2023                                       Calendar for Durham Rotary
F e b r u a r y				1	2	3	4
	5	6	7 Meeting TBA (Dave Jessen)	8	9	10	11
	12	13	14 No Meeting	15	16	17	18
	19	20	21 Meeting North Valley Health Education Foundation.  (Phil Price)	22	23	24	25
	26	27	28 No Meeting
M a r c h				1	2	3	4
	5	6	7 Meeting TBA (Steve Plume)	8	9	10	11
	12	13	14 No Meeting	15	16	17	18
	19	20	21 Meeting Board Meeting + DG Vistit (Eric Hoiland)	22	23	24	25
	26	27	28 No Meeting

 

The Meeting Opening   The meeting was called to order by Eric Hoiland at the Butte Creek Country Club.  He asked Jen Liu to lead the pledge, which he did. He then asked Jim Patterson to present the invocation, which he did.  He asked Larry Bradley to lead us in a song.  He led us in singing “God Bless America”.

FUTURE MEETINGS: Meetings will be at the location noted, at 6:00 pm.

March 7th: TBA (Field Trip?)   March 21st:  District Governor will visit.    Board Meeting at 5:00 pm.  Meeting at 6:00 pm.     April 4th:  Mike Crump will present the program at the BCCC   April 18th.  Steve Plume will present Heather Lowe, Durham HS alumni teaching in Chico at the BCCC.   May 2nd  John Bohannon will present a program at the BCCC.

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Announcements

 

Chico Sunrise Club

The Chico Sunrise Club will be having a dinner and auction on March 18^th.  Phil Wilke, of the Sunrise Club, was here to talk about it.  They are calling it the St. Patrick Day Gala.  It will be at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, beginning at 5:30 pm.  It will include Dinner, Local Craft Beer, Wine and Dancing.  And, a fabulous auction.

P.E.T.s

Glenn Pulliam will be attending the P.E.T.s conference on March 3-5, 2023.

Durham Parade

The annual Durham Parade will be held in May 13^th.  But they are adding something.  Fireworks in the evening and they are seeking funds to help with that.

Camp Royal

Camp Royal will be June 5^th to 10^th at the Bar 717 Ranch, near Hayfork.  For more information and registration go to:   www.camproyal.org. 

Camp Venture

Camp Venture will be June 21^st to 25^th, probably in Vallejo, but I have no further information.  It is not on the District’s web site yet.

Rise Against Hunger

The Rise Against Hunger workshop (packaging of food) has been cancelled this year.  The club we worked with has cancelled their participation. 

Introduction of Visitors.

 

Steve Plume introduced Tom Knowles, a prospective new member.

Your editor introduced Sara Beacham and Christine Berk, his program presenters for the evening, and Karin Weber, a potential new member.

Jessica Thorpe introduced our Student of the Month and her family:  Alexis Turner, her parents, Jamie and Jamie Turner, Kathy Turner and Taylor Turner, sisters.  Also present and introduced were friends Janelle Thorpe and Weston Wilson.

 

Student of The Month

Larry Bradley presented a Student of the Month plaque to Alexis (Lexie) Turner for February.  Her family was present (see Introduction of Visitors, above).  She is very high academically but also very active in Volleyball, Basketball, and Track.

 

 

 

Recognitions

 

Glenn Pulliam had some discussion about how he bid in the Grinder for  $100 when he wasn’t here.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be on 7^th at the Butte Creek Country Club.  Steve Plume will present the program.

 

The District Governor will be visiting on March 21^st.  There will be a Board Meeting before at 5:00 pm.

 

Tonight’s Meeting Program

 

Your editor presented Sara Beacham and her assistant, Christine Berk, talking about the North Valley Health Education Foundation.  Actually, this Foundation is one of many things Sara in involved in.  She operates B Fit which provides personal training, including one-on-one customized training programs to lose weight, get stronger, build muscle or train for an event. She also operates 25th Hour, which helps business owners gain an extra hour in the day by taking care of payroll and bookkeeping needs.  25th Hour also assists nonprofit operations in accounting, running boards, and communications.  This is what she does for the North Valley Health Education Foundation, a non-profit corporation that I have been involved with, of and on, for many years. 

