Events

We are invited to attend the SW Club meeting. 12:00 noon DK Maria's.  Dr. Swaim is a Georgetown Rotary club member and is chairman of their Racial Unity and Peace Building Committee. Please send an email to Bill Poplin (bpwilliam76@gmail.com) if you can attend.

The Rotary Club of Southwest Austin's speaker this Thursday is Rev. Dr. Ronald Swain who is a member of the Georgetown Rotary Club and the founder of Courageous Conversations About Race.  Since 2014, residents have participated in the Courageous Conversations as a respectful, civil process of dialogue about the difficult issue of race. He has served the Discipleship Team at The First United Methodist Church of Georgetown as Director of Transformative Missions Ministries.  Throughout his lifetime, Dr. Swain has been a leader and advocate for racial and social justice.

A native of Macon, Georgia, Swain holds Bachelor of Arts and Master of Education degrees from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA; the Master of Divinity degree from the Shaw Divinity School in Raleigh, NC; the Master of Education degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; and the Doctor of Education degree from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

Beyond his professional higher education endeavors, Dr. Swain has been a strong community builder and adheres to Dr. Martin L. King's concept of the "Beloved Community." Swain has provided leadership in areas of community building including affordable housing, economic development, job creation, and youth development. Most recently, after the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, Swain organized and convened the Courageous Conversations - Georgetown Movement with a mission "to promote a culture of justice and compassion in Georgetown for people of all races; and economic, religious and ethnic identities.

https://www.kinetictemplemassagetherapy.com/about

Lt Chris Dibrell - Fire Adapted communications coordinator for Austin Fire Department Wildfire Division 

Know your Lemons!   https://www.knowyourlemons.org

Amanda Hagley is a volunteer educator with the Know Your Lemons Foundation, a global organization focused on increasing early detection rates with creative and empowering educational programs. Amanda is an Ohio native and has lived in Austin for the last 10 years. When she’s not educating people about about breast cancer risk and prevention, she works full time in digital marketing and enjoys spending time outside and playing music.

Austin changes so rapidly that it feels like every time you blink, a piece of its history slips away. Fortunately, we have Harrison Eppright. He's been soaking up history for six decades – the time he's lived through, but earlier times as well – and he's always eager to share it. The Victory Grill, Downs Field and the Negro Leagues, the city's “1928 Master Plan,” Juneteenth in Austin, Evergreen Cemetery – he knows all about them and more. As Visit Austin's manager of visitor services and tour ambassador, and tour docent for Six Square: Austin's Black Cultural District, Eppright is well-positioned to ensure we remember the Austin that was.

Rick Stacy :  Joined the Rotary Club of Thibodaux, LA in 1998 and moved his membership to Rotary Club of Marble Falls in 2008.  He was the Club of President in 2010-11 and was Assistant Governor from 2014 to 2017. In 2018-19 he was the District Trainer and became our District Governor for the Rotary year 2020-21.  Rick was President of the Hill Country Passport Rotary Club in 2023 - 24. He currently is our District's Youth Services Chair.  

A Look Back and Forward

The Vietnam War was a prolonged conflict that took place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia between 1955 and 1975. It pitted the communist government of North Vietnam, supported by the Soviet Union and China, against South Vietnam and its allies, including the United States. The war stemmed from the Cold War and the domino theory, the fear that if communism took hold in Vietnam, it would spread to other countries in Southeast Asia. The conflict ended with North Vietnam's victory and the reunification of Vietnam under communist rule. 

The US sent hundreds of thousands of troops to Vietnam, with peak troop numbers reaching 543,000 in April 1969. The war resulted in the deaths of over 58,000 US service members, along with a significant number of Vietnamese and other casualties. 

John Mackey and Diane Mackey

John

John Mackey was raised in Stephenville and Tyler, Texas, where he developed a life-long love of the outdoors.

He graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Wildlife Biology but started working with youth in an outdoor education program in south Texas. The blend of outdoors and science led him to an M.A. in Outdoor Experiential Education from University of Northern Colorado, and eventually to a position as co-camp director at Colorado Lions Camp. There he met Diane Mackey. After they were married, they moved to California where John began teaching Middle School Science in West Covina.

Diane and John moved to Austin in 1985. John continued to teach science at the middle school level until 2012. In that year he and Diane founded the Adventurers Academy of Lifelong Learning, dedicated to helping adults with intellectual disabilities become more independent and connect with their communities.

Diane

Diane Mackey grew up in West Allis, Wisconsin. She faced challenges as a student with a visual disability. She has worked with children and adults with special needs for four decades.

She graduated from the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse with a teaching certificate and a degree in adapted physical education. She taught and coached at St. Johns School for the Deaf in Milwaukee and Los Angeles County Schools.

Diane began a lifelong love of camps and outdoor education as a camper, and later as counselor, at Wisconsin Lions Camp. She later worked at Colorado Lions Camp in summers and later as full-time Program Director. There she met her husband-to-be, John. When they moved to California, Diane taught adaptive physical education in the LA County Schools.

From California, Diane and John moved to Austin, where they have resided since 1985. Diane taught Adapted Physical Education and Special Education Life Skills in Austin ISD and began to organize frequent extracurricular programs for her students, which developed into a group called “The Adventurers”. She has been named Adapted Physical Education Teacher of the Year for the state of Texas and twice was honored as AISD Middle School Teacher of the Year. Her Life Skills program at Bedichek Middle School in south Austin became well known and sought after by parents of students. As students moved on from her middle school class, they returned to join her and her current students for outings and extended overnight trips.

Diane retired from the district in 2012 to pursue what had become a lifelong dream: to open a program that encouraged the development of greater independence of adults with special needs, after they transitioned from the public education system. Now the Academy is an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a mission to help adults with intellectual disabilities in the Austin area connect with the community, develop lifelong independence and achieve their full potential.