We had the pleasure this week hearing about the Knox Education Foundation (KEF) from Mike Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, and Blake Lawson, Chief Development Officer. KEF was formed in 2020 through the merger of the Great Schools Partnership Trust and Project GRAD....

RCK Member Kim Isenberg introduced Todd Kelly, Jr., a Team Financial Advisor in the Merrill Lynch Advisor Development Program.  Mr. Kelly is the founder of TKJ Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization that works with inner city youth.  Mr. Kelly is the son of...

Clarence Vaughn, III, Director of the Office of Access and Connection for the Haslam College of Business was our speaker. He mentioned that he once belonged to the Bearden Rotary Club. His work involves community outreach where he takes to groups in the community...

Rick Hill, retired FBI agent and security professional with 35 years’ experience, addressed the club on the topic of ‘active shooter’ scenarios and threat assessment. Mr. Hill and his consulting group work with businesses, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations, to...

Ariel Allen is the community engagement coordinator for Nourish Knoxville, the nonprofit that manages several Farmers’ Markets, including the one at Market Square. Allen began by asking Rotarians to close their eyes and recall their favorite food memory. “It could be...

We had the pleasure of hearing about the Big Ears Festival (BEF) organization from Casey Fox, Director of Development for Big Ears Festival, a non-profit entity. We learned that BEF does many more projects and events than just the Big Ears Festival each year. Casey is...

We were joined on Tuesday by Kasey Krouse from the City of Knoxville. Kasey is the first ever Urban Forester for Knoxville. Kasey started with a picture of Albuquerque, New Mexico, where people are planting trees. Trees are important to a community for 3 different...

RCK Member Ada Hernandez-Bell introduced our speaker, Yassin Therou, proprietor of Yassin’s Falafel House restaurants. Yassin is familiar to the Rotary Club of Knoxville because he was the 2018 recipient of the Rotary Club of Knoxville Peace Award. Yassin has received...