It is my privilege to serve The Rotary Club of Lenexa as President. Our 20-21 Rotary International President, Holger Knaack, provided the theme “Rotary Opens Opportunities”. I hope that we find opportunities for all of our existing and new members to participate in the club’s service projects. We have learned this spring that opportunities grow out of crises. No one suspected that we would be meeting via Zoom on a regular basis. However, we have successfully done so, and have the opportunity to continue to do so even when we can safely meet face-to-face in the future. This option provides our current and future members the opportunity to get together for our meetings in the manner that best fits their lifestyle on any Friday noon. My hope is that the Rotary Club of Lenexa will continue to offer many opportunities for service and friendship on a local and global basis to all those who are interested.
On June 26, Rotary International President Mark Maloney made this glorious announcement:
"The Rotary Foundation Trustees and Rotary International Board of Directors have both unanimously approved adding a new area of focus: supporting the environment."
RI's full statement is here. "Thank you, President Mark, and the RI Board and Trustees, for appreciating that healthy humans need a healthy planet, said ESRAG's Chair Christopher F. Puttock on June 27.
"Rotary’s first project was an environmental one in Chicago. Now, the 7th Area of Focus enables Rotarians to strive to make our world a healthy place for all life to live. Yes, Rotary Connects the World, and now Rotary Opens Opportunities. This is a call to action. We have much work to do in economic, cultural AND environmental sustainability. Go, Rotary!"
Also, hot off the presses, ready to air for your Club, District, or Zone:
• Videos of the four 30 minute talks from ESRAG's World Environment Day conference
• ESRAG's June 22 Greening Your Rotary Event webinar at the RI Virtual Convention
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”!
(From the Newsletter Editor -- Sorry, but I tried and tried to get this picture to be upright. It just didn't happen)
June 26th ZOOM meeting. We had 1 visiting Rotarian - Jacci Lieb from the Ambassadors and 26 Lenexa Rotarians.
DG Jason Leib swore in our new Board.
Additionally, the following awards were given:
Rookies of the Year - Christoper Coleman and Wayne Zetzman
Rotarian of the Year - Bill McCollum
Charlie Smith Presidential Award - Jason Leib (Only four other people have received this award - PDG Gene Amos, PDG Greg Peterson, Craig Denny and Moe Cougher) This award is given to the Rotarian who has had a great impact on Lenexa Rotary, District 5710 and Rotary International.
President Lenet made her Year-In-Review speech. THANK YOU Lenet for all of your hard work and leadership this past year!
President-Elect Steve made opening remarks for the coming year.
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
What we are currently witnessing is borne from a long history of systematic racial oppressing that perpetuated discrimination and suppressed generational wealth. This condition has permeated our society for centuries and has created economically depressed pockets within our communities. An injustice has sparked a reckoning, and today we face that reckoning even as we navigate the effects of a global pandemic and economic crisis. Violence has no place in this conversation, but all Americans must listen to the voices raised in protest and take action.
Rotary has served the needs of our area for more than 100 years, and we intend to learn from this pain and help lead our communities on an unwavering path to affirming every citizen's unalienable rights to equity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As Rotarians, we support peaceful protest against injustice and oppose all inequalities within our great nation. This is in keeping with Rotary's focus on Peacebuilding and Conflict Resolution to enhance the capacity of individuals and communities to transform conflict and build peace.
Rotary is not a political organization and will continue to serve the community and strengthen the ties that bind us together as one human race. Rotarians live by a code and hope all will consider these questions in every action. Of the things we think, say or do:
District 5495 (northern central AZ) is working on a Rotary Foundation Global Water Grant to provide homes on the Navajo Nation with inside running tap water. There are over 200,000 Native Americans living on 25,000 square miles of land with 40 percent without inside tap water and/or a toilet along with 44 percent of the children in poverty. It is estimated that the average American home consumes 100 gallons of water per day while the average Navajo home consumes seven (7) gallons per day. Or putting it another way, today's toilet uses 3.5 to 5 gallons per flush. So, two (2) flushes per day can exceed a day use of water. And what about: Laundry? Bathing? Cooking? Having a glass of water?
