Thanks to Dave Kenitzer for bringing us Sandra Barrington, President of the Nevada County Rotaract Club, as our program last week. Sandra gave us a good update on the first year of work for our younger counterparts. They are in a recruitment drive at the moment, so if you know any young adults, ages 18-30 in the western Nevada County Community who would make good Rotarians, refer them to Sandra or David. The Rotaract Club can be found at www.rotaractnc.org.
International Service Chair and President Elect Nominee Carolyn Inglis reported on the Club’s efforts to fund a Shelter Box for Haiti. As of the Club meeting, we were just $150 shy of our $1,000 goal. If you would like to help us finish that commitment, write your check for $50 or more to the Nevada City Rotary Club Foundation or for $49 or less to the Shelter Box (either way it’s to a 501(c)(3) non-profit and tax-deductible) and bring it to a meeting or mail it to our P.O. box. Put "Haiti" in the memo field. More information about ShelterBox is available at www.ShelterBox.org. If you donate by February 28th, you can deduct it from your 2009 taxes.
Community Service Chair Cathy Wilcox-Barnes updated us on our project to work on our commitment of $3,000 toward the match of the Gates Foundation $250m donation to RI for polio eradication during Polio Plus Week. Our plan, in conjunction with the other Western Nevada County clubs of Area 4 is to table at a local market on Friday, February 26th to create awareness of the fight against polio and to solicit donations to the End Polio Now effort. If you can help with that, let Cathy know. During that same week, an Area 4 Mixer, a social event for members of all 6 western Nevada County Rotary Clubs (including the Rotaractors), will be February 24th in the evening at Goomba’s Restaurant in Grass Valley. Time is 5pm - 7pm. Mark your calendars for an evening of good Rotary fun.
Let’s get psyched for the Annual Radio Auction! It’s March 20th this year and will be in the Stonehouse Building. Put March 19th in your calendar, too, for the dry run the evening before. If you have not yet received your sales packet, talk to Auction Co-Chair / pP Nancy Kemp or Auction Co-Chair Gary Gustafson. Please try to land again the donations we received from your contacts in the past (if you are a new Club member, we have assigned you donors recruited by former club members), and that you try to land at least one new donor this year (or become one yourself). This is our largest fundraiser of the year and we’ve budgeted on the assumption it will raise $25k of our $60k annual budget. Please do your share so we can restore our scholarship budget to $15k – we had to cut it to $12k in this year’s budget to account for expected difficulty raising money this year. Thanks!
Speaking of scholarships, a highlight of our meeting was a visit from Drew Reynolds Scholar Adam Kanoff, who is just about to finish up at Sierra College (he got delayed a semester by difficulty scheduling required classes due to state budget cutbacks) and move onto Cal. State Sacramento to pursue his bachelor’s in Government and Administration of Justice. Adam and his wife are the proud (and sleepless!) parents of a new daughter, so he is now working to support two children while getting his education. He’s maintained a 4.0 grade point at Sierra and is truly an inspiration. Our small contribution to his success is a fitting memorial for Drew Reynolds, who was a working parent at Sierra College when he was killed.
I also had the pleasure of announcing joint Rotarians of the Month for January – Ron Knaus and Allan Rogers for their donation (Ron) and framing (Allan) of the 1935 Nevada City newspaper that announced our Club’s first meeting. Thank and congratulate Ron and Allen when you see them!
Youth Services Chair / pP Kim Stewart and Secretary / pP Dave Kenitzer are leading a committee to launch the Youth Tube project – a video / film competition for area high-schoolers modeled along the lines of our music and speech contests. It will be limited to Area 4 this year but, if it goes well, the District may well take it District-wide next year. If you joined Rotary because you wanted to help kids, this is your chance! Contact Kim or David if you can help out.
Our program this Thursday is hosted by George Rebane and features the always entertaining Jeff Ackerman, publisher of The Union, discussing the papers' effort to assist our underfunded County Library System. It will be an interesting program. See you there!
