Bob Fowner, PHF SM
Association Manager
David O. Miller, (12) PHF SM
Developmental Disabilities
Matt Turpin, SM
Certified Public Accountant
Tony Gilligan, PHF SM
Government Contractor
John Morgan, PHF SM 
Computer Engineer
John Vaughan, PHF SM
Past Service
Ben Gordon
Attorney
Matthew Morgan, SM
Electrical Engineer
Aaron Webber, SM
Condo Management
Ron Grissom, SM
Utilities
Dan Nelson, PHF SM
Restaurant/Fast Food
Charles West, PHF SM
Investment Broker
Haydon Grubbs, PHF SM
Education
Michele Nicholson, SM
Communications
Ken Williamson, PHF SM 
Retired
Chad Hamilton, PHF SM
Certified Public Accountant
Susan Page, SM
Professional Counseling
Jean Woo, PHF SM
Dentist
READER
The Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach
Aug. 19, 2015
www.fortwaltonrotary.org
Presidential Citation Award Winner for 20 Years
Issue 2,865
Treasurer:
Ron Grissom
Past President:
Debbie Bodenstine
Committee Chairs
Membership:
Laura Kirby and Andy Corbin
PHF: Paul Harris Fellows
SM: PH Sustaining Members
RotY: FWB Rotarian of the Year
 FWB Club Past President
 Other Club Past President
Members in blue are recognized as
having perfect attendance as of the end of
the previous year
Members in yellow are on a leave of
absence
Service Projects:
Kevin Cagle and J.T. Edwards
Rotary Foundation:
Joe Brewster
Public Relations:
Dusty Ricketts and Jean Woo
Club Administration:
Mack Busbee
Youth Service:
Ross Hamilton
Don’t forget that you can make
up missed meetings at neighboring clubs. They include:
Crestview: 12 p.m. Wednesday at
Ryan’s
Destin: 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at Rutherford’s at Regatta Bay
DeFuniak Springs: 12 p.m.
Wednesday at McLain’s Family Steakhouse
Mid-Bay: 7 a.m. Wednesday at
Bluewater Bay Golf Club
Navarre: 12 p.m. Thursday at Tuscan Grill at Hidden Creek
Niceville: 12 p.m. Thursday at
Northwest Florida State College
Building K
South Walton: 7:30 a.m. Thursday at Embassy Suites
Sergeant at Arms:
Gerry Chalker and Roger Peadro
Scholarship, Inc.:
Matt Turpin
Rotary Reader:
Spencer Barnes
Executive Secretary:
Lorragenia Jackson
executivesecretary@fortwaltonrotary.org
..
Cooper Siner
& Paul
Bannmueller
Cooper
Siner
Rotary Exchange
I am sixteen years old and a sophomore at Choctawhatchee High School. My parents are Mark
Siner, owner of Choctaw Engineering, and Ashley Siner, owner of the local Taco Bell restaurants.
More importantly, my grandfather is fellow Rotarian Dan Nelson.
I am the oldest of three kids. I have two younger sisters. I am involved in many activities in my
school and community. I am an avid soccer player and play midfielder the for Choctawhatchee
High School soccer team. I am a member of Beta Honors club and Excel club, which is a service
club at my school. I also volunteer as a coach for a U-8 soccer team as well as help at Vacation
Bible School every summer. My hobbies include sailing and working with computers. I love to
spend time out on the water whether it be fishing, tubing, or kayaking.
This summer I participated in the Rotary Exchange Program, where I got the exciting opportunity to live in Germany for three weeks. I lived with the Bannmüeller family in Schramberg, Germany
which is located in the south west portion of Germany. While there I was able to spend time learning about the German culture and was even able to attend classes at a German High School.
My guest is Paul Bannmüeller who has been living with my family for the past couple of weeks.
Paul is also 16 years old. He has four siblings and a dog named Findus. His older sister previously
participated in the Rotary Exchange Program. Paul’s hobbies are mountain biking and climbing.
He is a basketball player and plays for a club team called SG Schramberg. He is very involved with
his church and attends a camp organized by his youth group. He is also involved in clubs such as
Table Tennis and Hand Ball.
Po s t O f f i c e B o x 8 9 2 , F o r t Wa l t o n B e a c h , F L 3 2 5 4 9
THE ROTARY READER
THE ROTARY READER
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
Aug. 26 — Ken Williamson and Katie Sharon
Sept. 2 and 9 — TBA
Sept. 16 — Dr. George vonHilsheimer, dermatologist
TODAY IN HISTORY
A conversation with Caryl Stern
By Vanessa Glavinskas
The Rotarian
The six-day-old baby shuddered with convulsions. Her mother, Memunatu, had given birth at home and cut her daughter’s umbilical
cord with what she could find – a sharp piece of metal. When the newborn contracted tetanus, Memunatu walked miles to reach a clinic.
