I hope this note finds you well following a wonderful Thanksgiving (and perhaps like me…still a bit full from leftovers!), and gearing up for the holiday season! I know that one of the things I am most thankful for this year is the opportunity to represent 2,000 Rotarians across Northeastern Kansas – who are all doing amazing things!
As we near the halfway point in our Rotary year, I think it’s important to take stock of where we’ve been, and where we have the opportunity for growth in these next six months, to close out the year on a strong note.
As I mentioned last month, we had a very successful World Polio Day awareness campaign, with proclamations, doughnuts, and pints of beer in every corner of our district! We’ve completed another round of district level grant funding, and I’m excited to see the full slate of impactful and relevant projects once again come to life. We recently redesigned our district website to provide additional content in a more user-friendly format, and don’t forget to listen to our wonderful District 5710 Podcast (and let us know if you have an idea for a topic or guest)!
Our membership team is hard at work growing our numbers…and would love your help! Know someone who would make a fantastic Rotarian? Don’t hesitate to reach out – or better yet, invite them to your next service project or meeting! And as we enter the final half of the year, and the end of Foundation Month, it’s important that we also remember to continue to support the Rotary Foundation. These funds go directly to help those most in need around the world – and I can’t think of a better use for your dollar!
Thank you again for all you’ve done to make this year a great one…let’s keep it going!
Holiday Greetings Polio Warriors! Here’s great Polio Eradication News as we round the corner of being halfway through this Rotary year: There have been NO NEW CASES OF WILD POLIO VIRUS TYPE 1 ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD FOR THE LAST ELEVEN WEEKS!!!
Share this amazing progress with your fellow Rotarians and this great news:
75 – The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Pakistan (September 15th)
91 – The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Afghanistan (August 29th)
110 – The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Mozambique (August 10th)
375 – The number of days since the last case of WPV1 occurred in Malawi (November 19, 2021)
Be sure to check out our monthly “COUNTDOWN TO HISTORY” below as Rotary works hand in hand with the Gates Foundation and the GPEI to End Polio by 2026!
To make that happen every Rotarian can help by continuing your support of Rotary’s #1 Priority by spreading the messaging about the importance of ending Polio and providing your donations to Polio Plus.It is also great news that as the first half of the Rotary Year comes to a close, our District 5710 Clubs have already donated close to 50% of our annual Polio Goal!
More of our clubs than ever before have stepped up to meet Past RI President John Germ’s $1500 Goal Challenge with creative and innovative Polio Plus Fundraising events. If your club has not yet set its Polio Plus Goal – It’s not too late to go to Club Central and input your Club’s
Goal for what ever you can decide – No matter how large or how small – Please set a Goal.
And it’s still not too late to join the Polio Plus Society, whereby you commit to donating a minimum of $100 per year, every year until Polio is gone, you can become a Member of the District 5710 Polio Plus Society and receive a handsome Polio Plus Society Pin. Many Rotarians choose the "recurring" option, whereby you donate a little bit each month, as little as $10 per month. The Commitment Form is on the district website.
Thank you for your dedication to this, Rotary's #1 Priority, and the promise we made to children everywhere...a polio free world.
And “We are…This Close” as shown in our “Countdown to History”
HAS YOUR CLUB MET ITS DONATION GOAL FOR 22/23?
Call or email me for ideas or help: Jim Arnett, Polio Plus District Chair
As promised in our last newsletter, I am showcasing another global grant in Taiwan that was part of our reciprocal agreement with D3522 in Taipei. Here is another example of how we can make a difference globally through our international partnerships. The host club for this project is Taipei Seven Star RC.
The community served by Feng-Li Elementary School has long met with systemic social marginalization, and therefore poverty. As a result, the students’ academic performances suffer. Of the 2000 residents of the villages served by this elementary school, over 50% of population are financially challenged and socially marginalized. The students come from a diverse but long systematically discriminated and marginalized ethnic backgrounds, to include aboriginal tribes, households where parents—especially mothers— come from Mainland China and Southeast Asian countries, many of whom came to Taiwan as a result of choosing to marry countryside Taiwanese men for financial reasons. Due to lack of work opportunities within the community, many working adults have left the villages to seek work in urban areas throughout Taiwan. Many students were raised by single parents, or grandparents.
