Archive for "Community"
Rotary Club of Andover
Posted on August 21, 2015 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
Decided to join the Rotary Club of Andover. Heard about Rotary Clubs for years but hadn’t joined until now. I’m grateful to my coworker David for inviting me.
I met the current district governor David Yoder at our meeting a couple of weeks ago. He gave me a bandana and a couple of of pins. One is our district pin and the other is the “Be a Gift to the World” pin. It’s our theme this year.
The Rotary Club of Andover is part of Rotary International, an international service organization whose purpose is to bring together business and professional leaders in order to provide humanitarian services, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations, and help build goodwill and peace in the world. The district governor gave us a really good definition of a Rotarian during his presentation.
What is a Rotarian?
A Rotarian is a person who…
Digs wells from which he/she will never drink;
Vaccinates children he/she will never meet;
Restores eyesight for those he/she will never see;
Builds housing he/she will never live in;
Educates children he/she will never know;
Plants trees he/she will never sit under;
Feeds hungry people regardless of race or politics;
Makes crawlers into walkers half-way around the world;
Knows real happiness that, as Albert Einstein once said,
“Can only be found by helping others.”
The “service above self” philosophy really appealed to my passion for community service and volunteerism so it made sense for me to join the club. Though the Wichita Rotary Club probably would have made more sense because the meetings are closer to work, I chose to join the club in Andover because of its small size and proximity to my home. The Wichita club already has hundreds of members. The Andover club has a more intimate feel and I think I can really make a difference there.
First thing on the agenda is to help sell tickets for our annual fundraising event, Haus of Brews. Tickets are $25 each right now but will go up to $30 after September 11. All proceeds go toward funding our club’s community service projects. Contact me if you’d like to attend. We’d love to see you there.
If you’d like to learn more about Rotary, let me know. You can be my guest at our next meeting. We love having guests. Before I go, here’s a quote from Rotary International president-elect K. Ravi Ravindran:
When you gift your time in service… you touch lives.
When you gift your resources… you uplift lives.
When you gift both with love & compassion…
YOU, yourself, become a gift to the world.
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Leadership Wichita 2014
Posted on August 21, 2015 by Ching under Community, Leadership, Things to Do.
Last year I completed Leadership Wichita. I had some amazing experiences, made some new friends, and got a really cool plaque for my office. Besides that, I wrote a letter to my future self that’s significantly shaping my choices this year (and years to come).
First let me tell you about Leadership Wichita. Leadership Wichita is a leadership training program through the Wichita Metro Chamber of Commerce that is unlike any other leadership training program I’ve ever experienced. There were eight sessions in total and I got to participate in some amazing, enlightening, life-changing activities that I would never have experienced otherwise. I didn’t take a lot of pictures because I didn’t want my classmates to think I was weird but I did take a few that I’d like to share with you.
I got to spend half a day at Wichita West High School and learned that, despite all of its challenges, USD 259 is actually a great school district. They’re this really cool thing at West High where you declare your academic focus (whether it be Business and Culinary Arts, Engineering and Manufacturing, Fine Arts and Communication, or Health Sciences and Human Services) and you get to take classes toward that focus during your high school years. It’s a really great opportunity to learn whether you really have the passion or aptitude for something. For instance, had I known sooner that Engineering wasn’t for me, then I wouldn’t have wasted four years in college pursuing it. The students in the Business and Culinary Arts academy learn skills that they can use to become entrepreneurs right out of high school, if they so choose. It’s really cool.
But it was the kids that I got to spend time with that really impressed me most. Since there were 30 of us in our Leadership Wichita class, we were divided into four groups. Some of us got to spend time with each of the academies. Our lunch that day was prepared by the Business and Culinary Arts students assisted by some of our Leadership Wichita classmates. They prepared their award-winning school lunch that they were invited to Washington, DC to present at a national competition. The lunch had to meet budget (so that schools could afford to feed it to thousands of kids), nutritional requirements, and also be delicious. They served us buffalo chicken mac and cheese, some kind of red cabbage and corn salad, and a peach crisp topped with granola for dessert. It was a surprisingly delicious meal for about a dollar a person.
I wasn’t part of that group but I was lucky enough to spend time with the Engineering kids who were some of the smartest students I’d ever met. They were taking Engineering classes in high school that I didn’t take until college. They were learning CAD and printing things with their 3D printer. As a parting gift, they gave me one of these puzzles that they designed and made in their classroom. I got to design and make one of the pieces on the computer. It was awesome.
We also got to spend time at the Wichita/Sedgwick County joint training facility at Lake Afton doing shoot/don’t shoot simulations. The exercise was really nerve-wracking and gave me a greater appreciation for the stress that our law enforcement officers go through. They really don’t get enough credit for the work they do.
