The Rotary Club of St. John was pleased to welcome Mark McKenna, San Jose Rotary Club, to our regular meeting. Mark is the chair for climate issues of the San Jose Rotary Club and he offered to share some ideas regarding recycling and specifically, lithium batteries.Site Pages
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President
Secretary
Treasurer
Past President
Club Membership Chair
Club Rotary Foundation Chair
Club Public Image Chair
Welcome to Beautiful St John, US Virgin Islands!
Welcome to the Rotary Club of St John
The Rotary Club of St. John was pleased to welcome Mark McKenna, San Jose Rotary Club, to our regular meeting. Mark is the chair for climate issues of the San Jose Rotary Club and he offered to share some ideas regarding recycling and specifically, lithium batteries. Congratulations to the Rotary club of St. John's BJ Harris who received the Paul Harris fellow recognition award yesterday.
The Paul Harris fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute substantially, or who have contributions made in their name, to the Rotary Foundation.
Rotary established the recognition in 1957 to encourage and show appreciation for substantial contributions to what was then the Foundation's only program, Rotary foundation fellowships for advanced study the precursor to ambassador your scholarships
Meet Shena Esannason, our Membership Chair.
Shena Esannason was born in New York and raised in the Virgin Islands. She lives on the island of St. John and is a proud mother of three. Shena is currently working on her bachelors degree in psychology from SNHU. She is a professional entrepreneur who owns SGE consulting agency and SGE health and life coach. She has worked for the waste management authority on St. John since 2007 and is currently the collections manager on the island of St. John.
Sheena has served on other boards such as the Headstart policy Council as secretary from 2013 to 2016 and the coral Bay community council from 2018 through 2020. In 2019 Sheena also became a volunteer for the junior achievement program and a participating member of the Rotarian STJ chapter where is she is currently serving as membership chair position. She now has a strong passion for helping those in her community to fight for their rights. She served as a union representative in waste management from 2014 through 2018. Sheena is dedicated to protect and promote and human rights. She is not afraid to speak up and be heard.
Our member in focus for October is our very own Secretary. So happy to have Jennifer in our club!
Jennifer and her husband, Andy, moved to St. John from Maine in 2018. They were in search of a warmer climate, a sense of community, and the island life. Besides finding employment, being a part of the community and giving back was at the top of her to-do list. She had been introduced to Rotary for the first time in Portland, Maine. By looking online and asking around, it didn't take long to find the Rotary Club of St. John, a small group of people who come together for the sole purpose of helping others. When Jennifer is not acting as the Secretary of our Club, she spends her time working for the Friends of the Virgin Islands National Park as the Membership and events coordinator.
September is Education and Literacy month!
This month's member in focus is our Youth Services Chair, Alecia Wells.
In her own words:
"I am Alecia M. Wells, an original Virgin Islander. I am retired from the Government of the Virgin Islands, Department of Education. I have taught middle and high schools, GED and ACE Programs on St. Thomas and St, John. I served as Deputy Superintendent for Secondary Education in the Stt/STJ District. I served as a Commissioner of the Public Services Commission. I was elected to serve on the Fifth Constitutional Convention. I am a member of the Bishop's Committee (Vestry) of St. Ursula's Church on St. John. I have been a member of The Rotary Club of St. John for more than fifteen years and am presently the Youth Services Chair. I previously served as President for two terms.
I support any and all activities and endeavors involving the youth and/or young people in the Virgin Islands in general and on St. John in particular. It is never too early to drill down the importance of young people owning a "piece of paradise", not selling land, and taking an active role in the governance of their island."
July 2020: Installation of Officers
August 2020: Membership Month
September 2020: Education and Literacy
October 2020: World Polio Month
November 2020: Rotary Foundation Month
December 2020: Heath Month
January 2021: Service Month
February 2021: Peace and Conflict Resolution Month
Valentines Orchid Sale
March 2021: Water and Sanitation Month
April 2021: Environment Month
Earth Day April 22nd
May 2021: Youth Services Month
June 2021: Rotary Fellowships Month
June 12-16 Rotary International Convention, Taipei Taiwan
Each year our District Governor (DG) meets with all of the board of directors in his district. This year, this highly anticipated gathering was held virtualy on August 26th.
DG Charles focused on three areas with the board:
1. Protecting our Environment
2. Enhancing Health and wellness
3. Improving communication
DG Charles Sealy II joined Rotary in 1997 when he was inducted into the Rotary Club of Southeast Nassau. He is a multiple Paul Harris Fellow, member of the Paul Harris Society, Benefactor/Bequest Society, and a major donor.
The Rotary Club of St. John is looking for...
Community Minded People
Passionate & Fun People
Practical &Resourceful People
Helpful People
If you're one of these people, then get in contact to see how you can change the world starting in your own community.
