Rotary International Theme 2024-2025	THE ROWEL Rotary Club of Durham		Rotary International President: Gordon McInally Rotary District 5160 Governor: Clair Roberts Durham Rotary President: Glenn Pulliam _____________ Editor: Phil Price Publisher:  Jen Liu
	December 3, 2024	Crab Feed 2025 Will be held on Date: January 25, 2025

The Meeting Opening This was the annual Christmas Party.  It was called to order by President Peggi Koehler, at the Butte Creek Country Club. Your editor was not present (eye surgery) so all the photos and information about the party is from Jen. Peggi first asked Glenn Pulliam to recite the Rotary "Four Way Test" then asked Tom Knowles to lead the pledge, which he did. Peggi them asked Larry Bradley to lead us in a song.  He led us in singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". Following that, Peggi asked Jim Patterson presented the invocation which he did.

Rotarian of The Month - November, 2024

After introducing our guests, President Peggi guided us on a fun guessing game to reveal the November Rotarian of the Month. Here's how it unfolded:

It has been such an honor to give a spotlight each month of my presidency on to our unsung Rotarian Heroes within our Rotary Club of Durham. This Rotarian of the Month for November 2024 is no exception. What aprivilege to share with you all in just a minute, some incredible tidbits of information ‘behind the scenes’ of this Rotarian being honored this evening,

The chosen Rotarian was a very easy choice, in fact, this Rotarian probably could receive Rotarian of The Month every month as the dedication to our club and to our community goes far back in time and is felt throughoutthe community of Durham even today. This person is always ready to lend a hand and often does so without being asked. If I shared with you the many projects this Rotarian has been a partof over the years you’d likely figure out who the recipient tonight

is, but I’ll share some amazing facts first about this outstanding member of our terrific Rotary Club...

• As a middle school student, this Rotarian attended a boarding school in Canada called St. Andrew’s, along with one brother, while the rest of the family was temporarily living in Mexico for their father’s line of work with DuPont Corporation
  

  
  

• This Rotarian loves photography and has an outstanding ‘eye’ for taking picture

• Also this person is an excellent gardener and can grow ANYTHING, according to the spouse of this Rotarian!

• This person worked at SeaWorld, raising salt water fish in a fresh water environment
  
  
• A world-traveler with a position as an ‘agent’ with the National Marine Fisheries Services, working for several months on a Tuna Saner ship acting as an agent protecting porpoises that may have been caught up in the netting of catching tuna; this Rotarian had to be even-tempered and well-liked, (which this person continues to be today), otherwise there’s no telling what the shipmates could have done to this person somewhere near Panama, Central America or South America if personalities clashed way out at sea!!

• This person received a degree in Fisheries Biology from Chico State; if I shared with you the other degree you’d immediate know who our Rotarian of the Month is!
  
  
• Was President of our club in 2009-2010

• Has been a Durham Rotarian since rejoining our club November 2018
  
  
• This Rotarian was one of the youngest to serve as Director of Public Works for Butte County, having also had a degree in Civil Engineering from Chico State
  
  
• Was in this field of work for over 30 years
  
  
• This Rotarian has a spouse that thinks the world of this person because of the loving nature, compassion, dedication and continual fatherly love shown to his son, Brian, and o his twin brother, John

It is my true joy to present this Rotarian of the Month of November 2024, to our very own unsung Hero to our club and tohis own family, Mike Crump!!!

                            

Christmas Party

Our Next Meeting

Our next meeting, on December 17^th will be at the Memorial Hall in Durham.  It will be a discussion of the Crab Feed.

Membership

Bring guests who you think you can interest in becoming a member.  Your dinner and your guest’s dinner will be paid for by the Club.  Also, bring a guest to one of our occasional social gatherings.

District 5160 Governor, Dan Geraldi is asking each club member to bring at least one guest to a meeting this year.

Go to the following Rotary International web site for information on membership development:  https://my.rotary.org/en/learning-reference/learn-topic/membership .  From this website there is access to membership development and other related information.

The Rotary Foundation Donations

You can make a difference in this world by helping people in need. Your gift can do some great things, from supplying filters that clean people’s drinking water to empowering local entrepreneurs to grow through business development training.

