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Message from the President
Dear Fayette Rotary Club members:
I just experienced a
wonderful weekend on October 21-22 at Rotary District 6080’s Reunion in
Jefferson City, Missouri! I took my spouse Gwen with me, and I was
delighted that she was able to join me for Friday night’s Club Awards
Banquet as well as Saturday night’s Club Presidents’ Introduction
Banquet.
I wish that I could
convey the feeling of excitement that I experienced as your president
and as a Rotarian by attending the District 6080 Reunion when I
experienced Saturday’s program on Strengthening Local Clubs, Increasing
Humanitarian Service and Revitalizing Rotary’s Public Image. I
especially was moved by the speaker at Saturday’s Rotary News & New
Generations Luncheon who personalized the Polio topic by sharing his
family’s experience of Polio and by lifting up Rotary’s promise and
efforts to eradicate Polio. We saw a powerful video in connection with
this. However, although it is impossible for me to convey my feelings
or that experience in the short space that I have here, I want to
encourage each of you, once again, to consider attending next year’s
Rotary Reunion in Branson, Missouri on October 18-20, 2012. Please mark
your calendars now; More details will follow later.
On Friday night,
October 21, 2011, at our Rotary Reunion, Jessica Quint, our immediate
past-president, and Terry Furstenau, our past-president, club trainer
and assistant district governor, received a Rotary District 6080
Vocational Award on behalf of our club for our sponsorship of the
Fayette Citywide Garage Sale and donating our profit to the Fayette
Ministerial Alliance’s Food Pantry this past year (2010-11), which
amounted to $907. When you add that amount to our $1,000 that we budget
annually for the food pantry, you realize that our club gave a total of
$1907 in 2010-11. Of course, this does not include our Rotary members’
time and service donated to help in the packing and distribution of food
at the food pantry in the month of December. I felt honored and proud
to be a part of that experience and to see our club recognized for our
efforts to help our community members in need. If there is one thing
that I have learned about the Fayette Rotary Club in the past five
years, it is this: WE GIVE and WE SERVE!
We are certainly
part of one of the world’s greatest and most philanthropic
organizations—Rotary International! However, it is at the community
level that most of us see tangible evidence of our service and our
giving, and I would dare say that it is at the club service level and
the community service level that most of us feel and know the benefits
and rewards of our membership in Rotary. However, we are also making a
difference in the world through our participation in the District 6080
Panama Project where, together with other Rotary clubs from our
district, we provided over 300 well-baby kits to Panama, which included
5 well-baby kits from our club that were personalized with 5 CMU baby
blankets. Your gifts will soon bring comfort, improved health and joy
to 5 families in Panama that we will probably never meet. Our giving,
valued at $330 as a club and over $10,000 as a district, will also
provide a clean water well for the City of Panama through our
partnership with the Missouri National Guard.
Besides these
well-baby kits, The Fayette Rotary Club is making a difference in the
world in many other ways. For example, according to Mel West’s note in
the most recent PETS e-newsletter, dated 10-24-11:
“Last Thursday we sent off 35 PETs via another
partner, Rotary. One of our volunteers, Terry Furstenau, who is also a
Rotarian [from Fayette], arranged the shipment. Rotary picked up the
PETs here at our shop and took them to Jefferson City. They went by a
Missouri National Guard truck to the coast and were put onto a US Navy
vessel to go to Panama. There the Rotarians will distribute. The PETs
were in the care of responsible partners all the way. We like that.”
We also make a
difference in the world through our Green Mountain Fair Trade Coffee
sales. This weekly, ongoing project has already generated about $500
for local service projects, which enables our club to do even more for
people in our community. But, did you know of the $10 per bag price, we
keep $3 per bag for our local service projects and we provide $1 per bag
to Rotary International for clean water projects in 7 countries in the
world. Our most recent purchase of coffee is helping to fund a clean
water project in the country of Sumatra. Also .30 per bag goes to
Rotary for the license fee to use their logo. The remaining $5.70 goes
for the actual purchase, shipping and handling of the coffee. I will
have a new supply of coffee at the upcoming Rotary Club meetings prior
to the holidays. Remember: These bags of coffee will make excellent
stocking stuffers for your Christmas gift list to family members,
friends, colleagues, coworkers and employees and will help make a
difference to others as well.
Also, while we are
thinking of gifts, please remember to continue to invite guests to
Rotary and give them the gift of Rotary through an invitation to
membership! We will formally recognize and honor our newest member of
Rotary, Marquise Francis, on Wednesday, November 2nd at our
regular noon meeting and program. Please join us as we welcome Marquise
into the membership of Rotary.
As we approach the
season of Thanksgiving, I am grateful for each of you who are members of
Rotary for your generous spirit of giving and serving. I am proud and
thankful to be in service with you. We reach within to embrace humanity
in order to become the change we wish to see in the world!
Yours in Service
Above Self,
Michael Pope,
president
Fayette Rotary Club
PS November’s Happy
Can Dollars will be going to the Holiday House. Thank you for your
generous giving to support our community service projects! |
