Plaza Rotary At-A-Glance 2/25/15

Posted by Jim Lloyd 
on Feb 25, 2015
 
 
Club Assembly – Humanitarian Games
 
This Friday’s Rotary Meeting will be a discussion of the Humanitarian Games for Sept 26, 2015.  One of the key issues we are looking at is how to bring in more people.  If you missed this year’s event, we had game participants, exhibitors, and volunteers, but very little general public attendance.   
 
On Friday, we’re going to divide into groups to brainstorm various approaches to increasing attendance/participation, such as expanding the games (more formats and more teams), including children’s activities (from face painting to bounce houses), and including activities for youth groups (merit badges or other structured training opportunities) or adding other attention-getting/engagement activities (kite flying? radio controlled airplanes? etc.).  
 
We want this to be a destination event for families and kids. Put on your thinking caps and bring some great ideas for how we can make this happen!
 
 
CansCansandmoreCans
 
The St. Theresa’s Academy Rotary Interact Club is sponsoring an aluminum can drive this spring.  Proceeds from the recycling of the cans will be split between the Rotary International Foundations in support of polio eradication and Ronald McDonald House.
 
So don’t just toss those aluminum cans in the recycling bin.  Set them aside in a separate bag and save them for Interact.  They will organize a pickup at a future club meeting.
 
BoxesBoxesandmoreBoxes
 
We have traditionally brought shoes to our meetings in shopping bags but what we really need to do is put them in boxes.  These can be copy paper boxes or larger cartons holding 20-30 pairs – they do not have to be individual shoe boxes.  If you have any extra boxes at home or office, please bring them to a club meeting and give to Ed Laadegard or Jerry Venters.
 
Also, please tie all your donated shoes together in pairs before turning them in.  This ensures that the pairs will not get separated and therefore become unusable.
 
Come Celebrate!
 
Friday, March 20th is not just the first day of Spring.  It’s the day the Plaza Rotary Club will be celebrating our achievement as a 100% Paul Harris Club.
 
District Foundation Chair and Past District Governor John Gill, together with District Governor Cassy Venters, will be making a special presentation during the meeting and “pin” our newest Paul Harris Fellows.
 
Please mark your calendars to turn out for this grand occasion.
 
 
Shoe tally: Goody Two Shoes steps up its game
 
 
Sergeant’s Report
 
Friday February 20
 
Rotarians in Attendance: 38
Guests:  Walter Bowman, Cristo Rey faculty advisor; Aldo Calderon, Interact President.
Change for Charity:  $55
3-minute Rotarian:  Frank Bales spoke of his 26-year job at the Corps of Engineers where his group is charged with the environmental clean up and transfer of military properties, including 22 airfields, 2 army munitions plants, 2 airbases and 12 missile silos.
 Speaker:  Chris Miller:  "Do Crazy Things!  Make a Difference!"  At the 6K marker, Chris Miller wondered, “How in the world did I get here?” After failing to register for the Chicago Marathon, Chris discovered he could still run the race if he ran for a charity. Impressed by an organization’s mission, he registered as a World Vision runner.  At the next marathon, Chris and his friends raised $15,000 for clean water as members of a World Vision team. He travelled to Zambia for the charity immediately after the race.  A few days later, exhausted from Chicago, and the travel, Chris ran the most difficult race of his life, a 15K point-to-point marathon up the dry Zambian terrain.  As Chris explains, “A point-to-point makes possible an entirely uphill race.”  At the 2K marker, he ran upon local teen Victoria whom he had met a day earlier.  There they promised to finish the race together, and they did, crossing the finish line in a small village where they celebrated with fresh water from a World Vision well.  Somewhere on that uphill run Chris answered his How-did-I-get-here question.  One gets there by using his/her passion (in Chris’ case, running) to ameliorate a problem (unsafe drinking water).   Before leaving the village, Chris asked the director the well’s cost.  Care to guess?