President's Message

Fellow Rotarians,
 

Please join me in congratulating fellow Rotarian Kevin McGuire, Director of Technology for Michigan City Area Schools who has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Paul J. Alinsky Excellence Award. This award is presented annually by the Rotary Club of Michigan City in honor of Paul Alinsky, a past Rotarian who passed away in 1997. It honors Alinsky’s commitment to innovation and leadership by recognizing those in the Michigan City community who demonstrate these traits through “Service Above Self.”

The award will be presented to Kevin during our noon meeting on Thursday March 21.  This is a VERY PUBLIC event, and it is time for us to show-off to the community. We will have a full house and we need to be good hosts.  Each of our assigned meeting service duties must be fulfilled:  Greeter, Registration Table, Invocation, Meeting Coordinator.  The number of attendees is unpredictable. We will be having several additional service duties for the day.  You may be asked to be a food server to ensure that everyone gets a portioned lunch. Finally, I will be asking members to serve as a host at each of the tables.

The party doesn’t end at noon. We will continue to honor Kevin that evening at our monthly Thirsty Third Thursday!

McGuire was nominated by Betsy Kohn on behalf of Michigan City Area Schools. In her nomination, Kohn wrote, “In his role as Director of Technology for Michigan City Area Schools, Kevin has been quietly impacting Michigan City students and the community as a whole for decades … (He) goes above and beyond to create better lives for children in our community through technology. His current major focus is connectivity. He worked diligently, despite supply chain issues, to secure hotspots for students without internet access during the COVID pandemic and has been a driving force for broadband access in our city and county.”

McGuire spearheaded the installation of antennas on MCAS buildings, providing wireless broadband connectivity to school-issued devices at students’ homes in surrounding neighborhoods. Among other innovative projects, McGuire implemented a comprehensive fiber network that connects all Michigan City Area Schools and support buildings (only the second such network in the state at the time); has secured funding from local, state, and federal programs to ensure MCAS was fully 1:1 (providing Chromebooks and tablets to all students PreK-12) with a $10 million technology plan that also includes classroom equipment as well as technology training for educators so they can provide the most effective instruction. McGuire is actively involved with the La Porte County Broadband Taskforce, is a member of the Rotary Club of Michigan City, and volunteers with the Michigan City Mainstreet Association and youth baseball leagues.

Thank you to the committee headed up by Marty Corley, Jessica Obrien and Mike Kilbourne.

Yours in Service,

MATT KUBIK

Note: The Noon Rotary Meeting at the Salvation Army will also be able to be accessed using Zoom.  Just click HERE to join the meeting if you cannot be there in person.