The Lima Rotary Club was honored to host the graduation ceremony for the 2021 Allen Lima Leadership Youth Class.
Thirty two students from ten local high schools participated in the Allen Lima Leadership Youth Leadership Program in 2021. Allen Lima Youth Leadership is sponsored by the Lima Rotary Foundation and Lima Memorial Health System. It actively involves, educates and challenges youth to reach their fullest potential as leaders. High school sophomores and juniors learn about their wider community, discover and develop their own leadership styles and practice team building and communication skills. This year's class created the We Hear You Project to help spread awareness about mental health and make sure people are heard. The students told us that they decided to focus on mental health because 1 in 10 young people experience a period of major depression, half of mental health conditions start by the age of 14, and suicide is the third leading cause of death in 15-19 year olds. The We Hear You Project can be abbreviated to three letters: W, H and Y. They told us that a lot of people who are struggling with mental health lose their “why” in life. By reaching out over social media and other platforms, they hope to help people know that they are being heard and that they can find their “why”. The students will be posting two positive and motivational messages on their Twitter account every day. You can follow them at @WeHearYou21. They also have yard signs, T-shirts, wristbands and stickers. Thank you, ALL Youth Class of 2021, for caring and we wish you well in your future!
Also, congratulations to Jeff Fitzgerald for achieving Paul Harris Fellowship!
The Lima Rotary Club's Annual Meeting is May 17, to be followed by a special meeting. Please take a few minutes to review the items on the agenda and be sure to attend!
This year the Lima Rotary Club Annual Meeting will be held on Monday May 17, 2021 during our regular club meeting time. Immediately following the Annual Meeting, a special meeting addressing a MOU between the Rotary Club, the City of Lima and the Civic and Convention Center will be called to order. The MOU requires establishing a capital replacement reserve fund totaling $150,000 to be used specifically for the long-term capital replacement needs of the Greater Lima Region Park & Amphitheater.
If you wish to submit questions before the meetings, please email them to Club Secretary Rita Brown at limarotary@gmail.com. They will be covered during the meetings.
Join us for the next Lima Rotary Club Social on May 20th from 5:00 - 8:00 pm at Milano Cafe. Drinks and appetizers and fun! Please RSVP to Demi so she can plan accordingly.
Register now for the Rex Perry Memorial Golf Outing on July 21 and support our scholarship fund!
This year marks the 21st anniversary of the annual Rex Perry Memorial Golf Outing. It will be held on Wednesday, July 21st at Hidden Creek Golf Course with a rain date of Wednesday, August 25th. The Golf Committee is working closely with Hidden Creek Golf Course to again ensure our participants' safety against COVID.
Last year we had 27 teams competing and raised over $40,000, all of which went to benefit the Rotary Foundation Scholarship Fund. The Rotary Memorial Scholarship Fund selects persons who live or work in Allen County who are in pursuit of a degree or certification and will attend a school or college in Allen County. The intent of the scholarship is to encourage Allen County employees and residents to work and plan for their futures within our county. As of March 2021, over 1,089 adults wishing to continue their education have received scholarships from the Lima Rotary Club. These scholarships total over $817,250. Degrees or certifications can be achieved at the Apollo Career Center (Adult Education), Bluffton University, Rhodes State College, The Ohio State University at Lima and the University of Northwestern Ohio. All residents who live in and employees who work in Allen County are eligible.
The golf outing is open to the public so please invite your friends to join us. Contact Andy Wannemacher today to register or click here to register online.
Get your nominations in for the Lima Rotary Club's Avenues of Service Awards.
Every year since 2009 - 2010, the Club has acknowledged individual club members each year for outstanding Club, Community, International, and Vocational Service. In 2015 – 2016, Youth Services was added. These awards were named for past presidents who represented those avenues of service in their daily lives. Those include:
the Rex Perry Club Service Award,
the Rudolph Community Service Award,
the Goodnight International Service Award,
the Wemmer Vocational Service Award and,
the Hulsken Youth Service Award.
These past few years, club members have nominated fellow club members for the awards and the Board of Directors has selected the winner in each category. Please send your nominations to Club Secretary Rita Brown at limarotary@gmail.com by Wednesday May 5, 2021. The Board will vote on your nominations and select a winner in each category at the board meeting on Tuesday May 11, 2021. Those selected as winners will be recognized at our Annual Changing of the Guard Party. This year it will be held during the Club meeting on Monday June 28, 2021.
Here is the criterion for each category of award and the list of past winners.
You are invited to Rotary District 6600's Governor's Recognition and Awards Ceremony.
On June 17th I will hold our first and last live event of my year as District Governor. It will be on Thursday evening, June 17, 6PM at the fabulous Hancock Hotel in downtown Findlay adjacent to the world headquarters of the Marathon Petroleum Company, NW Ohio's largest employer.
