Rotary Club Of Morgan Hill

Serving our community thru philanthropy and fellowship to make the world a better place at home and abroad.
 
Our Meetings
Wednesdays, 12:15 pm
Morgan Hill Community
& Cultural Center
17000 Monterey St.
Morgan Hill, CA
View Map
 
Calendar of Events
December 2018
S M T W T F S
25
26
27
28
29
30
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
01
02
03
04
05
 
Meeting Speakers
 
Upcoming Events
View More...
 

Businesses that give back

 

To become a sponsor Click Here

 

To download a full list of our sponsors Click Here

 

 
What's New....
Holiday Party

Holiday Party

Join us on December 13, 2018 at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center,
 
Hiram Morgan Hill Room from 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm for a Martini themed holiday
 
party
 
The price of $35.00 included dinner and the martini bar (several types of martinis will be available)
 
FEEL FREE TO BRING YOUR OWN BEVERAGE TO COMPLIMENT YOUR DINNER!
ATTIRE: COCKTAIL
SIGN  UP BY SELECTING THE LINK BELOW 
 
Rebuilding Together Fall 2018
 

Saturday October 27 bloomed with a slight fall weather chill but as volunteers gathered at Hacienda Mobile Home Estates in northern Morgan Hill, the sun established itself and we were treated to beautiful weather throughout our project labors.

Rotary project leader Judy Henry greeted volunteers in front of the Hacienda clubhouse, gave them their t-shirt and directed them to project location. Morgan Hill Rotarians were joined by a group of youthful Japanese friends and by longtime Rebuild project partners Jody and Mike McRoberts and their daughter Shannon, photographer for the day.

We met mobile home owner Tom and our project manager from Rebuilding Together, Lynn Alens. We also got acquainted with the mobile home on the property, placed there in 1976 and never painted before, so in real need to a fresh coat. Tom had done extensive prep work prior to Saturday, removing window shades and moving rocks that blocked skirt panels that needed some repair as well as painting.

One group worked on skirt panel repair while most volunteers spend the entire project time priming and painting the home. We started about 8:30 and finished about 2:30 with a well-deserved pizza break at lunchtime.

The skirt panel team was hindered by a PVC drain pipe that blocked panel placement and against Judy’s advice, cut the pipe shorter to avoid the blockage. Roger Knopf, who cut the pipe, awarded a necklace of PVC pipe segments to Judy during the lunch break, further cementing the camaraderie and good vibes we all had as project volunteers. 

Owner Tom was thrilled with the results after interacting with us all during the day. Thanks to our leader Judy and fellow Rotarian volunteers Lisa Bjarke, Chris Foster, Roger Knopf, Ken Murray, Jan Reed, Brian Sullivan, and Steve Tate, it was a fun and fulfilling day!

For more on this story, see the article in the Morgan Hill Times.

 

Rotary Sponsored Senior Bocce Ball Tournament
The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill teamed up with the City of Morgan Hill and Home Instead Senior Care and co-sponsored a Bocce Ball Tournament on Oct. 11 on the bocce ball courts that were built with financial support from the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill . The tournament was part of Morgan Hill's first annual Healthy Aging Week Event and held at the Centennial Recreation Center.
      
 
The event was organized by Ken Tak, a Rotarian and owner of the Morgan Hill Home Instead Senior Care franchise. Femi Adenekan, a visiting Rotarian from Gbagada, Nigeria served as the line judge while Morgan Hill Rotarian Beth Adames acted as the official score keeper. A four-person team appropriately named"The Ringers" came in first place with "The Mamas and A Papa" coming in as the event's second place finishers.
 
According to Tak, "Some of our more active seniors have rediscovered the game of bocce ball and all were eager for the next event! The tournament definitely rekindled interest in the bocce ball court and we should see more people utilizing the court with the cooler weather coming in. All in all, it was a lot of fun, I got to know some great people and I can guarantee our next event will be twice as big!"
 
Read more...
Community Grants and Hearts of Rotary Receives 49 Requests for Funding
Forty-nine requests were made prior to the Sept. 30 application deadline for the the 2018-19 Community Grants and Hearts of Rotary program. Applications will be evaluated and applicants will be advised of the requests in December.
 
