ROTARY DISTRICT 5300 NEWS
HIGHLIGHTING THE WORLD OF ROTARY, DISTRICT ACTIVITIES, CLUB EVENTS, AND THE
PEOPLE THAT MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN
LEE MOTHERSHEAD, DISTRICT GOVERNOR
SEND YOUR NEWS TO THE DISTRICT OFFICE: dist5300@cyberg8t.com If you don't have access to the Net, fax free: 888-378-5301 - or spend 32c and mail to: 1963 South Myrtle, Monrovia, CA 91016-4854. Remember: each reader is a reporter ... tell us what's happening in your club ... successful programs ... pride you feel ... what we can do together to follow our Rotary dream!
SANTA CLOTHES IS COMING!
One of the smaller clubs in District 5300 has an amazingly big heart - and you're invited to join them or even copy them in extending help directly to boys and girls who need a lift.
It's hard to imagine there are children living in our affluent communities who have never owned a new pair of shoes, who live with tattered clothes, who can't get outfitted in something new for school. Pam and Jon Pomeroy of Rayne Water Conditioning and the Covina Sunrise Rotary Club were surprised to hear of this need among elementary age kids in their tidy community. Four years ago, the Pomeroys heard of needy children in one Covina school. They talked with their breakfast club and with K-Mart, and took 73 boys and girls to buy new clothes. A year later, in 1995, 282 children from nine different schools were part of the program. The next year the program expanded to 20 elementary schools, providing outfits for almost 1200 children in Covina, West Covina, Charter Oak, Glendora, Azusa, and Irwindale. Last year, 2,000 children from 35 schools benefited from "Operation Santa Clothes," as the Covina Sunrise members call their project.
Through the hard work of the Pomeroys and the Covina Sunrise Rotarians, over $200,000 was raised in 1997-98 for the children. As they were distributing shoes and clothes last year, the Club heard of a family that was being evicted because the father was unable to find work. Just as they were about to be put on the street, the club intervened and with "Santa Clothes" funds paid the rent, bought food for the family, and found the father a job.
Covina Sunrise Rotary works with teachers, administrators, other service clubs, civic groups, parents, and the community at large to identify needy children. The club numbers only 37 Rotarians, but they accomplish much. Through the generosity of K-Mart, a room is set up and children can select their own outfits. Each fifty dollars raised provides a kid with a pair of tennis shoes, three pairs of socks, three pair underwear, a jacket or sweatshirt, and two complete clothing outfits - pants, shirts, skirts, or dresses.
Each individual or organization donating $50 or more receives a packet of materials from Operation Santa Clothes, including a photograph of the young boy or girl clothed by the gift, and a thank-you letter from that child. Every dollar - 100% of the contributions Covina Sunrise receives - goes to clothes, as there are no paid staff members and K-Mart's cooperation gets suitable school outfits right to the kids.
Operation Santa Clothes gives more than new clothes and shoes. By selecting their new outfits and wearing new things to classes, the children build self-esteem. By learning of individuals and groups who really do care for them, the youngsters build pride. Last year, a ten year old boy who had difficulty expressing any emotions because he had suffered unspeakable abuse from adults around him, seemed to be uncaring, ungrateful as he grabbed some new clothes. But he broke down and wept, exclaiming between huge sobs, "Ain't nobody ever been nice to me. I don't want them to think I ain't grateful."
The formula for Operation Santa Clothes can be copied by any club with the willingness to work and with a cooperating merchant. Meanwhile, each Club, each Rotarian in 5300 is invited to be a "Santa Clothes" this year. Checks for any amount are deeply appreciated and go right to work. Checks of $50 or more receive the "Santa Clothes" packet of appreciation. Send your support to Roger Gama, president at Covina Sunrise Rotary: Post Office Box 1875, Covina, California 91722. Be a Santa Clothes! Join in - then be a copycat in your own community next Rotary Year - it's a great idea that can be successfully adopted in any part of our District!
GOVERNOR'S MESSAGE
December is a month without a Rotary designation. We have a Foundation Month, a Membership Month; we've months for Vocational Service, Club Service, International Service; there's nothing specific for December. So I'd like to officially designate it as "KINDNESS MONTH" - and I'd like to suggest we all have the courage to be kind all through this month!
The holiday season brings joy, but also additional pressure to our lives. Sometimes we give in to those pressures; we snap at someone, or overlook our usual politeness to those around us. It takes courage to be kind. It's much easier to join in gossip about others, to concur with the mean spirits of some around us. As a teacher, I work with bright but typical teens. Teenagers find trying to be kind especially threatening, for they don't want to be perceived as anything other than "cool" - and being "cool" means one must be supremely indifferent to tenderness.
Kindness takes many forms. It can be a simple statement of understanding: "You must really feel harried today," to a salesperson in a clogged cashier's line at a department store. It can mean holding the door for a person with arms full of packages. It can mean stopping to pick up something a scurrying shopper has dropped. It can mean joining your Rotary group to help out with a Rotary project for others.
What about extending your kindness all through this month? How about buying a submarine sandwich for the person holding that "will-work-for-food" sign? How about extending a little of your time to others? Isn't time one of the most precious gifts we can extend?
How about dropping by the rest home that's on your route after work, offering a few minutes of conversation to some of the lonely? How about stopping at a school near you and offering an hour a week of your time to tutor a kid needing help? Or taking a shut-in somewhere unusual? Or offering to hold crack babies at the downtown hospital?