The evening will begin with a cocktail reception at 6pm and a room filled with great classic rock and roll music. The evening then moves into the main ballroom where a series of carving stations and heavy hors d'ouerves will be available throughout the evening while we celebrate the many accomplishments of the Rotarians in District 6600 during this unique year.
Awards in Foundation giving, The We Are One Community Grants, Paul Harris Society, Bequest Society, Arch Klumph Society and Polio Plus will be presented by Foundation Chairperson PDG Deb Cheney.
I will then offer a series of awards to Rotarians at the Club and District level.
It will be an evening of laughs, tears and most of all...togetherness. We will follow all State of Ohio Department of Health Guidelines.
Tickets are $40.00/person and are on a LIMITED BASIS so reserve them TODAY by going towww.rotarydistrict6600.org then clicking on District Events. Scroll down to Governor's Award Ceremony and reserve your seats. We also have a special room rate if you wish to stay for the evening at this fabulous hotel. I'm telling you.....the rooms ROCK!
Again, TICKETS ARE LIMITED so get them today. Once we sell out...that's it! Or I can put a speaker outside along Main Street so you can listen.....
I hope you will join the 2020-2021 Leadership Team on this glorious night as we "come together...right now"--- The Beatles
Rockin' in the COVID Free World,
Keith
Keith Hodkinson District Governor Rotary International 2020-2021
Our 22 April, 2021 event aimed to foster conversations around impact and forge new directions in the way we think about social investment locally and globally. The program included conversations with thought leaders from the nonprofit sector and will deepen our understanding of how we work to drive meaningful change and how we deploy resources to realize a shared vision of a better world. Panelists: * John Palfrey President, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation * Dean Karlan, Expert advisor, Charity Navigator and co-founder of Moderator: * Lourdes Duarte, WGN News, anchor
Kids Helping Kids: Rotary collaborates with an orphanage to feed street kids in Meru, Kenya.
y Dickson Ntwigae, member of the TRF Cadre of Technical Advisers and Rotary Kenya Country Office Trustee
In May 2020, when COVID-19 cases were on the rise in Kenya, we, the Rotary Club of Meru Rotarians, decided to reach out to the most vulnerable group in our community: street children in Meru County. At the time, Kenya had just reported 758 Covid-19 cases, with 42 deaths and 284 recoveries. The control measures implemented to try to limit the spread of the virus had been significant. Schools, colleges and universities closed, and we saw food prices jump by at least 50 percent.
It was a challenging but pivotal moment for us to take action.
Some of the children we helped came from areas bordering Isiolo and Samburu counties, which had been severely affected by locusts. More than 300 children were now living on the street in Meru town without any government support.
Even before the pandemic, conditions for Meru’s street kids were dire. They were grouped into four categories:
Children who work and live on the street full-time, living in groups in temporary shelters or dark alleys.
Children who work on the streets by day but go home to their families in the evenings.
Children who are on the streets occasionally, such as in the evenings, weekends, and during school holidays.
“Street families”, children whose parents are also on the streets.
Joint action and results
It’s against this backdrop that the Rotary Club of Meru Rotarians and Rotaractors, in partnership with the Rotary Clubs of Grantham Kesteven, Lincoln Lindum, Middleton, Sittingbourne Invicta, Guildford Chantries, Northampton, Kimbolton Castle, St. Neots St. Mary’s, Sleaford in the UK and Oakville Ontario, Canada, resolved to take action to alleviate the suffering of the street children in Meru County.
“Being a girl of action, as we like calling ourselves in Rotary, I couldn’t just stand by while the street kids starved to death,” says Karen Kinya, one of the Rotaractors coordinating other Rotaractors to help with cooking and distribution of food to the street kids.
“Now more than ever, they need my help--an opportunity for me to practice Rotary values…to serve above self!”
Every day, we bought food at the market at a cost of about USD $112. We cooked and packed meals at the Cloverleaf orphanage, which I founded in 2014. The kids at the orphanage did an amazing job helping. They happily pitched in to prepare, cook and pack meals for children less fortunate than they are – “kids helping kids.” As a result of our efforts, more than 88,000 meals were served to 300 children on the streets of Meru.
The County Government of Meru didn’t want to be left behind – it wanted to be part of our success story. As such, out of the 300 street kids we fed, 150 youth were recruited into the the Meru County Government program, whose aim was to change the mindset and offer hands-on skills training to the street children. The first program graduation was officiated by the Meru County Governor Kiraitu Murungi on 11 February 2021.
And as Jacqueline, one of the street kids and beneficiaries, says, the initiative meant more than food: “Every evening when I see Rotarians coming to feed us I am hopeful that I can also be like them – I want to become a policewoman and help girls like me.” Then she adds, “But for now, I can only be grateful to the Rotarians that I can stay alive as I am assured of at least one meal a day.”
More information about our club’s service projects is available online.
The following contributed to this story: Caroline Newton, Richard Pennell, Joy Mwenda. Photos courtesy of Kelvin Mwenda
Rotarians and Cloverleaf orphanage kids prepare and pack food for delivery to the street kids.
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