That’s where Caryl Stern encountered the pair. Stern was on a field visit with UNICEF in Sierra Leone and stayed with Memunatu, trying to
comfort her, until the child died. The image of the baby in pain, hypersensitive to light and sound, stayed with Stern as she got off the plane
in New York and headed home to her own family. “I realized that the pizza I asked my son to order that night because I didn’t feel like cooking cost more than the vaccine that would have prevented this disease,” she says. “On my most frustrating day, I bring myself back to that
moment. That’s why I’m here.”
Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, sits in a corner office adorned with hand-drawn pictures and brightly colored
paintings by children she’s met around the world. “Kids are awesome,” she says as she shows off the homemade gallery. “As bad as it is in
some places, kids are still kids.” In 2007, she joined the U.S. Fund for UNICEF after almost two decades as a senior official at the AntiDefamation League. In her new role, she learned about UNICEF’s humanitarian work by visiting country after country, sleeping in tents
and under bed nets. She wrote a book titled “I Believe in Zero” – something she started saying to rally her team around the possibil-ity of
bringing the number preventable child deaths to zero.
She says she has seen humanity at its best, but she’s frustrated that most people don’t share her sense of urgency to help children, especially those trapped in conflict zones. “I’m trying to balance my urgency against a complacent world,” she says, noting that donations for
programs to help Syrian refugees are lagging. “It’s our job to be the voice of that child sitting in a tent tonight.” Contributing Editor Vanessa
Glavinskas talked with Stern at her Manhattan office.
THE ROTARIAN: What led you to work at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF?
STERN: My entire career has been child-focused. I worked in higher education for 10 years, and then I had an opportunity to start an
education project with the Anti-Defamation League. I’m a Holocaust survivor’s kid, so the opportunity was enticing enough that I gave up
tenure and went, thinking I’d do it for a year. I ended up staying 18 years.
I thought I’d stay there for the rest of my career when a job opened with UNICEF. I grew up in a household where we were taught that if
you saved one life, you saved the world. So the opportunity to work for an organization where I could do that seemed phenomenal. Almost
three weeks to the day after I got to the U.S. Fund for UNI-CEF, Bill Gates offered our then-CEO a job you don’t turn down. He came into
my office and said, “You’re going to hate me, but I’m leaving.” I knew nothing about hu-manitarian aid, though I knew a lot about running a
nonprofit. The board made me acting president while they did an international search, and in that year, I learned every-thing I could about
the delivery of humanitarian aid. I was fortunate that the board took a leap of faith and gave me the job.
TR: What do you remember from those early days in the field?
STERN: The first day of a trip to Sierra Leone, I witnessed a baby dying of tetanus. But it wasn’t only the death of the child I remember – it
was the hospital, which had nothing. There weren’t beds. The mothers would go outside and cook a meal over a fire and bring it in to feed
their children. If they had other children, they’d sleep in the hospital too. Because so much of Sierra Leone has no power and there are oil
lamps, many of the kids in the hospital were severely burned, yet there wasn’t even Tylenol or aspirin. Just walking through the hospital was
traumatic. I hadn’t seen medical care at that level anywhere else. I’ve since seen it in a lot of places.
TR: In an op-ed you wrote for USA Today, you reported that 2014 was the worst year in recent memory for atrocities committed against
children. It’s hard to believe that the world broke a record for abusing children.
STERN: Growing up as a Holocaust survivor’s kid, the question I would ask repeatedly was, “Why didn’t somebody stop this?” We can’t
pretend that we don’t know what’s going on. It’s in the newspapers. It’s on TV, and it’s on the Internet. We know it’s happening, but we
choose not to focus on it.
We have a match fund for the Syrian refugee crisis, and we’re struggling to meet the match. There are huge funding gaps. I wish I could
pack everybody into a bus and drive to a refugee camp, because once you spend an hour there, there’s no way you will let people suffer.
On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500. Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis,
Indiana, the speedway was started by local business-men as a testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry.
On this day in 1934, Adolf Hitler, already chancellor, is also elected president of Germany in an unprecedented consolidation of power in the short history of the republic.
On this day in 1946, William Jefferson Blythe III is born in Hope, Arkansas. His father died in a car accident before he
was born, and young Bill later took the last name of his stepfather, Roger Clinton. In 1992, Bill Clinton would be elected as
the 42nd president of the United States.
