As Rotarians we have a world of resources available to us as we assess how we can make a positive impact on our world. I’d like to call your attention to information resources available to you as a Rotarian. We all should receive the Rotary magazine on a monthly basis, but did you know Rotary International also publishes a Podcast, blog and even a virtual reality app.
Rotary Voices Podcast: The podcast is based on articles published in the Rotary magazine allowing you to hear the voices of the people. The Feb. 24 podcast reviews the Two years of war: The battle for Ukraine’s identity. Other podcasts cover the opioid crisis, a town hall with RI President-Elect Stephanie Urchick and the culinary paradise of Singapore.
Rotary Voices Blog: Not only do you have the opportunity to read blogs from fellow Rotarians from around the world, but RI invites each of us to submit our Rotary stories. Share how you are taking action in your quest to do good in the world, build connections and create great club experiences.
Rotary Virtual Reality: This is by far the most unique offering to immerse yourself into some of Rotary’s most meaningful work. Not all of us are able to attend RI Convention or trips sponsored by clubs or the district. Rotary Virtual Reality allows all of us the opportunity to experience the world outside of Northeast Kansas. Watch the VR Film that showcases the partnership between Rotary and a group of Philippine fishermen to stabilize the local economy by building an artificial reef in the shape of our icon Rotary symbol.
Take a few moments to explore these resources. How can you use this new knowledge to empower and inspire your local club?
Here’s really good news in Rotary’s race to End Polio: No new Wild Polio cases reported this week. We are now 18 weeks since the Onset of Paralysis of the most recent reported Wild Polio Case - in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Save The Children: Be Sure Your Club Sets and Meets its 2023-2024 Polio Goal
Your Polio Plus donations continue to play a major role by providing funding support for the on-going vaccination campaigns taking place in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the only two countries in the world where the wild poliovirus, which causes paralysis and can be a life-threatening disease, is endemic. As a major part of that effort Pakistani authorities on Monday, February 26 thru March 3 kicked off a nationwide weeklong campaign to vaccinate over 45.8 million children under the age of five against the poliovirus disease. This is the second nationwide campaign against the disease when 43 million children from 19 Pakistani districts were vaccinated from January 8-14. Every $ donated protects another child!
Save the Date: World Immunization Week, 24-30 April – Promote Polio Plus
The World Health Organization recognizes 24-30 April each year as World Immunization Week. Rotary and our partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative use the annual event to highlight the critical importance of polio vaccinations in protecting children from the debilitating effects of polio. World Immunization Week is also a key moment in the year to show the success of vaccines in reducing polio cases by more than 99.9% since the GPEI was established in 1988, which provides proof that #VaccinesWork.
Promote Awareness of Polio Eradication: Share the “Countdown to History”
This is the year to proudly wear your END POLIO NOW button along with your Rotary pin and be prepared to tell all who ask what it means, about Rotary’s #1 Priority, the End of Polio. Add a “Polio Eradication Minute” story or status from the Countdown to each meeting. Set a great Polio Plus support example for your club’s members by making your own donation as a Polio Plus Society Member and encouraging others to sign up. TOGETHER, WE END POLIO!
And “We are…This Close” as shown in our “Countdown to History”
Call/email me for help / (913) 200-0514 ~ maajca@gmail.com / Jim Arnett, Polio Plus 5710 Chair
There is still time to get registered for our May RI Convention!
Our RI Convention for President McInally's year of Create Hope in the World will be held in beautiful Singapore, May 25-29, 2024.
If you were ever thinking about visiting Singapore to see the sights, why not kill two birds with one stone and attend the Rotary Convention while you are visiting.
As a recent attendee of my first RI Convention, I can tell you that this is a great way to connect, fellowship, and break bread with other Rotarians from places all over the world. My trip to Australia was eye-opening in many ways and a great deal of fun (despite the 17 hour and 20-minute plane ride to and from)!
For a little information regarding Singapore and the convention take a look at this link:
And, if I might assist you in getting registered for the convention, and/or you need additional information about the RI Convention please don't hesitate to shoot me an email (bsktlady29@aol.com) or give me a call (913-240-7132///Cell).
