Operation Santa at Goodwill

Rotary Club of Millcreek partnered with Midvale Rotary for Operation Santa at Goodwill last Saturday. 17 members showed up at 6:45am to help families shop & give away free stuff with police & fire fighters. Great holiday project, early risers!

Our District Governor Visit

Attendees: Jayne Barnett, Chris Casper, Dianne Cochran, Rose Defa, Jennie Ferguson, Pablo Fiesta, Margareta Hjorth-Vlasic, Susan Marks, Rebekah Meads, Anita Miner, Justin Powell, Colby Rider, Brian Rollo, Laurie Summers-Pisani, John Zone, Judy Zone

Special Rotary Member: Shaun Michel, District Governor 

Guests: Annette Michel, Danny Michel, Gene Cochrane, Darrin Casper, Andy Dahmen

1.      Call to Order, Four-Way Test, and Guest Introductions – Christine Casper, President

2.      Rotary Moment: Laurie Summers – Past President. Laurie talked about her experience taking Rotarians hiking during the Zone Conference.

3.      Service Update: Jennie Ferguson – Jennie updated members on the projects for November and December. November 17 we will serve dinner to cancer patients and their caregivers at Hope Lodge. A signup sheet was passed around. December 3, 6:45 am – 9:15 am, we will partner with Midvale and Murray Rotary for the Operation Santa Project. We will contribute $250 for the project. We will provide mittens and socks for the kids as a give-a-way. Members donated $190 toward the project at the meeting.

4.      Rotary 2016-17 Message – Shaun Michel  – Shaun talked about joining Rotary 17 years ago and the great opportunities.  We blew bubbles. Why? We are all in a bubble: 1.2 million members in 200 nations.  He emphasized that the Rotary business is membership. That is what makes it possible to do charity and other community projects. Shaun’s wife, Annette, shared some of the things that Rotary has done for their family. Shaun showed a John Germ video highlighting the great opportunity to serve humanity. He emphasized the need to continue supporting the polio cause. He ended with the message that Rotary is a safe place to do good.

5.      Committee Chair Reports/Discussion –

Social Committee: Bowling on November 20. Details will be sent out to members.

6.      Next Meetings/Events

·         Nov 17 – Service Project – Preparing dinner at Hope Lodge

·         Nov 20 – Social, Bowling

·         Dec 3 – Santa Project with Midvale Rotary

·         Dec 8 – Business Meeting

·         Dec 15 – Holiday Social, Laurie’s home

Hope Lodge meal for cancer patients and their caregivers is a huge success!

We had a most successful event on Thursday, November 17 preparing and serving dinner to the cancer patients and their caregivers at Hope Lodge.  We had a great turnout, and some members who couldn't be there sent/brought donations.  I had several patients and their family members come to me to personally thank us for the meal...they loved it!

Hope Lodge would like us to come back another time.  Maybe we can do another dinner there in the Spring. A big thanks to all who went out of their way to participate!

Jennie Ferguson, Community Service Chair

Hope Lodge Dinner Service Project

Thanks to everyone who signed to help with the dinner. Great response!  See below for food assignments. If anyone who was not at the meeting wants to fill a slot, just email Jennie and me, so we can write you in.

Here are the details about the project:

Location: The American Cancer Society Hope Lodge in Salt Lake City

Address: 375 East 100 South. The building is on the northwest corner of 400 East and 100 South.

Parking: You access the free parking off of 400 East just north of 100 South. Enter the building through the main doors from the parking lot.

Setup: 5:00 - 6:00 pm

Dinner: 6:00 - 7:00 pm

Some of you are cooking and volunteering to serve dinner; some are just volunteering, and some are just dropping off food. Please let Jennie and me know what you plan to do. All volunteers and food should be at the Hope Lodge by 5:00 pm.  (If you cannot bring the food to the Hope Lodge, contact Jennie or me to make arrangements to drop if off with one of us.) 

Here are our cell numbers and email:

Jennie: 801-244-3664; jennie.ferguson@comcast.net

Rose: 801-205-4396; rosedefa@gmail.com

Please take a minute to look at the food sign-up below and let us know if you have questions.

This will be so appreciated by the cancer patients and their caregivers!