Kindness can take so many forms, some simple, some more complex. But kindness always takes effort - and, yes, it takes courage. We live in an age in which sophistication and aloofness are touted as being the correct sign of the wealthy, the beautiful, and the successful. Yet the truly successful, really beautiful, people among us are those who have the courage to be kind. And who knows? Maybe if we all try hard enough this month, it might become cool to be kind!
Lee Mothershead
INTERNATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES, COURTESY OF "MITCH"
The neighbors over our back fence have sent our District a call for help. From October 25 through November 2nd, "Mitch" hit several Rotary districts in Central America with the astounding force that a grade-five hurricane can muster. As it crossed six nations, millions were flooded from their homes, thousands died, hundreds of bridges were destroyed; water systems, utility connections, health clinics, roadways and docks, are simply gone. Eighty percent of the crops and farm animals were destroyed - bananas, corn, bean, citrus, sugar, coffee, vegetable fields rendered useless; cows, pigs, horses, poultry, sheep killed; fishing boats, shrimp
ponds, small factories, local industry unable to produce. We lament the dead and homeless, but we must help the living get started again.Rotary Clubs throughout Central America are appealing for our assistance, and pledge to get our aid to the most needy. Dollars, of course, are translated into food, materials, means of rebuilding lives. But messages to our District call for everything from candles and appliances to heavy equipment, seeds to breeding animals, clothing to factory machinery. Medicines, insecticides, water treatment systems, dried or canned milk, cooking utensils, tools for rebuilding - much is now needed by our neighbors.
If you have sources of supplies, please get in touch with the District office. If you can extend help, or even a word of cheer, try some of these e-mail addresses for Rotary clubs in Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador,Guatemala, and Mexico areas devastated by "Mitch":
FPC@gbm.hn msanchez@david.intertel.hn arias@david.intertel.hn
SAVE THESE DATES IN 1999!
Our district has a special opportunity each year to meet some fascinating Rotarians from around the globe. District Governor Nominees and many Past District Governors meet in Anaheim each year for Rotary's International Assembly, training district officers for their year of service. Before or after these meetings, Rotarians of Southern California and Nevada can be hosts, offering a homestay for a few days. The International Assembly for 1999 is February 26 - March 5. If you're interested in hosting February 22 - 25 or March 6 - 10, get a Host Application from your Club, from the District Office, or from Jim Johannsen, PDG, at 5126-A Calle Real, Santa Barbara, CA 93111 (Jim's phone is 805-967-9229; fax 805-9067-1865, or e-mail him at JohannsenJ@AOL.Com.) Homestays start some special friendships, carefully matched by intersts. If you can't be a "full time" host, Rotarians are encouraged to work with several families in your Club. Grab the opportunity!
The biggest 1999 event in our District will be at the Riviera Hotel in Palm Springs April 30 - May 2 -- our ROTARY CELEBRATION - a weekend of fun cheering another the of Rotary service. Will you be there? We hope the date is already on your 1999 calendar! Therese and Lee Mothershead's imaginative committee have super plans for '99 - including a super $99 price you'll be enjoying.
Remember too: Rotary's gala international gathering will be in Singapore, June 13-19, 1999. Reservations are needed now for accommodations, transportation, and registration at the International Convention. Your club has been sent exciting details, including special package fares and information about a special tour continuing into the People's Republic of China to reintroduce Rotary in Shanghai. Incoming District Governor Garbis der Yehgian would enjoy your company. Ask him for more information.
ONCE AROUND THE DISTRICT
The Governor's almost done - nearing 60 clubs already visited by Therese and Lee Mothershead - and he's full of enthusiasm for the many splendid projects he's been hearing described. He's especially proud of his first 100% Club of all-Paul Harris Fellows: Five Points Rotary, with every member now a Fellow.
Victorville holds free immunization clinics for their community, which isn't unusual except they do it every couple of months, to be sure they're reaching everyone possible in their mobile community … Pomona Rotarians had a strong hand in forming the great Los Angeles County Fair back in 1922, and they're still very active with Fairplex and the Fair Association … Pomona has a unique name for their club bulletin: "the felloe" Know what a "felloe" may be? It's part of a wooden wheel, the band into which the spokes are inserted to hold all together. Charter member G. Earl Clark operated a livery stable in Pomona, and knew his "felloes". Their bulletin is the vehicle to help hold the members together on a steady course.
Rancho Cucamonga Sunrize insists on being different with their name's spelling. They're a bit different with their fund-raising, too, setting aside 10% each year to build up principal in their nonprofit charities corporation … Upland purchases trees for planting, as do many clubs, but Upland also with students in the local continuation school to learn how to care for trees, thus planting a seed for a vocation.
Irwindale Rotary is small but mighty. They've adopted two elementary schools, and they're holding read-ins at school, have speech and writing contests, fund library books, and support performing arts at the schools. They also support an Interact club at Azusa High and work with a sister club in Salvatierra, Mexico … La Verne continues strong international ties, particularly with Russia, Poland, Mexico, and Armenia … Ontario has a sister club in Mexicali, and the two clubs render service while still being determined to "Put Fun Back in Rotary!".
A special project of Walnut Valley has been gathering and transporting all kinds of school equipment to a sister club in the poorest area of India. Walnut Valley is also supporting two Interacts, one Youthact, and a football camp, and though they're a small club they are planning two more Interacts … Claremont Sunrise is interested in building houses for homeless in Mexico, and are seeking ideas. If you've suggestions for them on how or where to do it, please let their president know … Apple Valley has a "Read-to-Me," pairing Interact with elementary age students needing a tutoring boost. They also continue their hearing aid program for Puruandiro, Mexico. Apple Valley distributed hearing aids there two years ago, and the batteries are about at their limit - so Apple Valley is returning to Mexico with new batteries.