Thanks for your time & attention --- hope you all have a great Rotary Day!!!
Is your club planning on submitting a District Grant funds application for 2024?
Please mark your calendars for this year’s District Grants Training on Monday, April 29th at 5:30pm via Zoom. Click here to Register for this Training.
A basic requirement to be eligible to apply for a District Grant is that each club must have at least one club member who has attended a District Grants Training/Certification Seminar within the last three years prior to the application deadline date, which is August 31, 2024.
More information to follow, with preliminary grant forms posted on the district website (rotary5710.org) in the first quarter. For additional information or questions, please contact Greg Shondell, District 5710 Grants Subcommittee Chair, greg@HeathwoodOil.com.
This year’s President – Elect Training /Learning Seminar is scheduled for 21-23 March in Salina, KS. District 5710 and 5680 President-elects will attend facilitated sessions designed to provide them with knowledge and tools as they prepare for their year as Club Presidents. Attendees also will have opportunities to meet, socialize, and collaborate with fellow PEs from across the districts and to hear from distinguished speakers and Rotary leaders. Be sure to check your email. Mandy has sent out registration details.
REMINDERS:
*The Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) has approved our grant request so those District 5710 Rotarians interested in attending the Center’s Leadership Courses may do so at no expense. As we have mentioned in the past, The KLC Leadership Path will influence the way you manage yourself and others in both your personal and professional life.
We highly encourage you to follow the attached information registration and to use the appropriate promo code to reserve a spot now!
*Please let us know if your club is interested in hosting (providing a conference room/site) for an RLI (Rotary Learning Institute). We intend to keep a hybrid design: Friday a Zoom mtg from 5:30-8:30 PM, and the in-person session on Saturday from approximately 8:30 AM-5:00 PM.
District 5710 has been awarded 25 grants to participate in the programs of the Kansas Leadership Center. The Kansas Leadership Center (KLC) is a non-profit organization committed to fostering leadership for stronger, healthier and more prosperous Kansas communities.
The KLC offers three programs that build on each other:
•When Everyone Leadsis the introductory one-day program that focuses on personal leadership competencies. It focuses on leadership as an activity – recognizing that every individual has the capacity to lead. It helps participants stretch and grow their leadership while addressing their toughest challenges. When Everyone Leads is valued at $149.
•Your Leadership Edge is the seminal, two-day deep dive into individual leadership for those who have completed When Everyone Leads. It focuses on helping leaders understand how to move out of their comfort zone and engage in meaningful leadership. It centers on the KLC’s leadership framework based on Five Guiding Principles and Four Profound Competencies. Your Leadership Edge is valued at $399.
•Lead For Changeis reserved for teams who have already completed the other two KLC courses. It is an immersive, three-day training that must be experienced in a team. Lead For Change is valued at $799 per individual.
Who Should Attend?
Each club should consider sending up and coming leaders from their club and community. The virtual sessions are an ideal option.. Leaders who have done the first program should consider the second program.
How To Register To Sign Up for When Everyone Leads or Your Leadership Edge, we ask that you do two things:
1.Visit the KLC website at: www.kansasleadershipcenter.org. Create a personal account and register using the code Rotary2024 to waive the tuition fee.
2.Notify District Learning Facilitators, of your interest in order that we might track Rotarians who are taking advantage of this grant.
•When Everyone Leadsis the introductory one-day program that focuses on personal leadership competencies. It focuses on leadership as an activity – recognizing that every individual has the capacity to lead. It helps participants stretch and grow their leadership while addressing their toughest challenges. When Everyone Leads is valued at $149.
Virtual Program Dates March 5 ǁ August 20 ǁ October 2-3 (Evenings) ǁ December 10
In Person Program Dates - Wichita
April 16 ǁ June 18 ǁ July 23 ǁ September 12 ǁ November 12
In Person Program Date – Kansas City
May 23
•Your Leadership Edge is the seminal, two-day deep dive into individual leadership for those who have completed When Everyone Leads. It focuses on helping leaders understand how to move out of their comfort zone and engage in meaningful leadership. It centers on the KLC’s leadership framework based on Five Guiding Principles and Four Profound Competencies. Your Leadership Edge is valued at $399.
