MARK BOYD, BUFFALO (MN) ROTARY CLUB: THE LIBRARY TELESCOPE PROJECT
Imagine that you could go to your local library, check out an amazing telescope, and learn about the cosmos from your bedroom window or deck. Buffalo (MN) Rotarian Mark Boyd didn’t just imagine it, he made it happen.
He wrote a grant application and secured Rotary funding to place 20 reflector telescopes in libraries that are part of the Great River Regional Library System northwest of the Twin Cities, and now he’d like to see Rotary clubs expand the project to about 240 libraries in the metro area.
It’s not a new idea. Mark says telescopes have been placed in thousands of libraries nationwide. But this lifelong astronomer has brought it home, making it possible for kids in his part of the state to check out a 4.5-inch reflector telescope for three weeks at a time, along with the learning materials that can get them star- and planet-gazing quickly.
He’s made it work with a simple-but-effective telescope that costs about $380, weighs 13 or 14 pounds, and can be maintained or repaired with relative ease. The biggest task has been developing a relationship with libraries so they can begin to translate their book-loaning expertise to something as bulky as a telescope.
Read what you will about the cosmos, but seeing the night sky up close is a new experience for many young people, he says. “There’s something magic about seeing it yourself,” he added.
If you think this would be a great project for our club or others, contact Mark Boyd or our own Irene Kelly, district governor, for more information.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Upcoming programs include: our Holiday Party on Dec. 18; no meetings on Dec. 25 or Jan. 1; Camp Enterprise highlights on Jan. 8; the new TreeHouse youth program on Jan. 15; and ice safety tips on Jan. 22
SPOTLIGHT ON BOB STARR
Rotarian Bob Starr and his wife Michelle are the tax-accounting world’s “feeder system.” It turns out that two of their offspring are following Bob’s path in tax accounting, lending credence to the maxim that the apple never falls far from the tree. Bob grew up in Youngstown, Ohio, and began working for his dad’s beverage distribution company at 13. It was thought he might have a career in the family business until Bob was a college senior and a tax-accounting class turned his head. He went to work for the IRS in Rochester, Minn. and then Minneapolis, working his way up the chain of command until Coopers & Lybrand lured him away. He retired in 2011 at age 60. Lucky for A.M. Rotary, Bob has offered his accounting skills as club and foundation treasurer for most of the 27 years he’s been a Rotarian.
HAPPY FIVES
We’re happy and willing to donate $5 (or more) to The Rotary Foundation to prove it. Jacob Stonesifer is happy to have Scouting’s Million Dollar Breakfast – a Boy Scout event he organized and which raised $1.17 million – in the rear-view mirror. Dan O’Brien is happy to be an endless supplier of cute-grandkid stories, including a recent once involving a tiny tot’s hasty bathroom exit and exclamation to Dan: “Don’t go in there, Grandpa!”
VISITORS
Judit Amaros-Marin - Exchange Student
Andy Tan and Noah Stuhr - Student Interns