The
Highlighter
January 2010
Vol 83 No 7
Table of Contents
Governor's Message
Tom Novotny
Fellow
Rotarians,
January is Rotary Awareness Month. During Rotary Awareness Month I challenge each and every one of you to spread the word about Rotary and its good work.
One of the ways you can do this is to educate the people in your community through Rotary’s Humanity in Motion campaign - a series of television, radio, print, Internet, and billboard public service announcements focusing on Rotary volunteer efforts that address critical humanitarian issues. This free four-disc set includes television, radio, print, Internet and outdoor media (billboards) that can be customized to your local communities.
Order a free copy of Humanity in Motion, hook up with your local media, and use these public service announcements to spread awareness about Rotary. Simply go to the Rotary Catalog (Click Here) to order a copy of these educational ads. Or you can take it a step further and embed Humanity in Motion public service announcements on your clubs’ websites by visiting Rotary International’s YouTube channel (click here).
Here are easy, free, and inexpensive ways for you to use these impressive ads to get recognition for your club and to heighten awareness of all that Rotary does in your community and in the world. Get together with a few of your sister Rotary clubs and contact a billboard advertising company to see if you can get free use of a local billboard that is not currently in use. It is easy to do and will not cost you a dime.
I will award a District 5300 citation of excellence certificate to each club who adds a Humanity in Motion psa to their website during the month of January and February or gets a Rotary billboard in their community. Do your part in the next two months—reach out to your local media contacts and use these free resources to tell everyone what Rotary does and how Rotary gives throughout the world.
Can’t wait to see the results of your meeting this challenge.
Yours in Rotary Service,
Tom
Presidents’ Advance
January 8 – 10, 2010
Board of Directors Training Seminar
January 30, 2010
Boyd School of Law – UNLV
February 6, 2010
Etiwanda Gardens
First Round District Simplified Grants Approved - Congratulations!
Congratulations to the clubs that applied for, and have secured,
District Simplified Grants (DSG) monies for new hands-on service
projects for the 2009-10 Rotary year. At the District Assembly,
Foundation Chairs and Club Presidents were told, “There is FREE matching
money for your club projects!” and yet only four leaders took advantage
of applying for funds. Congratulations to the teams from
Boulder City Rotary is building and installing clean water
bio-filters that will be in 150 village homes in
Rancho Cucamonga Rotary is partnering with the Club Rotario Calafia
de Mexicali to provide elementary school supplies packets for
underprivileged children - a $4000 project. Las Vegas Fremont
Rotary Club is completing the
Money is still available for clubs to apply. The deadline is in
February 2010, and projects must be completed in this Rotary year, so
don’t wait! It must be a NEW hands-on, community service or small
international project with a 50% match of club funds up to $1500 per
club. Applications and criteria can be found on the District website, or
anyone interested in finding out more, can reach District Simplified
Grants Committee Chair Yvonne Flint (
Rotary and the IRS
What follows is not tax advice, but general information from RI, which may be useful.
Click here for complete article
Exchange Student Anna's Thanksgiving e-Update
Click here for complete article
Contest
The Fall Contest is over
Last Month's Leaders*
Green Valley with 432
Las Vegas NW with 105
South Pasadena with 27
Contest Leaders
Winner - Green Valley - 2142
Las Vegas NW - 527
South Pasadena - 216
Winter Contest
Runs from
January 1- February 15, 2010
Notes from the Editor
Thank you so much for your input, articles, and photos. This month we will start to experiment with home-delivery of The Highlighter. We hope you will like this feature.
We have been getting some terrific pictures of your club activities. As we do not have room to run all you pictures, we suggest that you limit your pictures to two per article. If you have many pictures that you want to share, it would be better to put them in a gallery on your club’s website to which we can link or set them up in a PowerPoint Show. If you need help with this, let me know and I’ll walk you through it.
Rotary Awareness Month
Tips
for Rotary Awareness Month
There are many reasons for expanding Rotary Awareness both within and beyond our own membership. We can all list them. But here are some tips for doing just that. Some we do; some we don't do.
VISIBILITY
- Display Rotary emblems, banners, and the Four Way Test at project sites, events, and gateways to the community.
