Winners Announced for 2nd Annual Dozen Dinner Draw

The Dozen Dinner Draw (DDD) winners were pulled from a hat at our Club’s Valentine’s Day Gala dinner, held on Valentine's Day at the Country Club of Ithaca. The grand prize of a dozen dinners went to John Foote. John is a visiting lecturer at Cornell University and Executive Director of the Cornell Program in Infrastructure Policy (CPIP). He purchased his golden ticket from President Mary! Congratulations, John!

Runners up were, second place prize to Gail and Nat Lyman, third to Mary Kane, and fourth place prize to Ted Schiele. Final stats showed half the tickets were purchased by Rotarians, with the balance going to AguaClara staff, and friends of both organizations. All told, the gala event and DDD were a great success!

At the Club's February 20 meeting, Linda Brisson expressed thanks on behalf of Team DDD 2019, for all the support given to the Dozen Dinner Draw, which wrapped up at the Feb. 14 Country Club gala. The after dinner presentations featured Dennis Gray reporting on the rebuilds in Puerto Rico made possible by $10K raised for DDD 2018, and AguaClara staff showing off the sophistication, simplicity, and scalability of the organization’s water purification technology.

For the second year in a row, the Rotary Club of Ithaca is partnering with local restaurants, theaters, and spas to raise $10,000 for international relief work with the Dozen Dinner Draw (DDD). In 2018, this successful fundraiser supported disaster recovery in Puerto Rico. This year the recipient will be AguaClara, a Cornell-based program bringing clean water to remote communities worldwide.

The Dozen Dinner Draw, initiated by the Ithaca Rotary Club’s International Service Committee, is modeled on a similar raffle organized by a Rotary Club in the Toronto area. When Dennis Gray, a former member of that club, relocated to the Ithaca area, he was impressed with the variety of fine dining establishments in Tompkins County and thought the raffle would be a great fit for the community.

“The purpose of this is to raise funds for international service projects so that we can have a more significant impact on what our Club does on the international stage with Rotary,” Dennis said.

The participating prize partners are featured at www.rotarydozendinnerdraw.org.

PHOTO: (Top) Club President Mary Berens with DDD Grand Prize winner John Foote. (Above) The DDD planning team, l-r back row, Walt Cottrell, Maricelis Acevedo, Dennis Gray, Ray Brisson; front row Linda Brisson, Jessica Gosa.

About AguaClara

The recipient of the 2019 DDD funds will be Cornell University’s AguaClara Program and AguaClara Reach (aguaclara.cornell.edu/).

AguaClara technologies are the only 100% non-electric municipal-scale water treatment solutions that are sustainable in underserved communities globally. They are built and can be repaired, locally in the targeted communities. They use locally available materials such as cement, PVC pipe, and sand.

Designs are modular, making it easy to remove parts for maintenance or repair. Operation and maintenance are simple enough to be carried out by a local operator. Water is safe: it meets World Health Organization standards for drinking water quality. Operation and maintenance are affordable, even where people earn less than $2 per day.