 Karen and Jerry have been overseeing the Little Libraries at the elementary schools. This is important because they recently found a library with the glass broken. They asked that someone volunteer to take over this task. Kris: Sat. Jan 27th is the Fundraiser for Phoenix and Atlas Schools. Two tables have been filled and a third table is partially filled. there is still time to reserves a spot at the third table. She also spoke for Julie saying Julie will be sending out an email to sign up to volunteer for Taste of Italy coming up Feb. 24th. Karen and Linda: The BOD approved purchasing Rotarian at Work t-shirts for all members. If you did not sign up for your shirt size at the meeting please contact either Karen or Linda ASAP. Linda also mentioned that there are dates to volunteer at Salt Mine in March and June (an ideal time to wear the new t-shirts). Paul: 15 WCS projects have been funded and he is still waiting to hear for Global Grants to be approved. He is waiting to hear back from a Rotary in El Salvador regarding possibly donating to a water project there. |
Mike Rutledge is our next guest speaker. He will speak about first responder drone operations.
President Richard opened the meeting with the flag salute by Jerry and Greg led the Four Wat Test with 27 members present and 3 guests. Guests present: Speaker Clayton Lee, Larisa Perryman and Lindsay DaRosa from RunningForRhett. Richard invited them to share a bit about their non-profit. They spoke of Rhett, a child with severe cerebral palsy who died at age 7. His mother used running as a way to handle her grief. She encouraged her friends and family to run a half marathon at the 1 year anniversary of Rhett's passing by saying: "We all need to run for Rhett since he was never able to run." Ultimately the Non-Profit was formed in his memory and serves to encourage children to run for their health. More information is available at: www.runningforrhett.org.
Clayton has been a Rotarian for 45 years. His current passion is guiding larger Rotary Grants to fruition. Why does he favor larger size grants? He used past water projects, for example, that were constructed by individual Rotary Clubs. He said that when a year or two had passed, members would return to see how the project was doing. These smaller projects frequently would not be functioning at all. The community simply did not know how to maintain the facility themselves; expected that Rotary would come back and fix it. So Rotary wanted to develop Global Grants that would have lasting IMPACT. This requires A LOT more Money. So partners with Districts and other organizations with common aspirations were sought out: particularly World Vision. This allowed trial projects in Honduras, Ethiopia and Zambia that ranged from 3 - 6 million dollars. Local people were trained to maintain the water projects, maintain a bank account sufficient to make repairs, and physically be involved in the construction. The IMPACT on the region was tremendous, as women could spend more time with their families, possibly get educated and the communities would be able to develop businesses. These grants are called Grants of Scale. Clayton stressed that Rotary needs these bigger projects to make lasting IMPACT. World Vision is an ideal partner as they match partners dollar for dollar. The impact of Districts getting together is beyond significant. District 5180 last year donated support from 100% of the clubs which has never happened before in Rotary.
Speakers are an important part of our RCL meetings. We learn about issues and how we can help others locally and globally. If you would like to be a speaker, or know a potential speaker interested in making a difference please contact carolabbanat@gmail.com and the information will be forwarded to the Speaker Chair. 
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