Food sign up

Pork Chile Verde: Rose, Judy, Frank, Chris (for 15 people each)

 Basmati rice: Jayne, Anita, Laurie (for 20 people each) Add lime juice and chopped cilantro

Black Beans for 60-80: Pablo Fiesta

Grated cheese, 2 lbs (6 cups): Rebekah Meads

Limes, lime juice, chopped cilantro (enough for 1 cup juice, 2 bunches cilantro): Mustafa

Salsa/tortilla chips (3-4 cups salsa, 3 bags chips): Justin, Susan, Liz

Green salad (for 30 people each) with Ranch dressing: Margareta, Jennie

Cookies: Bring dough to make cookies on site: Brian, Laurie, Dianne

Punch: cranberry with sprite: Laurie

Paper plates: Rose

Saturday, October 29 help Rotary get in the Guinness Book of World Records

September Rotary Moment: Rotary Youth Leadership Awards

·         Our Rotary moment for this month is captured in the photo below.  Millcreek Rotarian Mustafa Celebii is pictured with the three students sponsored by our club for Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) – Emmery Jansen from City Academy, Bishal Rai and Delphine Uwimbabazi from Cottonwood High School. Be proud of what we do as a Club.  These young adults attended a RYLA weekend, and will report to our club soon.

Our club's accomplishments 2015-2016

Interested in joining the Rotary Club of MIllcreek? Here's what you have to look forward to as a member:

 If  you would like to learn more, come to a club business meeting the first or second Thursday of each month at the Cottonwood Club, 5:30pm, or join us at a social or service project. See Upcoming Events (right column of this blog) for more information. 

Local service

·         Mentoring of two refugee families (one from Tanzania, one from Myanmar) through South Salt Lake Promise Office:

o    continuous contact, development of friendship with the families, assistance and guidance with school work, school and work applications, dental work as well as everyday issues.

o     holiday project where each family member in our refugee families received gifts, gift cards.

·         Obtained Rotary District Grant to purchase 11 Kindle Fires for afterschool refugee programming at the Historic Scott School

·         Book drive for Utah International Charter School, serving refugees and low income kids.

·         Furniture drive for refugee families through South Salt Lake Promise Office.

·         Participation in 2016 Mother's Day Project for low income women organized by Millcreek Rotarian Cesar Diaz

·         Participation in clothes drive and sorting of winter clothing through IRC.

·         Utah Food Bank food donations and sorting

·         Donated hygiene supplies and diapers to The Road Home.

International service

·         Used funds from our annual fundraiser, Wine into Water, to contribute to a Rotary Global Grant for clean water and sanitation projects in El Sauce, a small village in Guatemalan Highlands. Partners in this Grant were Centerville/Farmington, Vernal, and Roosevelt Rotary Clubs.

Club service

·         Had socials every month at different members’ homes: BBQ, panini party, potlucks.

·         Participated in ski, snowshoe, hiking socials, and a wine and cheese tasting at a local restaurant.  

·         Held our Wine into Water fundraiser, with over 100 in attendance. All club members participated again in some way to make the event a huge success, raising $7,500 for water projects and local service projects.

Vocational service

·         Organized a speed mentoring event with Rotaracters from Westminster and the University of Utah.

Youth service

·         Supported an Interact Club at City Academy, a Salt Lake Charter secondary school.  

·         Sent out a Youth Exchange student to Colmar, France and hosted a student from Chile.

·         Sponsored 2 Youthlinc Service Year students in local service & international service to Peru.

Rotary service

·         Members attended District Conference and Northern Assembly to learn more about Rotary International and their club officer responsibilities.

·         Received the Silver Award for club accomplishment from District Governor Glade Hamilton. 

I      

The Rotary Foundation: 100 years of doing good in the world

In celebration of The Rotary Foundation's 100th birthday, here's some basic information about the good the Foundation has done:

Mission: to enable Rotarians to advance world understanding, goodwill, and peace through the improvement of health, the support of education, and the alleviation of poverty.

Founded: In 1917 through the suggestion of Arch Klumph, President of the Rotary Club of Cleveland. Rotary was 12 years old. Contributions are voluntary.

First contributions: In 1930, The Foundation contributed $500 to the International Society for Crippled Children, now known as Easter Seals. Also in the 1930s, sponsored essay contests for secondary students on peace related topics, and founded Institute for international Understanding to host speakers to discuss critical world issues.

