Robert Keely -- President
Dianna Casto -- RI Foundation
Chet Marshall (right) recognizes Jess Kuhl.
Elaine Rader -- luncheon programs
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Mary Keely -- finances
Christina McComas -- community service
Chuck Nuckles -- membership
Bonnie Prisk -- scholarships
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Club Assembly
'Where we've been, where we're going'
March 27, 2012
Today was a club assembly for Putnam Rotarians, a time when the group takes stock of programs and direction and invites a discussion on improvements and changes.
Of 34,000 local Rotary Clubs in the world, no two are alike, and the international organization encourages local initiative.
And with the new members in the Putnam group in recent months, there is a special need to review priorities and to fit the work of the club to individual concerns.
Mary Keely reported on finances. The annual golf tournament is the major source of income for the club, and the charity raffle is second.
Other fund raising activities included a Christmas poinsettia sale, Chet Marshall reported. Cathy Stark chaired that project, he said. Christina McComas managed the pancake breakfast at Applebee's to raise funds which went to the Rotary International program to eradicate polio.Marshall stirred up competitive interest for the raffle with incentives for ticket sales.
Marshall introduced Jess A. Kuhl, who won the first drawing for the current year.
Kuhl, who who has opened a sporting goods store in Winfield, told the club he was donating part of his winnings to a private foundation to place defibrillators in the schools of the county. The balance of his winnings will go toward a sponsorship for the Rotary 5K Run/Walk on Saturday.
Chuck Nuckles reported on a recent new-member orientation meeting with Generation Putnam. A "Rotary Jeopardy " game is planned for general club information.
Dianna Casto talked about the Rotary Foundation, and the international project to eradicate polio. "In 1954, the trials commenced for the first polio vaccine," she said, "and now we have no polio cases in the United States." Rotary International with matching funds from the Gates Foundation, has sponsored research to develop skin patches for immunization. The patches do not require refrigeration and do not require medical personnel for inoculation.
Applications are now available for two Rotary scholarships, Bonnie Prisk reported. Applications are available on the club web site, but Prisk also has visited school counselors in area schools and left announcements for posting.
Community projects are a mainstay of Rotary service. During the past year, Christina McComas reminded the group, the club assisted in the Putnam County fair, and the Fourth of July celebration at Valley Park. Rotarians have participated for several years now in the National Dictionary Project, and gave a thesaurus to every sixth-grade student in the county. McComas encouraged her audience to consider more hands-on projects, like the Habitat for Humanity homes and the preparation of food shipments for hunger relief.
The club is making application for a matching grant for the Teays Valley Acres Community Park at Scott Depot. The park would be an international project, meaning that the Putnam Club would develop the area in partnership with a club in another country.Denise Springer is drafting the 14-page application form for development of the 74-acre park.
Many of the club activities originate with ideas from speakers at the weekly luncheon meetings of the club. Elaine Rader supervises the speaker schedule with the help of a coordinator for each month of the year..No one made mention of the international projects for an orphanage in Uganda, or a relief mission to Haiti. Or the Christmas bell-ringing for the Salvation Army. Or the grants for Hugh O'Brian ambassadors. Or summer camp at Happy Valley and Camp High-Tor. Or a dozen other service activities.
"There's a job to suit every talent," says Rotary President Bob Keely. "Alone, you ccan't wipe out the scourge of polio," he said. "But with nearly two million other Rotarians, you can do it.
"That's what we're all about."
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