Rotary Club of Omaha Whirl 9.18.2020 (Sep 18, 2020)

Sep 23, 2020

HYBRID IN-PERSON / ZOOM MEETING

Chris Janicek -Candidate for Senate

Sep 30, 2020

John Higgins

NCAA Basketball Ref/Final Four

Oct 07, 2020

HYBRID IN-PERSON / ZOOM MEETING

Don Bacon, Candidate for House

Oct 14, 2020

Tony Veland, AIM Institute

AIM Institute - Job Creation

Oct 21, 2020

BUSINESS NETWORKING

Oct 28, 2020

HYBRID IN-PERSON / ZOOM MEETING

Ben Sasse, Candidate for Senate

Nov 04, 2020

US State Department

Nov 11, 2020

Richard Witmer

Thoughts on the Election

View entire list

Stephen Center Food Service
Stephen Center
Sep 22, 2020 4:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Rotary Meeting IN-PERSON Registration
Field Club of Omaha
Sep 23, 2020 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Rotary Club of Omaha Board Meeting
ZOOM
Oct 09, 2020 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

Rotary Club of Omaha Board Meeting
ZOOM
Nov 13, 2020 7:30 AM – 8:30 AM

View entire list

MEETING UPDATE

We will have our first HYRID IN-PERSON/ ZOOM meeting at The Field Club September 23rd.
Get Details and Register HERE.

President's Pen

The Rotary spirit is very much alive and active in The Rotary Club of Omaha!

Our Service Above Self initiatives are shifting into a new gear with a renewed planning effort by Lindy Hoyer, complementing our outstanding programming and improved digital experience. A new member recently shared that it looks like we have been operating in this environment forever. If he only knew(!) Kudos to Leigh, Sean Olson and Adam Leong for making it look effortless.

We are also addressing key challenges head on, with Gary Bren leading our Honor Roll pivot effort, and Phil Taylor and team bringing in new members (three more in the que!), meanwhile, we are focused on our service mission, including rebuilding an international component.

Again, I thank our leaders.

Of course, none of that happens without regular board, committee and finance due diligence. To that end, our finance team – Treasurer Jena Bailey (former COO, Dino’s Storage) and board member Brett Frevert (CEO, CFO Systems) – have been at work on our plan for the year and will conduct informational sessions regarding our budget on October 1 and 2 at 3:00 p.m. Each session will cover the same topics. Watch your email for the invitations, and please plan to attend one of the sessions to learn more about our plan and offer your input. Your board will approve the 2020-2021 budget plan at its October 9, 2020 meeting.

Several of us are participating in the Millard Rotary Foundation golf event on Tuesday, September 22^nd.Donny Suh, M.D., International Chair Brad Burklund, Secretary Nash Mahupete and friend of Rotary (and Deb Skinner’s husband) George Davis will join yours truly for the charity event.

Finally, we return to Field Club this week! See you in person on September 23^rd or online to hear from U.S. Senate candidate Chris Janicek. Can’t wait to see you!

~ John Sullivan

Meeting Re-cap

A visit from Congressional candidate Kara Eastman began with facts about her background: a social worker from Chicago, non-profit fund-raiser in Omaha married to a Creighton professor. Then she shared her goals in running again for national office after "I came up a little short" two years ago.

"I've seen first-hand where government programs fail and succeed," she said, and emphasized, as we've seen in TV ads, her commitment to work for affordable health care and to fight to hold down prescription drug costs. Eastman, noting that she doesn't accept corporate money, said, "We need to work with corporations but not for them."

We learned more about Kara's views from an extended Q & A session with Rotarians throwing both hard balls and soft balls when she stepped up to the plate. The first one came from a point raised in Republican attack ads connecting her to the New York Congresswoman known as AOC and asked, "Are you in lockstep with her?" Eastman said she's "proud of my coalition of endorsers," but doesn't agree with them on everything. "I'm independent."

Later, club president John Sullivan suggested the race will be won by the "candidate who commands the middle," which prompted Eastman to cite key issues that she supports and which are supported by 70 percent of voters polled. Several times, she touched on efforts to cast her as an extremist, "calling me comrade. I'm not a socialist, I'm a Democrat."

While "a lot of outside groups are attacking me, voters deserve the facts. I'm pretty boring, to be honest."

