Spring Lake Rotary Scribes Report: July 26, 2019
District Governor Visit
Dave Thomas, Rotary International District 6290 Governor, visited our club on Friday to check in on our membership status, our past and planned community and world activities, and to update us on Rotary International. Dave and his wife reside in Petoskey, Michigan. He will have visited 60 Rotary Clubs in our District by the time his travels are over this year. Dave joined Rotary 30 years ago at age 41, and cherishes his time with the organization.
Ginny covered the water project in Uganda that she and her husband Mike worked on for a number of years, supplying 24 villages with fresh water there. The next project that she is working on is also in Uganda, and involves our club teaming up with a Rotary Club in Norway, and will cost a total of $87,000 or so, and will also serve multiple villages there. The new approach and focus of the project is sustainability for the water supply program.
Tracy and I updated the group on the current Interact Club projects. The 8th annual Battle of the Bayou football fundraiser (Spring Lake vs. Fruitport) will be held on Friday, September 6th at Grabinski Field. Donations will be taken at the game, and leading up to the game, Orchard Markets in Spring Lake and Fruitport will again be taking donations by selling paper footballs at the checkout. All funds raised will go to Helen Devos Children’s Hospital Foundation, and will help area children who are treated at the facilities in Grand Rapids.
Stefanie H. is running our Public Relations efforts for the Club, and reviewed our recent development of Spring Lake Club signage and banners that were printed and made available for ongoing use by members at various Club events. Social media has also been a focus for Stefanie, including our website customization (Club Runner), Facebook maintenance and upkeep with various pictures that are submitted to her by members of our Club activities.
Kevin G. reviewed our fundraisers for the past year, and our main Club fundraiser, which is Snow Jam. The Snow Jam raffle, food and drink sales, dart tournament and euchre tournament are the main sources of funds from that event. Snow Jam netted about $19,000 for the Club to use in our community and in our charitable endeavors across the globe. This event nets about the same or a little more than what we used to do with the raffle that was done at the SLCC a number of years back.
Chris B. brought Dave up to speed on our adopt-a-highway cleanup program, which is run in conjunction with the SLHS Interact Club. They do two cleanups during the school year, and our Club covers the summer cleanup. Chris also coordinates the placement and removal of the American flags in the Village to correspond with various holiday seasons. Sue Z. reviewed our participation with the SL Heritage Festival, where we scoop and give away ice cream for family night. We also do our bell ringing at Orchard Markets for the Salvation Army during the week leading up to Christmas. Another big community project was our Habitat for Humanity build that our Club sponsored and assisted with this year.
Cara G. gave our Club membership update. We stand at 52 regular members, with 13 honorary members for 65 total members. Cara is looking for a co-chair to help her group this coming year, as she will be stepping aside in 2020 when she takes over as the President elect.
Dave took the mic and thanked us for hosting him. He thanked all past Club Presidents for their commitment to the organization. This year’s theme is that “Rotary Connects the World”. His focus and the mandate put for by Rotary International President Mike Maloney is that membership is key. Not just new members, but those that want to contribute. Clubs are autonomous units, and are not governed by Chicago, or the District. It’s up to us to design, build and determine our own destiny.
He expounded on the avenues of service that each Club should focus on: 1) Club development, including vocations service, and club service. 2) Club engagement, which involves taking action with community service and youth service; 3) World impact, which should focus on international service. His final question and area of focus for our Club to review independently is: What do you want to be, who do you want to be, and how do you want do it?
50/50 Winner: Jim Bos