- Wear Rotary pins as part of daily attire.
- Utilize PSA's and other outreach tools available through R.I.'s Public Relations Division.
PLANNING
- Develop a list of media outlets and key media contacts in the community.
- Build a PR component into each project or event.
IMPLEMENTATION
- Prepare timely news releases on events, projects, and speakers.
- Write letters to the editor to inform the community of activities/ accomplishments, and thank them for support.
- When working with the media:
- Approach them strategically;
- Be brief and to the point,
- Use effective spokespersons, i.e. articulate members and/or beneficiaries of Rotary services.
- Be sure the story has news value---emphasizing how Rotary address community/international needs.
Rotary
Awareness at Thanksgiving in
It was the week before Thanksgiving when DG Tom Novatny visited the Rotary Club of Pico Rivera and he inducted Carlos Cruz. During the business portion of the meeting, the club discussed its plans to provide Thanksgiving dinner for 6 needy families identified by local churches. We were getting to the “who would buy what” stage, when new Rotarian Carlos, stepped up, saying that his employer would be distributing over 200 food baskets, and would be able to include the families identified by the club. Much applause ensued. Carlos is a Community Outreach Specialist for the Mexican American Opportunity Foundation (MAOF).
The following Tuesday, 2 days before Thanksgiving, fellow Rotarian Nena Munguia visited Carlos at work to arrange to deliver the food to the Pico Rivera families. Carlos mentioned that MAOF was unexpectedly shorthanded and needed help to prepare and distribute the 200 food baskets the following day.
The call went out via email to the members of the club. With
less than 24 hours notice, Rotarians and their friends rearranged their
day before Thanksgiving plans and spent much of Wednesday, November
24th, filling grocery bags with turkeys, sweet potatoes and the fixings
to create Thanksgiving feasts. With the help of Rotarians
Rose Marie Joyce, David Avirom, Julian Balderas, David Briano, Carlos
Cruz, Fatima Jimenez, Nena Munguia, Frank Rodriquez, AG Ted Jones, and
MAOF volunteers, 200 families in the communities surrounding
In the space of Rotarian Carlos’ first week of membership, he found he could both help and be helped as the need demands.
Rotary Club of
For
several weeks prior to Thanksgiving, members brought canned and dried
foods to our meetings. Donations of money were also made toward
the purchase of turkeys, pies, and other fresh items. Several
families were selected who were in need of help. The giving was so
generous that a box of “extras” was delivered to
On Sunday afternoon, November 22, a group gathered at the home of
Anita Hughes to prepare boxes for the families and then deliver them.
Paul Brisson and his wife Michele and daughter Heather, Carol Dorsey,
Pat Hauducoeur, Wyn Scalia, Jerry
Tambe,
and Nancy Thum filled boxes with items appropriate for each family.
Pat Hauducoeur talked about the home where she helped to deliver. “The little girls were so excited over the apple pie and all the goodies. They just got right in there and started checking everything out. It was very moving to see how little the family really had. Doing things like this truly is what Rotary is all about—Service Above Self.”
In keeping with the spirit of a “white Christmas,” for the past six
years on one special day snow has “fallen” in
Thanks to the Montebello Rotary Club, the Montebello Gang Diversion Task Force, the Montebello Division of Parks and Recreation, and other sponsors, the park became a temporary winter wonderland when 27 tons of freshly blown snow “fell” December 19 to the delight of young and old alike.
“The Montebello Rotary Club is proud to partner with the Montebello Gang Diversion Task Force and others in bringing this wonderful event to our community,” said Martin Castro, club president. “I can see by the looks on the children’s faces how much they are enjoying themselves here today.”
Visitors slid down a specially constructed snow slide on inverted rubber trash can lids as a special Christmas train provided rides around the park. While some kids were kept busy with arts and crafts, others rode live ponies in the park or played on the moon bounce. There were holiday snacks for all who attended along with a raffle of beautifully decorated Christmas trees for those who donated a toy to the annual Firefighters Spark of Love toy drive.
“This is a wonderful, family-oriented event, giving kids and others
who might not have the opportunity a chance to have some fun in the
snow,” said Montebello Mayor Bill Molinari.
