Events

Ainsley’s Angels celebrates everyone’s ability by pairing runners with riders. Together, the team works to safely accomplish local road races, while having fun. The Angel Athlete-rider is the core of the team and pulls the runner across the finish line with smiles, cheers and immeasurable inspirational spirit. With the health and well-being of the Angel Athlete-rider as of the foremost priority, Ainsley’s Angels provides the equipment to ensure everyone can experience endurance events. Serving as advocates to providing education and participating as active members in our local community, we believe everyone deserves to be included and I invite each of you to sign up to join us, if you haven’t already. www.AinsleysAngels.org

Jerry Park is a Southerner. Born and raised. His soul forever imprinted by his heritage. That means there’s a story in everything he sees, and he tries to tell it in the resulting photograph. Tradition, loss, hope, tragedy, family and foolishness - all the themes we are drawn to in the best of southern literature, historical and fictional. He offers the viewer a glimpse into that lush mosaic by looking at images. He also often accompanies his photographs with written expressions - short stories, essays, poems - brought to the surface by his own contemplation of the print.   Collected and exhibited around the country.  Published in books, magazines, and newspapers.  Contact info: jerryparkphotograph.com or jerryppark@comcast.net.

His new book, A Tennessee Portrait, is the result of two years and over 10,000 miles of wandering around the backroads with camera and pen in hand.  Through photographs and short stories, Portrait offers a unique combination of image and word to anyone who appreciates heritage, beautiful scenery, and a good yarn.

Sunny Rosanbalm, Founder and Executive Director

Sunny Rosanbalm is the Founder and Executive Director of Tucker’s House, a non-profit that partners with families of children with disabilities by making their homes safer and wheelchair accessible. Her training in architectural design and years of experience in construction management coupled with her personal experiences as Tucker’s grandmother inspired Sunny to address an immense and virtually unmet need: affordable access to safe, accessible, and therapy friendly homes for children with special needs and their caregivers. Sunny and husband Mike live south of Nashville, Tennessee and are the proud grandparents of 17 children.  

Since 2009, the mission of Tucker’s House has been to partner with the families of children with disabilities by providing the home renovation and retrofitting services and resources necessary to make their homes safe and more accessible, and we continue to be the only agency in Middle Tennessee that offers this kind of critical care to a much-underserved population.

Every year, our Assess and Retrofit Program rescues approximately 30 Middle Tennessee families of children with disabilities ages 2-22 (120 people) from emotional and physical trauma by providing a safe and accessible environment that is conducive to greatest independence for the child. A pediatric therapist and an architectural designer meet with each family to develop an individualized plan which takes into consideration the current diagnosis/prognosis of the child, the needs of all caregivers, and the current conditions of the home. Caregivers can lift a child (many as heavy as adults) up to 5,000 times a year and struggle with chronic pain of their own, putting all involved at high risk for major physical injury and emotional distress. Imagine the guilt and anxiety caused to all involved if a child is dropped or if a caregiver is severely injured.

Once the retrofit plan is developed, a project manager oversees all aspects involved in implementing the retrofit including budget, schedules, and volunteer involvement. Once the project is completed, family members are trained on how to use their new equipment and space. 

Life-changing projects can include solid surface flooring, ramps, roll-in showers, widened doorways, and lifts. Many of the families Tucker’s House serves have experienced a 100% reduction in the number of physical lifts required each year which equates to far fewer injuries, more time to engage in quality family activities, and an all-around greater quality of life. There is a great need for affordable retrofit services for these at-risk families, and Tucker’s House currently has a year-long waiting list.

For more information, please visit our website at www.tuckershouse.org

Rotary’s Secret Ingredient

How did Rotary come to lead the global eradication of a disease, when we were once laughed out of the room for being a social club with no such expertise? Which Rotarian’s kidnapping led to a civil agreement between the Taliban and Rotary? What happens when you put together 1.2 million leaders, each with their own ideas of how to improve things?

When Rotarians become aware of a need, you get involved. When you get involved, you create lasting impact. When Rotarians get involved – when they get engaged – lives change.

The Rotary Foundation expended more than $320 million dollars last year for the programs in which Rotarians chose to engage. Perhaps the most unique and trusted foundation in the world, it is the engine fueling the work being done by clubs and districts like yours. But the Foundation would not have much impact if not for the secret ingredient of Rotary...

As a Major Gifts Officer for one of the world’s most respected humanitarian organizations, Celeste Herbert works from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast with Rotarians eager to turn their passionate service and philanthropic support into action to address the world’s most pressing needs. She believes deeply in the essential role nonprofits play in strengthening communities, and has unique insights about Rotary’s vast opportunities. She comes to The Rotary Foundation with nearly twenty years of experience in nonprofit advancement, both as a consultant and as a fulltime director of development for schools, museums and other nonprofits, including a few in Tennessee.

Jim and his family have called Williamson County home for 37 years.

His wife Nancy was a teacher in the Williamson County schools and their 3 adult children graduated from Brentwood High.

Although, Jim retired last year after 14 years in healthcare sales, it was his broadcasting career which brought him to the Nashville area. He was Sports Director at Channel 2 and later a part time anchor at Channel 4.

His accomplishments include “Alabama Sportscaster of the Year”, and “Best Sportscast, Tennessee”.   His primetime special “Kings of the Court” on the Kansas City Kings won a local Emmy. 

He hosted Coaches Show at the University of Kansas and Vanderbilt and also done play by play for both schools.

Bonds covered 2 Super Bowls, a World Series, did a Big 10 Conference Game of the Week.

And for 4 years, he hosted “Southern Football Saturday” with Coach Doug Matthews and Bill King.

From the hills of East Tennessee to the Rift Valley in Kenya, Adam Mosley has had a life full of ups and downs. Over his 20+ year career, Adam has spent time as a corporate recruiter, the marketing director for a record label, executive director of a coworking space, and multiple rolls at churches large and small, including his pioneering work as Lead Pastor of Trinity Vineyard Church Nakuru, Kenya.

In his current role as Director of Global Business Development for Uzima Water Filters, Adam spends his days working with people around the world who are helping bring clean water to the global poor, one family at a time.    www.uzimafilters.org