Greetings all. Hard to believe it is May already. There are only 2 months left in the Rotary Year. Where does the time go? I trust your club experience is going well and you are enjoying time with your fellow Rotarians. Keep up the energy. Our incoming 2024-2025 club and district leaders are busy preparing for the start of the year on July 1^st. Check in with your club’s President-elect and see what plans they are formulating for the next Rotary year and where you might offer assistance and volunteer leadership. The same is true for our district-level committees and programs. Many hands make light work, and we will all be better for your individual efforts.

 

District conference. We had a wonderful district conference two weeks ago. We were glad to have about 90 Rotarians who participated in one or more parts of our three-part conference. Thank you to those that participated in the fun. My personal thanks to those who helped plan, coordinate, and conduct the conference. Our four speakers and learning session presenters were all outstanding and gave us much to think about. We were honored to have an RI President’s Representative join us. PDG Yavuz Atila from District 5230 in Central California was a wonderful guest speaker, fellow Rotarian in service, and Rotary leader. A special thanks to PDG Kevin Cogan (Carlisle Sunrise) for serving as Yavuz’s aide, chauffeur, and breakfast chef. Also from Carlisle Sunrise, thank you to Dan Collison for building Friday night’s program and serving as emcee, and Mike Zick for doing the same on Saturday plus creating the slide show with service project pictures. And Kim Lockwood (Carlisle Sunrise) and Joel Hillison (Carlisle) helped with our Saturday night dinner program.  Our service projects on Saturday morning were appreciated by the organizations we supported. Thanks for finding worthy projects and coordinating the details go to AG Larenda Twigg (Carlisle Sunrise), Judy Wheaton (Carlisle), Joe McNally (West Shore), and DGND Rebecca Zalit (Palmyra). We also took time on Saturday to honor and remember those Rotarians who left us this past year. We are grateful for their service in Rotary and honor all they accomplished on behalf of others. Thank you to DGN Mary Brunski (Carlisle) and DGND Rebecca Zalit (Palmyra) for doing our memorial program. Our 4-Way Test Speech contest on Friday night did not disappoint. Thanks to Mike Handshew (Elizabethtown) and his team for conducting a challenging contest prior to the finals and then a superb event to select the final winners. We also heard the winning 4-Way Test Essay contest submission read by Mike. Thanks to Steve Grubb (Mechanicsburg North) and the essay contest team for reading all those essays. Thanks to Youth Exchange chair Jill Tenny and the YE committee along with our inbound and outbound students for giving us the international part of Rotary and helping us celebrate the flagship of Rotary’s youth program. And finally, a big thanks from all of us to Melissa Kopp-Smith, our awesome District Executive Administrator, for all her work on the myriad of details to conduct a conference that we know happen but can’t begin to count. Bravo to all!

 

Foundation giving. Please review your donations to the Rotary foundation for the 2023-2024 Rotary Year. There are only 2 months left to donate to the foundation for this current Rotary Year. Are you close to the next Paul Harris level? Was there an amount your planned to give this year? A portion of donations to the annual fund come back to the district in the form of District Designated Funds (DDF) in three years. Thus, it is important that each year we maximize our giving so that we have sufficient DDF in later years to support our local and international service projects. There are also other options for donations to the foundation such as Polio Plus, areas of focus,  and the endowment. All have their place in Rotary’s international mission. Find the option that means the most to your Rotary service and philanthropy goals. It takes all of us to create our strong and capable Rotary Foundation that does so much good in the world.

 

Thanks for all you do for your community, your club, and Rotary. I’ll see you around the district.

 

Yours in Rotary,

 

DG Fred.