I want to wish you Seasons Greetings and a Happy New Year! This year has been interesting, to say the least. I have been drinking a lot of lemonade and enjoying this Rotary journey more than you know. December is Disease Prevention and Treatment Month. How appropriate is it that the vaccination for COVID-19 has started this month! I donated blood in early December as my little contribution. The need is high and I felt very safe doing it. I will do it again in 8 weeks’ time. There are opportunities in your communities to do so and I urge you to consider if you are able to donate. It takes about an hour and you can help up to 8 people with your one pint. What a return on investment!
The challenges this year have been met head-on with so many great Rotary Projects that you and your Clubs have spearheaded. I have loved supporting/playing in two virtual golf tournaments (Hart and Stanton), virtual beer tasting (Manistee), auctions (Houghton Lake, Coopersville, and Ludington), and raffles for sportspeople (Big Rapids), a raffle for a snowmobile (Gaylord), and others. You all have had to get creative this year in fundraising but you are going out and doing it successfully. I have also participated in some service projects, like community clean up, roadside clean up, and ringing bells for Salvation Army (yes, I have been called a ding-a-ling before!). There are so many good service projects that you are all doing and PLEASE keep me informed of your Club’s opportunities as I would like to help or support as much as possible because I know the good you do in your communities, I have been blessed to be able to travel around the District and see it!
I joined the Coopersville Rotary Club in 2011, after serving on the Coopersville Chamber of Commerce Board for several years. I became active in the Coopersville Car Show Committee while it was still being run by the Chamber, and as it was turned over to the Rotary Club, I followed. Which, for the last several years I have co-chaired this event. The Car Show/Summerfest is the Clubs largest, fundraiser. I have always enjoyed being a part of organizing fundraisers and events that give back to our community.
I was born and raised in the northwest side of Grand Rapids. After I graduated High School I went to work for a Savings and Loan Bank, where I worked as a Branch Manager for 5 years. I married my husband Dennis in 1979 and we moved to Coopersville, where we raised 3 children - 2 daughters and a son, who are all married and live within a short distance of us. We have 6 grandchildren - whom I adore! We enjoy a lot of family time at our pool in the summer and just hanging out in the winter.
Dennis and I have worked together in business our entire marriage - he was an Excavating Contractor for 28 years, and I was the bookkeeper for the company. In 2000, I started our sign business. It was meant for me to have something more to do as my kids were getting older. We closed the Excavating company in 2003 and went full time with Raap Signs, which we really enjoy.
I am proud to be a Rotarian and live by our motto of Service above Self.
Allendale Rotary has been given a wonderful gift. This gift does not come wrapped up in fancy paper or with a large bow, this gift is a member of the Allendale Rotary club. He is a gentleman, servant, jokester, singer, visionary, fundraiser, friend, founder, and philanthropist. He makes each person feel welcome and valued as they enter his restaurant to attend a meeting. He is always excited to explore new ways to raise funds to help the community. The man that I am explaining is Carlo Di Leonardo. Carlo offers endless opportunities to use what he has to better the community. He has opened his home and his business to the Allendale Rotary Club and we are grateful to serve alongside him. Carlo is a Paul Harris fellow and serves as Allendale's sergeant at arms. He is one of the founding members of the Allendale Rotary which has now impacted hundreds of people in our town. Carlo is truly an Allendale hero.
There has long been suspicion that Santa Claus is a Rotarian.
Therefore efforts were put by PDG Chris Offer, District 5040 to discover the truth!
So, Santa needs a Rotary club if he is a Rotarian. Chris checked the International Directory and then the RI web site for Where Clubs Meet. Sure enough, he found a possible club. The Rotary Club of North Pole is in District 5010, Alaska, located near Fairbanks. This is a smidgen baffling since everyone knows the real North Pole is in Canada. Santa may prefer to be in the warmer south of Alaska rather than the north. He could also be a member of an E-club but Chris doubts that as he clearly likes Rotary lunches.
Next Santa would need a classification. There are several possibilities, Toys-Export, Reindeer- Teamster, Counsellor Pre-Adolescent Behaviour, Toys-Manufacturing or Elf Management.
All valid classifications. There is no indication of a Rotary pin on his jacket but it could be concealed under all that fur trim. If Santa is a Rotarian, he plainly is a 100% attender and has never missed a Rotary lunch.
The real evidence is, does he act like a Rotarian? Does he put “Service Above Self?”