The Rotary Foundation will use your gift to fund the life-changing work of Rotary members who provide sustainable solutions to their communities’ most pressing needs. But we need help from people like you who will take action and give the gift of Rotary to make these projects possible.

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.

If you have any questions ask Steve Heithecker.

It is possible to learn more about The Rotary Foundation on the Rotary web site. 

Your gift can be made online or by sending Jessica Thorpe a check made out to The Rotary Foundation to Durham Rotary, P.O. Box 383, Durham, California 95958.

 From District 5160

Candidates for District Governor

World Peace Conference – January 24-26, 2025, Rohnert Park (Sonoma Wine Country)

World class speakers including RI Past President Jennifer Jones, panelists, instructors and others working in the field of peace are coming together for the region's first ever Rotary Peace Conference on January 24-26. Registration opens Aug 31 atPeace25.org

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{Note that the following may not be the complete article.  See the complete article on Rotary International’s News and Features web page}.

Rotary projects around the globe

November 2024

By Brad Webber

Guatemala

The Rotary Club of Guatemala La Reforma’s Upcycling Art Festival featured whimsical sculptures and paintings created with cast-off materials such as paper and cardboard, wood scraps, glass, plastics, metal, rubber, and electronic waste. Like many countries,Guatemala struggles with solid waste management, notes Esther Brol, a past club president who pioneered the event in 2023. “Pushing artists out of their comfort zone by challenging them to create works of art from waste has generated wonderful results,” including raising funds for club projects and The Rotary Foundation, she says. The club partnered with the Rotaract Club of Guatemala La Reforma and the Rotary Club of Los Altos Quetzaltenango to organize the three-week exposition and sale that concluded 5 June.

Canada

The annual Concert to Feed the Need has raised nearly $90,000 since 2018 to offer meals in the Durham region in Ontario, through a network of food banks, meal and snack programs, shelters, and other social service providers. Feed Ontario reports an increase of 47 percent in the number of employed people using foodbanks since 2018. “With the rising cost of food and the impact of the pandemic still being felt, food bank use is soaring,” says Joe Solway, a member of the Rotary Club of Bowmanville, which initiated the event. Members of six other Rotary clubs also sell sponsorships and tickets and promote the show, an eclectic mix of pop, folk, country, rock, blues, gospel, “and maybe this year some opera,” Solway says. Media attention surrounding the concert and its acclaimed performers helped it yield nearly $23,000 in 2023. The 2024 event will take place on 8 December.

Bulgaria

In 2007, the Rotary Club of Sofia-Balkan teamed up with the Bulgarian Basketball Federation and the National Sports Academy to form a basketball club for wheelchair users, and the project has kept growing. Over the years, the club has lured coaches from the European Wheelchair Basketball Federation to offer a player clinic, cultivated referee skills, and established a Rotary Community Corps to help. On 13 February, in conjunction with a Rotary zone event, the Bulgarianteam faced off against a Serbian team for a friendly match. RI’s president at the time, Gordon McInally, sounded the starting whistle and tossed the ball into play. The club’s signature project is a point of pride for Rotarians, says Past Club President Krasimir Veselinov, and several organizations that advocate for people with disabilities have signed on to support the venture.

Kenya

Recognizing the importance of sleep to child development, the Rotary Club of Nairobi delivered bed kits for 8,000school children in 2024, a milestone in a long-running project. Over the past 16 years, the club has partnered with Toronto-based charity

Ethiopia

 With the wind at their backs, members of the Rotary Fellowship of Kites and its founder, Henock Alemayehu, gathered for a day of kite making and flyingwith 250 children, many of them displaced by conflict among the more than 80 ethnic groups in Ethiopia. The children and volunteers converged on the groundsof an elementary school in Quiha, in the northern Tigray region, for the Ashengoda Kite Festival on 9 June. “The simplicity of this activity carriedprofound significance, offering a rare moment of peace and joy for these children,” says Alemayehu, a member of the Rotary Club of Addis Ababa Central-Mella. The kite fellowship, which has more than 100 members from 12 countries, is “creating lasting change through the simple yet powerful act of kite flying,” says Alemayehu.

This story originally appeared in the November 2024 issue of Rotary magazine.