Rotary Adventures 2009

Leaders and Chaperones

The chaperones volunteer their vacation time and in some cases take time away from work without pay to chaperone this trip.  They put in very long hours and work very hard to keep you safe and make sure you have the best trip you can have.  Here are their biographies. Bill and Al are in their 10th year as leaders of the Western Adventure. L-R Tatum, Mike, Sam, Janine, Jackie, Dave S., Bill, & Dave B. Western Trip Chaperones 2008 Bill McMurray Rotwest and Roteast Group Leader - 10th Year, 15th, & 16th Trips  - First trip 2000 Bill is a professional tour operator who has been creating and escorting group tours all over the world for over 27 years. Bill has been a  Rotarian for 17 years and is very active in his community. He is also RYE Inbound Chair for District 6690. He started his career as a newspaper reporter, editor and travel writer. A graduate of Franciscan University of Steubenville, he trained as a teacher and historian. He is a U.S. Coast Guard Veteran during the Vietnam War. Bill spent 12 years as a working journalist and travel writer. He has traveled to six continents and has family in England, France, Australia, Venezuela and Belgium. Bill and his wife of 33 years,  Jeanne, are the parents of two daughters. Lexi (an 8 time chaperone), and Liz (a 4 time chaperones and former RYE to Turkey).  He has a a great memory for trivia, but can't remember anything recent. He also promises he will mispronounce everyone's name. His favorite sport is motor racing. He once stood in a bathroom next A.J. Foyt and former F-1 World Champion Mario Andretti.   Once he was the worst player on the Nation's worst university soccer team. Bill lived in New York for 4 years and knows the city very well.  He also has driven a large van in London and small cars in Italy, Turkey, and Mexico and he has done this trip for 9 years, so he might be crazy.  Jackie Favret Group Leader 3nd Year, 5th & 6th Trip Rotwest, and Roteast,   Jackie is an Junior/Senior art student at The Ohio State University. She has a great photographic eye and her photos adorn many of these web sites.  Jackie is also a RYE Volunteer for District 6690 and works with all the exchange students in that district.  During last year's two Rotary Trips, she was instrumental in keeping rooming and tours on track. She is one of the primary people who designed and operates the tour.  She also works at McMurray Travel so she can answer almost all your questions about the trip. .  Tall, tough and an incredibly hard worker,  Jackie has been to France with her French class in school and has also been  to England.  This past summer she backpacked around Turkey with her friend and sometime chaperone Liz McMurray.  She therefore knows all the Turkish swear words. Her interests includes art, dogs, music and history.  She hopes to be an art historian and work in a gallery some day. She also like working on her house. . She was a leader of one of the best color guards in the country while in high school.  She is a complete museum geek. .Jackie owns a home in the chic bedroom community of Worthington Ohio and spends all her time and money working on her house.   She has three dogs, Cinnamon, Kirra and Dude (an very large English Sheepdog) and a younger brother who looks deceptively like a sheep dog..   One of her unfulfilled life goals is to own a pet monkey named Marvin. Tatum Faithful Western Trip  2nd Year Born and raised in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Tatum grew up on a farm. She has shown saddlebreds and quarter horses her entire life. She graduated from North Carolina State University in May 2007 with two Associate Degrees; one in Agribusiness Management and the other in Livestock and Poultry Science.  Currently living in Charleston, South Carolina, Tatum is back in school working on my Bachelors Degree in Biology to prepare for Vet School. She has been a counselor for the past several years at her mother's horse camps. she became involved with Rotary while living with her aunt Dr. Vicki Tatum, short term Exchange Program Coordinator with District 7770.  She visited all the surrounding High Schools in the Charleston SC area to help promote RYE.  Tatum also likes sailing and all things southern.  Although she does sound a little bit like Sheriff Andy Taylor from Mayberry RFD, she is a smart savvy chaperones. She was voted the "mean chaperone" on the last Western Trip.   "Sam" Sellinger Western Trip 2nd Trip Hailing from the land of Greensburg, PA, about 45 minutes southeast of Pittsburgh. .Sam has experience with all forms of transportation, although not a fan of large boats. A Junior Biology Education major at Mercyhurst College, Sam hopes to teach seventh and eighth grade after graduation. In Erie, she plays Rugby for the Erie Women’s Rugby Club, and next year will be the co-sports editor of Mercyhurst's college newspaper, The Merciad. At home, When not in school Sam works as a lifeguard at a popular children’s amusement park, Idlewild and Soakzone.  A Girl Scout for 15 years, she loves camping and all outdoor activities, especially canoeing and rock climbing. Sam's favorite animal is the pig, which tends to amuse people, and she loves to make “your mom” jokes. She loves to eat, but is a vegetarian. Her favorite food is oatmeal raisin cookies and can not say no if they are anywhere in the vicinity.     Dave Saho Eastern Trip 2nd Year, 2nd Trip Dave is a retired steelworker who has just finished his degree in accounting.  Bill and Dave have been friends since childhood and have traveled together frequently (including sleeping in a car in Edinburgh, Scotland on a whirlwind tour of the UK in the 1970s, and hiding from Bill's daughter and her friends on another trip to the UK in 2000.    Dave is married and he and his wife Irene have traveled extensively. Dave has a dry sense of humor and is quick with a quip.   A terrific golfer, he once made a living playing golf .  His earliest job was working on a golf course and he spent many hours doing following his avocation.    Bill and him once built their own golf course in an old field. Dave also likes to wear strange hats and t-shirts and is one of two Red headed chaperones on the Western Trip.  He is also of Hungarian - Irish heritage. Although he looks grumpy he normally isn't and has an engaging laugh.   His goal is also to become a Disney Princess..... Larry Jenkins Eastern Trip Larry is from Columbus, Ohio and has a degree in Purdue University in Mechanical Engineering (which he doesn’t use anymore).  He has been in building design and construction industry but now has his own human resource consulting company helping small businesses manage their employees. Larry and his wife Tiffany have two small children Andrew and Katie and his big yellow lab named Indy.  He is very involved volunteer positions for Westerville Schools & city, many charities and has been in Rotary 7 years.  Larry has be in charge of many different things in Rotary including heading Wendy’s Chili Open, Interact, I CAN and is currently serving as Club President.  Larry has also attended RI Conventions in Chicago, Salt Lake and LA and will be heading to Birmingham, England in June for the 100th Rotary International Convention. Larry loves  books, music and the outdoors, especially the mountains.  Larry has been playing drums and percussion since the age of five.  In high school he helped to create one of the first indoor drum line shows (before Winter Guard had even come into existence).  At Purdue, he was part of one of the biggest marching bands in the country with the world’s largest bass drum.  He loves to hike and ride his bike.  He stopped counting when he crossed 10,000 miles on his current bike and he has completed 9 week long bike tours in locations around the US.  He has also hiked the Grand Canyon three times with the Leukemia Society, the last two as the hike leader and coach. Jazalene Campbell-Lux Eastern Trip, 3rd Trip Jaz Campbell Lux was born on an Air Force base in Illinois and spent 3 years in Panama as a child, where everyday she crossed the Panama Canal Bridge to go to school.    .     Currently Jaz works as a trainer at the multi-national conglomerate with people who talk Spanish..   She went to Upper Arlington High School and graduated in 2002. Her favorite color is Red. This past summer Jaz married another chaperone (that's a requirement), Joe Lux.  They honeymooned in Hawaii. On the trip Jaz acts as mother. Jaz's Mother is from the Phillipines and she speaks Tagalog and Spanish.  Another interesting fact, Jaz makes the best egg rolls EVER.   Joe Lux Eastern Trip Joe Lux is a tall native of Marion, Ohio (birthplace of Bill) and is lucky enough to be married to Jaz.  Joe is a long time employee of Lowes and is quite handy with a hammer and shovel and is deceptively strong for a skinny guy.  He loves junk food and isn't that fond of healthy food. Which, considering that he never gains weight no matter what he eats, is even more irritating to the rest of us.  