Over the years, the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill has supported those in need, both locally and around the world. The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill through its Community and Hearts of Rotary grants have aided local organizations that operate free clinics, help purchase school supplies for children in need in our community, teach children the fun and appreciation of art, provide musical concerts to elder care facilities, educate the community about and rehabilitate endangered wildlife, and provide community Fourth of July festivities and much more.  Last year the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill awarded $30,000 to 27 organizations. 
 
 
 
Rotary's MicroFinance Class Graduates 43 Aspiring Entrepreneurs

100 people gathered at the Morgan Hill Community and Cultural Center on Sept.5 to celebrate the graduation of 43 students fthe MicroFinance program. The program was a joint effort between the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce Silicon Valley and the SBDC's Hispanic Satellite office.  Aspiring entrepreneurs who reside in Hollister, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose and other South Bay communities completed the 8-week training program held at Oakwood High School in Morgan Hill.

Following the graduation celebration on Sept. 5, the SBDC will provide one-on-one counseling to the students to further their ambitions. Mentors from the SBDC and the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill will then support the graduates as they move to make their business dreams a reality.

  

For more information or to be become a mentor, please contact Mario Banuelos at  408-607-5929 or mbanuelos@charter.net.

Mexican Rotarians Invite North of the Border Rotarians
 
Members of the Rotary Club of Ameca, Mexico, Morgan Hill's Twin or Sister club, has invited members of the Morgan Hill club to join them for their annual Dia de los Muertos celebration. To join the festivities, you'll need a valid passport, but not a visa. 
 
If you are interesting in going, please book the following flights between San Jose (SJC) and Guadalajara (GDL) on Alaska Airlines so we can all arrive and depart on the same flights:
 
Nov 1                     SJC – GDL       Alaska Airlines        #226         lv   1:31pm     arr 6:04pm
Nov 4                     GDL - SJC       Alaska Airlines         #235         lv   1:20pm     arr 3:16pm
 
Tickets are offered on the Alaska website, as well as several consolidators (like Kayak, Expedia, CheapO…). Prices vary between companies, and they vary daily (the farther in advance, the cheaper); expect to pay anywhere between $400 (sooner) and $600 (later). Our nice motel costs around $50/night for a room with two double beds.
 
The Amecans insist on hosting all of our meals (it’s their culture). There will likely be few other costs.

For questions, check with Peter Anderson at pacificgeo@aol.com or 408-639-3164 . Be sure to let Peter know when you book your flights! 
Read more...
Rotarians roll up their sleeves to make a difference
More than  two dozen members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill rolled up their sleeves on a bright sunny Saturday on Aug. 11 to clean up and paint a class room at Ann Sobrato Hill School in Morgan Hill as part of the Club's support of a new welding program to be offered by Gavilan College. In addition, to preparing the room for this use, the Rotary club also held a "Diamonds for Fire" auction on Aug. 22 and raised approximately $4,500 to purchase equipment for the program. 
 
                           
 
  
                       
Read more...
Morgan Hill Rotary Club’s Dazzle fundraiser dazzles attendees
Every spring, the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill hosts the Dazzle fundraiser dinner and party. And while organizers said` the final numbers are still being tabulated, they anticipate this year’s event exceeded last year’s record of $58,000 raised. Guests arrived the evening of May 25 to a reception in the grand salon of Clos LaChance winery while viewing the raffle and auction items.
 

Among the many auction items, Dazzle Chairperson Rachel Hill created a unique Volkswagen bus bar complete with granite surface and beer tap (see photo).

  

The evening’s gourmet dinner was enjoyed before the band Notorious blew the roof off with their high-energy show playing to a packed dance floor from 8 to 10 p.m. “I’ve never seen so many Rotarians still on the dance floor at the end of the night,” Hill said.

 
Rotary Beautifies City Park
On May 19, 2018, six months after the City of Morgan Hill opened two new parks that included the Rotary Peace Bridge and Rotary Slide, Rotarians were once again working to enhance those parks. On bright sunny Saturday morning, volunteers from the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill were busy planting trees which the Club purchased alongside the Rotary Peace Bridge on Third Street.
 
    
 
Juan and Sergio, members of the City's park department, joined the Rotarians to plant Prunus Caroliniana, a type of evergreen tree.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_caroliniana). In addition to planting trees, the volunteers also picked up litter by the Rotary Peace Bridge and Rotary Slide.
 