The academic performance of Feng-Li Elementary School’s student body is on average significantly lower than the average academic performance in the county that it is in, the Hualian County. This is especially critical in the subject of Mandarin, which is the official language spoken in Taiwan. In the year 2019, the average score of the Taiwanese Government-administered Chinese Language Academic Test of 1st graders in the entire Hualian County was 61.52 points (out of 100). Feng-Li Elementary School’s 1st graders averaged 18% lower at 42.80 points. In addition to first graders, the students of 2nd, 3rd and 6th grades also tested significantly lower than the county average on the same test. This affects the students’ academic performance in other subjects, as well as their confidence level and self-esteem.
To improve this disadvantage faced by Feng Li Elementary School's students, and to improve their basic learning results, the teachers have determined that they themselves should be trained on better teaching methodologies, especially in the subject of Chinese Language, so that they can help their students learn better.
This professional development opportunity for the teachers will encompass a two-year program with curriculum put together by the Department of Education at National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), which is the premier university for training teachers in Eastern Taiwan. After the two year program, the teachers will be evaluated over a six-month period, by way of their students’ quantitative academic assessment results, to validate the effectiveness of the training program.
This global grant is in process now with several workshops developed and many teachers learning right now. Thank you for your Rotary Foundation contributions that have helped make this project possible. The impact of a grant like this could impact lives for many years.
RI President Jennifer Jones recently wrote in Rotary Magazine about literacy projects abroad. The Manhattan Rotary Club and other clubs in our district have been involved with Community Early Learning grants from Save the Children. I am announcing today my decision to establish a Basic Education and Literacy Chair for District 5710. I invite any Rotarians who might be interested in serving in that position to let me know during the month of December, 2022, so that I can make the appointment soon after the new year.
The person chosen to serve as chair will have an opportunity to shape our district’s work in this important area but the following are suggested responsibilities:
1. Encourage clubs in the district to have basic education and literacy service projects;
2. Notify clubs and Rotarians in the district of grant and other opportunities in this area;
3. Maintain liaison with the Basic Education and Literacy Rotary Action Group (BELRAG) and possibly other districts with basic education and literacy chairs.
4. Be an advocate and champion for basic education and literacy, at home and abroad, including a willingness to speak to Rotary clubs on this subject.
Simply email me (stephrmeyer@gmail.com) an expression of your interest and any additional information you care to provide, prior to December 31. Thank you for your consideration.
This is the giving season – from Thanksgiving and “Giving Tuesday” (November 29 this year) to the end of the calendar year. Most Rotarians are aware of the wonderful work supported by The Rotary Foundation (TRF) around the world. Many of you have been incredibly generous in your donations to TRF and its programs. This note is not intended to add to the many appeals you are presently receiving, but I do wish to share with you some information on Major Gifts to TRF.
Major Gifts and The Regional Challenge
Under the leadership of PDG Faron Barr, District 5710 is participating in a “Regional Challenge” covering two Rotary zones. One component of the regional challenge is to raise the number of our district’s Major Gifts by 10% in 2022-23 over the previous year. A Major Gift is a donation of $10,000 or more to TRF for the Annual Fund, Endowment, Polio Plus, an approved Global Grant or some combination of these. Rotarians in our district made 7 major gifts to TRF last year. That was a significant increase over the previous three years (3, 4, and 3, respectively). An increase of 10% will mean making at least 8 before next July 1. If you are interested in making a major gift to TRF, here are some of the ways you might do so:
Outright Donation of Cash or Appreciated Assets: This is the simplest way to give. If you donate an appreciated asset, you can deduct the full amount of the gift and avoid having to pay capital gains tax on the gain. For instance, if you bought a stock or mutual fund more than a year ago for $5000 and its value has increased to $10,000, you could donate it to TRF, take the full $10,000 tax deduction and avoid any capital gains.
RMD/QCD: If you are 72 or over, you are required to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) on retirement investments such as traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and to count those RMDs as ordinary income. You have the option, however, of transferring up to $100,000 per year directly from an IRA to TRF or other charities, as a Qualified Charitable Donation (QCD). You are not able to take a tax deduction for a QCD, but you are able to avoid adding that amount to your taxable income.
