Rotary Foundation Month has come and gone and there were some great celebrations of the Foundation in November. I was privileged to attend the Rotary Foundation Awards Banquet in McAllen on November 11 where we recognized outstanding club performance for the 2016-17 year. PDG Debbie High and I were proud to recognize the top contributor clubs for both the Annual Fund and End Polio Now campaign. Now it’s time to earn those awards for this Rotary year!
Another great Foundation related event in the district this month was the awarding of scholarships made possible by Foundation donations. On November 18 the District Scholarship Committee met and awarded three scholarships to the Costa Rica Global Health Team, two scholarships to deserving veterans, and two $30,000 scholarships to our newest Global Scholar. Congratulations to those recipients. We will feature articles on them in future postings.
I want to ask you to mark your calendars for a Foundation Focus event on January 13 at Texas A&M University, Kingsville, in the Founder’s Room. There is a downloadable flyer on the district website, www.rotary5930.org. Any Rotarian will benefit from this seminar, especially presidents, president-elects, and Foundation Chairs. We will start at 9 in the morning and be done by 1:30. Our luncheon keynote speaker will be Amanda Lewis, a two time Rotary Global Scholar, who is studying for her doctorate at Texas A&M Kingsville. Thanks to the generosity of Texas A&M Kingsville there will be no charge for this event! Please make plans to join us then.
We are at the mid-year point of the Rotary year and the end of 2017. We have survived Hurricane Harvey and life goes on, although it is a different life now for some of our District Rotarians. I would encourage you to consider making a gift to the annual fund to insure we can continue to do good in our district in the years to come. Remember, half of what we contribute to the annual fund comes back to the district in 3 years to be spent on district grants, global grants and scholarships. The amount of money we receive back depends solely on the amount of money Rotarians contribute to The Rotary Foundation.
Have a wonderful Holiday season and a Happy New Year!