She invited Rotarians to view the racial justice plan she has released. Speaking of her contact with Police Chief Todd Schmaderer, she declared, "He was great. It sounds like Omaha could be a model for the country."

Guest Journalist

~Warren Franke

Salvation Army Volunteer Recognition

The Salvation Army's annual volunteer recognition event is going virtual! This year, due to COVID-19, we have made our event a virtual one. We want to make sure we celebrate your generous and selfless gift of volunteering while keeping everyone safe. Please join us on Saturday, September 19 at 10:00am via Facebook to watch our event.

www.facebook.com/salarmyomaha

Shawn Bonge
Divisional Director of Volunteer Services

Stephen Center Food Service

Stephen Center Food Service
2723 Q St, Omaha, NE 68107
5 - 6 volunteers per shift
Suitable for families, as long as children are over age of 10.
Volunteers will be serving meals, no food preparation.

Tuesday, Sept. 22 from 4:30-6:30

Tuesday, Oct. 20 from 4:30-6:30

Volunteer from Home

Send Happy Notes to residents at the Salvation Army’s Durham Booth Manor. This is a project that can be done at any time.

If we could get a few club members signed up to send them, Lindy Hoyer will get a committee member to coordinate the frequency of the notes.

Just cheery notes to brighten someone’s day.

Good News

From John Ewing:
Viv and I will celebrate our 36^th Anniversary Tuesday, September 15^th.

From Brad Burklund:
My wife and I were able to join our daughter in Haiti for the last 11 days doing a distribution trip and returned safely. We helped distribute school supplies, shoes and a backpack to nearly 2500 kids in 5 days. The kids are part of the sponsorship program for Mission Haiti where my daughter works.

They help kids and families in 8 different schools in the very remote villages near the southwest tip of Haiti. It was amazing to see the joy on the kids’ faces at the opportunity of a lifetime to go to school because someone reached out to help them.

From John Sullivan:
John's youngest daughter Madeline received a proposal of marriage this past Monday while on vacation in Portland, Maine. The fortunate young man is Taylor Young, who is a private pilot for Silverhawk Aviation in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The two first met as students at UNO's Aviation Institute.

From Jim Cavanaugh:
I have been invited to address the Suburban Rotary Lunch next Thursday Sept 24th @ noon @ Anthony’s Restaurant or on ZOOM. I have been asked to speak on the Douglas County COVID-19 CARES ACT relief efforts to provide rent, utility, food, community services & Not-for -profit Assistance to those impacted by the COVID-19 Pandemic in our community.

September Birthdays

Steve Gerdes - Sept. 2

Viv Ewing - Sept. 3

Camille Metoyer-Moten - Sept. 4

Alex Petrovich - Sept. 8

Peggy Carrell - Sept. 9
Sandy Lemke - Sept. 11

Sue Kutschkau - Sept. 15

Julie Sebastian - Sept. 23

Gene DeBoer - Sept. 26

Thank You!

Thank you to all who helped place flags at Memorial Park Friday, September 4th.

You can read some publicity from WOWT at the following link.

https://www.wowt.com/2020/09/06/september-11th-memorial-honors-nebraskans-who-lost-their-lives-in-terrorist-attacks/

Zoom Make-Ups

If you attend another club's virtual meeting please email Leigh for attendance credit.

The other clubs are not all reporting make-up credits for Zoom attendance at this time.

Thank you!

STATUS OF CLUB MEETINGS IN ROTARY DISTRICT 5650

We strongly encourage you to check club websites before planning to attend meetings.

You can check the status of Rotary Club Meetings at the link below:

https://www.rotarydistrict5650.org/Stories/status-of-club-meetings-in-rotary-district-5650

To link to the website or contact of any club in Rotary District 5650, click here.

Downtown Rotary Club App

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We will have our first HYRID IN-PERSON/ ZOOM meeting at The Field Club September 23rd.Get Details and Register HERE.

ClubRunner Mobile:Downtown Rotary Club on the Go

Member Directory

Executives and Directors

View posts on your website

Learn more about upcoming events and speakers

Download the app on your phone or tablet

We will have our first HYRID IN-PERSON/ ZOOM meeting at The Field Club September 23rd.
Get Details and Register HERE.

ClubRunner Mobile:
Downtown Rotary Club on the Go