Life Income Gifts: A Charitable Gift Annuity (CGA) to TRF provides a life income to one or two people in return for a gift (cash or appreciated assets) of $10,000 or more. The CGA percentage is based on the age of the annuitant(s). At age 83, my return on a one-life CGA is 7.9%. A 2-life return for my wife and myself would be 6.2%. Younger annuitants would have lower payout amounts. Only part of the annuity income is taxable and the donor receives a tax deduction for part of the donation in the year in which it is made.
A Charitable Remainder Trust(CRT) also provides life income to one or two annuitants but operates somewhat differently. Percentage return is not based on age but is a minimum of 5%. Dollar payout does not stay the same per year (as with a CGA) but varies according to the market value of the trust. TRF’s minimum to create a CRT is $100,000, but it has a two-generation option I have not found with any other charity. I can create a CRT that names our two sons as income recipients for the remainder of their lives. I therefore do not have to make a choice between supporting The Rotary Foundation and providing for our heirs – I can do both. I hope these notes are helpful to those who might consider making major gifts to The Rotary Foundation. Those who would like more information should contact Eric Thompson, TRF Major Gifts Officer, Eric.Thompson@rotary.org, or feel free to contact me, Bill Richter, at wrichter@ksu.edu.
Gifts of any size are important to the success of Rotary’s work in the world, from polio eradication to peace to clean water, and so much more. Thanks to all of you who make it all happen through your donations to The Rotary Foundation.
District 5710 continues to show membership growth. Our clubs have added 91 new members while loosing 75 Rotarians – for a net gain of 16. Sixteen of our clubs have gained one or more new members. The current member retention rate for our district is 96.3% and 98.9% for first year Rotarians.
These retention rates show that we are keeping our members which is excellent. To continue to grow our district, we should also focus on attracting more new Rotarians. The good news, our district is growing. And, wouldn’t it be awesome if we can introduce more people to the gift of Rotary and what being a Rotarian means.
So – do you have questions to help your clubs continue to grow? Our district membership team has answers. To find your answers all you have do is first just go to the new and updated Membership area on our District 5710 website at https://rotary5710.org/page/showhomepage/
After clicking on Membership, you will see four drop down tabs which are:
Membership Team
Membership Club Resources
Membership Resources at My Rotary
Membership Meetings and Recordings
Lets’s take a tour of these tabs! The first, Membership Team tab, lists our team members, their club, and email addressee.
The below picture shows the landing page for Membership Club Resources.
For starters your can see several documents about how to manage your membership leads including a new Action Plan for Membership Leads recently developed by membership team member, Shari Hansen. Remember, membership leads are people in your communities that are interested in learning about Rotary. There are articles about how to propose new members, how to strengthen your membership, and how to use the Rotary Club Health and other survey tools. In a few months, there should be information about new member onboarding, ideas to help your members become interested in club leadership as well as successful ideas from other clubs.
By clicking on the next tab, Membership Resources at My Rotary, you will be taken directly to the membership resource area on My Rotary as shown below. You will find many more resources including assessing your club and membership, attracting, engaging and retaining members, forming satellite clubs, and sponsoring new Rotaract and Interact clubs in your community.
If you missed a district membership meeting such as our Quarterly Membership Conversation, no worries. You can click on the fourth tab, Membership Meetings Notes and Recordings where you can listen to the meeting recording, look at the slides, and the notes from breakout sessions and other info.
And if all of this is not enough member information for you, then you can take a course or two or more as your time permits in the Rotary Learning Center to find out more. You can access this by going to https://learn.rotary.org/members/learn/catalog/view/70
Our membership team hopes that these resources will help you discover and learn more about how to attract and retain members. And, if you have further questions, please don’t forget to reach out to our membership team members. How do you contact them? Go to our District Membership section and click on the first tab, Membership Team!
Thank you all for all that you do to help grow Rotary. And best to you and your families for a happy holiday season.
