It is a great pleasure to serve the Rotary Club of Sandpoint as President this year.  The 2018-2019 Rotary year started off with our club presenting a $50,000 check to the Lake Pend Oreille School District following another successful CHAFE 150 bicycle ride fund raising event.  I am proud that our Rotarians, sponsors and community volunteers have grown this into a fun event that makes a difference in the lives of our youth, each year.  

 

Our club is very supportive of our local youth this year as we continue to support Interact clubs at Sandpoint High School and the Forrest M. Bird Charter School.  Sandpoint hosted a mini-RYLA event that provided youth leadership skills to participating high school students.  Our other fund raisers have continued to be successful which will allow us to continue our support and award of high school scholarships.  We recently kicked off our Book Trust campaign that connects our elementary youth with books, furthering our support of education within this community.

 

This year, we have the pleasure of sponsoring the Rotaract Club of Sandpoint this year with the chartering ceremony scheduled for January 30^th.  This new Rotaract club will bring more energy to Rotary and provide an avenue of service for these young leaders in our community.  

 

We also touched the lives of youth in Mexico this year by sponsoring a project in Zihuatanejo which provided educational equipment to a non-profit organization specializing in the prevention and treatment of drug, alcohol and tobacco use while improving the quality of life for a population of lower income young people.  We sponsored a second international project in Kenya to remodel an existing building and outfitting it with equipment and supplies to create a comprehensive center for the care of upper and lower extremity amputees. This collaborative effort between Tenwek Hospital and Sandpoint Rotary will involve creation of a prosthetic fabrication workshop connected to a patient assessment, fitting and gait training clinic improving the quality of life for amputees in that community.

 

I am inspired by the Sandpoint Rotarians that serve each year to Be the Inspirationin our community and help Rotary continue to do good in the world.