Greetings on the first day after Daylight Savings time ended. It was beautiful day topped off with a nice Chiefs win! It sure got dark early, though!
As many of you know, November is Foundation month on the Rotary calendar. Unfortunately, we had to postpone our Foundation Dinner which was originally scheduled on the 7th. The good news is it has been rescheduled to May 22. PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS for May 22. We will have the Foundation Dinner that evening. We will also have our District Conference during the day. These events will be held at the KCI Embassy suites. We have had several Foundation Dinners there in the past. They have remodeled. I think it will be an excellent location. Due to Covid, they like almost every hotel around the world, have had a very poor year. Their staff is eager to have us back and I expect we will have a first class experience during our time together to celebrate The Rotary Foundation and all the good they do around the world. I am eager to see you all again!
It will also be a great time to send off Larry Lunsford and Elizabeth Usovicz as they start their new responsibilities in July. Larry will become a Rotary Foundation Trustee and Elizabeth will become an RI Director leading Zones 30 and 31. Both are 6040 Past District Governors and members of the Kansas City Plaza Club.
This is a preview of a wonderful opportunity to help frontline medical people in Honduras working with patients with Covid 19. The 26 designated COVID Care facilities across their country are starved for PPE (Personal Protective Equipment). Their initial supplies (masks, overalls, gloves, caps) were of a poor quality and replacements are unavailable. The health care workers have been making their own and re-using damaged PPE. I have seen pictures of the overcrowded conditions and talked in zooms with Rotarians there (some who are healthcare workers) whose Club will be our Partner on this Global Grant our District is putting together. The Waldo Brookside Club has stepped forward to be the lead Club from our District. My vision is we will have many other 6040 Clubs and individual Rotarians who will want to partner with us in this effort. The District Executive Council has approved using $60,000 of our Global District Designated Funds that will be matched by $60,000 from the Rotary Foundation’s World Fund. Our goal is to have at least $160,000 total by one month from today, December 1st. Because time is so critical for the workers who need this PPE equipment, we are submitting the grant for whatever we have pledged on December 1st. More information will be sent to the Clubs tomorrow. If you have questions, please contact myself or Karyn Eppler, 6040 Global Grants Chair at eppler.karyn@gmail.com As you know, our theme this year is Rotary Opens Opportunities. Thank you for considering this opportunity.
Shoes for Orphan Souls – 20th year. Head Shoes Cheerleader, Larry Lunsford who started this tremendous effort to put Shoes on Orphans around the world, twenty years ago has established a tentative schedule for the Shoes Caravan to pick up the Shoes you collect during May. It will lead up to our annual Shoes roll call at the District Conference, which will proceed the Foundation Dinner on May 22. Over the years, our Clubs have contributed over 355,000 pairs of shoes and $176,000. Let’s make this special 20th anniversary of SOS a record year. Now, is the time to start making special plans to make it a record in your Club. Since this has been such an unusual and challenging year, let’s get an early start and make it an unusually great Shoe campaign!
Thank you for all you do for Rotary. Make it a great month!
The Rotary International Board of Directors has named Larry Lunsford, Kansas City Plaza Club member, to the Board of Trustees of The Rotary Foundation. This will be a four-year term starting July 2021.
Together, We Transform: Doing Good in the World. Join us for the final installment in the virtual series Empowering Women in Rotary. As the previous sessions have demonstrated, this inspirational series is for all to learn and grow as Rotarians in support of the difference we can make when working together.
On Monday, November 9th, 6:00 to 7:00 PM, we'll hear from Brenda Cressey, a Trustee of The Rotary Foundation, discussing wasy you can make an impact in our communities, our nation, and our world.
The Rotary Club of Liberty, MO traditionally hosts a "Butt Buster BBQ" Fundraiser each May which raises funds for scholarships and other youth programs throughout the year. They have been blessed to present high school seniors with $22,500 in scholarships each spring over the past 4-5 years with the proceeds from the event. This year they had to change it up and instead of preparing 1,000 meals of yummy BBQ, they did an exercise challenge to "Busting our Butts - Covid Style". They used RunSignUp.com as the tool to capture participants as well as donations.
The Cameron Rotary Club Cameron Rotary Club dedicated a ADA Veterans Fishing Deck with Ribbon Cutting at Camron’s Sunrise on September 24th. Following months of construction, officials of the Rotary Club, City of Cameron, Chamber of Commerce and Park Board joined for a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new, covered ADA compliant Fishing Dock. Cameron Public Works Director Drew Bontrager described the project as the centerpiece of Sunrise Lake. The fishing dock was conceived as a way to allow disabled veterans access to Sunrise Lake.
Calling all Clubs & Students seeking Adventure! Rotary Youth Exchange has been suspended for this year, but it is time to get ready for next fall. If you know any students or clubs interested in long or short term exchanges, please contact Wendy Coffey at rid6040yeo@gmail.com or call 816-868-5474. The adventure of a lifetime does have a deadline of 11/30 for completed applications for long term students and February 1st for short term & host clubs.
Dr. Joel Pratt, member of the Unionville, Mo. Rotary Club, has been honored with the Missouri Dental Association (MDA) Distinguished Service Award. The Distinguished Service Award is presented to a member with a long history of exemplary service and dedication to the dental profession and organized dentistry. Dr. Pratt’s commitment and dedication to the dental profession and organized dentistry is evidenced by his 43 consecutive years of membership and during this tenure, service in numerous leadership roles on the local, state and national levels.
The St. Joseph School District received on Tuesday a grant to support a therapy dog program for local students. The local Rotary International district, which is composed of three clubs, presented the grant valued at just under $2,500 to support the Behavior Animals Rescuing Kids (BARK) program focused at Coleman Elementary and Mark Twain School. The dog training program is designed to promote student social and emotional wellbeing, and presents key health benefits. Donald Gladhart, Rotary district governor, said research shows that young students often suffer from hypertension. In a given class room, more than 25% of kids might register elevated blood pressure driven by stress.
David Fritz, Lee's Summit Sunrise Rotary Club, has a story to tell. His parents owned a bait shop in west central Kansas town of Hoisington where they sold both retail and wholesale. His brothers and sisters all spent their childhood seining bait from minnows, crawdads, salamanders, and frogs. A man told his father there were thousands of leopard frogs in Quivira National Wildlife Refuge near Hutchinson and so off they went one night. Best to get frogs at night if you did not know. When he was a 5th or 6th grader and his brother Barry a year behind, the got the duty of pulling the 15 foot seine through a slough of swamp water. His older brother (5 yrs) Ken, and his dad we’re up on the banks with flashlights trying to drive frogs into the water.