“I’ve never seen real snow before,” said one child. “I had so much fun making snowballs with my brother and throwing them at our friends.”
Said one parent, “This has been a great day for my kids. I am grateful to the city and the Montebello Rotary Club for doing this for us.”
“For a number of years, the Montebello Rotary Club has been brightening our children’s winters by helping sponsor this event,” said Castro. “We are delighted to be able to do it again this year.”
Thanks to the Family of Rotary
On October 31, 2009, I lost my life partner in a tragic diving
accident on
The memorial service had strong Rotary involvement. The service was conducted by long time Rotarian Rob Turner. Many of the speakers were Rotarians. Members of my club hosted the reception. My fellow president from the Apple Valley Club, Raghada Khoury hosted a family reception at her house. Even Governor Tom Novotny and his wife made the trip from TLC to attend the service. I received countless cards, emails, texts and Facebook messages from Rotarians throughout our district.
During the most painful experience of my life, Rotarians came to me with the love and support that I didn’t even know I needed. This is the Family of Rotary.
To the many of you who knew Betty, we will all miss her. To the many of you who shared your love and support, thank you. And to those of you new to Rotary, join our family, feel the love and friendship from your 1.2 million new family members.
Darryl Evey, President – Rotary Club of Hesperia Community
New Polio Vaccine
On December 15th, the World Health Organization announced that a new
polio vaccine is being used for the first time on children in
The article, WHO: New Vaccine to Be Critical in Wiping out Polio released by Reuters News Service says,
"The bivalent oral polio
vaccine, known as bOPV, is made by
“The WHO expects the oral vaccine to be ‘a critical new tool’ in the
global eradication initiative and intends to use it on tens of millions
of children in
“Four countries—
“Efforts to eradicate polio in
Many District 5300 Rotarians have participated in National
Immunization Days (NIDS). Past District Governor, Gene Hernandez,
and District Governor Elect Roger Schulte travelled in February 2009 to
Hopefully with the fine work of Rotary International, WHO, UNICEF, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention we will soon have this terrible disease eradicated.
International Matching Grants – Exciting News
2009/2010 has been a very difficult year for international projects.
When the worldwide economic downturn negatively impacted The Rotary
Foundation’s financial portfolio in 2008, international project matching
grants were frozen for the year and any projects in the pipeline were
carried over to the current year and given priority consideration
status. Further compounding the problem, The Rotary Foundation (TRF)
also announced a 70% reduction in funding for International projects for
2009/2010. These two factors resulted in TRF running out of matching
grant funds for international humanitarian projects in August 2009, more
than seven months earlier than normal.
With TRF matching grant funding depleted, clubs were left with the
difficult choice of dropping, delaying, or fully funding their
international projects on their own. Since TRF matching grant dollars
account for almost half the funding for international projects, many
clubs had no choice but to sideline their projects. I am pleased and
proud to say this has not been the case in District 5300! Clubs have
risen to the challenge and are pulling together to fund projects even
without the important TRF matching grant dollars. We are seeing a number
of multi-club projects underway as clubs band together to raise the
necessary funds.
There was another bright spot in this year of gloom. In normal years,
TRF funds hundreds and hundreds of matching grant projects requesting
$25,000 or less from TRF. In addition, they fund a few dozen larger
competitive matching grant projects requesting between $25,000-150,000
from TRF. These competitive matching grant projects require far more
work to put together and are reviewed and approved by The Rotary
Foundation Board of Trustees themselves once or twice a year. The
smaller matching grant projects are approved year-round by Zone
Coordinators. In this year of sharp funding declines, only 16
competitive matching grant projects were approved by the Board. One of
them was a collaborative project led by the Rotary Club of Upland,
receiving an award of $46,987 from The Rotary Foundation!
Two years in the making, this $110,000 project will provide clean
drinking water to a community in
You can see the list of the 2009/2010 competitive matching grant award recipients by clicking here.
I strongly encourage any District 5300 clubs who are not yet
participating in an international project this year to consider pledging
towards another District 5300 club’s project that may be languishing due
to lack of matching grant funds. Simply go to the website at
www.matchinggrants.org and consider pledging towards one or more of
our open projects – D886, D1271, D1323, D1377, D1439, or 1567.