Rotary Blast District 6760

Transcription

1 Rotary Blast District 6760 UPCOMING EVENTS February 25 District Leadership Training March 22 Assistant Governor institute March 23 MidSouth PETS March 30 Interact & RYLA Youth Conference March 31 Days of Wine and Roses (Hendersonville Club) April 21 District Assembly/ Club Leadership April 21 Rotary Run in the Park (Savannah Club) April 28 Four-Way Test Speech Contest May 6 GSE group from District 1270 of England May 18 District Conference May 26 Bike the Cram (Clarksville Club) June 5 RYLA June 15 Rotarian Classic Golf Tournament (Spring Hill Club) August 25 Rotary Foundation & Membership Seminar News to unite our District Embrace District Conference is COMING! May 2012 at the Franklin Marriott Cool Springs 700 Cool Springs Blvd Franklin TN March 2012 Embrace the future: Our Friday Keynote Luncheon will discuss how to adapt your business and your Rotary Club to attract energetic members of the new generation. Greg Krauska is a recognized expert in helping people lead, innovate and thrive regardless of market or economic conditions. Embrace humanity: Attend sessions and see exhibits of how clubs in our district are making a difference and embracing humanity through Foundation grants. In addition, The Rotary Foundation breakfast on Saturday morning will give you an overview of how Rotary is embracing humanity throughout the world. Embrace students: Learn about Youth Exchange and hear the finalists for the Four Way Test Speech Contest Energize Energize your club: Learn best-practices from other clubs regarding membership retention on Saturday afternoon Energize your efforts: Saturday s Awards Luncheon will provide lots of new ideas that your club can adopt or expand. Energize new Rotarians: A special event on Saturday afternoon will entertain, educate and motivate Rotarians who have joined since July 1, 2011 Entertain Entertain your family: Friday night s dinner and entertainment will be at the Franklin Rodeo. Experience barrel racing, calf roping and bull riding! This event is a project of the Rotary Club of Franklin. There will also be a special spouse tour of Historic Franklin on Saturday afternoon. Entertain your brain: RI President s Representative PDG Thomas Payne will give us a special message about the future of Rotary at the Saturday Night Governor s Banquet Entertain yourself: Prior to Saturday s Banquet, relax and release your inner child as we spend time with a magician and a balloon artist. We will have a visit from The King after dinner Elvis has a special performance for District 6760 Rotarians and guests. It all adds up to an event you cannot afford to miss especially with free conference registration. Hotel Registration Deadline: April 26 Conference Registration Deadline: May 11