The Membership Leads Program is a great way to grow your club and is one of the easiest ways to expand your club’s membership. So how does it work? Membership Leads come from the Rotary.org website and are assigned to the District where the Lead resides. Once the Lead is assigned to District 5710, the District Membership Leads Team Member will review the lead and assign this potential Rotarian to a club in their desired meeting location. It is very important then that the assigned club follow up in a timely fashion with the Lead by contacting them, inviting them to attend a meeting or service project, etc., as they are very enthusiastic about learning more about Rotary and getting involved with their communities through Rotary. Our District has already received 14 Leads since the start of the Rotary year so this program has great potential to help grow our Membership.
To assist you in taking advantage of this very important program, the District 5710 Action Plan for Membership Leads has been developed and is now available to guide you in this process. The Leads Plan will be posted on the Membership Tab of the District website and also be emailed to club presidents, president elects and membership chairs identified on the District website. Please be sure and check out the Membership Leads Program today and utilize this program to grow your Club Membership whenever you receive a Membership Lead!
This fiscal year of 2022-2023, District 5710 will be selecting a scholar to study abroad in 2023-2024, funded by a Rotary global grant scholarship. Global grant scholarships fund graduate-level coursework or research for one year. District 5710 has a long history of funding Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars and, more recently, Rotary Global Grant Scholars.
I hope you are identifying great young students, usually seniors in college, who should apply for a Global Grant Scholarship and study abroad in 2023-2024. We would like to have a great pool of scholarship applicants to interview in February. Local Clubs should be organizing their selection committees and recruiting scholarship applicants now. In January, Local Clubs must conduct interviews and select a candidate to nominate to the District level.
I am in the process of organizing a District 5710 Selection Subcommittee. Candidates from across District 5710 will be brought together for a District-level interview by the District Selection Subcommittee in February 2023. One candidate and an alternate will be selected. The Selection Subcommittee will then contact our regional grants officer who will conduct a preliminary review of the candidate.
The student will finalize paperwork with Rotary International, receive final approval and then study abroad in 2023-2024.
Please find great students who would benefit from study abroad and ask them to apply for a Rotary global grant scholarship. Contact me with your questions.
--RLI is scheduled for FEB 10th and 11th. It will be in Manhattan, KS. Registration information will be sent to your email by late December/early January.
--Yes; we are planning the 2023 PETS. President-elects mark your calendars. PETS 2023 will be in Salina March 30th – April 1st.
REMINDER!
We still have a few Kansas Leadership Center seats available for this year.
These KLC Leadership Path scholarships will change the way you manage yourself and others in both your professional and personal lives. Check out the various available dates and the virtual and/or in-person sessions in the article below.
District 5710 has been awarded 30 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:
•Your Leadership Edge is the introductory program that focuses on personal leadership competencies. It helps participants stretch and grow their leadership while addressing their toughest challenges.
•Lead for Changeis the advanced, deep dive into individual leadership – helping leaders understand how to mobilize others to deal with tough problems and change processes.
•Equip to Lead focuses on communications, integrating leadership principles into the organization, and facilitating real change.
These programs range from $399 to $799 in value. The grant allows Rotarians to attend for free.
Who Should Attend?
Each club should consider sending up and coming leaders from their club and community. The virtual sessions are ideal for clubs in western Kansas. Leaders who have done the first program should consider the second and third programs.
How To Register
To Sign Up for one of the three programs, 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 Rotary2022 to waive the tuition fee.
2. Notify District 5710’s Trainers, Ellen Bogdan and DeEtte Lombard, of your interest in order that we might track Rotarians who are taking advantage of this grant. Our contact data is:
Thanksgiving having passed, we turn our attention now to December, when Rotarians the world over pause to contemplate the successes of the year passing and opportunities going forward, as humankind has done for millennia at the coming of the winter solstice, regardless of the culture they are embedded in.
