Thirteen of us made it to our Zoom meeting Monday evening which included a special visit from District Governor Elect Charlene Jarest. She discussed several items involving the District and our Clubs, especially Secretary and Treasurer training sessions via Zoom that will take the place of District Conference sessions. Regarding the Special District Grant ($1,000 award) to provide food bank assistance to local areas, the District issued $33,000 in Grants.
Board meeting was postponed to May 11. However, Rose updated that she hoped to have our 2019/2020 Grant final report finished and emailed by end of this week - waiting on receipts from two of the recipients. As of Monday evening we had received 14 scholarship applications. As of today (May 6) that number has increased to 24 - today is the school's deadline for mailing. Our selection process needs to be completed by May 22 for the Virtual Baccalaureate on June 9th.
A suggestion had been made at a previous meeting about donating additional funds. Anyone who wishes to provide additional support to our local food banks, can certainly send your funds directly to them, perhaps with the note that funds are being donated by a "Westerly Rotarian". Ted Avedesian spoke about the Club providing a full meal to one of our first responder organizations and perhaps extending that to other organizations over the next couple of months. He will have more details next Monday. Another suggestion was to do something for the market store clerks, hospital staffers who have been working throughout this crisis. More on this to come also.
We received a note from Joe and Carol Potter. They are doing well, saying "Cindy and Vinny have been a great help. We are scheduled to return in late June." Joe celebrated his birthday on April 29.
CHIKUMBUSO Virtual Challenge
President Kathryn would like us to participate as a team. All you have to do is the following:
1. Let Rose know that you are on the team (the club will send a check to Chikumbuso for all team players)
2. Plan your own 10K race (walk, run, bike, swim, dance) for Chikumbuso on May 23rd. Take a picture of what you are doing and send to Rose.
Rose will post your pictures on our website and also forward them to Linda at Chikumbuso.
From Linda - Zambia has also been effected by COVID19 with school closures and economic difficulties. Chikumbuso has closed their school and community room doors, but continue to provide food for the vulnerable children. The funds raised from this event will supplement the feeding program at Chikumbuso, ensuring that the students are continuing to be fed during this difficult time.
ROTARY GRASSROOTS PEACEMAKING
You are invited to Rotary International's Zoom meeting on Thursday, May 14 at 9am EST - Guest speaker will be Iran's UN Ambassador H.E. Dr. Majid Takht Ravanchi
The Grassroots Peacemaking Philosophy is that everybody wins with peace and everybody loses with war. History shows us that it is better that enemies live in peace and prosperity rather than having wars with a lot of destruction. People do not have to love each other (love can come later); they just have to live together in peace and cooperation. You can register (free) by sending an email to mi@leadership-by-rotary.org.
ROTARIANS DELIVERING SUPPLIES - Rona Mann said that last week there were not too many calls.
MAY 18 Zoom Meeting will include special guest speaker Russ Partridge from the Warm Center. He will speak soon after all have checked in so please try to be on time - meeting starts at 5:3pm.
