Where will you be tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.? I hope that you'll be joining me and Rotarians around the world at the Livestream Rotary Responds COVID-19 Telethon. It's only an hour, but I expect that it will empower you and uplift you to see all that Rotarians have already done for our communities in this time of crisis. Nearly $4M in Rotary Disaster Response Grants have already been put into action, with an additional $6.9M in Foundation Global Grants already approved. We are not a musty, inert lunch club. We are #PeopleofAction who love our communities and putting the idea of service above self into actual work. I'm going to strongly suggest that you and your small group make a plan of texting each other during the telethon to share what stories inspire you. (And if you're a small group leader and DON'T want to receive texts from me tomorrow morning, please let me know.)

 

To reiterate some important information first shared last week: We will meet on Zoom each week until gatherings of 100 or more people are allowed.  For those members who prepay their meals and have already paid their current quarterly dues, we will be applying a credit equal to the meals in May (5 meals at $23.50 each = $117.50) to your July Invoice.  For members who have not yet paid their current quarterly dues, and prepay meals, you may short pay your invoice by $117.50 or pay your invoice in full and we will credit your July invoice. If we are able to resume meetings at the Antlers in May, we'll ask everyone (aside from Prime members who have prepaid two meals) to pay at the door. Our club remains in good financial shape overall.

 

We have been getting silly and creative with what we wear to our Zoom meetings. THIS WEEK, I invite you to wear your best Rotary swag in honor of our Telethon. NEXT WEEK, I challenge you to come to the Zoom meeting on Friday as your best "art come to life," however you interpret that.

 

Today begins the month of May and Rotary's focus on Youth Service. This is an especially poignant moment in time for Youth Services to be celebrated, as many of our tentpole youth efforts -- like Champions, RYE, and RYLA -- can't go forward this year. If you can think of anything we can do for the youth in this community, please share it with your small group. If you can support those who are graduating, whether from high school or at another level of education, please do so and please let us know so that we too can participate.

 

Our Club is hard at work cutting the fabric Cass Daley donated and making masks. Fabric cutters, you should either have already delivered your fabric to your sewer or have plans to do so in the next day or two. (And Cass, I apologize in advance for my wonky squares.)

 

As we start to get outside a little more, we will begin to explore the idea of gathering in groups of no more than 10 (and hey, we already have small groups! Look at that!) and what additional community service we can accomplish in May. I know Sam Chapman has a park clean-up or trash pick-up project in mind that will allow us to socially distance and beautify our city.

 

A couple of other items: The international committee is meeting today, I believe. Let Jordan or Judy know if you're interested and don't already have the Zoom info. The Flight committee continues to meet weekly. If you'd like to join the Flight effort, please let Jody Ritchie know. For those of you who are participating in the grant training tomorrow with me, I'll send you the details from DG Dave Wood as soon as I have them.

 

Anyone who brings a guest to the Zoom meeting today gets a special thank you from me. Let's keep at this, folks. There's work left to be done. Happy May Day!