The answer is an unequivocal yes. Santa is dedicated to improving the lives of children. He is committed to bringing happiness to children around the world no matter what race, religion, creed, or ethnic group they are from. He distributes tens of thousands of books to children to increase literacy and he gives gifts of toys that stimulate young minds to achieve their full potential. He volunteers as a mentor, spending countless hours at shopping malls listening to children’s secret wishes. Santa without question works to realize the Object of Rotary.
The only conclusion that has been reached is, “Yes, Santa Claus is a Rotarian!
I just hope he does a makeup at my club this year!
Words: PDG Chris Offer
District 5040 - Rotary Club of Ladner (Delta, BC) Canada
What a rollercoaster the last few months have been! After being stuck in the United States for most of my second semester in Integrated Water Resource Management, I made it back to Germany in July to complete my exams at the Cologne Institute of Technology and get ready to leave for Jordan in September. I was supposed to spend my third semester in Amman attending the German Jordanian University as part of my specialization on the Middle East and Northern Africa. After initially delaying our departure, it was eventually decided that the exchange semester posed too high of a risk. Jordan’s lockdown in March was extreme with all borders and travel immediately suspended and the University determined they would be unable to get us out if something similar was to happen this fall. However, I am hopeful that a smaller excursion will be possible towards the end of the semester to meet with the professors and have the opportunity to complete some of my research in the field as well as implement my project.
As everyone is currently experiencing, life in the time of COVID is uncertain. I am fortunate to be in Cologne and have the ability to attend lectures from both the German Jordanian University and the Cologne Institute of Technology, though some are online. Professors, coordinators, and Rotarians have been so understanding and helpful as this unprecedented situation is navigated. I am so thankful that I’ve been able to virtually meet my Rotarians here and get in contact with the Rotaract members in Cologne and Bonn. I am hopeful I will be able to meet with them in person soon, but currently regulations in Cologne do not allow for that. Hopefully the next report will be in a less restricted times and will allows for updates and pictures! Thank you all for your continued support. I hope you all are doing well and staying healthy!
REPORT TO DISTRICT 6290 ON 2020 ROTARY INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON RESOLUTIONS
PDG LODY ZWARENSTEYN, DISTRICT 6290 COR REPRESENTATIVE
NOVEMBER 27, 2020
Each year, Rotary’s Council on Resolutions (COL) takes up matters referred by various clubs and districts. Any club can authorize a resolution, and have it considered by the COL if the District concurs and if the resolution is submitted by June 30 of each year. Each district is allowed one vote, by its appointed representative.
This year, a total of 32 items were submitted to the COL for action. Twelve (12) were approved, and 20 were not. The following listing includes were this year’s resolutions and the percent vote for the item. In voting for District 6290, I consulted DG Jon Catlin prior to submitting our votes, and they represented concurrence by the two of us on each proposition.
Approved items:
Recommend that the RI Bylaws be amended to designate RI Board officers and members as non-voting representatives to the COL. (65%)
Request the RI Board to consider including emphasizing the importance of “actions,” rather than “enterprise,” on RI’s ideal of service. (61%)
Request the RI Board to consider reintroducing professional development as a value of Rotary. (70%)
Request the RI Board to require Rotary Youth Exchange organizations, including independent participating organizations, to provide audited annual financial reports. (68%)
Request the RI Board to consider reviewing Rotaract’s status within existing rules and regulations for Rotary. This follows up on prior actions to include Rotaract as an official part of RI. (87%)
Request the RI Board to consider ensuring that its powers do not unfairly exceed those of clubs and districts. This reacts to the stringent process/timing rules for club and district resolutions that are not shared by the RI representatives to the COL. (68%)
Request the RI Board to consider making the RI website and email technologies more accessible to those with visual impairments or other disabilities and extending that technology to the clubs. (73%)
Request the RI Board to consider reintroducing the vocational committee at the district level. (56%)
Rockford, MI, December 16, 2020: With the donation of a new collection trailer from ABF Freight, the Rotary Club of Rockford is back in action accepting bottles and cans for deposit to help fund their local projects. They will be conducting a can drive on Saturday, December 12 from 10 am to 2 pm at Knape Industries Inc, 10701 Northland Dr, Rockford. The trailer is easy to see with its large, colorful graphics by Creative Concepts. The trailer is open 24/7 for donations all year long.
