D5130 Fire Relief Fund - Bob Rogers & Barb Spangler, Oct 14th letter

“Rotary takes ordinary men and women and gives them extraordinary opportunities to do more with their lives than they ever dreamed possible” 
Clem Renouf, Past Rotary International President

Good afternoon District 5130 Presidents, PE’s and AG’s. Isn’t that quote just the truth. Now is our opportunity to do extraordinary things that only Rotary gives us the power to do so. We wanted to reach out to you with a brief overview of where we are 5 days into this tragedy. Below and attached are items you can help disseminate to your club membership and local communities.

  1. Rotary District 5130 Fire Relief Fund: The Rotary Fire Relief fund that was established in 2015 by the Rotary clubs in Lake County has been expanded to support the affected counties in D5130. The website for donations is www.larca5130.org.  The infrastructure is already in place and the successful deployment and use of this fund by Lake County Rotarians brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. Attached you will find 3 documents:

i. Fire Relief Fund Overview: This document is intended to give you an overview of how the Fire Relief Fund will be administered and examples of how it will work based on past experiences from Lake County fire relief.

HOW TO USE:  Disseminate internally to club members as well as potential donors looking for information on how the fund will work

ii. Fire Relief Fund Flier: This flier has basic information on how to donate to the fund. It is in a JPEG format so that it can be easily uploaded to social media.

HOW TO USE: Upload to personal, business and club social media pages and encourage sharing.  Forward to everyone in your address book via email.

iii. Press Release: The press release includes more detailed information on the fund.

HOW TO USE:

a. Forward to all local media contacts for immediate release

b. Forward to contacts in other locations for immediate publication

c. Share on all social media

2. Rotarian Evacuees: Check in with your membership. Verify that all Rotarian evacuees are properly housed. Jennifer Strong has an extensive list of Rotarians throughout our District and neighboring districts ready to open their homes. Contact her at jenniferstrong@jestrong or call 707-349-0815 if you know of Rotarians needing a place to go.

3. Donation solicitations: Right now, our neighboring communities are asking how they can help. It is recommended that you discourage the solicitation of physical donations such as food, water, clothing, bedding, etc. As Lake County learned during the 2015 fires, we run the risk of receiving mountains of items that end up being a strain on volunteer manpower and also items that cannot be used as they don’t fit the need. It is recommended to do the following:
  1. Contact the local shelter director and establish trust relationship. Identify their needs and work off of that. Try to control the movement of physical goods into the communities tailored around the need. Experience is that funding to pay for the cost of evacuee meals as well as small denomination gift cards ($25-50) are the most useful for the evacuees and the shelter. Meal preparation and volunteers are also always needed.

ii. Encourage cash donations to the District 5130 Rotary Fire Relief Fund (www.larca5130.org) so that the funds can be deployed in a systematic manner and again, tailored to the need.  

PS – We are working on marketing the Rotary District 5130 Fire Relief and need photographs that you would be willing to share. If you can please email them to larca5130@gmail.com.

As always, thank you for all you do for Rotary!

Bob Rogers
DG District 5130 2017-2018

Barb Spangler
DGE District 5130
2017-2018

October 14, 2017