1/14 This week at Rotary: Investing in Our Community
Join us this week as the Good Works chairs our meeting for an inspiring look at the impact we are making together.We are thrilled to hear from our three large grant recipients for the year. This is your opportunity to learn about the specific projects these organizations will launch with the funding they receive on January 31st:
- Safe Bikes for Kids (with MWVCOG): $28,000 for Trailers and Bikes with Helmets, Mike Jaffe will be presenting
- Isaac’s Room: $30,000 for 12 Passenger Van, Kelly Carlisle will be presenting
- Withnell YMCA: $18,560 for Security Cameras for a safer campus with upgraded system, Jordan Blake
Program Chair –Beth Rhoades
Meeting Location: Main Street Alliance Building, Cedar Hall
President’s Message
January Focus: Identifying Our Club’s Community
Geography and Service Opportunities
During this month of January we are spotlighting our Community Needs, Hands On committee which is led by Alicia Bay. As a result of this E-blast, I hope to receive input from our membership on some very important Club information. When we say Community Needs, it is important that we define Community. It isn’t specific enough for us to think of Community as Salem. What is our Club’s Community? Sometimes it can be easier to describe boundaries by determining what our Community is not. There are 7 Salem area Rotary Clubs that each have their own Community. By identifying the Community or Geography of the other 6 clubs we can bring our community/geography into view. The other 6 clubs include Keizer and Stayton which have clear geographic boundaries since they are governmental jurisdictions. Then there is West Salem Rotary which is clearly separated from our Community by the Willamette River. There is also the e-club which I will not consider in this analysis since they apparently can draw membership from anywhere in the world. That leaves East Salem and Creekside Rotary Clubs and their respective Community/Geography to identify apart from our Club’s geography. I suggest that our geography can be described by the area bounded by Pine Street on the north, 17th Street on the east, the Willamette River on the west, and Madrona Avenue on the south. This is an opportunity for input: Please email me at dparham3755@gmail.com if you have input on the boundaries for our Community/Geography.
Having a well-defined Community or geography can help us in many ways:
- focus our attention on Community Needs
- help us identify Hands On projects so we can be People in Action
- Help the Rotary Club of Salem become more visible in our Community or geography.
- discover possible club meeting locations
- recruit new club members
- identify program topics
- Identify program presenters
- Identify potential grant recipients
Please email me at dparham3755@gmail.com if you think of additional Club benefits to having a well defined Community/Geography.
Alicia Bay and the Hands-On committee members have developed Hands-On projects for all of us to become Rotarians At Work and People In Action each month throughout this fiscal year. As each of you focus attention on our Community please be on the lookout for situations where our Rotary Club can pitch in and offer our assistance. Together we can make noticeable differences in our Community.
If you have Hands-On project ideas that involve 6-10 (or more) Rotarians in Action for 1 – 4 hours, please email me or contact Alicia Bay.
See you on Wednesday!
President Doug Parham
Rotary Club of Salem
2025-2026