TODAY IN LOCAL HISTORY
On this day in 1982, the Fort Walton Beach Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously to support a new
bridge designed to ease the downtown traffic problem.
ROTARIANS WITH BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
Chad Hamilton, birthday, Aug. 17
Andy Corbin, anniversary, Aug. 18
ROTARY’S FOUR-WAY TEST
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and better FRIENDSHIP?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
THE ROTARY READER
THE ROTARY READER
UPCOMING SPEAKERS
Aug. 26 — Ken Williamson and Katie Sharon
Sept. 2 and 9 — TBA
Sept. 16 — Dr. George vonHilsheimer, dermatologist
TODAY IN HISTORY
A conversation with Caryl Stern
By Vanessa Glavinskas
The Rotarian
The six-day-old baby shuddered with convulsions. Her mother, Memunatu, had given birth at home and cut her daughter’s umbilical
cord with what she could find – a sharp piece of metal. When the newborn contracted tetanus, Memunatu walked miles to reach a clinic.
That’s where Caryl Stern encountered the pair. Stern was on a field visit with UNICEF in Sierra Leone and stayed with Memunatu, trying to
comfort her, until the child died. The image of the baby in pain, hypersensitive to light and sound, stayed with Stern as she got off the plane
in New York and headed home to her own family. “I realized that the pizza I asked my son to order that night because I didn’t feel like cooking cost more than the vaccine that would have prevented this disease,” she says. “On my most frustrating day, I bring myself back to that
moment. That’s why I’m here.”
Stern, president and CEO of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, sits in a corner office adorned with hand-drawn pictures and brightly colored
paintings by children she’s met around the world. “Kids are awesome,” she says as she shows off the homemade gallery. “As bad as it is in
some places, kids are still kids.” In 2007, she joined the U.S. Fund for UNICEF after almost two decades as a senior official at the AntiDefamation League. In her new role, she learned about UNICEF’s humanitarian work by visiting country after country, sleeping in tents
and under bed nets. She wrote a book titled “I Believe in Zero” – something she started saying to rally her team around the possibil-ity of
bringing the number preventable child deaths to zero.
She says she has seen humanity at its best, but she’s frustrated that most people don’t share her sense of urgency to help children, especially those trapped in conflict zones. “I’m trying to balance my urgency against a complacent world,” she says, noting that donations for
programs to help Syrian refugees are lagging. “It’s our job to be the voice of that child sitting in a tent tonight.” Contributing Editor Vanessa
Glavinskas talked with Stern at her Manhattan office.
THE ROTARIAN: What led you to work at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF?
STERN: My entire career has been child-focused. I worked in higher education for 10 years, and then I had an opportunity to start an
education project with the Anti-Defamation League. I’m a Holocaust survivor’s kid, so the opportunity was enticing enough that I gave up
tenure and went, thinking I’d do it for a year. I ended up staying 18 years.
I thought I’d stay there for the rest of my career when a job opened with UNICEF. I grew up in a household where we were taught that if
you saved one life, you saved the world. So the opportunity to work for an organization where I could do that seemed phenomenal. Almost
three weeks to the day after I got to the U.S. Fund for UNI-CEF, Bill Gates offered our then-CEO a job you don’t turn down. He came into
my office and said, “You’re going to hate me, but I’m leaving.” I knew nothing about hu-manitarian aid, though I knew a lot about running a
nonprofit. The board made me acting president while they did an international search, and in that year, I learned every-thing I could about
the delivery of humanitarian aid. I was fortunate that the board took a leap of faith and gave me the job.
TR: What do you remember from those early days in the field?
STERN: The first day of a trip to Sierra Leone, I witnessed a baby dying of tetanus. But it wasn’t only the death of the child I remember – it
was the hospital, which had nothing. There weren’t beds. The mothers would go outside and cook a meal over a fire and bring it in to feed
their children. If they had other children, they’d sleep in the hospital too. Because so much of Sierra Leone has no power and there are oil
lamps, many of the kids in the hospital were severely burned, yet there wasn’t even Tylenol or aspirin. Just walking through the hospital was
traumatic. I hadn’t seen medical care at that level anywhere else. I’ve since seen it in a lot of places.
TR: In an op-ed you wrote for USA Today, you reported that 2014 was the worst year in recent memory for atrocities committed against
children. It’s hard to believe that the world broke a record for abusing children.
STERN: Growing up as a Holocaust survivor’s kid, the question I would ask repeatedly was, “Why didn’t somebody stop this?” We can’t
pretend that we don’t know what’s going on. It’s in the newspapers. It’s on TV, and it’s on the Internet. We know it’s happening, but we
choose not to focus on it.
