Community Building with Rotary and Nancy Bocskor

February 23, 2022, Jessica Cuevas

Upon walking into the meeting room, we were greeted by welcoming community members–who also directed us to where the food was! On the “menu” there was chicken and pork, a savory BBQ sauce to go with it, potato salad, pinto beans, and bread slices. As we waited for the meeting to begin, we helped ourselves to a plate of delicious food, and we met some new people and saw some familiar faces. Specifically, we took our seats amongst the many familiar faces such as Mac Woodward and Ray Hernandez and engaged in conversations.

The Vice-President of Huntsville’s Rotary Chapter, Todd Armstrong…

…had us out of our seats as he began the meeting by ringing the loud bell, which everyone’s cue to walk around the room and greet everyone. During this period, we were even able to meet another SHSU employee, Heather Caudle, who works for the Academic Success Center–and her father, Kevin Byal, who works for the City of Huntsville.

There were interesting, moving parts to the meeting that the Ambassadors enjoyed seeing. One such activity was allowing each member to give a “shout out” or “bragging point” and paying a dollar to the Rotary Treasury to do so. We also watched a new member be inducted.

Moving through the agenda, we were eager to hear our guest speaker Nancy Bocskor.

Being able to learn more about her background and experiences in politics and serving the community was inspiring. She even spoke about Ukraine’s situation when discussing democracy “then versus now.”

Her work with helping women all over the world was moving. We left the Rotary meeting knowing the passion Ms. Bocskor has for helping anyone that comes her way in the 28 countries she has traveled to.

We would like to thank Vice-President Todd Armstrong, Michelle Lyons, and the Rotary Club for having us and giving us the opportunity to hear from Nancy Bocskor. We enjoyed learning about the Rotary Club, we were pleased to see so many friendly faces, and we appreciated the organization making us feel at home.