President's Comments - March 2021
Congratulations to Jim Echols and Rob Jones as they celebrate their 39th year as Rotary members this month. Also, Beth Blaisdell starts her 19th year as a Rotarian! We're thankful to have all three members active in our club.
In light of Governor Abbott's recent announcement about rescinding the mask mandate and the occupancy restriction, your South Tyler Board is moving forward as described below:
We will continue to hold our regularly scheduled meetings. There is not a mask requirement to attend the meetings. For the short term, our meals will be continue as boxed lunches. We hope to expand to regularly catered meals soon. We will also still live stream our meetings via YouTube (or FaceBook live at times) for our members who wish to avoid public settings. That being said, the board encourages you to still follow the CDC recommended best practices.
As we turn the corner and get closer to normal times, we hope to expand our service projects and bring back our social gatherings. If you have ideas for projects or happenings, please reach out to one of our board members.
This week our President Elect Beth Blaisdell and President Nominee Chris McLarry will attend the Lone Star President Elects Training. This year's virtual event begins Monday afternoon and runs daily through Saturday. This valuable training, helps provide both Beth and Chris with more information and ideas to get the next year started. Good luck to both of you! We appreciate you being flexible with the change in format this year.
March Madness - Treasurer Tom Seale is once again coordinating our annual March Madness club fundraiser. We sell 68 slots for $10 each. A random drawing assigns the 68 NCAA Men's Basketball teams to each slot. Cheer for your team to win the big game! Half the money stays with the club and the other half is given to the Final Four finishers. Contact Tom Seale if you'd like to purchase any of the remaining slsots
Four Way Speech Contest - Each year, South Tyler Rotary encourages students at Brookhill, Gorman or Tyler Legacy to participate in the annual Four Way Speech Contest. This is open to students in the 9-12th grades. If you have a child or grandchild at any of these three schools who might be interested in participating, please reach out to Kathi White. The club contest is March 15th. Winner of our club contest moves on to the District Competition April 10th. Cash prizes awarded at the club and district level.
Meeting Attendance - We know you hate to miss our weekly meeting, but sometimes you can't make it. Did you know you can visit other clubs to make up a missed meeting? You can also visit our YouTube channel to watch prior meetings. Let Secretary Marla Boren know when you visit another club or watch one of our meetings.
Spaghetti Supper Kick Off - President Elect Beth Blaisdell is ready to kick off our 2021 Reed Franklin Spaghetti Supper fundraising event. Watch for more information soon! We need all of our club members to help us solicit donors and sell tickets for this event.
March is Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Month
Access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene are basic to staying healthy. According to CDC statistics, approximately 780 million people worldwide do not have access to an improved water source and more that 35% of the world’s population lack access to improved sanitation.
Here in the US, more than 2 million Americans live without access to safe drinking water and sanitation. This is mainly in rural areas and is more likely to affect minority and low-income populations.
An estimated 801,000 children younger than 5 years of age perish from diarrhea each year, mostly in developing countries. Unsafe drinking water, inadequate availability of water for hygiene and a lack of access to sanitation contributes to the majority of these deaths.
Who can YOU invite to South Tyler Rotary?