We have a match fund for the Syrian refugee crisis, and we’re struggling to meet the match. There are huge funding gaps. I wish I could
pack everybody into a bus and drive to a refugee camp, because once you spend an hour there, there’s no way you will let people suffer.
On this day in 1909, the first race is held at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world’s most famous motor racing competition, the Indianapolis 500. Built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis,
Indiana, the speedway was started by local business-men as a testing facility for Indiana’s growing automobile industry.
On this day in 1934, Adolf Hitler, already chancellor, is also elected president of Germany in an unprecedented consolidation of power in the short history of the republic.
On this day in 1946, William Jefferson Blythe III is born in Hope, Arkansas. His father died in a car accident before he
was born, and young Bill later took the last name of his stepfather, Roger Clinton. In 1992, Bill Clinton would be elected as
the 42nd president of the United States.
TODAY IN LOCAL HISTORY
On this day in 1982, the Fort Walton Beach Redevelopment Agency voted unanimously to support a new
bridge designed to ease the downtown traffic problem.
ROTARIANS WITH BIRTHDAYS AND ANNIVERSARIES
Chad Hamilton, birthday, Aug. 17
Andy Corbin, anniversary, Aug. 18
ROTARY’S FOUR-WAY TEST
Is it the TRUTH?
Is it FAIR to all concerned?
Will it build GOODWILL and better FRIENDSHIP?
Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
ROTARY ROSTER
Bill Alexson
Military Operations Commander
Ross Hamilton
Education-College
Roger Peadro, PHF SM RotY 
Pastor
Jack Yeiser, PHF SM
Mortgage Broker
Robert Anderson, SM
CPA
Sallie Hardy, PHF SM
Commercial Properties
Mary Plummer, PHF SM
Real Estate Sales
Russ Youngblood, PHF SM 
Psychologist
Jack Arthur, PHF SM
Insurance
Tom Hayes, PHF SM
Financial Services
Lyndon Poff, PHF SM RotY
Paint & Body Shop
Spencer Barnes
Insurance
Jody Henderson, PHF SM 
Accounting/Auditing
Diane Poff
Paint & Body Shop
James Bass, SM
Funeral Director
Mitzi Henley, SM
Retail Shopping Center
Jan Pooley, (8) PHF SM RotY 
Department Store
Neal Bern
Insurance
Ken Hinrichs
Non-Profit Administration
Charlie Potts, PHF SM 
Jeweler
Debbie Bodenstine, PHF SM RotY
Economic Development
Jeff Hooton, PHF SM
Commercial Lending
Kathy Pritchard, PHF SM
Commercial Banking
Board of Directors
Ann Boynton
Vacation Rental
Stephanie Jones
Financial Advisor
Fred Pryor, PHF SM RotY 
Utility Service-Gas
President:
Charles West
Joseph Brewster, PHF SM
Cable Television
Laura Kirby
Business Development
Dusty Ricketts, SM
News Media
Vice President and Secretary:
Katie Sharon
Frank Brutt, PHF SM
County Planning
Richard Kunkel, PHF SM
Education
Katie Sharon, SM
Commercial Banking
Mack Busbee
County Government
Chuck Landers, PHF SM
Certified Public Accountant
Eulice Shelley, PHF SM 
Moving & Storage
Tom Butcher
Honorary Member
Ross LeBlanc, SM
Certified Public Accountant
Scott Smith, PHF SM 
Chiropractor
Kevin Cagle, SM
Office Machines
Tony Leonard, PHF SM 
Retail/Musical Instruments
Whitney Smith, SM
Attorney
Gerry Chalker, (7) PHF SM 
Pension Administration
John Linn, PHF SM
Kitchens-Retail
Allan Stearns, PHF SM 
Travel Agent
Andy Corbin, PHF SM RotY 
Electronics manufacturing
Ted Litschauer, PHF SM
Public Safety
Rick Stevens, PHF SM RotY 
Surge Suppression Systems
George Dorris, PHF SM
Dentistry
David Macdonald, SM PHF 
Shopping Center Manager
Randy Stokes, PHF SM 
Architecture
Jeff Dunford
Banker
Jamey Mattern, PHF SM
Architect
Kent Tinsley, SM
Commercial Banking
J.T. Edwards, PHF SM RotY
Landscaping Owner
JR McDonald
Defense Contractor
Herb Tinsley, PHF SM RotY 
Savings & Loan Management
Cliff Ennis
Business IT Management
Julie McNabb, SM
Developmental Disabilities
Forrest Townsend, PHF SM RotY 
Veterinarian
Ralph Fallin, (33) PHF SM RotY 
Dairy Products
Joe Meyer, SM
