Name: Adam Lee
Years in Rotary: 1
Resident of: Northside of Youngstown
Hometown? Auburn, NY
How long have you lived here? 15 years
What brought you here, or kept you here? I came here with my girlfriend at the time a bit spontaneously and in need of a bit of change in my life.
Education: Self-taught after high school of anything that interests me. Farm to table cooking, mushroom foraging, world travel, local food systems, circular economic theory, community development.
Occupation: Program Director for Youngstown CityScape.
Who is in your family circle? My parents, grandparents, and sister live in the Finger Lakes area. My wife Devon’s family primarily lives in Columbiana County. She is one of six.
When you’re not working, how do you like to spend your time? I like to cook and entertain, we host people to play music and hang out on the front porch overlooking the Crandall Park ravine. I enjoy hiking and cycling.
Why did you join Rotary? I was part of a Rotary group study exchange to India that was coordinated by Elayne Bozick. When I started at CityScape I started coming to Rotary with Sharon Letson. Additionally, I have a passion for social justice as a member the Unitarian Universalist Church.
Why do you remain a Rotarian? I remain because I enjoy the social experience of the club and getting to know some more people in Youngstown as well as being involved with an organization that is focused on service in the community. I believe that Rotary holds great possibility to help address many of the social issues plaguing our communities.
Which Rotary project resonates with you and your understanding of community needs? Continued support for the Boys and Girls Club as well as the coat giveaway are impactful projects to support.
What does Rotary’s “Service Above Self” motto mean to you? It is very important to me because I try to live my life with that in mind every day.
What would you be doing on Wednesdays if you didn't attend the weekly luncheon meeting? I would be walking around downtown for Walking Wednesdays (by Walk Youngstown).
Which type of Rotary socials do you prefer -- black tie affairs or casual attire? I feel comfortable with either but enjoy gourmet food and wine so I’d say black tie if I had to pick.
A Rotary tradition is to have sing-alongs during meetings. Would you ever lead us in a song? Probably not, but maybe if my wife joined me in singing. She has a vocal degree from Dana.
What’s a story of yours that you don’t get to tell often enough? I feel like I have many stories but my favorite which I don’t tell very often is about the time I met an English woman named Megan at a hostel in New Zealand that was hanging out with base jumpers from all over the world. I ended up drinking warm chili-spiced vodka late into the night with them. After growing a beard during 3 months of backpacking, one of the guys from Scandinavia decided to ask if he could trim up my beard in our intoxicated state. The next day I woke up and was surprised to have less facial hair that was cut into crazy chops and goatee.
Megan and I ended up hitchhiking up the west coast of the south island together for a couple weeks as well as a spontaneous wilderness kayaking to stay at rugged backcountry cabin unprepared. At the beginning of this in Queenstown, the family that picked us up in the rain was from Denmark and they had given a hitch to Megan the week before on the other side of the island. They were heading north past Greymouth, where we wanted to stop. We rode in the back for 7 hours past beautiful vistas with their daughter to keep us company.
We got dropped off in town and wanted to visit the nearby Fox glacier. We decided to hike to the area to check out the glacier, and it was a beautiful walk through a forest of excessive green. One of those rains started and we got soaked but didn't really care. We made it closer to the glacier and there was a river flowing underneath that was so gray from the ice scraping the rocks it looked like liquid cement, and there was a funny sign showing a person being swept away by a wave in the river. Some nice people in the parking lot realized that we were soaking with no car to drive back, so they gave us a ride back to the hostel. We hitched a bit more after that and then went our separate ways.