The club, which meets for a lunch meeting every Tuesday at Cross Creek Country Club, normally has a packed business agenda, as well as devoting a portion of its gathering time to a guest speaker.
Tuesday the club opted to devote the meeting to watching the inauguration. Club President Tim Marion said one of the Rotary members had the idea to do so, and the group voted to devote Tuesday’s meeting to the inauguration.
That decision helped to pull in a crowd, too. More than 60 people showed up for the meeting. Several were guests invited by members who attended in order to see the inauguration.
Among those was Regina Combs, who works at White Sulphur Springs Physical Therapy, visiting with Dr. Leslie Stoklosa.
“I do go every now and then,” Combs said. “She (Stoklosa) mentioned what it was today and I thought that would be a good way to spend lunch.”
Cindy Puckett, who works with the Gilmer-Smith Foundation, was at the meeting as a guest of Ann Vaughn.
“I came (to the meeting) to sit in and hear the inauguration,” she said. “I was so happy I had the opportunity to sit in and hear this.”
The meeting was like many, with folks eating, chatting and visiting from table to table, with the day’s inauguration broadcast projected onto a large screen at one end of the room.
When it came time for Barack Obama to take the oath of office, however, the room grew quiet. None of the typical murmuring at such meetings was present, the only sound was that of Obama’s broadcast speech, and the occasional clink of flatware on lunch plates.
The group broke into applause when Obama took the oath of office, and again at the conclusion of his speech.
Afterward, several of the group’s members voiced optimism toward Obama’s beginning presidency.
“What I heard was very impressive,” said John Collins, a past president of the club. “It’s the kind of thing we need, to unite us. That the main thing we need, is to unite this country.”
Puckett, one of the club’s visitors, echoed those comments.
“I just think it gives us all a lot of hope for the future. I’m excited,” she said.
“It gave me a real hopeful feeling, about the next four years, at least,” Stoklosa said of the president’s taking office. “I’m not overconfident that a lot will be accomplished at first, but I think it’s at least a start.”
“I was very impressed with the whole event,” Marion said. “It is an historic event because he is our first African-American president, but it’s historical, too, because it only happens every four years. ... I am very hopeful for the future.”
Contact John Peters at jpeters@mtairynews.com or 719-1931.
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