We are now several months down the road from the end of our year as Rotary leaders responsible for our Clubs and the District. This is typically the time of year when we get to celebrate the accomplishments of our clubs at the District Foundation dinner. As the Foundation dinner is currently scheduled for May 22nd and it will be many months before we get together again we wanted to share this information with you now.
It was the toughest year that any President of a Rotary Club could have. Best laid plans were suddenly cancelled in the third quarter of the Rotary year. A lot of clubs had to cancel major fundraisers for the year which impacted clubs abilities to meet giving/gifting goals. Everyone had to cancel meeting in person for a long time which impacted the fellowship and any membership building efforts planned.
Enough about the troubles we faced last year. Let's catalog the things we did accomplish. Here is a summary of our District's accomplishments.
Rotary Citations 2019-2020: Rotary International has finally admitted that two more of our clubs should have received Rotary Citations for 2019-2020. Congratulations to the Lee's Summit Sunrise and Saint Joseph East Rotary Clubs!
Foundation Giving: We had a record breaking Foundation dinner in both attendance and giving. Thank goodness it came before the Pandemic. We ended the year with $ 259,805.53 in Rotary Foundation Annual Fund giving. A little over $ 106.00 in per capita giving.
Horner - Gladhart Literacy Challenge: Twelve different clubs participated in Literacy events and shared that information with the District. In addition to this challenge we had the Four Way Test speech contest and the Teacher of the Year award in the Literacy area of Service.
Chinnery Challenge Polio Challenge: Special thanks again to PDG Carl Chinnery for allowing us to title our Polio fundraising effort after him. Some clubs were unable to have their special Polio fundraiser as it was scheduled after the COVID-Pandemic hit. Our District total for Polio giving in 2019-2020 was $ 68,501.24 which included the raffle tickets sold before and at the Foundation dinner.
Shelterbox: Congratulations to three of our clubs for winning awards for their Shelterbox fundraising activities last year. Congratulations to Kirksville-Thousand Hills, Kansas City-Plaza and the Richmond clubs for their Bronze Shelterbox Hero awards recognizing their contributions to this wonderful organization.
Shoes for Orphan Souls: 16,571 pairs of shoes, 3,726 pairs of socks, 1,502 shoelaces and $ 12,635 raised in 2019-2020 by our clubs. A special shout out to the St Joseph South Side Club for collecting $ 4,050.00 pairs of shoes. These shoes will be headed to D4060 in the Dominican Republic. The District we hosted a Group Study Exchange Team from last autumn; a year ago now. You can watch the video of our success at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5Ii83tXOXY&feature=youtu.be.
And last, but certainly not least lets recognize the 18 clubs in our district who earned the Rotary Citation during this difficult year.
Rotary Citation:
- Blue Springs
- Independence
- Lee's Summit Sunrise
- Saint Joseph East
Rotary Citation Silver:
- Excelsior Springs
- Richmond
Rotary Citation Gold:
- Kansas City
- Kirksville
- Kirksville-Thousand Hills
- Lee's Summit
- Liberty
- St Joseph South Side
- Waldo Brookside-Kansas City
Rotary Citation Platinum:
Eastern Independence
Kansas City International Airport
Kansas City-Platinum
Schuyler County
St Joseph