Retail/Computers
Alex Trum, PHF SM
Orthodontist Retired
Bob Fowner, PHF SM
Association Manager
David O. Miller, (12) PHF SM
Developmental Disabilities
Matt Turpin, SM
Certified Public Accountant
Tony Gilligan, PHF SM
Government Contractor
John Morgan, PHF SM 
Computer Engineer
John Vaughan, PHF SM
Past Service
Ben Gordon
Attorney
Matthew Morgan, SM
Electrical Engineer
Aaron Webber, SM
Condo Management
Ron Grissom, SM
Utilities
Dan Nelson, PHF SM
Restaurant/Fast Food
Charles West, PHF SM
Investment Broker
Haydon Grubbs, PHF SM
Education
Michele Nicholson, SM
Communications
Ken Williamson, PHF SM 
Retired
Chad Hamilton, PHF SM
Certified Public Accountant
Susan Page, SM
Professional Counseling
Jean Woo, PHF SM
Dentist
READER
The Rotary Club of Fort Walton Beach
Aug. 19, 2015
www.fortwaltonrotary.org
Presidential Citation Award Winner for 20 Years
Issue 2,865
Treasurer:
Ron Grissom
Past President:
Debbie Bodenstine
Committee Chairs
Membership:
Laura Kirby and Andy Corbin
PHF: Paul Harris Fellows
SM: PH Sustaining Members
RotY: FWB Rotarian of the Year
 FWB Club Past President
 Other Club Past President
Members in blue are recognized as
having perfect attendance as of the end of
the previous year
Members in yellow are on a leave of
absence
Service Projects:
Kevin Cagle and J.T. Edwards
Rotary Foundation:
Joe Brewster
Public Relations:
Dusty Ricketts and Jean Woo
Club Administration:
Mack Busbee
Youth Service:
Ross Hamilton
Don’t forget that you can make
up missed meetings at neighboring clubs. They include:
Crestview: 12 p.m. Wednesday at
Ryan’s
Destin: 7:15 a.m. Tuesday at Rutherford’s at Regatta Bay
DeFuniak Springs: 12 p.m.
Wednesday at McLain’s Family Steakhouse
Mid-Bay: 7 a.m. Wednesday at
Bluewater Bay Golf Club
Navarre: 12 p.m. Thursday at Tuscan Grill at Hidden Creek
Niceville: 12 p.m. Thursday at
Northwest Florida State College
Building K
South Walton: 7:30 a.m. Thursday at Embassy Suites
Sergeant at Arms:
Gerry Chalker and Roger Peadro
Scholarship, Inc.:
Matt Turpin
Rotary Reader:
Spencer Barnes
Executive Secretary:
Lorragenia Jackson
executivesecretary@fortwaltonrotary.org
Cooper Siner
Rotary Exchange
I am sixteen years old and a sophomore at Choctawhatchee High School. My parents are Mark
Siner, owner of Choctaw Engineering, and Ashley Siner, owner of the local Taco Bell restaurants.
More importantly, my grandfather is fellow Rotarian Dan Nelson.
I am the oldest of three kids. I have two younger sisters. I am involved in many activities in my
school and community. I am an avid soccer player and play midfielder the for Choctawhatchee
High School soccer team. I am a member of Beta Honors club and Excel club, which is a service
club at my school. I also volunteer as a coach for a U-8 soccer team as well as help at Vacation
Bible School every summer. My hobbies include sailing and working with computers. I love to
spend time out on the water whether it be fishing, tubing, or kayaking.
This summer I participated in the Rotary Exchange Program, where I got the exciting opportunity to live in Germany for three weeks. I lived with the Bannmüeller family in Schramberg, Germany
which is located in the south west portion of Germany. While there I was able to spend time learning about the German culture and was even able to attend classes at a German High School.
My guest is Paul Bannmüeller who has been living with my family for the past couple of weeks.
Paul is also 16 years old. He has four siblings and a dog named Findus. His older sister previously
participated in the Rotary Exchange Program. Paul’s hobbies are mountain biking and climbing.
He is a basketball player and plays for a club team called SG Schramberg. He is very involved with
his church and attends a camp organized by his youth group. He is also involved in clubs such as
Table Tennis and Hand Ball.
Po s t O f f i c e B o x 8 9 2 , F o r t Wa l t o n B e a c h , F L 3 2 5 4 9