Our Little Free Library on Farrington in Fairmont Park is re-stocked and open for business!
Rotary International's monthly theme for October is Community Economic and Development!
Our HOME Team serves local elderly homeowners with free home repairs.
Little Free Library
World Polio Day - City of La Porte Proclamation.
The Scholarship Committee is looking for members! If you have any interest in joining this committee, please contact Crystal Redden.
Jaynee transferred to our club from the Rotary Club of Seabrook. Happily married for two years, she has five daughters, one stepdaughter, and going-on ten grandchildren. She also has nine siblings, numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins. She has lived in Texas for over 30 years but grew up on a farm in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.
Her career has been in Information Technology for over 40 years in various areas such as small business, aerospace, oil and gas, and, currently banking. She has received national awards for cockpit design for the Cobra and Huey helicopters, and shares patents for inventions in pilot-vehicle interface (aerospace), and well stimulation (oil and gas). She currently serves as the director of IT Application Development and Quality Assurance for Woodforest National Bank.
Jaynee is a published author of a book entitled “The Pink House”, a memoir of her time as a single mother while attending graduate school at UT Arlington. She is currently working on a second book, an anthology of stories about strong, resilient women called “W.O.W! – Wonderful Ordinary Women”
Jaynee is passionate about making the world better for everyone but focused on women and women’s unique issues and challenges. She is a strong supporter of Thistle Farms, Pioneers in Skirts, and the Cowgirl Museum.
When not working, writing, or speaking, she enjoys the outdoors, and can be found kayaking, hiking, camping, running relay races / sprint triathlons, and participating in activity-based fundraisers such as the MS150 and Bike-Around-the-Bay.
John Stauffer served honorably for 22 years as an Army Warrant Officer concluding as the Chief of the Maritime Operations Branch in Virginia where he provided operational guidance for the training of Army maritime professionals. During his service, he deployed three times to the Middle East in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. During this, he also earned numerous awards and recognitions including the Bronze Star.
Upon retirement from the Army, he joined San Jacinto College as the Associate Vice Chancellor for the Maritime Campus where he oversees both the credit and noncredit maritime programs. John holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Saint Leo University and an MBA from Liberty University. He has been happily married to his high school sweetheart Melissa for 26 years and they have two adult daughters, Alli and Ashley Stauffer, who are both currently serving as officers in the US Army. John enjoys running, golfing, traveling and serving his community.
Making your Club payments and donations just became easier!
Thanks to the efforts to our Club Finance Director Rick Helton, we can now make payments and donations to the Club via PayPal! Here is a link to help you do that:
You can also find us on the PayPal app and website by searching @RotaryLPTX
Feel free to share the link with anyone you know that wants to support the Rotary Club of La Porte in 2022!
Thank you Rick!
Frank
The La Porte Rotary Club was honored to give out microwaves to families within the community!
Throughout this process the club will award over 100 microwaves and place them in homes throughout the community! We grateful for the partnerships in this project and look forward to meeting opportunities to serve!
Pictured above from left to right; Rotarians Bob Pizzitola, Sonja Baumgardner, Mason Peres, the microwaves recipients, and Rotarian Brenda Thompson!
Two new Rotarians were officially installed as members at today’s meeting of the Rotary Club of La Porte. Susan Passmore, second from left, and Melissa Crutcher, right, gave their classification speeches and received their new Rotary badges. Congratulating them are Mason Peres, left, president-elect, and Knox Askins, who led the installation. At right is Melissa’s daughter, Layla. Welcome, Susan and Melissa!
The Rotary Club of La Porte, in partnership with Texas Congregational Disaster Readiness and the City of La Porte, is distributing FREE microwaves to local (La Porte, Shoreacres, Morgans Point) families in need. Limit one microwave per family/address.
Simply send an email to RotaryLPTX@gmail.com with all of this information:
Name
Street Address
City
Zip
Phone Number
Thank you to our Rotarians that helped unloading these microwaves! Sonja Baumgardner, Rick Helton, Frank Nance, Lisa Camp, our HOME Team volunteer Brady Nance and Johnny Morales from the La Porte Office of Emergency Management.
Melissa Crutcher joined the Rotary Club of La Porte because she loved that her family could serve alongside her In our community.
It takes a vlllage to get through life (not just raising kids), and Rotarians are there for each other and the community like a village, she says. Melissa ls a graduate of La Porte High School who returned to La Porte to make a difference In her hometown-and has she ever! A former chairperson of the La Porte-Bayshore Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Melissa continues to chair or serve on numerous Chamber committees and co-directs the Miss Sylvan Beach Pageant. She also serves as treasurer of the Rizzuto Elementary PTO and was recently named to the La Porte ISO Board of Trustees.
In addition, she volunteers with the La Porte Education Foundation and New Hope Church. A graduate of the University of Houston-Clear Lake, Melissa ls board secretary and marketing director for Texas Stress, the business her parents, Gary and Joni Hager, started 31 years ago. She and her husband, Talon, have been married almost 10 years and have three children-Kyler, Layla and Molly-who can often be seen accompanying Melissa as she gives back to the community she loves.