Many of these people, our Arizona neighbors, presently have their water delivered into 50 gallon holding barrels in their yards by a water truck and then into the home by small container. Our goal is to install underground cisterns which pump running tap water into or selected homes (need-based) at a cost of $4,500 per home. The homes are located within a 70-mile radius of Thoreau, New Mexico which is close to Gallup, New Mexico.
The District Global Grant is working with with DigDeep which supplies and installs the total water system at each home. The water system consists of a 1,200 gallon in ground cistern, electric pump, sink, solar panel, battery, filter, heater and gray water leach field.
Please view Navajo Water video: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-off-the-grid-navajo-residents-are-getting-running-water
More information on DigDeep: https://www.navajowaterproject.org/project-specifics
Help raise funds for Veronica’s Voice as they continue their mission to empower women to be free from the abuse of commercial sex trafficking. Veronica’s Voice will be at the Overland Park Savers at 95th and Nall on Wednesday, August 12th from 4 - 5 pm where they will be accepting drop off donations. Place all items in large garbage bags (30 gallon type is ideal). Please be sure to bring your donations to a Veronica’s Voice volunteer (in a “Thrivent” shirt) so they get credit for these items. Donations will go directly towards the cost of residency at Veronica’s Voice recovery home, Magdalen KC, so women can continue receiving essential services such as trauma counseling, job/life skills counseling, addiction recovery, and much more.
Rotary, working with Global Impact (a non-profit organization that works with international charities) has launched a new program called Volunteer Surge.
This program offers Rotarians, family members and friends free training about how they can help fight the virus, either from their homes or by assisting healthcare workers (subject to governmental requirements).
Rotary's goal is to recruit 1 million volunteers to sign up for this program.
Volunteer Surge, I invite you to go to www.tgig.org
Download the app "Rotary Club Locator" and find a Rotary club anywhere in the world.
Rotarians can make up for an absence at their club meeting within the same Rotary year. If a member attempts to make up at another club and that club either did not meet that week, or changed venues, the club member can let their club's secretary know the date and time of the attempted make-up and it will count as a makeup toward a missed meetings. Make ups also qualify if you attend an eClub meeting. Send all make-ups to our club secretary,Bill McCollum via email.
Here is a list of area Rotary clubs:
Monday
11:30 am - Overland Park - Doubletree Hotel, 10100 College Blvd., Overland Park
11:45 am - Bonner Springs - Twisters Grill & Bar, 13100 Kansas Avenue, Bonner Springs
Tuesday
7:00 am -Gladstone- Fairview Christian Church, 1800 NE 65th St., KCMO
12:00 pm -Kansas City, Kansas - Reardon Community Center, 500 Minnesota Ave., KCK
12:00 pm - Spring Hill- K & M BBQ, 603 N. Webster, Spring Hill
12:00 pm - Independence - The Ennovation Center, 201 N. Forest Ave., Independence
12:00 pm - Raytown - Raytown Schools Wellness Center, 10301 E. 350 Hwy, Raytown
5:15 PM - Western Johnson County - Blue Moose, 10064 Woodland, Lenexa-2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month
Wednesday
7:15 pm - Overland Park South - Deer Creek Golf Club, 7000 W. 133rd St., Overland Park
12:00 pm - Shawnee Mission - Down Syndrome Guild of Greater KC, 5960 Dearborn, Mission
12:00 pm - Olathe- Hilton Garden Inn, 12080 S. Strang Line Rd., Olathe
12:00 pm -Kansas City South- Margaritas, 13401 Holmes Rd., KCMO
Please add mailservice@clubrunner.com to your safe sender list or address book.
To unsubscribe from future e-mails, click here.
To forward this email to your friends, click here.
To view our privacy policy, click here.
ClubRunner
905.829.5299
102-2060 Winston Park Drive, Oakville, ON, L6H 5R7