For Rotary, it brings us to a new monthly focus, that of Disease Prevention and Treatment. Given how important hygiene is to that area, this seems an appropriate place then, to speak to Rotary’s evolution, and growth from a social club to that of a service club. To do that, I will let one of our Founders, Paul Harris, tell us the story in his own words, from the early history of Rotary, This Rotarian Age, that he penned in 1935:
“In such atmosphere, Rotary’s first public service was rendered. It consisted of initiating and promulgating to establishment of public comfort stations in Chicago. Of all the multitudinous undertakings of Rotary, the writer cannot recall one more ambitious. Rotary’s first public undertaking resulted in the enrollment of every important civic organization in the city of Chicago, and also the city and county administrations, in its support. For more than two years the battle against indifference, vested interests, and so for continued until eventually Chicago’s first public comfort station was established on the northeastern corner of Washington and LaSalle streets. The great significance, however, was in the fact that it was the precursors of thousands of similar services rendered by Rotarians throughout the world. Its lesser significance is to be found in the fact that the Rotary Club was raised to the rank of a civic organization in Chicago, to be counted on, henceforth, as an asset in the city. The head of the YMCA expressed the prevailing sentiment when he said, “The Rotary Club of Chicago has now shown reason for its existence.””
And we have never looked back. In our clubs, great and small, in our projects grand or simple, we have striven to put Service Above Self. In our District alone, as District Rotary Foundation Committee Chair Faron put it in his note this week: “Several clubs now have shoe projects which help deserving individuals receive new shoes they may not have been able to acquire otherwise. At least one club has painted an educational map of the USA on a local school playground to provide a fun way for students to learn about their country and its geography. Another club used these funds to provide coats to deserving people in their city at the beginning of the winter season. Some clubs have used these funds to provide scholarships to their local high school students. Many clubs have joined together to use these funds to help survivors of human trafficking in their attempt to escape from a life of slavery. Other clubs joined together to use these funds to help a student-led organization provide education about teen suicide and prevention methods. We have a whole variety of projects that help children and another one that helps veterans. There are so many projects, I cannot mention them all right here, so feel free to showcase your project if you have not done so already.
Our district has been very successful with Global Grants both internationally and right here in our very own district. We have been approved for four Global Grants benefiting efforts to eradicate human trafficking for a total of almost $250,000 so far! District 5710 has been able to help people in South Africa, Guatemala, India, and Taiwan through our global partnerships with other districts. We have been able to see the impact that we can make in the lives of others through water projects, disease prevention, economic development, child and maternal health, and peace and conflict resolution efforts in many countries including our own.
As we move forward with our year end celebrations – and especially for you Presidents-Elect – how does your club make itself a “civic asset” and how will you continue, or better yet, start, a new big project, and don’t be afraid to enlist other groups… even the Lions(!) to build bigger, better and with an eye to the future.
On a closing note – if you go into Google Earth® and navigate to Washington and LaSalle in Chicago, while you won’t find the comfort station, you *will* see the mark of it on the building.
The Emporia Rotary Club completed an annual project where they provide dictionaries to every third grade student in Emporia. The interact club at the Emporia Middle School each year helps Rotary Club members to label the dictionaries before they are distributed. The Rotary Club also presented a check to the Interact Club for $554 which came from the Rotary Club’s second quarter and third quarter happy bucks.
Pictured: Members of the Interact Club at the Emporia Middle School pose with Rachael Correll, Emporia Rotary Club President (pictured on right behind check) and Alex Mosakowski, Emporia Rotary Club Recent Past President (pictured at center behind check).
At the beginning of November, the club collected donations of personal supplies (toiletries and the like) as well as cash for the Veterans Community Project. Veterans Community Project is dedicated to supporting every man and woman who took the oath for our country. They are determined to make a difference in the lives of homeless Veterans, a task accomplished by the community for the community. The November 10th meeting consisted of stuffing packages of supplies for the Veterans who move into the Veterans Community Project. It was a great success. Club members delivered 30 packages and some extra groceries to the Veterans Community following the project.
The Kansas City, Kansas Rotary Club is passionate about ensuring Wyandotte County high school students have access to higher education and/or vocational training programs. We achieve this goal through two annual initiatives - the KCK Rotary Scholarship Awards and the Hispanic Development Fund’s Cambio Para Cambio Program.
Access to post-secondary education is critical to improving career success and can help to break the cycles of poverty many of our local families experience. The students who receive scholarships from these initiatives are, more often than not, first-generation college students.