Another session was spent doing mock interview, receiving feedback, learning about working with the media, and we got to watch a live newscast at the KWCH station at the end of that session.
This is a picture of Ryan Bond, one of my Leadership Wichita classmates. We voted him into to the Leadership Wichita Board of Trustees.
This is a picture of me with one of my social media idols, Lou Heldman from Wichita State University. We’d met years ago through Twitter but since neither of us haven’t really gone to any tweetups recently our paths hadn’t crossed much. He was one of our presenters for our Leadership Wichita session about media. It was nice to run into him and listen to him speak on a topic that he’s very passionate about.
This is me with another one of my classmates who I really connected with, Stacy Gear. She is such an amazing person and super funny, too.
This is me with Michelle Stroot, another classmate who is quiet but also amazing. We were the two shortest people of the group.
Mom and dad both got to attend my Leadership Wichita graduation banquet.
My friend Faith came. My boss Ginger was there. Isaac and his wife, and Don and his wife were at the graduation banquet also.
It was such an amazing experience. All of the sessions were great (well, except for when they fed us jail food – LOL – JK – even that was really good too). During one of the sessions we got to write letters to our future selves, which brings me to the title of this blog entry. I had challenged myself to become more become more involved in the community. I have lived in Wichita for over 20 years now. It’s time that I invested in our community because this is my home. I’d always wanted to be more involved but I just kept putting it off and putting off. Well, after reading my letter to myself, I decided that procrastination time was over.
I made a couple of significant decisions this year. I joined the Andover Rotary Club. I had planned on telling you all about it in this blog post but now that I’ve made it so lengthy I decided I probably best save it for later. I also joined the Kansas DUI Impact Center board of directors. I’m also helping to connect others in my organization who want to get more involved in the community with nonprofits that they’re passionate about so, while I can’t be on ten nonprofit boards, at least I have people I know and trust who will be helping these other nonprofit organizations serve the community.
I owe my 2015 self in part to my Leadership Wichita experience. I cannot say enough about this program. It was really life-changing for me. Among all the things I learned, I learned that I can do so much more for the community than what I’m already doing. The experience ignited something that was already in me. It just needed a catalyst, which is what Leadership Wichita did for me.
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Good Deeds
Posted on August 18, 2015 by Ching under Community, Things to Do.
Did I mention that I work with the most amazing and generous people on the planet?
Last week the Customer Relations Center (CRC) collected a ton of school supplies and filled over 125 backpacks for Washington Elementary. It’s the same school we’ve supported for the last few years. Each year we collect more and more school supplies. We had record-breaking participation in our school supply drive this year. Amy really did a great job of getting everyone involved and excited. Everyone was pumped about participating and we some great friendly competition between the various teams which resulted in even more school supplies collected.
Today Amy and a bunch of people from work delivered all the school supplies we’d collected to Washington Elementary. Delivery day coincided with the “dance party” that the QA team was hosting for the CRC so I couldn’t go but I really wanted to be there to see the kids’ smiling faces. Despite not having been there it still feels good to be part of such a thoughtful and caring effort.
I was able to contribute two backpacks full but some of my coworkers contributed three to five to ten times that amount. I probably could have done more but I had already spent over an hour at Walmart. Brian happened to be at his bowling league that evening so he didn’t really miss me.
Although, I did factor in his preferences in picking out the two backpacks. Finding all of the specific school supplies on the list to put inside the backpacks seemed like a scavenger hunt and it took forever. I spent such a long time looking for stuff that I completely forgot where I parked my car afterwards.
Anyway, I’m so impressed with my coworkers. I can’t imagine how much time (and money) they spent at the store to contribute all the school supplies that we collected last week. There’s no two ways about it. My coworkers are the best!
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2015 YE Summer Partnership
Posted on June 14, 2015 by Ching under Community, Things to Do, Tips.
I had the opportunity to help with the Youth Entrepreneurs summer partnership program at work this year. Our Topeka office has participated in the program for a few years. Last year was our first year to participate. Isaac and I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours with the kids when they came to tour our Customer Relations Center. These were the most brilliant young minds and they had great questions. I remember wishing that I could have spent more time with the students. This year my wish was granted when our Community Relations Manager Ebony reached out to me to be part of the 2015 summer partnership committee. My work schedule was already hectic but I didn’t even have to think about it. Of course, I said yes.
Some important meetings prevented me from being with the class the full two weeks but I did get to interact with the kids a lot more this year, beginning with the mingle/speed interview session we hosted a few of weeks before our June 1 start date.
I was there on the first day when the kids learned about the basics of electricity from Mr. Joe Drassen. It was a really informative presentation.
