Executive Director since 2013, Jim Reiff finds incredible reward in his role with Nebraska Enterprise Fund, setting the strategy and developing funding sources that ultimately connect NEF clients – hard-working small business owners – with capital, training, and mentoring.
Recently, Todd Johnson introduced our newest Rotarian Jeremy Bouman. Jeremy Bouman is the Founder and CEO of RISE, a Nebraska non-profit with a mission to break generational cycles of incarceration. RISE offers programming in 7 Nebraska prisons focused on intensive character development, employment readiness, reentry planning and entrepreneurship. RISE support continues post-release through case management, family programming, a business incubator and employment placement. RISE is also active in policy and advocacy work in Nebraska's unicameral focused on criminal justice reform.
Prior to starting RISE, he served for seven years as Associate Vice President of Development at Creighton University. Jeremy has 22 years of leadership experience in higher education and non-profit organizations in New York City, Baltimore, and Omaha. He earned a BA in Communications from Susquehanna University in Pennsylvania and a Masters of Science in Leadership from Creighton University.
Welcome to Rotary, Jeremy!
Jeremy Bouman with his Rotary sponsor Todd Johnson and President Larry Guenther
Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. Also known as African American History Month, the event grew out of “Negro History Week,” the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating Black history.
We will be back at Trinity starting February 7. We are grateful to Vanessa Clark for accommodating us at the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral. Remember to enter through the red door between 17th & 18th streets.
We have collaborated with multiple Rotary clubs to secure a multi-club grant. When combined with our Service Fund and funds matched by the Rotary International Foundation through the District Designated Fund, we will be able to provide a total of 41,800 meals to those in need in our community. All the meals will be distributed within Omaha.
Currently, we need 17 more volunteers to reach our goal of having 50 volunteers from the Downtown Rotary to pack these meals. We encourage you to invite your spouses, friends, children, or grandchildren aged six or older to participate in this event alongside you. We will be assembling the meals in an assembly line, and it will be a meaningful initiative for everyone involved.
Event Details:
Date: February 24, 2024
Time: 8:00 AM to 1:00 PM - pick a shift
Click here to sign up: https://omahawestrotary.org/event/multi-club-meal-packaging-2/
Location: Hope Church, 4418 S 180th St., Omaha NE 68135
Let's come together as a community, leverage our collective strength, and create positive change. Your involvement makes a difference, and we look forward to packing meals alongside you on February 24th!
Rotarians are making a difference at Stephen Center. CLICK HERE to sign up.
Stephen Center partners with the community, families, and individuals to overcome homelessness, addiction, and poverty. Stephen Center has served the homeless and low-income in Omaha since 1984 through its three programs: Emergency Shelter, HERO Program, and Transitional Living Program. The Omaha Downtown Rotary partners with Stephens Center in serving hot meals to its residents.
Pictured here are the January volunteers L to R:Mike Mancuso, Fletcher Reel, Steve McCollister, Scott Kinnaird, Colleen Brennan (Future Rotarian), Franco Gentile, Jim Stewart, and another Future Rotarian.
The Rotary Club of Omaha is now recruiting more members! It's your opportunity to join the Rotary Club of Omaha, click here to complete the membership application form. For questions, please contact Membership Chair Franco Gentile at FGentile@sbgtv.com.
Earl Knauss got a lesson in food waste when he received a neighbor’s gift of three bushels of red peppers that had been cast aside by a farm because they were misshapen. “I discovered that odd-shaped, blemished, and imperfect vegetables were dumped or destroyed,” says Knauss, of the Rotary Club of Hamburg in western New York state. He asked the farm’s owner for more of the unsalable produce and collected 18-gallon totes of vegetables that he sent to food pantries. The Farm to Family project has since expanded to include three farms, and the Hamburg club formally adopted it in 2018. From May to December, Rotary members and friends work alongside Knauss delivering vegetables to about 3,000 families. In 2022, they provided more than 100,000 pounds of vegetables to 23 distribution sites. Among them is the Resurrection Life Food Pantry in Cheektowaga, where pantry director Kim Reynolds says the site would not have many fresh vegetables without the program. “Our clients rely on Farm to Family to fill that gap,” she says.
PERU
Much of the milk produced in Peru never leaves the farm: It’s consumed directly by farming families, fed to calves, and used to make artisanal cheeses. The Rotary E-Club of Fusión Latina Distrito 4465 teamed up with the nonprofit CEDEPAS Norte to help subsistence farmers in the country’s northern highlands. Last year the club delivered stainless steel presses and molds to open two cheese production facilities. A global grant of more than $50,000 helped pay for the equipment, training, management, and marketing. “So far there are 21 new employees and 63 families served, and 25 pregnant cows were gifted” through the Peruvian government program Agroideas, says Club President Fernando Barrera, who lives in Trujillo.
Brad Burklund
Paul Cohen Hal Daub
Gene DeBoer Dianne Desler
John Ewing
Viv Ewing
Brett Frevert
Dawn Gonzales
Okley Gibbs
Fr. Lloyd Gnirk
Tom Gouttierre
Larry Guenther Bill Harvey
Gretchen Harvey
Yolanda Hoffman
Bob Keefer
Susan Koesters
Heather Legge
Sandy Lemke
Adam Leong
John Marburger
Steve McCollister
Heidi McGinness
Camille Metoyer-Moten
Lloyd Meyer
John Mock
Jim Murphy
Fletcher Reel
Jim Scott-Miller
Mike Schlickbernd
Deb Skinner
Jim Stewart
Jim Suttle
LeRoy Swedlund
Lisa Tonjes Moritz
Michelle Trawick
JIM REIFF
Recently, Todd Johnson introduced our newest Rotarian Jeremy Bouman. Jeremy Bouman is the Founder and CEO of RISE, a Nebraska non-profit with a mission to break generational cycles of incarceration. RISE offers programming in 7 Nebraska prisons focused on intensive character development, employment readiness, reentry planning and entrepreneurship. RISE support continues post-release through case management, family programming, a business incubator and employment placement. RISE is also active in policy and advocacy work in Nebraska's unicameral focused on criminal justice reform. 
PERU
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