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
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Calendar of Events
July 2018
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Meeting Speakers
George Guglielmo
Jul 25, 2018 1:00 PM
Wine Making
Robert Shorey
Aug 01, 2018 1:00 PM
Health & Wellness
Alan Olson
Aug 08, 2018 1:00 PM
Mathew Turner Project
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Upcoming Events
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Businesses that give back

 

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What's New....
Is your organization looking for a grant to support our local community?
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 though 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. 
 
 
The 2018-19 grant cycle starts on July 1, 2018. This year we will be accepting applications through a new online application at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GXS62FR.
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.
 
    
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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.
 
                            
 
 
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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. 
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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.

 

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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.
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The Rotary Club of Morgan Hill's Good Work Noted in Local Press
Rotary Club of Morgan Hill volunteers help repair MH man’s home

Published in the Nov. 22- Dec 5 edition of Morgan Hill Life

Ascencion Gonzalez’s home on Torrey Court got a facelift thanks to a team of about 15 Rotary Club of Morgan Hill members. They volunteered their time Saturday, Oct. 28, through the Silicon Valley branch of the nonprofit Rebuilding Together organization to paint walls, build a new fence, put in a new gas stove in the kitchen, and install better lighting in his ranch-style home.

Rotarian Judy Henry paints a house as part of the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill’s Rebuilding Together project.
Photo by Marty Cheek

“This is awesome. It’s an unbelievable blessing to us,” said his daughter, Angie Gonzalez...Rebuilding Together provided the materials including lumber and paint for the project. Rotary Club members got to work fixing Ascencion’s home under the guidance of Lynn Alens, the “house captain” with Rebuilding Together...

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Morgan Hill Rotary Funds Park Improvements
Published in the Nov. - Dec 2017 edition of gmh Today
 
Hundreds enjoy new downtown parks at Saturday preview

Published in the Dec. 4 edition of Morgan Hill Times

Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate’s ceremonial first descent down the Rotary Slide at the city’s new Hilltop Park on West Third Street Saturday ended with a slight stumble that he stoically brushed off with a quick return to his feet and a smile.

Hilltop Park

Following shortly behind him for the rest of the morning was a long line of kids who attended (with their parents) the Dec. 2 walking preview, grand opening and dedication ceremonies for three new downtown parks.

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Main story – City, residents set to celebrate three new downtown parks
Published in the Nov. 22- Dec 5 edition of Morgan Hill Life
 
As workers put the finishing touches on the soft-padding surface around the play equipment, Juliet Tellez, a 7-year-old second-grader at San Martin Gwinn Environmental Science Academy got a sneak peek at Railroad Park. Not one, not two, but three brand-new parks are set to open at the end of November in downtown Morgan Hill...A pedestrian bridge crossing the creek was built with a $100,000 donation from the Rotary Club of Morgan Hill. From Creek Park, pedestrians can walk up West Third Street to the Nob Hill Trail Park nearby and enjoy a vista of the South Valley. Here they can exercise using parcourse machines or feel the rush of going down two curving slides built into the hill.
 
 

The city of Morgan Hill will host at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 2, a two-hour ribbon-cutting to celebrate with residents the completion of all three downtown parks. Mayor Steve Tate is expected to inaugurate the slides by being the first person to “officially” go down them, said Chris Ghione, community services director for the city.

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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. 

 

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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.

 
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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.  
 
 
Our Foundation is Amazing
Rotary Foundation named World's Outstanding Foundation for 2016

The Association of Fundraising Professionals has recognized The Rotary Foundation with its annual Award for Outstanding Foundation.

The award honors organizations that show philanthropic commitment and leadership through financial support, innovation, encouragement of others, and involvement in public affairs. Some of the boldest names in American giving — Kellogg, Komen, and MacArthur, among others —are past honorees.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from the AFP, which gives us even more reason to celebrate during our Foundation’s centennial year,” says Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair Kalyan Banerjee. “The continued strong support of Rotary members will help us keep our promise of a polio-free world for all children and enable the Foundation to carry out its mission of advancing world understanding, goodwill, and peace. We look forward to another 100 years of Rotary members taking action to make communities better around the world.”

The announcement came on 15 November, known to industry professionals since the 1980s as National Philanthropy Day. The award will be presented in early 2017 at the AFP’s annual conference in San Francisco.

Rotary Foundation Trustee Chair-elect Paul Netzel is set to accept the award on Rotary’s behalf, and Eric Schmelling, director of fund development at Rotary, will speak at the conference. The event is expected to draw more than 3,400 senior-level fundraising professionals from 33 countries.

“While almost everyone is familiar with Rotary, not everyone may realize just how much of an impact Rotary and The Rotary Foundation have had on countless people

and communities across the globe,” says Jason Lee, AFP president and CEO. “On behalf of the entire charitable sector and people around the world, all of us at AFP are honored to be able to recognize The Rotary Foundation as our 2016 Outstanding Foundation.”

AFP’s committee of judges cited Rotary’s comprehensive campaign to eradicate polio as a major driver of the selection. They also mentioned that Rotary applies a methodical, purposeful approach to support a wide variety of causes, from providing clean water to educating the next generation of peace professionals.

This article is reprinted from The Rotary Foundation website.

 

Thank you! 
We had a great time! Over 90 golfers and a day of fundraising fun.