“So far we have collected close to $11,000 in donations for local projects. Our goal is to raise $100,000.00,” according to Rockford Rotary President Jim Tol. “This project has turned into more than just a club member event as family members have stepped up to help with the returns. It is a lot of fun to watch everyone working together.” The Rockford Meijer store has generously allowed the Rotarians to return donations at their site.
Monies raised are put back into our community through ongoing projects including the Rockford High School STRIVE mentoring program, Shop-With-a-Hero, and Reading Rocks Festival. Two large projects are underway in partnership with the City of Rockford to build a bandshell for summer concerts and to update the downtown Rotary Pavilion for year-round use.
2020 has been a year of reinventing ways to stay active and engaged as a Rotary club while remaining socially distant and Covid safe. The Allendale Rotary Club hosted the Holiday Lights Reverse parade on December 5th. Entries and floats were parked along the parade route while the visitors remained in their cars and drove past to enjoy the lights.
Building the float for the Allendale Rotary Club was incredibly fun and creative. We were able to use a huge museum display case, a blower fan, and a bean bag chair to come up with an incredible, massive snowglobe!! A local fabricator cut a 4-foot rotary wheel that was used as the centerpiece for the snowglobe. Some trees, packages and lots of lights and we had a beautiful float.
The parade was held at the LifeStream church parking lot. The church has been hosting its own event, the Community Christmas Tree Walk. 50 trees were planted and each one sponsored and decorated by a company or organization. The Allendale Rotary Club’s tree was another opportunity to engage. Members each had their own ornament, a metal rotary wheel, and could enjoy the walk on their own and hang their ornament on the tree.
One of the club’s passion projects is the Early Literacy Initiative. The parade was an opportunity to collect children’s books for that program. It was also an opportunity to collect food and essentials for the LifeStream food pantry.
The community response was overwhelming. There were approximately 750 to 800 cars that came through the parade route in 3 hours. Books, food, and essentials were handed out of the windows. The pantry was stocked and a new supply of books were donated. A wonderful time was had by all.
This is a rather long letter, but I have to share an example of how Rotary and the pandemic “opened doors to opportunity” for the Benzie Sunrise Rotary Club.
Jim Drubert, a member of our club, used the Find a Club link on the Rotary.org website to zoom-attend the club from the town of his ancestors in Ashby de la Zouche, England. He shared his experience of attending their meeting at one of our meetings. That prompted my searching for and zoom-attending the club in my ancestral town in Comrie/Crieff Scotland. During that meeting, their leadership gave an update on the District International Grant they are pursuing to build a maize mill in a Malawi community. I invited them to attend one of our meetings and sent our website which noted that the following week we were having one of our Rotarian’s, Jack Harnish, son present on his work in Malawi to develop health center prototypes. A few of the Crieff members attended to hear his talk and as questions were asked, they shared their planned project for the maize mill. As fate would have it, the presenter had a colleague who was doing research on how to improve the air quality in Malawi maize mills. He offered to connect his colleague with the Crieff Club. At that point many of us got these huge smiles, realizing that this is what Rotary is all about—connecting us around the world to “open doors to opportunity.”
A continuation of this story, a few of the Benzie Sunrise Rotarians attended the Crieff meeting the following week because they had a couple who were presenting on their Europe/Africa/Asia bike tours. Again, as fate would have it, the Crieff Club had a couple of visitors from the Oxford North Club in England; two gentlemen that presented to their club a month earlier on their bike tour from Lands End, England to John O’ Groats, Scotland. The Oxford North Club has been doing a walking project, converting exercising and daily tasks into miles logged on a virtual walking tour of England and zoom attending other Rotary Club meetings along the way. (letter attached—it’s a hoot!) They are now beginning a virtual walking tour of North America, and will be contacting all of the Rotary Clubs that are in towns named Oxford, asking to attend their meeting as they “pass by”. They will be “stopping in” to join our club between visits to the Oxfords in Michigan, Indiana, & Wisconsin.
So John, I would say when Jim Drubert shared his experience, it was the beginning of one heck-of-a tasty batch of lemonade getting started. And boy have I been enjoying it.
The next Tuesday's with Kathy will be held via Zoom on January 12th at 7:00 pm. I am open to ideas of what you need to cover. All Rotarians are invited to join!
Call me or email me to discuss. Kathyh@ridistrict6290.org 616-935-9559