Virtual Program Dates February 27-28 ǁ May 21-22 ǁ September 24-25 ǁ November 19-20
In Person Program Dates - Wichita
March 19-20 ǁ April 23-24 ǁ June 25-26 ǁ October 22-23
In Person Program Date – Kansas City
July 17-18
•Lead For Change is reserved for teams who have already completed the other two KLC courses. It is an immersive, three-day training that must be experienced in a team. Lead For Change is valued at $799 per individual. Those interested in Lead For Change must make arrangements through the District Learning Facilitators.
In Person Program Dates - Wichita March 26-28 ǁ August 6-8 ǁ October 15-17
Registration for all programs closes two weeks before the program.
Working toward your *FIRST* Paul Harris Fellow? A Matching opportunity!
Here’s a great matching opportunity! PDG Deb Rodenbaugh-Schaub is offering Paul Harris Fellow (PHF) matching points to District 5710 Rotarians who are working toward their *FIRST* PHF! The details: For a $100 donation to The Rotary Foundation, PDG Deb will match with 100 PHF points. Limited to the first 30 *Non-PHF* $100+ donors, beginning 2/14/24 — and limited to a 100 pts match per eligible donor. This matching challenge will run through 6/30/24. Once the donation is made to The Rotary Foundation, be sure to email PDG Deb with the Subject line: “RIF Donation Made!” — PDG Deb’s email: dar83wu@gmail.com
About half of District 5710 Rotarians contribute to Rotary International – some for the annual fund, some for PolioPlus and some for both. Very few contribute to the Endowment Fund.
Recognizing this, Rotary International is launching an aggressive campaign to nearly double the endowment corpus by 2025. The goal is $2.025 Billion endowed by the end of 2025 – only 18 months!
You will hear a lot more about this in those coming 18 months but for today, if you are not an endowment fund donor, will you please go to ROTARY.ORG, click the DONATE button and make a gift to the endowment fund? I am challenging all Rotarians to go $100x$100x$100 in 2024. That’s $100 to the annual fund, $100 to Polio Plus and $100 to the endowment. (If you are already giving more, thanks and DON’T STOP!!) Can you image the good works of Rotary if our giving DOUBLED?!?!
I am still looking for opportunities to speak to your club about endowment and major gifts. Call me at 785-267-8782 (daytime work) or raeschliman@corefirstbank.com (same) to connect and get energized about the Rotary International Foundation.
Rotary International professional Lizzy King (1-847-866-3017 or Elizabeth.King@rotary.org) is also eager to visit with anyone about making a major gift or funding the Rotary endowment.
We are, now, one month closer to our Gathering For Good Foundation event on April 6th! We are going Back to the 80s. We will have an 80s themed night with a DJ playing 80s music we know you all love. It is not required to dress up. However, we encourage you to dress in your favorite 80s attire if you so wish. We will have an 80s themed trivia challenge, 80s themed props, and an 80s themed backdrop for all of your fun photos. As before, there will be a silent and live auction with our auctioneer extraordinaire, Charlie Moon, calling our live auction once again. This year, the Gathering For Good will be held at Doubletree by Hilton in Lawrence. This event, as before, will be a very fun filled night with all of the funds raised going to The Rotary Foundation Annual fund in the name of the person purchasing any item that is available. DGN-D Michelle Sink recently sent an email out to the club presidents about putting together club baskets for our silent auction. If you have an idea for a silent or live auction item, please contact me (fbarr@t-mfinancial.com) or Michelle Sink (msink@kansasbigs.org). We can discuss where your item or auction package can be placed. Last year, we raised over $24,000 in one night and had a wonderful time! I hope you can join us and help us raise even more this year.
