Recent Speakers

Taylor Brady, a rising senior at Barrack Academy, received the club’s “Feather in Your Cap” Award for founding and expanding "Bored No More Charity." It donates activity bags to pediatric hospital patients and animal shelters. Taylor explained that the charity creates two types of donation bags - "Kids Care Bags" containing scientifically proven toys to reduce anxiety for hospital patients, and "Pet Packs" with items to help promote adoptions at animal shelters. She detailed their impact, including donating over 24,000 crayons, 35,000+ patient items, and reaching 10,000 animals across the US, while also highlighting their community events and partnerships with local businesses.

Lindy Li, a former Democratic congressional candidate and political commentator, discussed her new book "Unburdened: A Former Democratic Insider's Shocking Account of Political Power, Betrayal, and Party Collapse." Lindy shared her political journey from lifelong Democrat to independent, highlighting concerns about dark money in politics and campaign finance reform as key issues driving political polarization. She is the daughter of past Rotary president Richard Li.

Janine Thomas from Narberth Ambulance explained that Narberth Ambulance is a non-profit emergency medical services provider serving over 180,000 people across multiple counties, with a team of 100+ staff members including paramedics, EMTs, and nurses. She detailed the organization's history dating back to 1944, their current service area, and their commitment to providing high-quality emergency care with an average response time of 8 minutes. She also discussed their upcoming Ardmore Rock and Ride event on August 9th.

Prof. Jack Nagel, an election expert from the University of Pennsylvania, discussed nonpartisan open primaries in American states, specifically focusing on California's top-two primary system and Alaska's top-four system with ranked choice voting. Dr. Nagel explained how these systems aim to address issues with traditional primary elections, including low voter participation, plurality rule problems, and polarization, though he noted mixed evidence regarding their effectiveness in producing more moderate candidates. His presentation included California, Georgia, and Alaska elections that demonstrated how these systems work in practice.