Membership Chair, Shena Esannason
Email: Info@rotarystjohn.org
The Rotary Club of St. John successfully completed its annual distribution of school supplies on St. John. Well over 400 students received school supplies, a planner, or a dictionary. The students of Gifft Hill School prepared a poster and a group of thank you cards that were presented to President Harry Daniel during the October 16th meeting at Bajo El Sol Gallery.
The Rotary Club of St. John is sad to announce that “Flavors” will be postponed one more year and will not take place on November 23, 2019, as scheduled due to continuing refurbishment at The Westin St. John Resort Villas during the lead up to the busy Thanksgiving holiday.
The Rotary Club of St John in partnership with the Bajo El Sol Gallery, raised money to support Bahamas Relief by organizing a raffle. The northern Bahamas Islands experienced a category 5 storm for 30 hours in early September 2019. Artists Aimee Trayser and Livy Hitchcock each donated an art piece and the Bajo El Sol Gallery donated a $250 gift certificate. A total of 124 tickets at $25 each were sold totalling $3,100. All of the funds raised will benefit the Bahamas Relief effort directly. Thanks to all who participated in raising money for the people in the Bahamas!
St John Rotarian, Gary Ray, led a discussion with well over 30 attendees during the regular meeting held at Bajo El Sol Art Gallery on August 21, 2019. Gary explained his work to find, identify, protect, and propagate native and rare plants on our beautiful island. Andrea Milam, writer for the VI Daily News, covered to the meeting for the August 29th issue of that local paper. I highly encourage all to read her article.
What a great meeting of the Rotary Club of St John at Da Livio ristorante italiano today. We proudly inducted our newest member Shena Esannason to the Club. Shena is a local business owner and she is also the Collections manager for VI Waste Management. Pictured with Shena is her sponsor Alice Krall and our President Elect Harry Daniel.
Our guest speaker for the meeting was the highly anticipated Nigel Fields, the new superintendent of the Virgin Islands National Park. Nigel spoke about the need to get Cinnamon up and running as a campground, CBI at Caneel, and the work he is doing to improve security of the Park.
Senator Marvin Blyden and St John Adminisrator Shikima Jones also attended and spoke to the full audience. Their topics included VI Waste Management, St John road repairs, electrical outages, to name a few.
Thanks to Harry Daniel for running the meeting, Sharon Coldren and her guest Rachel McKinney managing the host duties, and Paul Johnson our Sergeant at Arms. Special thank you to Mr. Fields and all who attended the meeting.
It is the day after Thanksgiving and there continues to be a feeling of thankfulness. We are so thankful for all of the volunteers who enthusiastically jumped in where needed and greeted everyone with a warm ‘happy thanksgiving’ greeting. The positive community spirit was contagious for residents and visitors alike.
From BJ, “Based on leftover cutlery, we served 250 meals last night. Everyone also walked with extras and we sent food to the police, fire station, clinic and two churches. We have turkey leftover, all bagged and ready to go to churches this morning. It was a wonderful event and we thank everyone who helped make it happen!”
Thank you everyone!
Gifft Hill students receive school supplies hand delivered by members of the Rotary Club of St John, September 5th
Our Club's installation ceremony was held at the beautiful Extra Virgin Bistro in Cruz Bay. Officers installed are:
Kai Frett, President
Teri Mandemaker, Secretary
BJ Harris, Treasurer and Foundation Chair
Alecia Wells, Membership Chair and Past President
Wish us luck!
It is Festival season on St John!
Each year the Rotary Club of St John puts on the Children’s Carnival Village during the annual St John Festival. This Children's Carnival provides a supervised, safe, drug and alcohol free, and entertaining place for children to have fun and win great prizes.
The champion of this event, our own BJ Harris states, 'we could not have such a successful event without the fantastic partnership with the St John community and especially members of the Freshwater Church on St John".
Village dates and times:
June 29th through July 3rd: opening at 6 pm and closing at 9 pm each night.
Where: Parking lot across from the Virgin Islands National Park Visitors Center.
See you there!
See you there!
History: The Rotary Club of St. John was formed in May, 1999. Ronald (Ronnie) Lockhart was the founding member and served from 1999-2000, 2000-2001; Doug White served from 2001-2002; David Dostall served from 2002-2003; Christopher Angel served from 2003-2004; David Carlson served from 2004-2005; Gerianne Kotas served from 2005-2006; John Fuller served from 2006-2007; Joan Bermingham served from 2007-2008; BJ Harris served from 2008-2009; Catherine Fahy served from 2009-2010; Bruce Monroe served from 2010-1011, 2011-1012; Robert Schesinger served from 2012-8/2012; Joan Bermingham served from 9/2012-2013, 2013-2014; Alecia M. Wells served from 2014-2016, B. J. Harris serves from 2016-2017.
Attendance is an important aspect of Rotary, and when you cannot attend your club meeting you are expected to makeup the meeting. It is a responsibility of all Rotarians. There are numerous local activities which qualify, but it is possible to makeup a meeting through an online club.
Five: Is It Fun?
St. John, U.S.V.I. 00831
Virgin Islands (U.S.)