Attending our Gathering For Good event this year will be Eric Thompson who is our Major Gifts Officer with RI. He will conduct a session at 3:00pm before the Gathering For Good event where he will be speaking about some the unique ways in which you may make a Major Gift to Rotary. Everyone is welcome to attend this session for free.
Any of us in the District Foundation committee would be happy to speak with you or present to your club on several Foundation topics, including Endowment/Major Gifts, Global Scholars, Global grants, District grants, Paul Harris Society, Polio Plus, and alternative ways to give a significant gift to The Rotary Foundation (TRF). I encourage you to reach out to us if you would like us to present to you.
As of March 1st, we have, as a district, given 45% of what we contributed last year to TRF Annual fund and 59% to Polio Plus. With 4 months left in our Rotary year, we still have time to match or exceed our numbers from last year. Your District Foundation committee is dedicated to helping our members with various ways of contributing to TRF and with various ideas for projects that can benefit from those funds.
The impact of all your TRF contributions is truly amazing and is enhancing lives in our communities and the world! Thank you for all of your efforts so far! Let’s continue the momentum and finish this year better than the last!
While everyone is excited for March Madness, Spring Break (I know I am!!), St. Patty’s Day… Do not forget that RYLA applications are quickly approaching… APRIL 30th is the cut off date. Application and Brochure are on the website.
Help us achieve one of our goals of 100 students! Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) can truly change lives. Give our local youth that opportunity! If it was not for our EXCELLENT youth programs in 5710, I would not have had the opportunity to know our program and to be serving with you.
RYLA 2024 is taking place: June 2nd-6th, at Kansas University. Campers are expected to stay ON CAMPUS the entire time, and Carla and I will reach out to the campers in April to let them know that they were accepted.
Finally, if you have any interest at all in getting to interact with this year's campers. Please send me an email (moreds2021@gmail.com) with a rough head count.
This is why historians don’t get invited to the *good* parties. We’re… boring.
I had an idea stuck in my head that wouldn’t go away. The history of District 5710. Oh, not an interesting, people-focused history full of fascinating people, projects with great impact, fun little observations. Nooooo.What about a territorial delineation? (Yeah, we talk like that – see comment about parties, above)
Thank heavens for the internet that Al Gore founded and that Tim Berners-Lee made useful. And for people who scan books that 99.8% of the population could care less about. Like, the Proceedings of the Rotary International Convention. Especially up through the 70s, when they were the primary source of Rotary history, along with Rotarian magazine. All of which are available on-line via Google Books and I didn’t have to spend the money to go to Evanston, find out where they stored that stuff (or which university library had them) and pore through that stuff page-by-page while eating travel costs as this job pays bupkus and doesn’t have a travel budget. Thank the Lord for hypertext mark-up language (html) and the “search and find” functions!
I still had to go through 60-some books to produce this bit (some years ago, but recently updated) that no one besides me read. Which may still be true if you don’t keep reading, so I’ll stop whining.
Here we go:
History of District 5710
Rotary began in Chicago, Illinois in 1905 under the inspiration and leadership of Paul Harris, Gustavus Loehr, Silvester Schiele, and Hiram E. Shorey. In the early days, clubs were given names based on their location and numbered in sequence according to their charter dates. The Ur-club for our district was the Rotary Club of Kansas City, Missouri, Club 13, chartered in 1910, which sponsored the Topeka Rotary Club 130 in 1914. But Topeka was not the first Kansas club. Now in our sister district in Kansas, the Rotary Club of Wichita, Club 30, was sponsored by the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City in 1911 and thus justly lays claim to the start of Rotary in Kansas. But we were once all in the same district.
Other early clubs were: ClubYear FoundedOriginal Number
Kansas City, KS 1916 195
Leavenworth 1916 210
Lawrence 1917 304
Emporia 1917 311
Junction City 1917 330
Manhattan 1917 335
Atchison 1918 430
Rotary more than doubled in size and scope during WWI.
