We live in a beautiful area of the world, surrounded by freshwater, no sharks, and plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy it and have some lemonade!
Thank you to all that were able to join us at the Virtual District Conference. We had a great turnout and I believe that we had a wonderful lineup of diverse speakers. I want to thank the District Conference Committee for all of their hard work and planning to help make this fun-filled virtual event a success, I especially need to do a shout-out for the chairperson, Doreen Lanc! She was amazing and I am very appreciative of all that she did.
I was so pleased to see how many clubs were out and supporting the Great Lakes Watershed Cleanup. I was able to help out in two different communities and it was great to see the Rotarians, but also I saw Interact Students, friends, families, Boy Scouts, Church Men’s Groups, and Community Members that just wanted to help! This is a great opportunity for showing that we are People of Action! If this turns into an annual event or bi-annual event in your community, who would you want to bring? That might be the best person to ask to join you in Rotary. Next year Rotary International President is asking for all Rotarians to Serve to Change Lives. He is asking every club to do a day of service and we just completed one! He is also asking every Rotarian to Bring One, meaning ask a person to join your Club. With all that we have been able to do this past month we are ahead!
Join us for an evening of fun as we celebrate our Rotarians and our Rotary Foundation!
May 12, 2021 7:00 - 7:45 pm
Registration is now open for the gala of our Rotary Foundation. We have a jammed-packed hour that will inspire and educate you! The evening will kick off at 7:00 pm with our master of ceremony, DG Jon Catlin sharing all his wit and wisdom and how our district has made gallons of lemonade during the past Rotary year! We will be sharing videos and pictures of how our clubs used their district grants throughout the evening. Gernot Runschke, our district foundation chair, will honor those Rotarians who achieved the great honor of Paul Harris Fellow. And you will not want to miss our keynote speaker, Ariel Dempsey, our new Global Scholar. Wow....this lady is something else! Yes of course there will be an opportunity to bid on some Rotary swag in our "live" from the chatbox auction. We will end our hour together with two basket drawings that feature items from all over our district! Yep, you need to be in attendance to win!
After you attend our event, please join us in continuing the celebration with Zone 28 & 32
This year we have a more exciting way to celebrate clubs' and individual's involvement in Foundation with an online party at 7:00 pm for our district and then joining the Zone 28/32 GALA.
The Zone Gala evening will feature a "Red Carpet" pre-show that kicks off at 8:00 pm ET sharp hosted by Rotary International's first female President (to be), Jennifer Jones live! This will lead us into the variety show with Master of Ceremonies Past RI Director Jeffrey Cadorette, distinguished speakers, entertainers, inspiring stories about service supported by TRF, and much more!
We are even having an award-winning Flair Bartender, Tom Dryer, and Alex Lifeson from RUSH who is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. He has given us one of his guitars (signed) to be auctioned off.
The lineup of dignitaries includes:
Jennifer Jones
Barry Rassin
Jeffrey Cadorette
Dean Rohrs
Barney Bentall
Valarie Wafer
Mike McGovern
Alex Lifeson
Camilo the Magician
Tom Dryer – the bartender
Tickets to the virtual event will be by a donation of $100, $500, $1000, or $5000 USD (+ service fee) that will be directed 75% to the Annual Fund of TRF and 25% to the PolioPlus fund.
Don’t miss out - book your ticket today. Would you like to sponsor a Rotaract to attend? That is available as well! REGISTER HERE.
For a limited time only, April 26, 2021 through June 08, 2021, on a first come first serve basis, Rotary International District 6290 is offering to match a new gift of $500 to The Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund, with 500 recognition points to name a Paul Harris Fellow. (Note: “new” means that the entire $500 contribution must be made within the program dates. Earlier partial donations cannot be counted towards the match.) If you need a form, please let Kathy Hegedus know and she will get one to you.
PDG Gernot Runschke
District Rotary Foundation Committee
1624 Gladys Circle
Grand Haven, MI 49417
Forms must be accompanied by a $500 USD check and postmarked no later than June 08, 2021.
My name is Forest Resener and I'm the Operations Director for StoveTeam International, a nonprofit organization started by a Rotarian, that is working in Latin America to save families from the dangers of open-fire cooking. The cookstoves we provide not only help families avoid respiratory illnesses, which account for 4 million deaths every year, but they also save CO2 from entering the atmosphere, and provide local employment! Our innovative approach has won StoveTeam numerous awards and resulted in the donation of over 78,000 cookstoves to date. But around the world, we are still nowhere close to addressing this issue on the scale it deserves.
To raise awareness for this devastating issue, we have developed an engaging and informative interactive pre-recorded video presentation, specifically for Rotary clubs. This fun new format allows us to show your club the issue of open-fire cooking firsthand and give an inside look at StoveTeam’s programs, through an interactive experience that allows your club to ask questions and visit links. And because the presentation is pre-recorded, our staff can remain focused on providing cookstoves, while enabling your club to learn and raise awareness about this issue.
Working with City of Muskegon "Tree Man" Arborist David Bailey and Conservationist Kathy Evans of the West Michigan Regional Shoreline Development Commission, 15 Rotarians, friends of Rotary, Rotaractors and Interactors came together Friday morning to help plant a nice variety of trees on what is known as the Carpenter Property, a large open parcel located between the new Petsafe Dog Park and Beidler Street on the West side of Seaway Drive. This is a former industrial site that is coming back to something better!
We planted 58 trees, 13 White Pines donated by our "Rotary Forest" project nursery and 45 other trees (Catalpa, River Birch clumps, Red Oaks, Poplars, Hackberrys, etc) purchased by the City of Muskegon and paid for by a West Michigan Regional Shoreline Development Commission (WMRSDC) grant.
I can't express how thankful I am for all of you who reached out with touching emails, cards, donations, and phone calls after the loss of my son Matthew. It means so much to me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