2 From the Governor I am doing something I will never do again at least I think I will never do it again. I am writing my Governor s Newsletter on February 29 th. Yes, it is leap year so we have an extra day this Rotary Year to do good in the world. On our Rotary calendar, tomorrow we begin Literacy Month. Clubs in 6760 do a lot on the literacy front. We get books to children via the Imagination Library, we do dictionary projects, we read to kids in the classroom and we tutor. Some months ago I participated in a great Nashville Club project of reading children s books onto tapes that were then given to the Boys and Girls clubs. Children could get a tape and listen to it as they followed along looking at the book that was being read. If your club does not have a literacy project, get one! It is a great way to provide service to your local community. Literacy is fundamental for a peaceful world and Rotary is committed to working for international understanding and peace. Speaking of international service, I had a most rewarding time in Honduras as part of an electrification project that the Lawrenceburg club has been spearheading for a number of years, in partnership with the Rotary Club of Choluteca. Imagine not having electricity. That is what the small village of El Limon faced. No electricity, so that means, no refrigeration, no lights, no radio (unless you had batteries), no TV, no chargers for your cell phone and no computers. It is a very different world that our brothers and sisters in El Limon lived in. Now, thanks to the great work of Rotarians and family members, the 150 some inhabitants of that village are entering a new world, because of the work and generosity of Rotarians. We wired 31 homes, every house in the village. Each room got at least one light bulb and one plug. At the end of one long and hot day (yes, no air/ con either in El Limon), I was walking back to the truck with Denis, my 12 year old helper who latched onto me like I was his long lost grandfather. Denis was a real go-getter and learned to put up light fixtures, pull wire, pound in grounding rods and use a drill, screwdrivers and wire strippers. As we walked along, he looked up at me and said, We love you Gringos! And it was clear that he meant it. While El Limon got electricity, we got the joy of service and the satisfaction of making a difference in the world. The Gringo Rotarians came from the Rotary Clubs of Hendersonville, Dyersburg Breakfast, Brentwood, Martin, Lawrenceburg, Columbia and Spring Hill (the guys from that club built a house on the other side of the valley). It was a wonderful experience. We will be going back next year. More electrification and a water project, too, are in the works. I recommend it! Right after returning from Honduras, the Future Vision Leadership Team met with the leader of the Foundation s Future Vision effort in District 6860 (North Alabama). DGN Judy Tyree is taking the lead in getting us ready for Future Vision and you will be hearing a lot more about it in the future. Change is a comin and it looks like it will make working with our Foundation programs easier and more effective. Stay tuned. We are also gearing up for this year s training cycle. DGE Dan had a great time at International Assembly in San Diego. Last week he held a most successful District Leadership Team Training Seminar. Next up is AG Training and PETS (President Elect Training Seminar). I believe that more than any other single thing, having all of our incoming Presidents go through PETS makes our clubs better and our district more vibrant. In April we ll have District Assembly and then May we celebrate this Rotary year at our District Conference at the Cool Springs Marriott. Finally, the World Health Organization has officially taken India off the list of endemic polio countries. This leaves only Pakistan, Afghanistan and Nigeria where the polio virus remains endemic. Yes, we are this close and we ll keep working until the job is done! Enjoy spring it is on the way! YIRS (Yours in Rotary Service), Dick CLUB SPOTLIGHT Dictionaries at Dickson County Schools 2012

3 How 6760 shines!!! Here is just one example of how our District 6760 shines in the world by promoting education, cultural exchange, goodwill & friendship. The Jackson club sponsored Brock Starnes, a Union University graduate for a year abroad as our Ambassadorial Scholar. Below is an except from his travel blog that depicts the wonderful example of Rotary that he was able to experience al capone meets rotary Earlier in the year, the Rotary Foundation awarded me the opportunity to pursue a dream of studying entrepreneurship and innovation in New Zealand. As part of my relationship with Rotary, I ve been tasked with representing the Rotary Foundation and my home country while abroad: a neat responsibility. Most weeks this entails visiting and speaking at a local Rotary club or an event about the foundation and Tennessee. It s been a lot of fun to share my story and meet different folks from around New Zealand. Although most are involved in different professions - many of whom are amongst the influential leaders in their communities, companies, industries, and nation - a common thread of service and devotion to their local and global community are evident with each member. As an example, a day after the Top Twins concert, we joined the Carterton Rotary Club and other Clubs from the Wairarapa (region located just northeast of Wellington) for a special event to celebrate the Rotary Foundations Shelter Box initiative. Rotary Clubs - and individuals - have the opportunity to sponsor the purchase of Shelter Boxes that are then delivered to families and communities after natural disasters. Numerous families who were forced to leave their house in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, for example, were given a Shelter Box to survive those first several weeks before either moving back or securing more permanent accommodation. The initiative presents a unique opportunity to provide a helping hand to those in most need after a natural disaster. One Shelter Box is filled with everything from a huge tent, cooking supplies, first-aid kit, food, and other crucial supplies for a family to survive for several days and even weeks. As we learned that evening, most Rotary clubs from the Wairarapa were already involved in the program and had bought several boxes for the tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Katrina, and some of the other natural disasters affecting neighboring Pacific Islands. New Zealand Rotarian's generosity didn t stop with Shelter Box, but we ve found them to be involved in other global initiatives such as Polio Plus - Rotary s campaign to eliminate the viral disease forever - and scholarship programs such as the Ambassadorial and Peace scholarships. Many also are some of the first to respond to particular issues in their local community - whether it be issues with literacy and bulling in schools, helping to bring business leaders in the community together, and most recently the Christchurch earthquake. New Zealand Rotarians have also proved to be a lot of fun. Let s just say that if their teen age sons and daughters could see how hilarious they where, their family dynamics might change a bit! One of the first big events after arriving in New Zealand was attending the District Rotary Conference. It was a weekend packed with a variety of festivities and is the single largest local event to celebrate Rotary and the clubs apart of District 9940 (i.e. all Rotary clubs located in the southern half of the North Island). The main event during the weekend was a ball hosted Saturday evening. The theme this year was 1930 s Chicago gangsters (see picture below). All thousand plus attendees came dressed in their 1930 s themed attire. The night was filled with dinner, dancing, and heaps of jokes and pranks coordinated primarily by the MCs. This included a costume competition where the winner was dressed in a full drag outfit - wig and all. In the end, we survived being captured by the Chicago police and the night proved quite memorable and was the start to the many fun experiences and events put on by local Rotarians.