Early District Structures
Until 1913 all Rotary clubs were administered from Chicago. From 1912 to 1915 Kansas was a part of the Western Division governed by Vice Presidents from Wichita, Dallas, and Houston. Topeka was the only club in the present district then in existence. From 1915-1917 much of eastern Kansas was in the newly-formed 11th District with governors from Topeka and Kansas City, Missouri.
Moving to the 17th District from 1917 to 1922, the district featured governors from clubs scattered from St Louis to Wichita to Oklahoma City. We then bounced around in the 12th District from 1922 to 1926 and the 8th District from 1926 to 1937. At that time, the 8th District included most of Kansas (except the southeast corner), Oklahoma, and western Texas. For a part of that time, the Kansas City, Kansas club was part of the 15th District, which was most of Missouri, southeast Kansas, northwest Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.
Since 1937, District 5710 has looked much like it does today, with the exception of adding Linn County in 1996 and the Rotary Club of Howard moving to District 5690 in 2016. Our numbers have changed over that time: #123, 1937-49; #180, 1949-57; #571, 1957-91; #5710, 1991-Present.
Rotary districts are essentially population-based. Like congressional districts, Rotary districts are drawn to be somewhat equal in population, as RI-level governance is based on Districts, with governors acting as the representative. Hence, the size and shape of the districts represent the growth (and lately) contraction of Rotary membership in North America. We used to have three districts completely contained in Kansas, we are now down to two as the Rotary population of western Kansas has dropped a lot and the two districts out there consolidated. We shouldn’t be smug about that – when I started in the DG string in 2013, we had circa 2,600 Rotarians in our District and as of 1 July this year, 1,951, though we’ve shown some growth year-to-date. The clubs in the southeast corner of the state are still in a multi-state district comprising parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
One thing that always struck me about the early years of Rotary, before cars, the interstate highway system and air travel – governors had the requirement to visit all their clubs at least once in the first six months of their term (a goal, not a make-or-break rule). Even recognizing there may not have been 50 clubs in a District (we currently have 44) that was a lot of time generally spent on trains, and arranging local Rotarian transportation when you arrived. We don’t appreciate how easy we have it these days.
NCOSE exists to build a world where people can live and love without sexual abuse and exploitation. Below is a link for the symposium on Youtube. It’s about 75 minutes long but well worth the watch.https://www.youtube.com/live/wGsipWDbdso?si=mbTb3M1-0lmfmYxf
They also have a link for a informative brochure entitled "Why Sex Buyers Must be Stopped and How to Do It”. The brochure presents nine “evidence-based reasons on why sex buyers must be stopped and recommendations on how to stop them.” I highly recommend you read this brochure and help join the fight to end the sexual exploitation in human trafficking.
Please contact me if you have any questions or comments that will assist our committee in raising awareness of this horrible problem. My contact information is nettles.steven@gmail.com. 913.710.4541 Thank you for your cooperation and insights.
The De Soto Rotary visited Mize Elementary and Starside Elementary to distribute dictionaries to the third grade students as part of the Dictionary Project. Each student received their own personalized dictionary. This project is an effort to improve literacy, and consequently improve the lives of children for a lifetime.
On February 9, 19 Rotarian’s from Gardner had the pleasure of volunteering atHeart to Heart International "operations Hub"!! We put together hygiene kits! We got to tour their facility and it is absolutely mind blowing to see everything the staff and volunteers do to help others in need around the world!
Past President Derek accepting awards for his 2022-2023 year; Rotary Club of Leavenworth was a Star Club, received the Polio Plus Drop, and was recognized for 100 percent giving to the annual fund…great work club membership!
Meet our newest member…we welcomed Glenn Mosher this month; Glenn is a project manager for DGI Roofing; he is sponsored by DGE Tamara Sevcik.
Rotarian Marcia Irvine taking a stab at winning our weekly pot drawing; too bad she didn’t draw the Joker as she would have taken home almost $2000…the pot continues to grow!
President Blake presents Rotarian Doug Bell with his Paul Harris Fellow; our club continues to be a 100 percent Paul Harris Fellow Club.
