Hopefully everyone had a great Superbowl Weekend!   There is NO Rotary meeting this week or next (President’s Day).  Watch for details on our February 23 meeting and speaker in our upcoming emails

 

There’s been a lot happening this past week!

 

 

On Thursday, February 5th, the SNP Rotary delivered 200 copies of the Constitution to the New Providence school district to be used by their middle school students in their civics course.  On the same day we delivered 300 copies of the Constitution to the Summit school district to be used by their middle school students in their civics course.

 

We began this project in a response to the January 6th events at the US capitol in 2021 and after the state of New Jersey made teaching civics mandatory in all of the state's public middle schools, in June of the same year.  Let's hope today's middle schoolers absorb their civics lessons.

 

 In addition to our regular speaker, President David Dietze spent a few minutes telling us about his recent adventure in the Antarctic.  He traveled with a bunch of friends and returned with many pictures of the barren landscape and lots of penguins, and a few pictures of the huge amount of penguin poop that covers much of the shore.  He also told us of his plunge into the icy 28 degree waters with some of the other masochists on the trip.

 

President Dave also awarded Susan Haig with a Paul Harris award - congrats Susan!!

 

 Our speaker was Michele Logan, owner of the Maranatha Farm, a regenerative forest farm in the Somerset Hills of New Jersey.

 

Michele was concerned about her wellbeing after an autoimmune diagnosis and discovered that "organic" labels rarely guarantee true food quality. Recognizing that we are what our food eats, she realized that human health begins with soil health.

 

In 2015, she moved to Somerset Hills to restore a 90-year-old farm. Her mission was to heal a landscape plagued by invasive species and erosion, transforming neglected land into a source of genuine nourishment and to provide food for herself, free of chemical contamination.

 

The farm has evolved into a much bigger project to provide a source of chemical free nutrition for the surrounding area. They grow and raise an increasing array of products ranging from eggs produced by chickens on a soy-free diet to, shitake mushrooms, baked goods, jams, honey and even cut flowers.  The farm is open to visitors and there is a robust website which should be consulted for the full story of this truly different local enterprise: https://www.maranatha.farm/ .