Rotary Adventures 2012

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.  All chaperones have to go through background checks per Rotary International RYE Rules.   Bill McMurray Group Leader - 12th Year, Western, Eastern and Disney Trips Bill is a professional tour operator who has been creating and escorting group tours all over the world for over 30 years. Bill has been a  Rotarian for 20 years and is very active in his community. He active in RYE 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 35 years,  Jeanne, are the parents of two daughters. Lexi  and Liz .  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. 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 has been on practically every highway in the western USA.   He also has driven a large van in London and small cars in Italy, Turkey, and Mexico and he has done this trip for 12 years, so he might be crazy.  Jackie Favret   Group Leader 5th Year Western, Eastern and Disney Trips   Jackie is n 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.  During a recent 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 or museum 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 two dogs, Kirra (a cocker spaniel) and Dude (a very large English Sheepdog).   Lexi Powers  Group Leader - 12th Year     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, Ireland, Italy, Wales, the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada and almost all of the 50 states.  This is Lexi's 10th year as a chaperone for Rotary Exchange, so she knows the trip and always looks forward to the excitement (as, well as exhaustion) that comes with chaperoning.  She has an incredibly cute puppy named Bowie.  Lexi knows so much about this trip she trains the other chaperons. Dave Saho Eastern & Western Trip 5th Year 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. Of Hungarian - Irish heritage,  although he looks grumpy he normally isn't and has an engaging laugh. Dave spend a large amount of time volunteering in his community of Amsterdam, Ohio and coordinated recycling for their fund raising.  Although he has email and knows how to use a computer he refuses to own one.    Lucas Chacana Florida Adventure  December 2011 Lucas is a former exchange student from Catamarca, Argentina who spent a year in Westerville Ohio as a RYE.  In his third year at the National University of Cordoba, Argentina, Lucas is an accomplished actor, winning theatre awards during his exchange.   Lucas is also a participant in the trips and the inspiration for the Rotary Florida Adventure.  he and trip leader Bill did the first trip together during his exchange, which caused Bill to want to do the trip for other exchange students.   Lucas is loves languages and is studying French and Portuguese as well as English.   Janine Cannell 2nd Year Western Trip Janine is a veteran of the Western Trip, The last couple of years she had to take a hiatus because of Grad School.  She is a graduate of the University of Toledo in Pharmacology and is pursuing a Masters in Public Health at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Along with Jackie, Christine, Brenda and Lexi, Janine is a graduate of Bishop Watterson High School. Her father is a Math teacher at that school. She adores horses and is an accomplished rider.  A progressive thinker, Janine marches to the beat of a different drummer and has red hair, need we say more.  During high school she was part of a nationally acclaimed Winter Guard unit and traveled across the USA performing. A true devotee of the green movement, Janine has been know to transport recycling across state lines. Students should think twice before they litter on this trip.   Greg Miller   Western Trip   Greg, a resident of Westerville, is now studying international politics at Georgetown University in Washington, DC.  He is a two-time former exchange student having traveled short-term to France and long-term to the Russian Far East.  Greg has won many awards for his service projects both in the USA and Russia.  He is the found of both an Interact and Rotaract Club in Russia. When he's not inside reading or cooking (he makes a mean pineapple cheesecake), he loves traveling and spending time outdoors, whether cycling 100 miles on one of the bikes he built himself, hiking the Appalachian Trail, or spending some time on the water sailing or kayaking.  His other hobbies include photography, piano, and the color green. He once drove to Canada by himself because he was bored and didn't have anything to do that day. Larry Jenkins Disney & Eastern Trip 3rd Year 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. Larry is a member of Westerville School Board, a member of city council and is very involved volunteer positions for Westerville Schools & city, many charities and has been in Rotary 8 years.  Larry has be in charge of many different things in Rotary including heading Wendy’s Chili Open, Interact, I CAN, Club President and is currently serving as chair of the RYLA committee for District 6690.  Larry has also attended RI Conventions in Chicago, Salt Lake and LA, Birmingham,  Montreal and will be in New Orleans in June for the 102th 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.    Sema Akgun-Thimmes Eastern Trip, 3rd Trip Sema is a former exchange student from Turkey who came back to her host city and finished college, found a nice guy and settled down.  A banker by trade, she is a graduate of Ohio University Lancaster in Business and is an active Rotary Exchange Volunteer.  Sema is from Istanbul, Turkey and tries to get home often.  She and her husband, Josh live in Columbus, Ohio.  Sema is one of the former exchange students who became a chaperone. Both are active volunteers in District 6690 Youth Exchange.  Seven years ago she was an exchange student on the Western Trip where she was a standout team leader.  She recently took her husband to Turkey for the first time.  Christine O'Donnell 3nd Year Disney & Eastern Christine is a graduate of the University of Dayton with a degree in Music.  She is a native of Worthington, Ohio and was a competitive figure skater from the age of 5 up through high school.  Christine has had a number of jobs and volunteered at the Center of Science and Industry for a number of years .  On the Eastern Trip a couple of years ago, Christine was part of a plot to find the best cupcake in New York City.  An avid cupcake advocate, she and conspirator Jackie Favret succeeded in their quest, locating the Magnolia Bakery in West Greenwich Village.  She forced her fellow chaperons and a number of exchange students on a forced march to achieve this goal. She plays practically any instrument you can name, but is exceptional with the flute. She is also an expert on Disney World having been there about a million times.  Chris is studying for a Masters Degree in Library Science at Kent State University.    Brenda Rosmarin Gaver Disney & Eastern Trip A lifelong resident of Worthington, Ohio, Brenda is a total foodie and loves to cook. Her present job is as a manager of the best Ice Cream place in Central Ohio.  The best job she ever had was being a flight attendant before the airline went out of business. An outrageously positive person, she is a favorite of many exchange students. She has a slight obsession with cephalopods.  its her dream to travel the world. She is an avid and serious belly dancer she goes to competitions and conventions. She also went to high school with Jackie and Christine.

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