President Blake presents our annual donation to One Love Medical Mission (Dr. Larry Evans); their teams work in Jamaica every year and provide preventive medical and dental care. Five members (Dr. Evans, Team Hansen (Rick and Shari), Suzie Lawson and Gary Cordes) of our club and one member (Dr. Russ King) from the Village West Rotary Club participated this year.
The January Cup Money “big check” went to Scott Voos for Be Able. Be Able's mission is to connect adults with resources such as food, a secure environment, a hot shower, laundry facilities, computer access, identification assistance and more. The cup money contributes to Be Able's acquisition of two duplexes providing housing for individuals transitioning from homelessness to permanent housing.
The Club introduced new members Liz Holle, Deputy Operations Officer at Big Lakes Development Center, Inc. and Kent Smith, Director of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.
The Club hosted Students of the Month, Naomi Eberle and Jaden McGee. Vanessa and Ethan Eberle and Tanya McGee, parents of Students of the Month, also were guests of the Club.
Past-president Steven Graham joined the 20 Interact and Rotaract members at their Book Wrapping Service Event and enjoyed lots of conversation and fun.
President-elect Randy Peterson was recognized with a Paul Harris plus 5 pin. Randy has been a member of Rotary for over 42 years and the Manhattan Rotary Club for four years.
The Community Cares Chest distributed products to over 50 nonprofit organizations.
The Club Service Committee hosted a farewell party for member Rich Sell at The Little Grill on Thursday, February 15th. Rich served in many roles in his time as a Konza Rotarian, including Club President, and we will miss him as he and his wife begin the next chapter of their life in Florida. The party continued the next morning, with the committee providing Valentine's Day treats at our February 16th meeting.
Thurd District Congressional Representative Sharice Davids spoke to the Olathe Noon Rotary Club on Wednesday February 21. She covered topics dealing with infrastructure and agriculture that affects our district. She left ample time for a good Q&A session.
Thank you all for making our food drive for Bethel Neighborhood Center a success. The Bethel food pantry, located near downtown Kansas City, KS is a valuable resource to the community, and served over 10,000 individuals during 2023.
Rick Potter, Dave Harrold, Lea Rookwood and Tim Deves (pictured above left to right) delivered a truckload of food items to Bethel last Friday. Mang Sonna, Bethel Executive Director, was very grateful for the donation and was excited to give us a tour of the impressive facility. Good work Shawnee Rotary!
The Topeka High School Interact Club works towards making a difference within and outside their school community. The main goal is service through events and volunteerism. THS Interact hosted another school-wide successful ‘Trunk or Treat’ for the community – one of Topeka’s top Halloween events! In December, they welcomed student families in need to their annual Holiday Feast to enjoy a warm meal. Interactors also adopted and purchased gifts from the wish lists of six families through the Christmas Bureau.
In 2022, THS Interactors worked extensively on writing and producing a grant for a new project, ‘Curb the Cost, Say Yes to Lunch!’ District 5710 awarded them $2,000 as a 2:1 match to their $1,000 to help fellow students afford lunch. The Grant eliminated the cost of lunch for 133 students from November through May on “reduced lunch” plans. Interact members didn’t stop there; they gave presentations and auctioned off ceramics, raising additional funds. In all, they funded more than 8850 meals! Research shows that many students are reliant on school meals as a key source of their daily nutrition. School lunches are regulated through standards in place by the USDA to ensure they increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk; reduced levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans-fat; and meet nutritional needs and calorie requirements of school aged children. School meals are vital in ensuring students’ nutrition, growth and development, and academic success. When lunch is missed, students’ IQ scores, memory capacities, fine motor skills, social skills, language skills, sleep patterns, behavior, and endurance suffer. For many kids, breakfast and dinner at home are not an option, so school provided lunch may be the only meal they have to power them through the day. There is a significant lunchroom inequity in Kansas schools. The dedicated efforts of THS Interactors, through their ‘Curb the Cost, Say Yes to Lunch!’ project, impacted transformative policy change resulting in all students at Topeka High School now being able to access free meals.
