Theme: Rotary: Making a Difference
Our theme this year was “Rotary: Making a Difference.” And indeed we did . . . starting with RI President Ian Riseley’s challenge to plant one tree for each Rotarian – around 1.2 million. Well, Rotarians blew right past that!
For our Club, Jayne Downing organized our tree planting and distributed about 200 smaller trees for club members to plant!
There were huge happenings and honors for our Club this past year:
Host Club for District Governor. Renee Campbell served with great distinction and terrific leadership being an encouragement to all. And a huge shout-out to her husband, Ron!
Hosting the District 5100 Conference. Thanks to Governor Renee and Co-Chairs Mary Way and Tammy Dennee, we had a stellar, engaging program with tremendous speakers. And an army of Rotarian volunteers did an amazing job!
Launching our Centennial Project: Gerry Frank | Rotary Amphitheater. Over the next three years, we’ll focus a large part of our Good Works fundraising towards this project to build a cover and stage at Riverfront Park as we turn 100 in 2020. Thanks to Barry Nelson and Ken Van Osdol for leading the charge on this major effort!
Rotary Triathlon. Led by Past President John Shirley and others, we launched this new event with a Duathlon (biking, running) and other shorter runs. This laid the groundwork for a tremendous annual fitness-oriented Rotary event – “Rotary Multi-Sport RiverFest.”
Good Works Auction. Led by Tammy Dennee, Jenn Columbus, and Chane Griggs, we realized great success raising over $110,000! A great team effort with terrific volunteers on this key club event!
The Salem Rotary Foundation continues to be an amazing partner with tremendous support for our Club’s key projects. We distributed $10,000 in Small Grants to nine local non-profits to address needs for children, provide basic supplies to help people exit homelessness, and help persons with mental health challenges. Under exceptional financial stewardship and generous financial contributions, SRF has nearly reached their goal of a $1 million fund!
Our Club showed “Making a Difference” in many ways: Blood Drives, Dictionary Project, Tree of Joy, Salvation Army bellringing, Food Drive, Hands-On projects, exceptional Vocational tours, and fantastic (and delicious) Fellowships. We maintained efforts on Peace: monthly Peace Moments, installation of Peace Poles, and the Cyprus Friendship Exchange bringing Cypriot youths to Salem to help build peace.
We hosted a delightful Inbound Exchange Student, Chio Lopez, from Chile who attended South Salem High. We co-sponsored Outbound Student Salma Galvin, McMinnville, to Belgium. We were also blessed to have outstanding Students of the Month. Thanks to Ryan Collier, North Principal Sara LeRoy, and South Principal Lara Tiffin.
We also had three stellar meetings that spotlighted our school district’s awesome music program! Thanks, Karl Raschkes, for pulling those together!
What an amazing Rotary year seeing Salem Rotarians stepping up to get things done. And with the fun, fellowship, fundraising, and friend raising we experienced this year, we truly saw “Rotary: Making a Difference.”
