Members of the Rotary Foundation’s Group Study Exchange team from Brazil visited Franklin for several days last week. Led by Ivan Marcos Oltramari of Rotary District 4700 of Rio Grande du Sol-Brazil, the group visited and addressed the Rotary Club of Franklin on Wednesday. Each member gave a brief biographical sketch, along with a description of his or her home town using a Power Point presentation. Members of the team were: Fabio Stefani, an attorney; Renata Vanz, a dietician; Fabio Woitchunas, an orthodontist; and Paulo Pinto, a high school teacher.

On May 3, the Zonta Club of Franklin presented Macon County Sheriff Robert Holland with a $1,100 donation to the department’s Project Lifesaver Program. This is a search and rescue, rapid recovery program that targets persons enrolled in the program that have the tendency to wander due to Alzheimer’s, Autism, Dementia, Down Syndrome as well as age related macular degeneration (ARMD) disorders.

Project Lifesaver deploys radio technology to locate, rescue and return to home missing persons enrolled in the program. Each client enrolled in the Project Lifesaver Program wears a personalized wristband transmitter that emits a tracking radio signal 24 hours a day / seven days a week. Each wristband has a separate and unique radio frequency.

‘Pull! Pull! Pull!!!’ Franklin teams pull a fire truck for cancer research

Franklin Plaza was packed on Saturday morning, April 30, as hundreds of people gathered to support Franklin's fifth annual American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life’s Fire Truck Pull fundraiser.

The event featured many activities besides the fire truck pull, including a smoke house demonstration by the emergency medical services that teaches local youth how to exit a house that is on fire. A “pie-inthe- face” auction, raffles and bingo were a few of the games played at the event.

In most cases, such a statement would be bad news. But for Hillrie Quin and his “Clean Water” team, it was a message of joy. It signaled acceptance from the remote Bolivian community of the water purification system installed by the team from the First Presbyterian Church of Highlands this past March. Moreover, it meant that the residents of El Chore “bought” into the clean water program the team established.

Seven people from the church, including the pastor, Dr. Lee Bowman, joined Quin in the mission to install the water purification system in El Chore and to educate the residents concerning its value.

“The people we met thanked us for coming to their country,” said Bowman. “They were genuinely touched that we wanted to help them help themselves. One of the most poignant comments I received was from one of our translators who said to me, ‘Thank you for bringing this group who have shown such kindness to my people.’”