2023 Annual Scientech Club Gala Dinner

The Scientech Club held its annual festive dinner Saturday, October 14, 2023 at the Woodland Country Club in Carmel, Indiana. After an hour of socializing with a cash bar, dinner, with choice of fillet or chicken, was served to over 100 attendees. Tables were decorated with faux roses and diamonds.

Club President Rick Whitener opened the evening program by introducing Jeff Rasley, President of the Scientech Foundation. Jeff gave a brief description of the Foundation’s 17 grants for STEM education programs in Indiana and 9 “most improved student” scholarships at Indiana colleges. To humanize what the Foundation supports, Jeff read an excerpt from the report of one grantee, the Marian University Summer Engineering Camp for high school students. It described the sophisticated level of engineering projects the campers worked on and how it prepared them to study engineering at the college level.

The main event was a program about diamonds by Club members Hank Wolfla and Dr. Glen Bingle. They gave a power point presentation about how diamonds are formed, cut, marketed and sold, and the histories of the most expensive and rare diamonds. Dr. Bingle concluded the program with an admonition to members that, “You can’t take diamonds or your wealth with you, so you ought to give some of it away to charitable organizations benefiting the next generation, like the Scientech Foundation.”