The foundation provides scholarships ($20,000-$30,000 annually) to students working towards degrees in the health professions in the Chico, California area.  These are students enrolled in health profession programs at Butte College, California State University, Chico, University of California, Davis and Enloe Medical Center.  It was originally formed by doctors who created Chico Community Hospital and was originally named Chico Community Foundation.  It changed its name when Enloe Hospital bought Chico Community Hospital.  While most of you have probably never heard of it, it is about 50 years old, having been formed in 1973.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Think of business owners or managers to bring.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings in the Durham Park or a Pizza place (Monday Night Football).

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

When every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00.   An annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member.  Once your donations accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

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From the District Governor

Mark your calendar: Spring Assembly North is March 25, 8:30-2, at Simpson College in Redding. Spring Assembly South is April 15, 9-2, site TBA.

 

RI Convention: Join DG Suzanne in Melbourne, May 27-31.

 _______________________________________________________________________________________      

 

From Rotary International

Rotary members weave a global web of giving for Ukraine

By Etelka Lehoczky

On 26 January in Odesa, Mykola Stebljanko spent the day under attack. A barrage of missiles killed 11 people and destroyed critical infrastructure around Ukraine, including in the city where Stebljanko lives.

Despite not having working electricity, Stebljanko – who publishes Rotariets, Rotary’s Ukrainian magazine – was determined to report on the situation and Rotary’s response to it. He was able to make a cell phone call to describe an experience he’s had several times during the past year of war.

"Sometimes we have time to go into the shelter, but sometimes there is no time — we're just sitting in our apartment and waiting for the end," he says. "Most of the targets are military or infrastructure objects. Not the buildings for civilians. But sometimes the missiles go to civilian buildings. We just decided, if it will be our building, that will be our destiny."

Even under fire, Stebljanko, a member of the Rotary E-Club of Ukraine, wanted to let members around the world know how important their efforts were. In an interview, he spoke about how members established humanitarian hubs along the Ukrainian border to receive supplies and distribute them throughout the county.

In the city of Kharkiv, he noted, Rotary members who own a shopping center donated space to store supplies.

"They provided a whole underground level for the humanitarian hub," Stebljanko says. "They provide aid each day to thousands of people. In the frontline cities, the Rotarians are real heroes. Despite their very complicated life, they try to continue to serve as Rotarians."

Members inside Ukraine have had supplies to distribute partly because of the global network of Rotary members who have used disaster response grants to provide them. They have sent generators, medical supplies, emergency equipment, modular housing, and other provisions, as well as providing support for refugees.

The Rotary Foundation has awarded more than 300 disaster response grants, totaling nearly US$15 million, to help people affected by the war. More than 270 districts have sponsored grants. That's more than half of all districts.

Some governors credit their involvement to Diana Nestorova, of the Rotary Club of Acton-Boxborough, Massachusetts, USA. She led an online workshop about disaster response grants for more than 500 people in September.

"I took it upon myself to go back to everybody I knew around the world and explain: 'What is a disaster response grant? How can you apply for it? Why apply for it?'" she says. "I saw that what [I] could do was to educate."

Districts in more than 50 countries have used these grants to help. Beyond the nearby countries in Europe, the districts are in Australia, Bolivia, Colombia, India, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, Taiwan, and the U.S, among others. Here are some of their diverse projects.

 

A van is packed with medical supplies in Munich, Germany, to be transported to a humanitarian relief hub in Ukraine.

Photo by: Oliver Pannke

 

Medical supplies

Members of District 9350 were inspired after Ukrainian ambassador Liubov Abravitova spoke to the Rotary Club of Waterfront, South Africa. "Everyone said, 'What can we do?'" recalls Governor Tracey Wilson. "She said, 'You can pray or you can assist, and we'd like both.'"

