INTERACT WITH INTERACT

Another remarkable aspect of Rotary is the Interact Club network. Think of them as a high school Rotary Club wherein the mission, principals and ethos of Rotary are practiced at the high school level. Interact Clubs are sponsored by and affiliated with a Rotary Club. For example, your Club’s Interact affiliate is the “Club” within Bella Vista High School and your Interact liaison is Club member Mark Anderson. This year alone, within our District 5180, your Interact clubs have participated in, developed and accomplished thirty seven (37) projects District wide to date. A list of those specific projects is denoted below in this Pulse. These students are the Rotarians of our future. Interact is an integral part of cultivating the culture of Rotary worldwide. Consider Interact for your next special project. The passion and dedication is there, the organizational infrastructure is in place and they execute as an important part of our Rotary family. Are you aware of this wonderful resource?

And speaking of awareness… the Bids for Kids auction items continue to grow with exciting opportunities for your bidding pleasure. Dinner for 8 courtesy of Ken Stieger and Dale Vaira, and brunch for 6 courtesy of PEN Thom Gilbert and Susan Drack, a week in Bali courtesy of Gary McDonald, sailing on Lake Tahoe with a gourmet lunch for 4 including Silver Oak  Cabernet, courtesy of Leesa Fons, relaxing in Palm Desert courtesy of Jon Snyder, a night out at McCormick & Schmick’s with gift cards from Jim & Mary Jo Streng  just to name a few and there is still plenty of room for your creative donations to benefit, this year, the Society for the Blind at the Hyatt.

Fellow club member Bruce Hester graced our podium this week first with a surprise birthday recognition (a day early) of yours truly including cake and song with Paul Stone on the ivories (many thanks to all of you) and then a very informative and historical travelogue tour of the formation of these United States (read all about in the meeting recap below in this Pulse).

Your Philippines computer training project in Calauag, Quezon province continues to forge ahead with the ten specialized computer tables arriving as well as the ten computers with  pertinent hardware, all to be installed shortly and operational with training classes to begin this summer. Thanks to John Phair & Clayton Lee for spearheading this project, completely funded by your Club with $5,000.

It’s not too late to sign up for Rotary at Work Day (Saturday, April 28th). Club project coordinator, Tanya Kravchuk reports that 25 + members and their families are signed up to date. Please contact Tanya for all of the details.

Membership recruitment continues as your club’s top priority, so bring forth those new member candidates. Invite them to lunch or better yet …Bids for Kids and we will do all the heavy lifting from there. We have inducted 25 members to date and have lost 28 to retirement, relocation or passing away for a net decline in membership of 3. Let’s wrap up this Rotary year on the plus side of the ledger with a big Spring push.

Many thanks to Jim Craig and Allison Otto (Otto Construction) as meeting sponsor this week, to Ken Cross in recognition of his half page “Newsmaker” spread in this week’s Business Journal.

Enjoy a terrific week, strive for your summits and support Bids for Kids on Rotary Club of Sacramento Day May 12, 2012 (as declared by the Mayor and City Council) at the Hyatt! (see the City Resolution below)         

Ken Noack, Jr.