Thank you everyone for engaging in another amazing Lenexa Rotary Club year. It was full of CONNECTIONS! Your giving spirit came through with Polio; $6,002 to a $4,000 goal and EREY; $8,642 to a $6,200 goal. Not to mention two District Grants – shower and hygiene kits, ShrimpFest, and much more through our Foundation.
Lots of milestones: Created a Partner member category, Membership Chair became a Voting Board member, Developed a club Vision and Mission statement, Zoomed twice with interested friends before we even had to Zoom, 16 of us had dinner with the RI President and his wife at the Foundation Banquet, 5 of us participated in a Zone conference lunch here in KC, Worked with KCMO Rotary District 6040 on END POLIO NOW for World Polio Day. We became a PeaceBuilder Club with the Human Trafficking Conference, Purple Heart City initiative, Peace Pole IN WORKS, and started a Global Grant Committee
We were so fortunate to have our member, Jason, be District Governor. We really got off the hook incredibly easy even as he was shaking up how things are done at the District level.
Rotary is about people of action and all accomplishments this year were done with you at the table! New members: April Boyd-Noronha, Marilyn Blaufuss, Tedd Maxfield, Evelyn Hornaday, Linda Conley, Pam Hughey, Dalton Brunner. A Bequest Society member, Amy Ruo. Four Paul Harris Fellows received: Matt Janes, Bill McCollum, Greg Peterson and Ron Tennissen. Seven new or sustaining Paul Harris Society members: Christopher Coleman, Moe Cougher, Craig Denny, Evelyn Hornaday, Jason Leib, Bill Schutte and Pat Thomas. Youth Exchange: Melissa Sindt– host Mom. All of you that took Laure places or just spent time with her. Outbound – April and Tedd; jumped in with both feet.
Staying the course: Amy - fabulous weekly newsletters, Committee members that either kept the wheels on as they have for years, or like Rick Morton, helped make the transition to a new 4-Way Test light keeper as seamless as possible. And the all important and helpful Board members! Congratulations to Rotarian of the Year, Bill McCollum and our two Rookies of the Year Christopher Coleman and Wayne Zetzman.
I also pay homage to the Lenexa Rotarians we sadly lost this year: Alan Uhl, Big Red Sherard and Mr. Huff. We miss them tremendously, appreciate all they did for us and the community, hope they are proud of what we have accomplished and that we walk tall, but humbly, in their footsteps.
Rotary truly Connects the World. Thank you for letting me connect with you by staying engaged, creative and good natured in the midst of a pandemic. All I can say is, “It’s a GREAT day to be a Lenexa Rotarian”!