Several executives made it a point to speak to the class. Mr. Jimmy Martinez talked to the kids about how he got his start, the different jobs he’s held in the company, and what he learned along the way.
We got to tour DSO. Pictured above is Mr. Phil Sadler talking to the kids about his area of the business. That same day is when the kids learned about emergency operations from Ms. Natalie Rolfe and Automated Metering Infrastructure (AMI) from Ms. Sherii Farmer.
Since we were in the area, we took the opportunity to get a group photo of the class in front of the Keeper of the Plains. What a great looking group!
Here’s a picture of the group at lunch.
The class also got to tour our Emporia Energy Center and learn about our generation portfolio and public relations efforts. I didn’t get to go with them on that day because I had mandatory training with my department. That was a really cool day though because the YE class from Topeka met the Wichita class in Emporia so the two groups got to mingle and work together.
The next time I got to join the group was when they went to our service building on Central to learn about safety and training. I was one of the drivers designated to shuttle the kids from the Wichita office to the service building on that day.
The students learned about the importance of wearing safety gear and they got to experience climbing poles. Don’t worry. We asked them all to sign waivers ahead of time.
The students were quite competitive, each one trying to climb higher than the last.
Some of the students opted to skip the pole climbing in favor of getting up in the bucket. Others did both. It was really hot but everyone seemed to have a great time. It’s so much better when you can make learning fun. I think so, anyway.
I was relieved when it was time to head back inside for the power town demo because I was melting. Couldn’t leave the kids, though.
On the day that we were supposed to take the kids to the Symphony in the Flint Hills work site, we had transportation issues so we ended up staying in town instead. It worked out alright because I was a little nervous about driving the 12-passenger van for an hour and half. I’d never driven any kind of van before until that week.
Since we canceled the trip to Strong City (kind of a bummer because we were going to meet up with the Topeka YE class there), I didn’t have to drive very far (just to the American Red Cross). The kids still got to experience doing some community service. Some of the kids helped with the fan distribution and disbursement of supplies. Our group helped fold brochures and stuff envelopes and bags.
On one of the days I missed, the class got to tour JR Custom Metal Products and Freddy’s Frozen Custard. I was bummed because I really wanted to join them on that day.
I was grateful that our strategy summit ended at noon on Friday because I was able to make it back to the office in time for the final presentations. All of the teams did great but had to be ranked first, second, and third. Potato Power took third, WattStars took second, and Electric Eels finished first.
All of the presentations were very good and demonstrated the depth of knowledge the kids learned in such a short amount of time. During the two weeks the students were exposed to various aspects of our business and then some. Looking back at my own experiences growing up, I really wished that YE was around when I was in high school because the summer partnership experience is amazing. It allows you to learn about the company from the inside and meet people. It’s a great networking opportunity. In fact, one of the YE participants last year got an internship this year.
There are several great companies that participate in the summer partnership program. This year the list included Case New Holland, Morgan Stanley, Koch Industries, BKD, Eric Fisher Academy, High Touch Technologies, Cocoa Dolce, General Motors, and RSA. The Youth Entrepreneurs organization participated by hosting a summer partnership as well. Not only do the kids earn valuable experience, they also earn YE points which they can use to either fund their business or higher education.
I wish YE was around when I was young. I highly recommend it. It’s a shame it’s not available at Derby High School where my nephew goes. Classes are available at several schools in Wichita, though. Check the web site. If you’re a student (or have high school age children), this is an opportunity you definitely don’t want to miss!
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Sales Tax Referendum
Posted on October 10, 2014 by Ching under Community, Events, Things to Do.
On Tuesday, November 4, Wichitans have a chance to make a difference for our community by voting in favor of the one-cent sales tax to fund plans for water, transit, jobs and streets.
The proposed ballot question is as follows: Shall the City of Wichita, Kansas, be authorized, pursuant to K.S.A. 12-187 et seq., to impose a one percent (1.0%) city-wide retailers’ sales tax to be effective April 1, 2015, and which will terminate no later than April 1, 2020, with an amount not to exceed $250 million dollars of such tax applied to pay the costs for the purchase, development, maintenance and operation of a long-term water supply, with an amount not to exceed $80 million dollars of such tax applied for job development and creation, with an amount not to exceed $39.8 million dollars of such tax applied to support Wichita Transit operations, and with an amount not to exceed $27.8 million dollars of such tax applied for street maintenance and repairs?
- Please visit the City of Wichita web site for more information about the sales tax referendum and also listen to what City Manager Bob Layton has to say about this important initiative.
- Register to vote.
- Vote in advance by mail.
- Vote in advance in person. Look up dates and times here.
- Locate your default polling place here.
- VOTE YES!
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