Submitted by Avery Zimmerman, Topeka High School Interact Contact: Murray Moore, Topeka South Rotary Sponsor, mmoore2@tps501.org
Pictured from left to right are Korie Kirkwood, January Student of the Month, Peyton Lockart, November Student of the Month, Ciera Steinlicht, December Student of the Month, and Ashley GrandPre, September Student of the Month.
The Valley Falls Rotary Club honors our local Valley Falls High School Students oh the Month. Every month the teachers of the high school votes for one student of the Senior class to be the Student of the Month. The Valley Falls Rotary Club invites them and their parents to one of their weekly meetings for dinner and awards them a Certificate of Recognition. They then tell us what activities and organizations they have participated in during the past four years of school, as well their plans after graduation.
Pictured at left, Dr. James Rider welcoming our newest member Callie Zirkle. She will be a great asset to the Valley Falls Rotay Club. Welcome aboard Callie.
Wild Poliovirus Weekly Update
This is why historians don’t get invited to the *good* parties. We’re… boring.
Download this free resource
Meet our newest member…we welcomed Glenn Mosher this month; Glenn is a project manager for DGI Roofing; he is sponsored by DGE Tamara Sevcik.
Rotarian Marcia Irvine taking a stab at winning our weekly pot drawing; too bad she didn’t draw the Joker as she would have taken home almost $2000…the pot continues to grow!
The Club introduced new members Liz Holle, Deputy Operations Officer at Big Lakes Development Center, Inc. and Kent Smith, Director of the Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.
Thank you all for making our food drive for Bethel Neighborhood Center a success. The Bethel food pantry, located near downtown Kansas City, KS is a valuable resource to the community, and served over 10,000 individuals during 2023. 
The Topeka High School Interact Club works towards making a difference within and outside their school community. The main goal is service through events and volunteerism. THS Interact hosted another school-wide successful ‘Trunk or Treat’ for the community – one of Topeka’s top Halloween events! In December, they welcomed student families in need to their annual Holiday Feast to enjoy a warm meal. Interactors also adopted and purchased gifts from the wish lists of six families through the Christmas Bureau.
In 2022, THS Interactors worked extensively on writing and producing a grant for a new project, ‘Curb the Cost, Say Yes to Lunch!’ District 5710 awarded them $2,000 as a 2:1 match to their $1,000 to help fellow students afford lunch. The Grant eliminated the cost of lunch for 133 students from November through May on “reduced lunch” plans. Interact members didn’t stop there; they gave presentations and auctioned off ceramics, raising additional funds. In all, they funded more than 8850 meals! Research shows that many students are reliant on school meals as a key source of their daily nutrition. School lunches are regulated through standards in place by the USDA to ensure they increase the availability of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free and low-fat milk; reduced levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans-fat; and meet nutritional needs and calorie requirements of school aged children. School meals are vital in ensuring students’ nutrition, growth and development, and academic success. When lunch is missed, students’ IQ scores, memory capacities, fine motor skills, social skills, language skills, sleep patterns, behavior, and endurance suffer. For many kids, breakfast and dinner at home are not an option, so school provided lunch may be the only meal they have to power them through the day. There is a significant lunchroom inequity in Kansas schools. The dedicated efforts of THS Interactors, through their ‘Curb the Cost, Say Yes to Lunch!’ project, impacted transformative policy change resulting in all students at Topeka High School now being able to access free meals.
Pictured from left to right are Korie Kirkwood, January Student of the Month, Peyton Lockart, November Student of the Month, Ciera Steinlicht, December Student of the Month, and Ashley GrandPre, September Student of the Month. 
The Valley Falls Rotary Club honors our local Valley Falls High School Students oh the Month. Every month the teachers of the high school votes for one student of the Senior class to be the Student of the Month. The Valley Falls Rotary Club invites them and their parents to one of their weekly meetings for dinner and awards them a Certificate of Recognition. They then tell us what activities and organizations they have participated in during the past four years of school, as well their plans after graduation. .png)
