Not all were present at the Park,
but those that were were recognized, either by being
asked to stand or by coming up to the front to be presented with their
scholarship check or award.
The
Presentations
Larry Bradley asked Jackie Goss and her family to come to
the podium. There she was presented with a Paul Harris Fellowship.
Then he asked Anton Heithecker
and Matt Vanella to come to the podium and join
Jackie and her family. There they were
each presented with one half of the new Clint Goss scholarship, which Clint
requested be directed to students learning trades. One is attending welding and the other heavy
equipment classes at Butte College.
Next Roy Ellis called up the
students present who were receiving scholarship from Durham Rotary and each
were presented with their scholarship check.
Then Larry Bradley presented the
“Teacher of the Year” award. This year
it was split between two teachers, Matt Plummer and Mark Pisenti
Larry also recognized
our Students of the Month asking each to stand as he read their names (only 4
were present). See the names above.
Then Collen Coutts was recognized for her
work with the students. She is the Durham High School Student Councilor and
Interact adviser. She also assists our
scholarship committee in scheduling interviews of the student for scholarships.
It was also noted that
we have in our club two students who came back to Durham. Steve Heithecker
graduated from Durham High School in 1985 and John Bohannan in 1988.
The
Rotary Foundation Donations
When
every Rotarian gives every year, no challenge is too great for us to make a
difference. The minimum gift to The Rotary Foundation is $25.00. An
annual $100.00 gift is a sustaining member. Once your donations
accumulate to $1,000 you become a Paul Harris Fellow.
It
is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web
site.
Your
gift can be made online or by sending Steve Plume a check made out to The
Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 283, Durham,
California 95958
Membership
When we have live meetings again, bring
guests, who you think you can interest in becoming a member, to meetings. Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be
paid for by the Club. In the meantime,
please invite Durham business owners and/or managers to one of our Zoom meetings. Actually, you can promote membership by having
a guest sit with you during one of our Zoom meetings. Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional
social gatherings in the Durham Park.
Conclusion
President
Jen then closed the meeting.
__________________________________________________________________________________
From
Rotary International
Volunteers work to keep the community of Kingston, Ontario,
healthy and safe
by Arnold R. Grahl
Rotary and Rotaract members in
Kingston, Ontario, Canada, have been volunteering at the region’s largest
COVID-19 vaccination center, helping to facilitate the process of immunizing
hundreds of people per day.
If ever there was a time for Rotary
to step up and take initiative, this was certainly it.
Paul Elsley
Rotary Club of Kingston
Shortly after COVID-19 vaccines
became available to the province in March, Kingston, Frontenac and Lennox &
Addington (KFL&A) Public Health converted a hockey rink in the INVISTA
Centre into a vaccination site. Local health workers have been vaccinating
about 300 people a day and are preparing to inoculate up to 2,000 a day when
more vaccine become available.
Appointments were initially open to
medical workers, people who are at least 80 years old, and residents of nursing
or retirement homes. But appointments will expand to people in other
demographic groups when the supply increases.
Mike Moore, a member of the Rotary
Club of Kingston-Frontenac, was watching news coverage of mass COVID-19
vaccination sites in the U.S. when he realized local Rotary clubs could be of
use at the site near them.
“It’s directing traffic or directing
people or assisting in any non-technical way,” says Moore. “This is what we do
— we volunteer for stuff like this all the time. Our public health authorities
aren’t usually dealing with a pandemic, and I knew they would need help.”
Number of
volunteers from Rotary and Rotaract clubs, including friends of Rotary
Average
daily number of vaccinations at the INVISTA center
Daily goal
of vaccinations when supplies of vaccine increase
Moore contacted KFL&A Public
Health officials to offer two volunteers for each of the three, three-hour
shifts every day. The 42 total volunteers are from the four Rotary clubs and
two Rotaract clubs in the greater Kingston area, and some are friends of
Rotary. Their work has consisted mostly of greeting, ushering, and screening
clients.
Moore went further and compiled a
longer list of volunteers who are on standby for when the clinic expands its
hours. The list includes Sarah Beech, a member of the Rotaract Club of
Kingston, whose schedule has prevented her from filling a daytime or weekend
shift.
“I’ve been a part of Rotary for more
than 10 years now, starting with Interact and now Rotaract,” she says. “We have
a huge network of people willing to coordinate and make things happen. The fact
that we could jump into action and assist this large clinic and get the
vaccination process going has been exciting.”
Alternate
centennial plans
Local Rotary members were making
plans to celebrate 100 years of Rotary in Kingston when the pandemic hit in
March 2020. Paul Elsley, a member of the Rotary Club
of Kingston, said members quickly shifted focus from planning centennial celebrations
to filling a huge service gap they saw emerging as other service groups and
government agencies went into emergency mode.
“It became clear to us that Kingston
was in great need,” says Elsley. “If ever there was a
time for Rotary to step up and take initiative, this was certainly it.”
Elsley runs a local chapter of the nonprofit Blessings in a Backpack,
which provides food to schoolchildren who otherwise might go hungry on
weekends. During the week, the kids received food at school. But when the
schools closed, Elsley and his team partnered with
the in-school meal program run by the Food Sharing Project to deliver large
boxes of food directly to the families’ homes.
Rotary members Mike Moore and
Darlene Clement visit the INVISTA Centre in Kingston on 1 March to assess the
number of volunteers needed for the vaccination effort. Photo by Daniel Geleyn.
“We’ve been doing it every single
week since April 2020,” says Elsley. “We’re at just
under 3,000 families that we are feeding.”
In addition, the Kingston club made
protective masks for recipient families. They also contacted isolated senior
residents, calling them on the phone, delivering groceries, and taking them to
appointments.
All of these activities put Rotary
in the public eye and positioned Rotary members as an obvious resource for
health officials when mass vaccinations began.
“I think it’s about being visible,” Elsley said. “Once we were engaged in supporting the
community and the community recognized Rotary is coming to the table, a lot of
other discussions happened. Mike reached out to KFL&A and got everything
organized.”
Moore says the reactions from
members and those they are serving have all been positive.
“It’s not complicated work, and all
the people are happy we are there,” says Moore. “People have such a sense of
relief when they receive their vaccine.”
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The Rotary
International web site is:
www.rotary.org
District 5160 is:
www.rotary5160.org
The Durham Rotary
Club site is:
www.durhamrotary.org
The Rowel Editor may be contacted at:
pbprice1784@gmail.com
The deadline for the Rowel 6:30
am on Wednesdays.
The Editor’s photographs published in the Rowel are
available, upon request, in their original file size. Those published were substantially
reduced in file size.
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