April is Maternal & Child Health Month. I would like to remind you to join in on a project that focused on this whether it is locally or internationally. World Immunization week is April 24th - 30th.
April 19th, we celebrate the birthday of Rotary International's Founder Paul Harris. Will you do something to celebrate this occasion, perhaps a donation to the Rotary Foundation?
I hope that we all get the chance to get vaccinated soon. To show our gratitude, we can donate to Polio. Remember my 2020 challenge? Let's keep that alive and make a donation to Polio.
This fact-paced Zoom event features members of our Rotary Public Image Coordinators (RPICs) and Assistant RPICs sharing success strategies for growing your club, raising more money and getting attention for Rotary. Attendees will learn important skills such as video marketing, Facebook analytics, Instagram engagement, and making the most of our Rotary database. RPICs Michelle Morrow O'Brien and Michael Angelo Caruso (Zone 28) and Nikki Mederos (Zone 32) are anticipating a fun session with lots of aha moments for you. Register here.
On 24-April (Coinciding with 22-April Earth day), all Rotary districts around the Great Lakes and Watershed are doing cleanup in their area. RD7040 Environment Committee is gearing up to meet the 24-April challenge. We have a Google Drive Excel sheet containing info for each club, name of the club Environment coordinator, and name of site(s) the club will be cleaning up.
This is getting updated as we progress. This info is accessible for everyone to see, but updates will be done by Environment Committee members coordinating your geographical area.
March was another busy month for Rotary in Kingston as our Centennial celebrations ramp up. We held two major events (safely and mostly on Zoom), launched a new volunteer initiative and highlighted the significant international contributions of our clubs.
The month began with our Community Outreach Grants ceremony. We invite smaller, local organizations to submit applications in support of projects planned for the coming year. There are always a few familiar faces, with whom we have developed strong partnerships, and other wonderful groups that are new to us.
As one of its community services, the Rotary Club of Ottawa Stittsville is offering three free pandemic-related mental health seminars by Zoom on April 6 and April 8 from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m.
Topics include:
Management strategies for relating and responding to mental health issues (April 6),and Strategies for job search success during Covid (April 8).
Details on these seminars are provided below. Register for each session by using the web link found within the posters or as provided below. We hope you will share the information about our free webinars with your family and friends.
Our Rotary club wishes you well as we all navigate our way to a better future. We also invite you to visit the W.J. Bell Rotary Peace Park for some quiet contemplation or meditation at our labyrinth this spring.
Seminar information. Ryan Forsyth, Mental Health Speaker & Advocate, will host the events as follows:
Fundraising has been challenging for the past year for events that involve club membership involvement with other people. Clubs should be reviewing their traditional events to see if they can go on as in the past or if they should be modified to comply with COVID-19 restrictions and guidelines.
Finding a new Fundraiser is also an option. As your district Fundraising Chairperson, I would like to provide some new opportunities for your clubs to consider. The one I would like for you to consider today is the sale of Rain Barrels and their associate accessories. Most of you are probably familiar with Rain Barrels, but if not, they provide the means to collect rainwater from your roofs and then to use it at a future time to water plants in your yard and garden. In March, our District Governors' theme was "Water, Sanitation and Hygiene." This fundraiser fits right in with that focus.
How good are you at reading people? Can you tell when someone is lying? How about recognizing when you are in a dangerous situation? We human beings evolved to judge each other quickly because our ability to make these judgments had—and still has—real survival value. As a supervisor in an office where some of those we served were people who experienced paranoid thoughts and aggression, part of my job was to intervene at the first sign a client might be a threat to their interviewer. I depended on my ability to "read people” to keep clients and employees safe.
This is an important reminder to you and/or your club; if you wish to submit a Resolution, please read attached information and submit to me by May 1st. I will then copy to our district's legislative committee which will need to review for action by our district council in early June. RI will need this submission, as approved by our council and DG before June 30th.
Our District challenged all Rotarians to enroll in Rotary Direct between January and Rotary's Birthday on February 23rd and receive 500 Paul Harris Recognition Points. We now have 25 new enrollees in Rotary Direct as a result and they should be seeing their points added to their totals by April. Thanks for increasing the foundation in District 7040 for Our Foundation! Our District has 115 participants in Rotary Direct - our hope is 125 by 30 June...we can get there!
Things always work better when we use the team approach in our District. As the bulletin editor, I know there really should be someone to be my assistant/backup/replacement. Only I know what I receive in the way of articles and news events, and how it goes into the bulletin. The ClubRunner bulletin is an online version, where several people could work on stories, but at the end you pull it together into one.
Is there anyone that might be interested in something like that? I'm trying to set up the new version by July so that we can start a new Rotary year with a team bulletin. Send a message to Ariane if you have that interest, and especially if you are familiar with using ClubRunner for online bulletins.
I’d like to encourage you to call ON A REGULAR BASIS, your Rotary colleagues who are house bound for a number of reasons, or Rotarians that you have not seen in a while. Reach out to your neighbours for the same reasons. Does someone need groceries, their medication picked up, their dog walked, or to listen to their concerns?
Je voudrais encourager vous à appeler DE FAÇON RÉGULIÈRE, vos collègues rotary qui sont maison liée pour un certain nombre de raisons, ou rotariens que vous n'avez pas vus dans un moment. Atteignez à vos voisins pour les mêmes raisons. Est-ce que quelqu'un a besoin d'épiceries, leur médicament a-t-il repris, leur chien a-t-il marché, ou pour écouter leurs soucis ?
