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Message from the District GovernorWe've reached the 50-yard lineIt is the 50 yard line of my Rotary year. I have enjoyed the 55 official club visits, the collected stories, the trips to Haiti and Honduras, the PDG luncheon in November and this month’s Zone Institute for Zones 33 and 34 at The Homestead in Hot Springs, VA. I have attended four fundraisers and have been overwhelmed with the sweep and scope of the club service projects and I have probably just scratched the surface in understanding. We have or will distribute $27,000 in District Service Grants and over $100,000 in District Designated Funds. More.
District 7750 was recognized at Zone Institute for the highest percentage increase in Foundation Giving last year – 15.4%. Congratulations and the Governor’s “THANK YOU” to Carol Burdette, Rich Waugh, the Foundation Committee and everyone who contributed. Zone 33 was also recognized as the only Zone in the world that 100% of the Clubs contributed. Unfortunately, we had two clubs that chose not to contribute, but fortunately, someone contributed $5 on their behalf. The Foundation is the heart and soul of Rotary. If every Rotarian in the District could have visited our projects in Honduras and Haiti, we would never have to worry again about contributions to the Foundation. January is Rotary Awareness month and that is appropriate. It is the time when we pull out the goals list and put plans together for the next six months. For Club and District officers, it is often difficult to rekindle enthusiasm. I will try to do my part. Some of my priorities include:
Polio. At the International Assembly in San Diego, Bill Gates himself handed Rotary a check for $255 million for the final drive to eradicate polio. It is the number one priority for the four partner agencies: the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control, UNICEF and Rotary. You can get weekly updates on progress at the partners website www.wildpoliovirus.com. Year to date, there have been 1511 cases, with 1188 in endemic countries. Rotary is about half way toward their $200 million dollar goal. Every club was asked to raise $2000 per year for polio over the next three years. I never liked that goal. It is a huge burden for small clubs, and it takes big clubs off the hook. However, there reasoning was that this should be a District Average and they really didn’t want to block the goal of EREY. I would like to have a fund raiser this spring that would help the small clubs. We will be announcing the details at Mid Year Assembly. You can go to George's blog directly, or just look on the left side of the home page of the website. |
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District Governor George Fletcher 205 Rosebay Drive | Greenville, SC 29615 Send items for newsletter to Editor@rotary7750.org. |
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