All About Our Rotary Foundations
7:30 am John Hackenburg called our meeting together as our Visiting President for the day. Welcome to all things Rotary Foundation this morning!!!
President John reminded us all to wear our masks when not eating or drinking and then we were led in the Pledge of Allegiance.
After all of us joining in song, we then had an introduction of visiting Rotarians with quite a few today in attendance ….
David Mark-Raymond – District 5130 Endowment Chair
Kathy Flamson – Past District Governor
Jim Flamson – Past District Governor
Kevin Eisenberg – Past District Governor – (there does seem to be a lot of Past District Governors around…..)
Visitors – Jean Hackenburg – Rotary wife
Announcements:
A special thanks was given to John How for hosting the Rotary Christmas party and to the committee who helped to put it together.
Annual Fundraiser:
Kurt Mitchler and Bill Conklin, our Chairs for the 2022 Fundraiser discussed the decision to change our fundraising event to a virtual one again given the uncertainty of where we will be with the coronavirus. It was felt that it would be safer and we could still reach our goal of fundraising for the year. Renee Hyde reminded everyone that we should throw small “watch parties” and develop a sense of excitement and giving that night.
They also mentioned our January 11th meeting will be held at the High School in the Welding Center, our primary goal for fund raising this year. Reminders will be sent out as we get closer.
Dick Bishop Salvation Army Bell Ringing: Bill Bolster put out a plea for help for this Saturday, Dec. 18th for bell ringing. Contact Bill if you can help.
Exchange Student Program: Bill Bolster reported that they interviewed 3 worthy applicants for the Rotary Exchange Program and did select someone. More to follow……………
Program:
As today is all about Rotary Foundation, we started with….
- Windsor Rotary Community Foundation (or as many of us long time Rotarians used to call it “the Carl and Ed fund….”) Brian Ling shared with us the Mission of the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation and some of our history in starting this. Our first fundraiser for our new Windsor Rotary Club was the Balloon Fest and because of this, we set up a 501(c)(3) in order to accept funds. In the year 2000, we changed this to the WRCF (Windsor Rotary Community Foundation) and used this 501(c)(3) for this. The Board of Director of the Windsor Rotary Club plus one became the leadership for this. This was the brainchild of our Past President, Carl Wiuff who saw the need for us to invest monies and be able to use the earnings and interest to sustain our projects. Carl, along with our Treasurer Ed Turner, helped to set this up and keep it going with donations from the Club. The “Plus One” of the leadership for years was Carl who then passed that along to Brian Ling before he died.
Our WRCF has several accounts within it:
- Our Endowment Fund now sits at $670,000 – thanks to a large donation from Glen Sugden, a former member, and many members who have generously given donations over the years.
- Our Current Projects Account is where our fundraising monies go
- The Ken Moulton Scholarship Fund…… to name a few
Why does Brian blow the train whistle when someone gives to the WRCF??? Our founder and first President was John Lewis (father of Leslie) who was a train aficionado (train nut!) and it seemed appropriate Brian started to blow a train whistle whenever someone gave to our Community Foundation in honor of John Lewis. We honor John Lewis each time we donate monies and whenever someone reaches a $1,000 benchmark of giving, they are awarded recognition as a “John Lewis Fellow”. Not only does a plaque go up on a banner with your name, but we now have pins that Brian will provide our John Lewis Fellows. He then recognized and gave pins out to the multiple John Lewis Fellows: Di Brabetz, Bill Conklin, Renee Hyde, Steve Klick, Maureen Merrill, Mike Merrill, Joan Mora, and Glenda Sales. Thanks to all who have given and continue to give!
Brian then gave the mic to Steve Klick to explain a donation he wanted to give…. Remember Steve told us when he won the 50/50 at the Raiders game and came away with some large winnings? Well, he donated $360 to the John Lewis Community Foundation (hear the whistle????) and another $200 to his Paul Harris.
- Major Donor Awards: David Mark-Raymond was introduced by President John. David is the 5130 District Endowment Chair has been since 2009. He has attended multiple Festival of Brotherhoods and was awarded a Citation for Meritorious Service by our Rotary District (only 8 have been presented in our District). David then informed us of what it meant to be a Major Donor ($10,000 of giving) and Maureen and Mike Merrill were asked to come up to the podium. Kathy Flamson thanked them for their contributions and what it means to Rotary and those projects we support. John Hackenburg and Di Brabetz, Co-chairs for Foundation then had the pleasure of presenting Major Donor pins to each of them and our Club gave them a round of applause.
- Rotary Foundation – what does this mean to you and other Rotarians? Some of the answers from our Club….. “Health, Hunger and Humanity”, “Monies come back to our Community”, “not a charity, but an investment”, “Curing Polio”, “Changes Lives” – Rotary’s reach is actually greater than the UN and there are 3 ways to give:
- Annual Fund – monies are invested for 3 years and come back after that
- Endowment Fund
- Restricted Giving – this could be for Polio or for other giving
- Classifications of givers:
- Sustainer is someone who gives $100 (really think of becoming a sustainer if you have not already)
- Double Sustainer – gives $200
- Super Sustainer – gives $500
- Paul Harris – gives a $1000
- Major Donor – $10,000
- Arch Klumph Society – $250,000 or more
- Benefactor – provides for $1,000 in their estate
- Bequest Society – provides for $10,000 or more
Polio Eradication:
1985 – 35 countries still had cases of Polio
2010 – only 4 countries
2021 – only 2 countries (Afghanistan and Pakistan)
Any monies we donate do get Paul Harris credit.
Thanks for a great meeting explaining the ways to give and what our Foundations do. Thanks to David Mark-Raymond for coming, for Kathy and Jim Flamson for sharing, and to Kevin Eisenburg for being with us. Thanks Jean Hackenburg for your support and to Maureen and Mike Merrill for your contributions. Thanks to all of those who have given to the Windsor Rotary Community Foundation and become “John Lewis Fellows”, to those who have achieved Multiple John Lewis Fellows and all of our club for their generous contributions to Paul Harris, Polio Plus and to our Endowment Fund. Without this our community would not be this rich in support or concern…
Our meeting was adjourned at 8:30 am with a “go out and do something Rotarian!”
From Your Rotary Nurse
Thanks
Di
Diane Brabetz
Administrator – Owner
At Home Nursing
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