Still, it was difficult for Wilson and other members in her district to decide how to help. Then they learned about the extraordinary efforts of members in District 1842 in Germany and decided to work with them. Rotary and Rotaract clubs there have created a streamlined system to deliver medical supplies. A team of 15 people communicates regularly with Rotary clubs, hospitals, and charity organizations in Ukraine about what's needed. Then they purchase supplies in bulk, which saves money, and send them where they'll be most useful.

"It's mainly emergency medicine – as you would expect from a war situation – a lot of tourniquets, dressing material," says Oliver Pannke, a member of the Rotary Club of München-Bavaria, Germany, who works full time directing the effort. When members realized how damaged the health infrastructure was, they began providing a wider range of supplies.

"We started to also send medications for blood pressure, insulin, stuff like that," Pannke says. "Right now, we have about 150 different medications in stock here in Munich." The team has also procured and delivered equipment used to scan for shrapnel.

Districts in Australia, Japan, and the U.S. have also used their grants to support this work.

Modular homes

In early 2022, Russian forces destroyed nearly 85% of the buildings in Moshchun, about 33 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Kyiv. Rotary districts around the world have donated more than 60 prefabricated homes to Moshchun and other Ukrainian communities. The houses are just 6 meters by 7 meters (20 feet by 23 feet), which is small enough to be hoisted into place by crane. They have refrigerators, beds, and bathrooms with toilets and showers. They're also fully insulated and have electric heating panels.

This kind of donation was new for District 3462 in Taiwan, whose other ongoing projects involve installing water infrastructure, addressing basic educational needs, and protecting the environment. But Governor Stanley Shih-Yu Yang says he was moved to action.

"I received the assistance request from Ukraine Rotarians, and as a Rotarian, I felt the need to help in the first moment," he says. "As I told the decision to Rotarians in my district, they all supported the righteous action."

They provide aid each day to thousands of people. In the frontline cities, the Rotarians are real heroes.

Mykola Stebljanko
Rotary Club of E-Club of Ukraine

Ambulances and generators

Several districts in India and the U.S. cooperated on two projects that sent ambulances and generators to hospitals in Ukraine. Rotary members in Florida worked with three districts in India to send ambulances stocked with supplies such as ventilation equipment, catheters, bandages, and burn dressings.

The Florida members also collaborated with districts in Karnataka, India, and in the U.S. states of Michigan and Wisconsin to deliver refurbished generators to four Ukrainian hospitals.

"The human suffering should be minimized," says Sanjay Deshpande, Foundation chair of the Rotary Club of Lake Nona, Florida, USA. "That was our driving force."

Donations for refugees

When Ukrainian refugees arrived in Sydney, Australia, with few possessions, districts in the area took action.

"So many were suffering, not only the trauma of the war, but the anxiety of being separated from families and the worry of what the future will hold," says Wilhelmina Howard, governor of District 9685.

Tina Latham, international service chair of the Rotary Club of Kincumber, New South Wales, says the decision to donate supplies emerged from a different kind of project.

"Our Days for Girls sewing group were making Ukrainian star quilt panels to be put together into quilts to donate to displaced Ukrainian families," she says. "Later, we learned families arrived in Australia with one suitcase and the clothes on their backs."

Collaborating with public schools, neighborhood groups, and the Priceline pharmacy chain, the districts provided essential items to 136 families in the Sydney area. Families with adults over 50 or children got vouchers worth AU$300 (about US$210) for clothes, food, cookware, school supplies, and medication.

The Rotary effect

Districts around the world have used disaster response grants to support people in Ukraine and those who have fled. As Rotary's global effort goes on, people in Ukraine have noticed – even under fire.

"During this war, we already established approximately 10 new Rotary clubs," Stebljanko says. "Just imagine, we have missile attacks, but we continue to grow our Rotary community."