Greetings, Red Oak Rotarians!

I was very fortunate to attend district conference last weekend. I'm telling you right now - if you are ever able to attend a conference, go. The energy, resources and contacts you'll discover are invaluable to your growth in Rotary and as a leader. I've typed up my notes from this weekend and included them in the stories section of this newsletter. Read through them. If something grabs your attention, let's have a conversation about it. How can we implement it in our club? How can it help you grow as a leader?

 

Purple Pinkies - What is that all about? When Rotarians and global health workers vaccinate children in other countries, they mark the child's pinkie finger with purple dye. This helps future vaccination teams identify which children still need a first dose or a booster shot. In honor of this practice, when Rotarians in our district donate to the polio fund, we paint their pinkie nail purple. As October is Polio Awareness Month, we invite each of you to make a donation to our polio fund, get your pinkie painted purple, and help raise awareness of how close we are to eliminating polio. 

 

Every Rotary club in the world has been challenged to donate $1,500. Rather than set that goal for each club, our district multiplied that number by the number of clubs we have (38). They took the resulting dollar amount and divided it out by the number of members our district has. The result? If each Rotarian in our district donates $37 for polio, our district would meet their target donation for polio. For our club, that means we should donate $1,184 ($37 * 32 members). We have already met our club goal of $1,000 that we set in June. I'm challenging us to meet the additional donation to meet the district goal. 

 

District Polio Chair Gary Bren will be at our meeting on Tuesday. We will be presenting him with the "big check" for our club's donation to PolioPlus. Let's make a good impression on him and show him just how much a small, rural club can accomplish. See you Tuesday!

 

Respectfully,