December 2018 Newsletter

The Thanksgiving weekend has come and gone and we will soon be full bore into the December holiday season.  If you had an opportunity to check out the latest Governor video you’ll recall that there was mention of my conversation with Brian Gray, President of the Paradise, California Rotary club. (Much like a street in Show Low by the way, the name of this town, Paradise, is thought to have originate from the term Pair of Dice.)  Every Rotarian in the Paradise Rotary Club, all 67 of them, lost their home in the Camp fire in northern California.  Many lost their truck or car, their business and their job.  A fund for assistance has been set up:  paradisestrong.org Please consider a donation in order to help these fellow Rotarians as well as their friends and neighbors in what will surely be a long recovery effort.
 

Scottsdale Sunrise Rotary Club toured Raising Special Kids, Ability 360 affiliates as well as the $12,500,000 Special Needs work out facilities. The world championship para Olympic rugby team as well as many other championship teams train in these state of the art facilities. The blind even play basketball with special noise making balls. We have worked with Raising Special Kids for 15 years or so and we are planning on doing a collaborative fundraiser with them in 2020. This group does so much for our special needs community and we are happy for all they do for our Special Day for Special Kids day. We loved that they had a bunch of pictures of Special Day for Special Kids on their wall. Great to see Arizona taking excellent care of their special needs population.

Hello Fellow Rotarians;
 
We Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your friends and family.  We are in the home stretch of 2018, and the first of our District's amazing RYLA programs is just around the corner in January! 
 
As we prepare for this year’s RYLA program, the committee is excited about the various opportunities that are available for the youth in our communities with the upcoming RYLA Camps.  For the past few years, RYLA Pinerock in Prescott has been actively working with The Manzanita Meal Packing Program and this past April RYLA Ponderosa in Heber completed their first meal packing event – together both RYLA camps packed 75,000 meals this year alone! Meals that have ALL been distributed to hungry families here in Arizona. RYLA 5495 has paid for many of those meals through the Arizona Tax Credit. This year, the RYLA 5495 Committee elected to combine our fundraising efforts.  We are “One RYLA with Two Camps”!  Donations received will be distributed proportionately between the two camps.
Hi everyone, check out RYE's TV/Radio appearance this morning!!  The tv/radio program runs in all of Northern Arizona/Verde Valley/Yavapai County areas, with studios in Cottonwood, Flagstaff and Prescott Valley.
 
 
Machel, Tristan (RYE Inbound-Sedona), and Leo (RYE Outbound-Flagstaff) did an amazing job promoting our Short Term and Long Term Youth Exchange Program!  
 
This was a first, but it's my hope that we can continue to promote our RYE program with more media coverage!  The larger audience that we capture, the more RYE candidates and host families to be gained!  
 
It aired live on both Verde Valley TV (Cable One channel 56
and/or Suddenlink channel 2) and on KYBC 96.3 FM.
 
It re-runs at 2 pm on KKLD.
 
It also airs multiple times a day for 4 days on TV, check the cable providers schedule for times.
 
The episode remains permanently on their website, verdevalleytv.com, and
their Facebook page:
 

Check it out!  
Saturday, March 23, 2019
2nd Annual Gilbert Rotary Team Trivia Fundraiser
Southeast Regional Library 775 N. Greenfield Road Gilbert AZ 85234
 
Come and join us for a fun and challenging night of trivia. Bring a team of family and friends or form a Rotary Club team and compete for prizes. A silent auction will also take place. All proceeds benefit Gilbert Rotary Charities. This is our major fundraiser of the year and last year’s event was a huge success. Please join us. Tickets for individuals are $25 - Tables of 8 are $200
 
Meeting Location Change
The Rotary Club if Gilbert AZ is changing meeting venues with the first meeting of the New Year on January 3. 2019. We have been previously meeting the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Thursdays of the month at 7 AM at the Egg and I on Queen Creek Road and we have outgrown their fantastic space! We will be moving our club meetings to Superstition Springs Golf and Country Club 6642 E. Baseline Road Mesa, AZ 85206. Please join us at our new venue –there will be plenty of room to grow.  A buffet breakfast will be available.
SEDONA – (November 29, 2018) – The Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks recently awarded a grant for thirteen new child car seats to Sedona Fire District.  The club provided the car seats through a District Matched grant to the fire district to ensure that the needs of the community are met.  “Proper use of safety seats have been shown to significantly decrease child injuries and fatalities if a collision occurs” said Eric Walter, Community Integrated Paramedic and National Child Passenger Safety Technician. As a Rotary group we felt this helps further the safety of our community and children.  “Through grants like this one, the fire district is able to ensure local families in need have access to car seats” stated Kris Kazian Fire Chief and President of the Rotary Club of Sedona Red Rocks.  We would like to remind everyone that specially trained car seat technicians at fire departments near you are happy to look over any car seat and make sure it is installed properly and in Sedona if you need a new one, we have one for you. 
As Rotarians we “see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change — across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves.”  The holiday season brings renewed focus on thanksgiving, goodwill and reflection.  This month’s resource, courtesy of the Rotarian Action Group for Peace, provides a way to build peace through respectful, civil discourse in our communities, with application closer to home—in our clubs, workplaces, social networks and our families!