Historically:

·         From the 1960s, Health, Hunger, and Humanity grants provided millions of dollars annually to multi-year health related projects from eye camps to prosthetic limbs to mobile clinics in remote areas. Literacy projects were also funded.

·         Matching grants provided tens of millions of dollars to fund clean water, sanitation, vocational training, and other quality of life projects worldwide since the 1960s.

·         Polio Plus, founded in 1979, seeks to eradicate polio from the face of the earth. In the mid-1980s, The Foundation $247 million dollars toward the effort. At that time, 350,000 children were afflicted by polio every year. Today, that number has been reduced by 99.9 percent, and polio is endemic in only two countries — Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Today:

·         The Foundation’s assets are more than $1 billion dollars.

·         Rotary Peace Fellows study at six Rotary Peace Centers worldwide.

·         The Foundation supports vocational training teams, groups of professionals who travel abroad either to teach local professionals about a particular field or to learn more about their own.

·         District Grants fund $25 million annually in small scale short-term humanitarian projects that address needs in local communities and communities abroad.

·         Global Grants support $70 million annually in large-scale international activities with sustainable, measurable outcomes in one or more of Rotary’s six areas of focus. Grant sponsors form international partnerships and work together to develop projects that provide sustainable quality of life improvements.

Contributions:

·         Anyone can contribute to The Rotary Foundation. Most Rotarians in the U.S. contribute $100 annually. The Rotary Club of Millcreek builds this contribution into its quarterly dues.

·         Individuals who contribute $1,000 become Paul Harris Fellows, named for the founder of Rotary.

·        

       For more information, visit www.rotary.org

Welcome new Rotarian - Colby Rider!

Colby Rider has worked in various positions at Rider Plastics, Inc., a custom injection molding business located in Salt Lake City, for the past twenty-five years. In his current position as Operations Manager, he oversees production, inventory, shipping/receiving and customer relations.

In his non-working hours, Colby works out at a local gym, spends time with his family and attends lessons and services at both the Sri Ganesha Hindu Temple of Utah and the Krishna Temple Salt Lake City. His current studies there include an in-depth reading of The Bhagavad Gita, one of three books generally considered to compose the Hindu scriptures. Colby is in the early stages of planning his first trip to India with a friend, who is studying to become a Hindu monk under various swamis in India and Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania.

For the past thirteen years, Colby has participated in volunteer activities at Family Promise, which, in cooperation with Our Saviors Lutheran Church, provides a unique shelter model mobilizing existing resources within the faith community to take a hands-on approach to homelessness. 

Welcome new member Dianne Cochrane!

As Dianne entered the years when most people are thinking about retirement, she took a different path.  First graduating college with a BS in Nutrition followed by pursuing a certification in Integrative Health Coaching from Duke University. 

Dianne has coached clients in all walks of life and all areas that have impact on health. Some of those areas are: nutrition, exercise, sleep, personnel relations, personnel environment, personnel and professional development, mind body connection and mindfulness. 

Presently, Dianne is working on becoming a teacher in Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and hopes to add this to her practice by the end of the year.

Dianne is married to Gene and has two grown children and one granddaughter. In her spare time, Dianne enjoys skiing, golf, hiking, bike riding, yoga and spending time with friends and family.

August 11, 2016 Business Meeting, Cottonwood Club

Attendees – Linda Book, Chris Casper, Dianne Cochrane, Rose Defa, Jennie Ferguson, Marty Gelman, Margareta Hjorth-Vlasic, Frank Lilly, Susan Marks, Laurie Summers-Pisani, Justin Powell, Danny Schoenfeld, Shannon Tilly,

Guests – Anna Ermath, Rebecca Meads, Tahna Tyler, Jose Velasco, Martha Velasco

5:30 Social Meet and Greet – Christine Casper, President

5:45 Welcome – Introduce Guests, Christine Casper

Chris welcomed Linda Book’s guest, Anna Ermath; prospective members Rebekah Meads and Tahna Tyler; and Martha and Jose Velasco from Midvale Rotary. Chris also thanked each of her 2016-17 board members for their service.

Induction of New Member – Dianne Cochrane. Chris presented the Rotary pin and welcome packet to Dianne and welcomed her as a new member.

W2W Update - Laurie Summers

Laurie presented a chart that tracks our ticket sales; we are currently at 4% of goal.  Chris explained that the club has committed that 70% of funds raised will go to water projects.  Chris suggested pre-printed name badges. Frank will have a spreadsheet with guest information and payment status. 