    
Read more...
Rotarians Volunteer to Improve our Community
Members of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill were busy in April making a difference. On April 28, a dozen Rotarians from Morgan Hill were at it again making a difference in our community. Rotarians, working with local community members and the Rebuilding Together team, were busy with repairs for a deserving senior citizen at 275 Burnett Avenue in Morgan Hill.
The work involved repairing an oven door, painting exterior of the home and deck, installing a new outdoor carpet on the patio plus gardening and trimming trees next to home.
 
A week earlier on a sunny Saturday, April 21, a half dozen club members rolled up their sleeves and joined other South Bay area Rotarians and other civic minded community members to spruce up the school grounds around the Indigo Frost Elementary School in San Jose. Led by the Rotary Club of Almaden, Rotarians replenished tanbark in playground area to make it safer for the youngsters, installed two water bottle filling stations, upgraded and cleaned the bathroom flooring, worked on signage to the offices of Frost Elementary, and installed basketball hoop at the middle school area.
 
                            
 
 
Read more...
107 Ways to Make a Difference
It started as a suggestion by Tom and Louise Fry - excess medical supplies were available, did we know of a way to use those supplies?
 
Past Morgan Hill Rotary Club president and chair of the club's World Community Service Committee quickly recognized how the supplies could make a large difference in Mexico. What started out as a disarray of 14 pallets piled 8 feet high on May 12 was transformed into 107 well-ordered and well-documented boxes by twenty Rotarians and high school Interact club members who sorted through and boxed the medical supplies which donated by the parent organization of St. Louise Hospital. Medical providers Arlene Noodleman and Erik Cohen assisted the volunteers to identify which supplies that would be usable in Ameca.  Rotarian and doctor Carlos "Charly" Curiel, the current volunteer president of the Ameca Delegation of the Red Cross, provided similar advice from Mexico over the phone to the Morgan Hill volunteers.
 
 
       
 
The supplies were then delivered with assistance by Rotarians Penny Noel, Jeff Santos and Roger Knopf into storage at  Cochrane Self Storage, stacked to the ceiling (at no cost to the club thanks to Rotarian Brian Sullivan's efforts) for a future shipment to the Rotary Club of Ameca, Mexico for distribution to the Red Cross and local hospitals in the area. 
Read more...
Seniors Honored by Rotary Club on March 17

Over the past four decades, the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill has honored the community's seniors in March at its Harvey Barrett Annual Senior Dinner. Over 100 Morgan Hill Rotarians and high school members of Interact and AVID program hosted Morgan Hill area seniors who enjoyed a delicious meal and entertainment. 350 tickets for the event were distributed free of charge in advance of the event and additional tables were needed to be set up as the event progressed as a record number of seniors attended the event.

This year's event, the 36th  Harvey Barrett Annual Senior Dinner, was once again chaired by Valerie Alves with support of Rotary club members and the high school students volunteers. "This year we had an incredible turnout. The Rotarians, Interactors, and AVID students did an outstanding job serving and entertaining a record crowd," commented Alves. Rotary's Interact chair and the event's BBQ crew leader David de la Cuesta added "Thinking back on  almost  30 years I've been in Rotary, I don't think I've ever missed a senior dinner. This annual event is great in that brings the Rotary club of Morgan Hill together with the Youth and Seniors in our community."

The event was held at the Buddhist Community Center in Morgan Hill.  Named in recognition of Harvey Barrett, the 29th President of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill, and first held in 1983 under the leadership of the 1983-84 Club President, Marvin Cohn, the event fed, entertained and celebrated Morgan Hill's elders.

 

Read more...
Rotary Peace Bridge and Slide Ribbon Cutting Celebrations
On December 2, 2017 the City of Morgan Hill invited the community for ribbon cutting ceremonies for the Rotary Peace Bridge and Slide. The event which was well attended was followed later in the day with a Holiday Parade that included a Rotary parade float.
 
Rotarian and Morgan Hill Mayor Steve opened the day's event with a description of the new parks and thanked those involved in supporting the parks' construction. Morgan Hill Rotary Club President Randy Toch discussed the club's involvement over the past 60 years in Morgan Hill and the club's gift to the community by funding the Rotary Bridge and Slide.
 