We recently completed our annual HDF Cambio Para Cambio campaign and raised $2,300 to fund scholarships for Wyandotte County high school students who are collegebound. A generous donor at HDF matched our gift which made for a grand total of $4,600 for scholarships for Wyandotte County students.
Throughout the year, HDF scholars visit our club to speak about their college experiences. In October, we hosted Adriana Suarez, a current HDF Scholar and Intern at HDF who attends the University of Missouri at Kansas City. Adriana, in particular, shared about her recent study abroad experiences in Ireland and South Korea.
On Friday, November 4th, the Lawrence Jayhawk Breakfast Rotary Club held their 13th Annual Trivia Night. In addition to the festivities of the evening, the club puts together 10 fabulous Raffle Baskets, selling tickets for a month leading up to the event. This is the only external fundraiser the club puts on.
Money raised by the event goes to projects like the building of the Cottonwood Swamp Boardwalk at the Haskell-Baker Wetlands, continued support and expansion to the Lawrence Rotary Arboretum, scholarships for high school seniors, the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Breakfast, Book Drive and Literacy Projects, water purification projects in Central and South America, and support to a variety of local community-based programs/organizations. Recently, the club was able to use funds raised at Trivia Night, partnering with the Kasangati (Uganda) Rotary Club, to build a two-room school building in the village Gonve, Uganda.
Through sponsorship, Raffle Basket Ticket sales, and attendees of the event, the club was able to hit a record of money raised with a grand total of $17,340! This year, there were 8 teams of 10 people each. The “Best Team Name” was given to Full Frontal Nerdity. The Trivia Night winning team was Head Space Junkies. Rotarians from all over the district are welcome to join in on the fun next year, either by joining or putting together a team, or simply by purchasing raffle basket tickets.
November means celebrating Veterans and taking care of business at our second annual Rotary Day of Service for the Rotary Club of Leavenworth!
We started off our Veterans' Day with a Pancake Breakfast where disabled Veterans ate for free thanks to Terry Booker and the Cafe. John Donovan talking with guests about his military memorabilia display. Marcia Irvine and DeEtte Lombard worked the check-in table. Bill Kromer, John Robinson and Larry Turgeon serving up pancakes, sausage and smiles.
Breakfast and fellowship --- a great way to start the day! Our very own Tim Vandall served as one of the Emcees for the parade this year, shown here with two of his three sons. Parade ready; team Hansen pulled our Rotary Wheel.
Congratulations are in order --- LTC (R) Karel Sigtenhorst was our Main Street Veterans Honoree this year; in the new year, come check out his banner (on the East end of Delaware Street). Mike Sevcik played Taps during the parade; he was one of several trumpet players on the parade route.
Our second annual Rotary Day of Service was a great success due to the efforts of many! Dave York takes on many leaves in one of the yards we worked on; our local Council on Aging identified several local residents who need some assistance in cleaning up their yards. We were lucky to have several of our Leavenworth High School Interact students help with this service project again this year.
Upcoming for the Rotary Club of Leavenworth:
Salvation Army Red Kettle Campaign Bell Ringing --- on going
On Line Auction in Support of our local Rotary Foundation (stay tuned to Facebook for more details)
New Year's Reception hosted by President Derek
Hoping your holiday season is off to a good start --- Happy Holidays to ALL!
The Manhattan Rotary Club was chartered on November 1, 1917; celebrating 105 years this month.
The Club finished sorting books and Clorox wipes and delivering them to local and regional schools, libraries, and nonprofits. During the month, the Club was notified by Save the Children that the ‘Rotary Early Learning Partnership: A Project of the Manhattan Rotary Club and Partners in a Region of Kansas’ grant was approved. The $15,000 grant will be matched with $1500 from the Club to continue our focus on basic education and literacy in libraries and schools.
Of note, the Club was selected as one of the Literacy Award recipients for 2022 from the Basic Education and Literacy Rotary Action Group (BELRAG). The award of $500 can be used to expand the current project or used towards developing a new project. In addition to the $500 cash award, BeReading provided an online Free Reading ‘campus’ subscription for one year (value of $500) to the project.
