Jerry Wanket passed the trophy on to Joyce Joyce for her attempts to gather canned goods from her pantry that WEREN'T expired.
Kim Ronan, Fund Development officer for Neighborhood House, thanked everyone for the years of support the Club has given NH. Today she picked up canned soups that were NOT expired and will deliver them to the Food Pantry on her way home.
Linda Eastman thoroughly enjoyed a recent family (15 family members) vacation to Montana. Her brother, a National Glacier Park tour guide, drove them through the park, and they even saw a grizzly bear. Her brother had not seen one in the past 3 years, so it looks like all the wildlife turned out to greet the Eastmans.
Jeff Duperon enjoyed a recent trip across the new Gordie Howe Bridge to Windsor. It was easy peasy, and he also enjoyed a great dinner in a Canadian Chinese restaurant.SPEAKER
Tell the Story: Moving Beyond the HeadlineChristina Heppner, a communications consultant, facilitator, and former television news anchor and reporter, challenged Rochester Rotary members to think differently about how they talk about themselves and the organization during her recent presentation, “The Importance of Story.”
Her message was simple but powerful: Don’t just share the headline—tell the story behind it.
Heppner began by asking, “What would you say if someone asked you what you do—or what Rotary does?” Too often, she explained, people respond with a job title, a mission statement, a résumé or a list of accomplishments. While those facts are important, they don’t necessarily create an emotional connection.
“The one thing most people are missing is the theme that makes people move and connect,” she said. “It’s the story behind what you do and why you do it.”
To illustrate her point, Heppner shared an NPR social media experiment. NPR posted the headline, “Why Doesn’t America Read Anymore?” Hundreds of people immediately commented, defending their reading habits or offering opinions about why Americans supposedly don’t read. The catch? The post was an April Fool’s Day experiment, and those who clicked through discovered the real story. Most commenters had never read beyond the headline.
Heppner said we do something similar when we encounter people and organizations. We hear someone’s job title or see an organization’s name and immediately form our own story about them—without taking the time to discover what they actually do or the impact they make.
Research backs up the power of storytelling. Heppner cited a study described in the book Made to Stick, in which participants delivered one-minute presentations. While most relied on statistics and facts, only some incorporated a story. When listeners were later surveyed, just 5% remembered an individual fact, while 63% remembered the stories.
Heppner then shared a moving example from her own journalism career: the story of Sammy, an eight-year-old boy battling a rare form of leukemia. During a lengthy medically induced coma, Sammy’s family played Blake Shelton songs for him. When he recovered, those songs became a powerful source of comfort and connection.
Heppner told Sammy’s story—and the story ultimately reached Shelton’s manager. Sammy was invited to meet his musical idol, creating a moment his family will never forget.
“Everyone has a story like this,” Heppner told Rotarians. “It might not be as big as meeting Blake Shelton or going through something tragic, but you have a story.”
Members then shared their own Rotary stories, including a Rotary-sponsored service dog that profoundly affected a veteran and the personal support one member received from fellow Rotarians during a difficult recovery.
Heppner challenged members to put those stories to work. Tell one person the story. Share it on social media with a photo or video. And rethink Rotary posts that simply say, “We had a great turnout” or “It was a successful event.” Instead, tell the story of the person, moment or impact behind the event.
“You may not have written the headline,” Heppner reminded the group, “but you get to write what’s next. You get to tell that story, and you get to make an impact in your community through that story.”
For Rotary, the lesson is clear: Our greatest stories are not just about what we do. They’re about the people whose lives are changed because we did it.