   

Mayor Tate and Morgan Hill Rotary Club President Randy Toch cut the ribbon to open the Rotary Peace Bridge (above).  Surrounded by youngsters and Rotarians, Mayor Tate and Morgan Hill Rotary Club Service Projects Director Dave Allen (below) cut the ribbon to launch the Slide. Mayor Tate and one of the community's youth quickly test the upper portion of the two-part Slide. The Rotary Peace Bridge and Slide were made possible by a $100,000 gift by the Rotary club to the city.
Read more...
Making a Difference for 240 Elementary Students
Posted on Jul 26, 2017

Four months ago, five representatives of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill were guests of honor at the Rotary club of Ameca Mexico’s 50th-anniversary party. During that weekend trip, the five visited Lazaro Cardenas Elementary School which desperately needed a kitchen to serve the school’s 240 students. In May the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s Board of Directors approved a $4000 grant to support building a kitchen for the school. With additional support from the school’s PTA and the Rotary club in Ameca, the Rotarians in Ameca hired a local contractor in June. The project was completed quickly in July. 

On very short notice, this past weekend Past President and the club’s World Community Service committee’s chair, Peter Anderson, flew to Mexico and participated in the kitchen’s dedication and ribbon cutting. 

 

Read more...
Abrianna Robles Demonstrates Making a Difference
Abrianna Robles, a former Interact President at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, continues to demonstrate Rotary's Service Above Self mission and this year's Presidential theme Making a Difference, as she raised $2,020 for a North Bay Fire Relief fund. A number of Morgan Hill Rotarians also stepped up to sponsor Abrianna in the Brooklyn Marathon. Demonstrating the same spirit as Abrianna, the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill contributed $1,000 to support fire relief efforts in the North Bay and as well as similar amounts to b0th hurricane relief activities in the Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico.
 
“The thing I love most about Rotary - especially the Morgan Hill Chapter - is their ability to give back to the community, to those who need it most,” said Robles.
 
Robles’ generosity and giving spirit is no surprise to those who know her. Robles lives in New York and graduated from Duke University last year. While attending Live Oak she was an active member of the Rotary community serving as President of the Live Oak Interact Club in her senior year 5 years ago. To prepared for her Interact leadership role, she attended Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), an intensive leadership experience organized by Rotary clubs and districts. Robles also participated in the Rotary Speech Contest Regionals and was a frequent volunteer at Interact and Rotary events.
Rotary Continues to Support Morgan Hill Youth
 

The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill's mission is to provide tangible benefits locally and internationally through service projects, charitable giving, fellowship and youth leadership training. Recognizing the importance of supporting youth, Morgan Hill’s Rotary club started off 2017 by sponsoring the annual Richard D King club speech contest on January 11. “Six high school contestants gave an impassioned personal account of how they valued Rotary by incorporating the theme, Rotary Serving Humanity. What a great opportunity for the youth in our town to become familiar with what Rotary is all about, form their own altruistic beliefs, and practice the speaking skills which will serve them so well in their careers and personal life,” said Rotarian and Morgan Hill Unified School District Superintendent Steve Betando.
 
Next up for the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill was the club’s sixth annual dictionary distribution to third graders. During the week of February 27, the 5,000th dictionary from this annual event were handed out by a local Rotarian to one of third graders in the public and private schools in the Morgan Hill area. Students get to keep these books which come with a bookplate where the student can enter his or her name. For many kids, the gift of the dictionary may be their first book that they own. Rotarian and Morgan Hill Police Chief David Swing  co-chaired this program with Rotarian Carol Carr, along with the Rotarian volunteers who visited each school in uniform and lead the presentation.

 
Read more...
Rotary Works to Make Polio Extinct
                                                               
 
Time Magazine in its Dec. 25, 2017 issue noted:
 
...The road to almost zero has been a long one–and a lot of the credit has rightly gone to Rotary International, the global service organization that made polio eradication its mission in 1979. That year the group began a five-year campaign to vaccinate upwards of 6 million children in the Philippines. In 1988, Rotary joined hands with UNICEF, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to form the Global Polio Eradication Initiative. In 2007 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation came aboard. Today 2.5 billion children have been vaccinated worldwide at a cost of $15 billion...
 
 
Morgan Hill Life reported in its March 29 – April 11, 2017 issue:
 
Morgan Hill Rotarian Peter Anderson raised more than $12,000 to help find cure for polio by hiking in the Himalayas to benefit Polio Plus.