Randy Peterson, Vice President/head of the Grants and Contributions Committee, presented a $500 check to Deb Kluttz, Director of The Homestead Ministry. October Cup Money was collected to donate to this ministry, which is rehabilitating women who have left sex trafficking.
PDG Vern Henricks hosted Romell Cyril from Lenexa Kansas, and Rotarian Brother Dieulin Joanis, a banker from Haiti. Brother Joanis directs an organization providing leadership classes and other assistance to children and youth encouraging entrepreneurship and success, and steering them away from gangs.
The Club celebrated two milestone birthdays in November. Dr. Paul Bullock a Rotarian of 49 years turned 92 and Dr. Roger Reitz a Rotarian of 47 years turned 90.
On November 8-10, Manhattan Konza Rotarians and friends came together to prepare the new office space for Sunflower Children's Collective in downtown Manhattan. Sunflower Children's Collective is the umbrella organization for Sunflower CASA, Stepping Stones CAC, and Sunflower Bridge CEVC.
A District Grant allowed us to purchase the paint and equipment for this project. With seven painters helping each night, we were able to complete the painting of their lobby, conference room, and hallway.
Club president Larry Butel welcomed to our monthly social our new District Governor Stephanie Meyer and our past Governor Chuck Udell. Derrick Dahl (the sponsor) and club president Larry Butel welcome Kieth Johnson our newest member.
“Five years from today, you will be the same person that you are today, except for the books you read and the people you meet.” - Charlie ‘Tremendous’ Jones
There’s an unspoken reality apparent at every Overland Park Rotary meeting. That reality is the enormous gain in life one has because of their fellow Rotarians. Sharing life. Sharing experiences. Sharing service to others.
The past few months at the Overland Park Rotary is a testament of such. We’ve heard from local community leaders; the Athletic Director of Johnson County Community College, Tony Tompkins, who shared the academic and athletic success of the JCCC sports programs – nationally ranked: Colonel Todd Schmidt, US Army, who provided enlightening information on the civil-military relationship and its impact on national security; Blue Valley Schools Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan shared information regarding on moving forward in education and the future of our students - post-covid; Kansas U.S. Marshall Ron Miller educated all in attendance on the history of the U.S. Marshall Service … and on and on the list goes of such quality of speakers.
One memorable Rotary meeting was when Rotarian Jeff Ellis, during a time of ‘inspiration’ shared the story of when he received The Quilt of Valor (Quilts of Valor Foundation - Quilts of Valor Foundation | (qovf.org)), for his service as a U.S. Veteran. Calling all the Veterans in attendance to come forward and be honored – he shared this treasured gift of honor.
Attending an Overland Park Rotary meeting, conversing in fellowship over a meal, and then being enriched with information from a speaker or program, Rotarians and guests attest to the fact that they left better than when they arrived – not the same, inspired, and ready to look for opportunities to live out ‘service above self.’
The Shawnee Mission, KS club wishes to sell its 2012, Homesteader 610CS hard top air-vented, 6'W x 10'L trailer with stabilizer jack for $3,250. The trailer has been outfitted with plywood shelving in support of pancake breakfasts which the club no longer participates in. The trailer has a "ramp style" rear door. If interested please contact Wayne London at (816) 686-7008 or by email at wplondon73@gmail.com.
And it’s still not too late to join the Polio Plus Society, whereby you commit to donating a minimum of $100 per year, every year until Polio is gone, you can become a Member of the District 5710 Polio Plus Society and receive a handsome Polio Plus Society Pin. Many Rotarians choose the "recurring" option, whereby you donate a little bit each month, as little as $10 per month. The Commitment Form is on the district website. 
Wild Poliovirus Weekly Update
RI President Jennifer Jones recently wrote in Rotary Magazine about literacy projects abroad. The Manhattan Rotary Club and other clubs in our district have been involved with Community Early Learning grants from Save the Children. I am announcing today my decision to establish a Basic Education and Literacy Chair for District 5710. I invite any Rotarians who might be interested in serving in that position to let me know during the month of December, 2022, so that I can make the appointment soon after the new year. 