4 STUDENTS NEEDED Hi, I am waiting for short term student applications for this summer! This program is for members of the community as well as families of Rotarians. At the most recent NAYEN (North American Youth Exchange Network) conference in Anchorage, I made great contacts with Rotarians from around the world who are anxious for their students to do an exchange with our students from Tennessee and they are waiting to hear from me! Please use the updated enclosed short term app form and send the completed applications directly to me ( /mail). The Tennessee student s family will normally act as a host family who will need to eventually fill out a newly-adapted host family app, which I can send to you later. Occasionally in the event of need, Rotary clubs have been known to provide a scholarship for a deserving student (such as for families on reduced income). This short term exchange can be exciting for our district. We pair up the exchanges by various factors, including sex, age, interests and familiarity with the exchange Rotarians involved so we can achieve a successful experience for the students, so I suggest you don t promise a particular country to a potential exchange. Thanks and thank you for participating on the District Youth Exchange Committee. Hendersonville area volunteer earns national award for efforts following Japan earthquake and other disasters SARASOTA, Fla. March 5, 2012 Hendersonville area volunteer, Kim Kim has been recognized by President Obama and ShelterBox USA with a Presidential Volunteer Service Award for his efforts during 2011 to provide shelter, warmth and dignity for survivors of natural and other disasters worldwide. In the aftermath of disasters such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami last March, many watched on the television wishing they could make a difference. Kim knew ShelterBox, an international disaster relief charity, would be on the scene delivering it s iconic green box containing a family tent, water purification, a cook set and stove along with other lifesaving supplies. Through Kim s efforts of raising awareness and funds for ShelterBox, the organization was able to provide more than 17,600 ShelterBoxes to families throughout the world in 2011, including the tornadoes in the southern U.S., drought and famine in East Africa, widespread flooding in the Philippines and the subsequent earthquakes in Turkey. I am truly proud to honor our volunteers, who work hard year-round to support ShelterBox and our efforts to help families rebuild their lives across the globe, said Emily Sperling, ShelterBox USA President. It s because of the continuous efforts of our volunteers such as Kim that we are able to help so many vulnerable families each year. The President s Volunteer Service Award is a special recognition presented on behalf of President Barack Obama. The award is part of a national recognition program created in 2003 through the President s Council on Service and Civic Participation for individuals of all ages who contribute a significant amount of time to volunteer activities. Susan W Hays susanwhays@gmail.com cell

5 Iconic landmarks around the world served as the backdrop for the End Polio Now message the week of 23 February in honor of Rotary's 107th anniversary. They included the Water and Power Development Authority building in Lahore, Pakistan, and Frere Hall in Karachi; the Roppongi Hills skyscraper in Tokyo; Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia; and City Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico, among others The Tower of London in England, is illuminated with an End Polio Now message. all club press releases, events, and great project information to We want to spotlight clubs or outstanding members every month; PLEASE share with us! Visit the District website at rotary6760.org for district information, club meetings, directories, and MUCH MORE!