2013-2014 Review

Peter Kelly reflected on this year as president.  We began this Rotary year with a survey, asking you to help shape the direction for our Club. With that and input from the Board we made some small changes to our meetings in an effort to make them more efficient – reorganized meeting format, omitted “Happy Birthday” ... but still in the Gusto, inductions/thumbnails will be done on a quarterly basis. The theme committee presented a series on the Universe and Its Limits. We found out that like Protagoras, we had no idea, and that to capture neutrinos one must go to the end of the earth. Rotary on the Road was held at Gardens of the Fox Cities, Paper Discovery Center, Valley Packaging and several of you dined with me at the Wastewater Treatment Center. The Program Committee presented two Nonprofit Roundtables and the Young Professionals took control for a meeting ... young or old, it was well received. Last year, excluding Rotary Shines, we gave away $39,992.97.  Kaitlyn Pritzl and Syndee Eckberg were each awarded $5,000 scholarships.  U. W. Fox Valley Foundation and Fox Valley Technical College Foundation were also each awarded $2,481.09 for nontraditional scholarships.  The Youth Services and Education Awards Committee presented 11 Bright Future Awards and 4 of these recipients applied for and received scholarships of $625 to attend Fox Valley Technical College.  The committee also awarded 10 Youth Recognition Awards to outstanding seniors and 10 to outstanding juniors. The Arts Scholarship Committee awarded 3 scholarships to students totaling $2,552.87. The World Service Committee awarded grants to the Ghana Sanitation Project ($2,000), the Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity ($825) and PowerFlour ($250). The Community Service Committee awarded a $3,206 grant to Neighborhood Partnership and Sustainability Fox Valley. The Children with Disabilities Committee distributed $23,053.01 to area organizations. In addition, Rotary Shines was held on Friday, April 11 at the Outer Edge. It raised over $28,000 to benefit Catalpa Health, Kenya Works Makini Initiative (benefiting Kenyan adolescent girls); Solar Sanitary Project in India; and a high school sanitation project in Burundi, Africa. In addition we sent money to RI to support PolioPlus. Your generosity didn’t stop there. I received personal gifts such as coffee, a bus pass, empty cans of exotic beer, chop sticks, candy, shot glass, playing cards, commemorative coins, other fun trinkets, and directions to a pancake restaurant to Bangkok. The club hosted Rotary Youth Exchange student Flora Prada from Buenos Aires, Argentina. Our outbound student Levi Cross went to Brazil.  Six students to attended Rotary Youth Leadership camp at Camp Manito­wish YMCA in Boulder Junction. The Family of Rotary held a series of social events called Rediscover Appleton. (A reminder that that fun continues this evening at the Appleton Yacht Club.) The Courtesy Awards Committee awarded 4 Courtesy Award for exceptional service in our community ... and is already asking all of us to be on the lookout for remarkable customer service that we can recognize this year. The Membership Committee held 2 membership drives and 12 members were inducted. Perhaps one of my bigger regrets is not growing our membership numbers and failing to continue our pretty consistent history of receiving Presidential Citation. This disappointment is easily overshadowed by our club sponsoring the Rotaract Club of Lawrence University, which did receive a Presidential Citation. This year was also very challenging for Sharing Around (the World) Medical Project ... I would even say the future of the SAMP looked bleak at one point. The Project collected, packed and sent 3 shipments to Pakistan. Thanks for the hard work of a core group of Rotarians; SAMP also formed partnerships with the Salvatorian Center, the International Coalition of Independent Living and the International Children’s Fund. A total of 210 gaylords were sent out this year. The Board of Directors and the incoming board members held Strategic Planning Sessions facilitated by Shipra Seefeldt and Sridhar. We will have more to report on this at future meetings. The Club thanked Kathy Dreyer for her 16 years of service and welcomed our new administrative assistant – Meghan Warner. We awarded Charles and Adele Heeter Outstanding Community Leadership Awards and Paul Harris Fellows to Dawn Doberstein, Mary Harp­Jirchele for their wonderful work in our community. Tony Gonzalez was recognized as our Rotarian of the Year. This award was accompanied with a Paul Harris Fellowship. We also gave an Honorary Rotarian of the Year award to Kathy Dreyer. That brings us back to today ... and one year ago. Stunts Committee inducted me as President and the club found out that while we’re all very cheerful, Rotary is not a place where everyone knows your name. Over the past twelve months I don’t know that I’ve made any progress. So let me conclude and just say, “Hey you ... all of you, it was fun. Thank you for all you do. It has been an honor to serve as president of the Rotary Club of Appleton.