There will be wine, whiskey, and vodka booths.  Laurie emphasized that since this is the last business meeting, it is important that members focus on selling tickets. Jose and Martha committed to sending invitations to their Rotary friends.

Member Spotlight – Margareta Hjorth-Vlasic

Margareta shared a photo visual of where she lived before coming to Salt Lake City. She lived near the Arctic Circle as a child. Most of her Swedish life was spent in Stockholm. She walked us through a story of her life in different places all the way from the north to Batswana and Salt Lake.

Holiday Project, Midvale Rotary – Jose Valesco

The project helps children who are not served by other organizations. Midvale Rotary invites police officers to bring children to a goodwill store in Millcreek; the fire department brings Santa Claus. Their club funds to purchase coats, hats, shoes, school supplies, toys for the children and gifts for the parents.

So far in four years, this project has served 402 children and 212 families. The club works with many different organizations to identify the children. Jose invited the Rotary Club of Millcreek to join in the project.

Other

Margareta reminded all about getting her junior high and high school level books.

Next Meeting/Events:

August 26-27 – Refugee Project – Jennie organizing furniture collection Monday, August 15 in the evening

September 1 and 8 – Business Meetings

September 11 – W2W

Action Items

·         All: Sell tickets to W2W!

August 4, 2016 Business Meeting, Cafe Madrid

Attendees – Chris Casper, Mustafa Celebi, Dianne Cochrane, Rose Defa, Jennie Ferguson, Marty Gelman, Susan Marks, Laurie Summers-Pisani, Brian Rollo, Elizabeth Sherlock, Margareta Vlasic

Guests – Gene Cochrane, Anita Miner, Erin Olsen, Robert Sherlock, Tahna Tyler

5:30 Social Meet and Greet – Christine Casper, President

5:45 Welcome – Laurie Summers, Retention Chair

Chris welcomed guests Tayna Tyler and Anita Miner. Chris reminded members that August is membership month with a focus on enhancing relationships with members and recruiting new members.  Chris introduced Laurie’s daughter Erin and granddaughter Kate.

Rotary Thought – Susan Marks.  Susan talked about why Rotary is important to her: members are people who have an interest in having an impact on peoples’ lives. She wants to be part of making an impact through Rotary Club of Millcreek.

W2W Update – Laurie Summers

Laurie booked Nathan Spencer for Wine into Water entertainment. She would like to get final five baskets or at least themes of the basket to Laurie.  She has 10-12 people committed to tickets. Marty requested a version of the ticket he can print to hand out. Chris will send a jpeg file to Marty.

Chris noted that the club will progress on W2W fundraising regularly and report on how much money raised from W2W actually goes to the water project. Robert Sherlock commented on the importance of transparency on how funds are used.

Youthlinc Presentation – Madison Bergstrom.  Matty provided a slideshow on her Youthlinc service: 40 hours local service; 40 hours miscellaneous service; service at the Catholic community service and City Academy. She completed her international service in Nepal. She served on the vocational committee performing lesson planning and then teaching women to use sewing machines. She participated in fundraising to buy supplies and also worked on construction projects, health fairs, teaching English lessons, painting walls, and visiting families in their homes.

Committee Chair Reports

Jennie Ferguson led a local service brainstorm activity. She organized members into four groups with questions to brainstorm. The goal of the activity was to help develop a well-organized effort for a year of service. Each group reported on the top two ideas and will work on developing them over the next week.

Other

Happy Bucks: $25 was raised from Happy Bucks.

Chris ended the meeting with the club’s focus for the next few months:

·       August – Local Service focus and plan for year – spotlight local service committee member

·       September – Fundraising/Finance – discuss dues increase, etc. – spotlight TBD

·       October – Foundation – Susan and Frank to present on Foundation and goals for year – spotlight

·       Rest of year – TBD

Next Meeting/Events:

August 11 – Business Meeting: Cottonwood Club, 1780 East Lakewood Dr. 
Holladay, UT 84117 
801-277-2691

August 26-27 – Refugee Project

Action Items

·       All: Sell tickets to W2W!

·       Chris will send a jpeg file of the W2S invitation to Marty

·       Brainstorming groups: Finalize recommendations with details for service projects for August 11 business meeting