His marriage this summer was a major social event. for former chaperones of the Rotary Trip, as five were in their wedding party including the bride and about 4 others were in attendance. Joe is also an inspired dancer and enjoys wearing top hats.    Horst "Alex" Von Lautz 3rd US Rotary Exchange Trip Eastern Trip Former German Exchange Student Alex was a student on this trip 4 years ago and is a Rotex from Northern Germany. Alex is studying psychology and math at the University of Saarland, which is not only a German, but also a French university. People from both countries go here, it is in Germany, but less than two hours from Paris, France. He has two brothers and all have been on exchange somewhere, His little Brother is in 6630 for a short term exchange. He taught computer science in Guatemala in a public university as well as in a middle school and moved so often in my life that he feels at home in most places. He was Chaperone on two Rotary trips with the District 1890 around Hamburg. After being in the mountains of western North Carolina, he tries to speak southern as often as he can. He loves country music and southern comedy and thinks there is nothing hotter than a southern accent . Since his trips he have visited 14 other exchange students again in 8 different countries and he still has contact to nearly everybody. In his free time he dances, preferably Latin dances, but can also stand ground with waltz and square dance. Rachelle Speth Eastern Trip Rachelle was a member of  one of the world's best color guard veterans (which includes Janine and Jackie), Rachelle is a Senior at The Ohio State University and an aeronautical engineering and aviation major so she is one of the few Americans who can do math. Rachelle (pronounced Ra-Shell) has a favorite plane, the B2 bomber of which she has a large tattoo on her back.  Rachelle is mad about any type of airplanes and will design planes after she graduates. She is also a sports car enthusiast and has had a 300Z.  She is in a Aeronautical Engineering fraternity . She works for the think tank Battelle.    She recently jumped into a lake in 0 degree centigrade weather along with thousands of other demented Ohio State Students.   Sema Akgun Thimmes Chaperone, 3rd Year, Eastern Trip Former Turkish Exchange Student Sema has been on the western trip as a chaperone and as a student. She is from Istanbul, but has a bachelors degree from Ohio University Lancaster Branch in Business.  She is active working on the youth exchange program in South Eastern Ohio and as a Rotex.  In August Sema married the love of her life and is presently getting ready to start a job in a stock brokerage in Central Ohio. Sema was extremely active at her university working with international students.    Allan Forsythe Trip Chairman 10th Year, 4 Trips Al Forsythe chaperoned the first four trips we did and since 2004 has taken on a behind the scenes role. The possessor of three Masters Degrees, Al has run schools in Turkey, Boston, Central Ohio and was an instructor of Math and Science at one of the best private schools in the USA.  Among his students are the brother and sister of former President George W. Bush.  Al and his wife Carol have two sons and a grandson.   He has hosted 14 exchange students from all over the world and is constantly hopping on planes for weddings, visits and to see new babies.    Lexi Powers  Group Leader - 9th Year - 11th Trip.  First trip 2001 Trip Trainer Lexi Powers daughter of  trip leader Bill McMurray and she is a graduate of Ohio University as a Creative Writing Major.  Lexi currently teaches Autistic children.  She is attending Graduate School at Ashland University where she is finishing up her masters in education.   Her favorite things include eel sushi, the Get Fuzzy comic strip, all types of music, strange poetry, and the color purple and a tall former chaperone name Dave Powers, to whom she is married.  She breaks a bone every time she either ice skates or roller skates. She does like kayaking and has her own kayak.  She also once sprained an ankle throwing a snowball.  A traveler from birth, she has been to England, Italy, Wales, the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada and almost all of the 50 states.  Lexi's knows the trip and always looks forward to the excitement (as, well as exhaustion) that comes with chaperoning.  This year Lexi will limit her participation on the trip due to job requirements but will be instrumental in managing the trip.

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