I got up at five a.m. this fine morning to get ready and head out for a 6:40 guest speaker appearance for the Breakfast Rotary club in Rockwall. Jim got up as he wanted to run my power point for me and then head out to work after. I put on my mineral jewelry, grabbed a pink coloured tourmaline, flashlight, memory stick and we each drove our cars to the Rotary club headquarters.
We were greeted by some very nice gentlemen who made us feel welcome. Someone took my memory stick to set up the computer as we were shown where to find some wonderful hot coffee. The room was filling and the buzz was in the air as everyone warmly greeted everyone else. We were served a very nice breakfast as the meeting went on about projects for the community, raffle tickets sales, etc.

Jim and I were really enjoying the constant thanks as people would come over and shake our hands and whisper "welcome".

A friend of ours who is with the rotary club introduced us and I went up on the podium to begin an 89 slide presentation, mostly of our minerals but with photos of our going into a mine, Jim looking through a microscope, how we display minerals.
I talked of provenance, beauty, rarity, chemical makeup, crystallography, and the FUN of collecting minerals.
AFter I managed to fit all that into a 30 minute talk I was rewarded with a great hand of applause and many people came to shake my hand and Jim's also.

One fellow told me of his 11 year old daugther, Alexa, who is an avid lover of minerals and gemstones. We invited them to come see the collection soon.
Many gentlemen approached us and told us of collecting as children, or of the geology classes they took when young. It was interesting as I noted that none of the women came over, nor did they approach Jim. I need to give this some thought, it might have simply been that they rushed off to work, as many did.

I had held a flashlight over a pink tourmaline to show how lighting really brings out the colour in some minerals. I also talked about covering our proustites to protect them from light.

I think I covered an amazing amount of subjects in a very short period of time.

I want to encourage others to share their passion for minerals with others, it is amazing how many people really ARE fascinated by them.

I find myself doing more and more talks and I feel as though I am somewhat of an ambassador. What a great feeling at the end of the day, and Alexa is planning on coming over this weekend to see our collection with her Mom and Dad. Time to go look for fun minerals to present to her, along with a challenge to research them!

Cheers!

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