Rotary Ramblings for 9.15.09

[Garland, Lorie]

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Rotary Ramblings for Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2009
 
Bruce entertained us today.  As always, he was in perfect form!
 
President Bob opened our meeting and gave the invocation.
 
Jimmy led us in two songs: #65 Sing Rotarians and #69 Smile
 
Fred gave us the good news that the market was up.  He also reported the
Mr. Bernanke announced the end of the recession.  However, The Chairman
also said that it would be a very slow recovery.
 
Ernie Simon announced the deadline approaching for Service Above Self
award was quickly approaching!
We raised $62.00 today (no birthdays or anniversaries)
AWOL:  Joe M, Roy Simon, Fred Bonardi, Ben Stiprich and Mickey Manning
 
Oct 15 is our Hawaiian Luau...outrageous Hawaiian shirts are acceptable
attire!  Our own, Gay Vella generously provided the Tikki Hut at Wright
By the Sea for our use on Thursday, October 15th from 5:00 -
9:00...Along with Hawaiian shirts, the FOOD IS FREE....bring your family
and guest that would be a great potential member of our club!
 
Our DG, Leo Phillips spoke today.  He challenged us to do three things.
First, grow the ranks.  We need to increase our membership by 1 - 2
clubs per district!  We need more women, more people from varied
backgrounds, and more young members.  Rotarians are increasing in Asia,
and Eastern Europe but growth has been flat in the US.  If each of us
brings in one new person each year, our ranks will grow which will give
us more hands to do more work for our communities.  Our retention rate
for each club should stay at a level of 80% +.
 
Second, please the Rotary Foundation in mind while you are doing your
estate planning.  Become a donor, benefactor, or include Rotary in your
will.  The Rotary Foundation's annual fund supports many programs
including the Ambassadorial Scholarship program.  50% of=2 0the funds
that are contributed by our members are returned to our club in three
years.  These funds helped us purchase a van for the Lighthouse for the
Blind in conjunction with Goodwill.  Although the matching grant funds
are gone for this year, we continue to find ways to fund requests.
 
Third, the challenge grant to eliminate Polio.  The district asks each
club to raise and give $1000.00 to the cause.  Right now, we are closer
to eradication than ever before.  30% of children in Nigeria and India
remain unvaccinated.
 
RI, President John, also encourages us to try and make a difference in
several other areas:  literacy, water, and health/hunger.  There are
approximately 800 million illiterate people.  Of that number, 60% are
women and children.  20% of all people in the world lack access to clean
water.  Every 8 seconds a child dies from water borne illness that could
have been prevented.  Because of AIDS, Malaria, and malnutrition, over
6.6 million children never see their 5th birthday.
 
Our group Study Exchange is going to Seoul, Korea.  There are 90 clubs
there with about 3600 members.  The Korean team will arrive on April 2,
2010 and leave after the conclusion of district conference (April 30 -
May 2 is District Conference at Hutchinson Island.)  Our team leaves
March 19, 2010.  Team members are led by one Rotarian.  The rest are not
Rotarians and are between the ages of 25 and 40.  What a wonderful
opportunity!
 
Please remember our Rotary Leadership Institute on Oct 3rd at Indian
River College.
 
Our green hat has $1125.00.  Jess Sowards drew the Jack of Diamonds.  We
will play again next week!
 
 
 
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