Lake Butler Community Page News Tidbits

By Ted Barber

Lake Butler Rotarians eat well and this Rotary luncheon meeting was no exception. Roast pork, fried chicken, rice with gravy, tossed salad, green beans and squash made a great meal!

Shane Collins opened the meeting with Nancy Griffis asking grace, Sara Owen leading the Pledge of Allegiance, and Nancy Griffis faltering on the song as Dave Mecusker introduced singing “Happy Birthday” to Nancy. Nancy claims it was not her birthday.

Tyler Kelley’s “Did You Know?” questions included which US President did FDR memorialize on April 13, 1943? The answer was given by Mitchell Bishop as President Thomas Jefferson the third US President. His nickname was “Red Fox” since he had red hair and wore it in a ponytail. The second part of the “Did You Know” was what professional baseball team did Hank Arron play for when he began his professional career? The answer was the Milwaukee Braves in 1954. He replaced an injured player in left field and even hit a home run in that Spring training game.

Nancy Griffis announced that the 50 White Crosses with attached American Flags honoring U.S. Military Veterans were ready to be placed on SW 6th Street between Spires IGA and SR 121. She asked that the Rotarians proof read the names to be sure they were spelled correctly.

Six members (Maegan Beatty, Josie Croft, Lily French, Perry Johnson, Laura Park and Hannah Sherrod) of the UCHS FFA were our guest speakers. They were practicing for their upcoming Florida Convention competition in June. Their topic “Who’s Water Is It Anyways? dealt with our water supply and the Florida aquifer. Our aquifer is approximately 26,000 years old and spans an area of about 100,000 square miles. It is one of the world’s most productive aquifers that supplies approximately 3,640 million gallons of water per day to approximately 10 million customers. The key point made by our FFA Team is that we have a usage crisis where our consumption is increasing 300,000 gallons each year and the salt intrusion is a major threat. As more people choose Florida for their home-state, we must conserve our water usage. We applaud our UCHS FFA members for their outstanding presentation and for highlighting our critical water issue.

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