Presiding Officer: John Sullivan Secretary: Nash Mahupete Invocation & Pledge: Okley Gibbs Digital Experience: Adam Leong & Sean Olson
In-Person Greeter: John Marburger
Speaker: Jeanette Wojtalewicz
Jeanette Wojtalewicz is the SVP and Chief Financial Officer for CHI Health. Serving Nebraska and Southwest Iowa this organization of $2 billion in net revenues is comprised of 15 hospitals, 800 employed physicians, and numerous post-acute services and joint ventures. Jeanette has worked in Healthcare Finance for 30 years and received her undergraduate degree from UNK in 1984 in Business Administration-Accounting Emphasis, and a Masters in Healthcare Administration from Bellevue University in 2008. To read more about Jeanette, click here.
Our People With Disabilities team has been active this spring and has recently announced the following $1,000 grants:
Autism Action Partnership: purchase of 40 sensory kits for individuals with autism for partnering organizations across the Omaha metro area
Omaha Children’s Museum: Hearing Loop System to allow staff working at the front desk to have their voice directly transmitted to the hearing aid of a deaf/hard of hearing person
Duet: Purchase of sensory equipment, supplies, and materials for programming for people with intellectual disabilities in Douglas County
Red Dawgs Youth Wheelchair Basketball (Nebraska Adaptive Sports): equipment upgrades with a safer basket drop hoop, a tire bag, and new up-to-date portable air compressors
Wow. Great job, Cliff McEvoy and team! Rotarians, your Service Fund contributions are hard at work in our community.
Looking to the future, on May 14, 2021, your board passed the following resolution:
RESOLVED: The Rotary Club of Omaha Board of Directors has determined that all Service Fund project requests for funding for the 2021-2022 program year should be filed with the Service Above Self Chair by June 30, 2021. Funding of an individual project in a previous year (or years) is not an indication that future funding will be available. In calendar Q3, 2021, The Service Above Self Chair will recommend project funding levels to the Club President, who will seek a motion of the board to pass the recommendations with a simple majority. In deliberation, the Chair and her committee shall consider project alignment with our Service Above Self mission, project ability to garner alternate support from District match, membership or board-approved fundraising, an in-place leadership succession plan, and the ability of the project to engage club members, both in quality of service and quantity of membership.
Approved May 14, 2021, The Rotary Club of Omaha Board of Directors
This resolution provides a process for continuing and improved stewardship of your Service Fund contributions. I know all of our project leaders will join me and Service Above Self Chair Lindy Hoyer in identifying the highest and best use of our Service Funds in the coming year. The resolution passed with 14 affirmative votes and (o) zero negative votes and no abstentions. It was unanimous.
Finally, mega kudos to PDG/PP Gary Bren and Treasurer Jim Stewart for their leadership of our Honor Roll and Scholarship event held online this past Wednesday! My pastor happened to be online with his eighth-graders for the event and sent along his personal thanks. It was a terrific feat in a pandemic year with 5% of our eighth graders receiving the Honor Roll designation and six $1,500 scholarships awarded to graduating seniors (courtesy of our Foundation). Well done, Foundation board! In a sign of excellent stewardship, the Honor Roll committee is actually making a contribution back to the Service Fund after successfully fundraising its entire budget independently among Rotarians. Well done, Gary, Jim, and Rotarians of Downtown Rotary!
I look forward to seeing you in person at Field Club on May 19th as we welcome CHI leader Jeanette Wojtalewicz. See you at Field Club!
Thank you to Project Chair Lori Bechtold and all Rotarians who volunteered at the Kids Against Hunger meal packaging on May 8, 2021. Rotarians packaged a total of 31,667 meals! This project was made possible through Rotarians' donation to the Service Fund and District 5650 matching grant.
This is a picture of Genesis Alvarez, who will be 20 this year. Genesis came to Omaha as a baby for a heart procedure. On arrival in Omaha, Mom said she had a cold as it was difficult for her to breathe. We took her to Children's late the night of arrival. They tried to put a tube down her trachea to help her breathe but didn't have a small enough tube so an emergency tracheotomy was performed on her. Long story short, no one in Belize knew how to take care of a tracheotomy patient, so Children's trained mom over a several-month stay how to take care of it. Nurse Jenny Strawn Van Winkle then trained Dad, a nurse, and a Red Cross worker in Belize on our next trip to Belize. She had the tracheotomy for several years until she was big/old enough for surgery to enlarge the trachea. Dr. Deb Goble at Children's eventually operated on her to enlarge her trachea to allow her to be the beautiful young lady you see in this picture. Oh, by the way, we also corrected her heart defect. No question, she would not be alive today if she hadn't come to Omaha.
Operation Hippocrates is an annual project supported by our Service Fund. Thank you to Leroy Swedlund for leading Operation Hippocrates.
Here's a glimpse of our first in-person meeting in 2021 held at Field Club in Omaha on April 28, 2021. The video is optimized for viewing on mobile devices. Watch it because you are in it, click here. Or copy/paste this link to your browser: https://youtu.be/j4u7BQ9HA2E.
We will celebrate birthdays every first Wednesday of the month. Birthday celebrants are encouraged to attend the meeting and to sit at the birthday table. Otherwise, a huge fine will be assessed. If you miss your own birthday party, that will result in a fine too.
Jeanette Wojtalewicz is the SVP and Chief Financial Officer for CHI Health. Serving Nebraska and Southwest Iowa this organization of $2 billion in net revenues is comprised of 15 hospitals, 800 employed physicians, and numerous post-acute services and joint ventures. Jeanette has worked in Healthcare Finance for 30 years and received her undergraduate degree from UNK in 1984 in Business Administration-Accounting Emphasis, and a Masters in Healthcare Administration from Bellevue University in 2008. To read more about Jeanette, 
This is a picture of Genesis Alvarez, who will be 20 this year. Genesis came to Omaha as a baby for a heart procedure. On arrival in Omaha, Mom said she had a cold as it was difficult for her to breathe. We took her to Children's late the night of arrival. They tried to put a tube down her trachea to help her breathe but didn't have a small enough tube so an emergency tracheotomy was performed on her. Long story short, no one in Belize knew how to take care of a tracheotomy patient, so Children's trained mom over a several-month stay how to take care of it. Nurse Jenny Strawn Van Winkle then trained Dad, a nurse, and a Red Cross worker in Belize on our next trip to Belize. She had the tracheotomy for several years until she was big/old enough for surgery to enlarge the trachea. Dr. Deb Goble at Children's eventually operated on her to enlarge her trachea to allow her to be the beautiful young lady you see in this picture. Oh, by the way, we also corrected her heart defect. No question, she would not be alive today if she hadn't come to Omaha.