The Membership Leads Program is a great way to grow your club and is one of the easiest ways to expand your club’s membership. So how does it work? Membership Leads come from the Rotary.org website and are assigned to the District where the Lead resides. Once the Lead is assigned to District 5710, the District Membership Leads Team Member will review the lead and assign this potential Rotarian to a club in their desired meeting location. It is very important then that the assigned club follow up in a timely fashion with the Lead by contacting them, inviting them to attend a meeting or service project, etc., as they are very enthusiastic about learning more about Rotary and getting involved with their communities through Rotary. Our District has already received 14 Leads since the start of the Rotary year so this program has great potential to help grow our Membership.
SAVE THE DATES!
“In such atmosphere, Rotary’s first public service was rendered. It consisted of initiating and promulgating to establishment of public comfort stations in Chicago. Of all the multitudinous undertakings of Rotary, the writer cannot recall one more ambitious. Rotary’s first public undertaking resulted in the enrollment of every important civic organization in the city of Chicago, and also the city and county administrations, in its support. For more than two years the battle against indifference, vested interests, and so for continued until eventually Chicago’s first public comfort station was established on the northeastern corner of Washington and LaSalle streets. The great significance, however, was in the fact that it was the precursors of thousands of similar services rendered by Rotarians throughout the world. Its lesser significance is to be found in the fact that the Rotary Club was raised to the rank of a civic organization in Chicago, to be counted on, henceforth, as an asset in the city. The head of the YMCA expressed the prevailing sentiment when he said, “The Rotary Club of Chicago has now shown reason for its existence.””
As we move forward with our year end celebrations – and especially for you Presidents-Elect – how does your club make itself a “civic asset” and how will you continue, or better yet, start, a new big project, and don’t be afraid to enlist other groups… even the Lions(!) to build bigger, better and with an eye to the future.
The Emporia Rotary Club completed an annual project where they provide dictionaries to every third grade student in Emporia. The interact club at the Emporia Middle School each year helps Rotary Club members to label the dictionaries before they are distributed. The Rotary Club also presented a check to the Interact Club for $554 which came from the Rotary Club’s second quarter and third quarter happy bucks.
The Kansas City, Kansas Rotary Club is passionate about ensuring Wyandotte County high school students have access to higher education and/or vocational training programs. We achieve this goal through two annual initiatives - the KCK Rotary Scholarship Awards and the Hispanic Development Fund’s Cambio Para Cambio Program.
We recently completed our annual HDF Cambio Para Cambio campaign and raised $2,300 to fund scholarships for Wyandotte County high school students who are collegebound. A generous donor at HDF matched our gift which made for a grand total of $4,600 for scholarships for Wyandotte County students.
On Friday, November 4th, the Lawrence Jayhawk Breakfast Rotary Club held their 13th Annual Trivia Night. In addition to the festivities of the evening, the club puts together 10 fabulous Raffle Baskets, selling tickets for a month leading up to the event. This is the only external fundraiser the club puts on.
Through sponsorship, Raffle Basket Ticket sales, and attendees of the event, the club was able to hit a record of money raised with a grand total of $17,340! This year, there were 8 teams of 10 people each. The “Best Team Name” was given to Full Frontal Nerdity. The Trivia Night winning team was Head Space Junkies. Rotarians from all over the district are welcome to join in on the fun next year, either by joining or putting together a team, or simply by purchasing raffle basket tickets.
The Club finished sorting books and Clorox wipes and delivering them to local and regional schools, libraries, and nonprofits. During the month, the Club was notified by Save the Children that the ‘Rotary Early Learning Partnership: A Project of the Manhattan Rotary Club and Partners in a Region of Kansas’ grant was approved. The $15,000 grant will be matched with $1500 from the Club to continue our focus on basic education and literacy in libraries and schools.
Randy Peterson, Vice President/head of the Grants and Contributions Committee, presented a $500 check to Deb Kluttz, Director of The Homestead Ministry. October Cup Money was collected to donate to this ministry, which is rehabilitating women who have left sex trafficking.
PDG Vern Henricks hosted Romell Cyril from Lenexa Kansas, and Rotarian Brother Dieulin Joanis, a banker from Haiti. Brother Joanis directs an organization providing leadership classes and other assistance to children and youth encouraging entrepreneurship and success, and steering them away from gangs. 
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