As a new Rotarian, Susan is looking forward to serving the La Porte community where she has lived for the past 44 years. She recently retired as director of communications for Goose Creek CISD after 36 years in education, having served as a teacher in La Porte ISD and Deer Park ISD and as a campus and district administrator in Goose Creek.
As an educator, she was named Teacher of the Year and Regular Educator of the Year for the Special Education Department; as a communications professional, she earned numerous awards, including two Best of Category awards for feature writing from the Texas School Public Relations Association. In addition, she is the past president of the Pilot Club of Baytown, also a service organization, and recently received the prestigious Ambassador Award.
Born in Charleston, West Virginia, Susan and her husband, Richard, have two daughters, Shala and Ashley, and three grandchildren—Charles, 12; Adelyn, 9; and Ace, 7. She rarely misses any of their activities and also enjoys exercising, shopping, and spending time at their camper on Lake Livingston.
Here are a few pictures from the HOME Team service project and video shoot on 13 November 2021! Our partners at Rotary International and District 5890 shot a video of our HOME Team that will be featured in upcoming Rotary promotional materials!
On 12 November 2021, we welcomed special guest speaker Brodie Cooper, Executive Director of Blast & Cast Men's Ministries. Brodie talked to the club about his experiences with ministry to outdoorsmen. Club VP Mason Peres presented Brodie with a Club token featuring the 4-way test to show our appreciation for his visit and the work he is doing.
Nelson is a chemical engineer by training and is the plant manager at Kuraray Poval here in La Porte. He is also an adjunct instructor at Lee College, teaching process technology students, as well as an ordained minister with the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, where he has served as a volunteer Pastor since 2005. Nelson will be the Chairman of the 2022 La Porte-Bayshore Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors. Originally from Puerto Rico, Nelson is fluent in Spanish and English. He loves to mentor and help others succeed. He likes to create a light environment and encourages people to love what they do and do it to the best of their abilities. Nelson’s wife is Perla and they have three beautiful children: Homero (25), Victoria (17), and Nelson A. (12). He joined Rotary because he loves to lift-up others and help them reach their goals. His goal to put the resources with which he has been entrusted to the betterment of the people and community. Nelson enjoys working out, books on leadership, watching good movies, cooking, and pool time with his family.
La Porte High School FFA members Kacy Gerfers, left, and Hailey Butland present their advocacy team speech about oysters and oyster reef restoration to members of the
La Porte Rotary Club. The team will be competing at an upcoming FFA contest. They are under the direction of FFA teacher Erika Espitia. Good luck, Kacy and Hailey!
Marie is an asset manager for Hawthorne at Bay Forest, a multi-million-dollar luxury property here in La Porte. Marie is originally from Galveston, Texas, but has lived in many different places before settling back in the area. She is a mother of 3 beautiful children, Alissa (18), Juliana (14) and Royce Jr (2). Marie joined Rotary because her passion is to be involved in the community where she lives and works, to help not just with Rotary but in her everyday life. She lives this out as a member of the La Porte-Bayshore Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, and through her individual volunteer work through NextDoor to help disabled and elderly community members, serve at homeless shelters, and more. Marie rides/races dirt bikes and has won a local, state, and national competitions; she is self-described as very competitive. She also enjoys adrenaline sports, spirits, outdoors, anything water related, camping, hiking, and snowboarding.
On Monday, October 25th, 2021 La Porte City Council and Mayor Louis Rigby issued a proclamation recognizing October 2 as World Polio Day.
Rotary Club of La Porte recently made a generous donation to a local man who is a former business owner in La Porte.
More fun at “Treats on the Trail” sponsored by the City of La Porte—so many wonderful costumes and adorable trick-or-treaters! La Porte Rotarians enjoyed handing out candy at this wonderful event!
Rotarian Crystal Redden, second from left, and her husband, Jason, represented the Rotary Club of La Porte at the 2021 Project Joy and Hope Gala on Oct. 30. With them are former La Porte Rotarian Ray Nolen, right, and his wife, Michele.
The Rotary Club of La Porte recently donated $1,000 to Project Joy and Hope as part of the club’s foundation giving budget. The club was also a Benefactor Sponsor for last night’s fund raiser.
Project Joy and Hope, a supportive care service agency, was founded in 2000 through the vision of Dr. Jan Wheeler, who wanted to give joy and build hope among families with children who have life-threatening diseases or critical illnesses.
On October 29th, the Club welcomed special guest speaker Wayne Staton, a polio survivor, to our Club. Wayne shared with us his life experience with polio and the adversities he has overcome. Several Club members have made contributions to Rotary PolioPlus this year and were eligible to pie President Jason Weeks or to take home one of several delicious pies we had on hand. Several members auctioned off their pies and we raised $210 which will be donated to Rotary Foundation Polio Plus. Frank Nance succeeded in his effort to deliver a pie to the face of President Jason Weeks.
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