Ray introduced Sunny Kellerman, who said that she had been at Rotary meetings in 4 countries and 5 states and this is her favorite club. She is now a member of the Albuquerque Metro Club which meets twice monthly in the evening. She is serving as vice-governor of the District. She is to step in if the Governor becomes
unavailable. This year she is championing the Epic Day of Service, and she is handling the scheduling of the Governor’s club visits, and also visiting as many clubs as she can. She asked if anyone remembered why they joined Rotary, and several members shared their reasons. She then asked why we stay in Rotary, and again members shared their answers. Sunny said that results of worldwide surveys show that what keeps us in Rotary is the fellowship and opportunities for service. She wanted to remind us that we are part of an immense global network represented in more countries and territories than the United Nations. Rotary
is one of humanity’s greatest hopes because it is nonpartisan and non religious and has one single purpose which is to unite for good. The organization's biggest project remains eradicating polio.
She discussed The Rotary Foundation's Annual Fund which, among other things, is the source of funding for district grants. The amount the club can receive for district grants is directly correlated to what the club gives to the Annual Fund 3 years earlier.
Every Rotarian is asked to give at least $25 a year to the annual fund, and expectation known as Every Rotarian Every Year (EREY).
Sunny said that what keeps a member in Rotary is having a job and a friend. She said we now have 7 peace centers in the world. These centers are educating people in conflict resolution and ways to bring about peace. She told us about the ShelterBox disaster relief charity, which was established in the year 2000 by the Rotary Club of Helston, UK. ShelterBox provides boxes containing a tent and food, utensils, water purification systems and even coloring books for families hit by natural or man-made disasters. The purpose is to provide temporary shelter for up to 10 people until they can find housing. Shelterbox has been active recently in Ukraine and Sudan and earlier in response to the earthquake in Turkey.
Sunny acknowledged that Rotary clubs are getting smaller and she suggested that the way to expand may be through new clubs—passport clubs, cause based clubs, satellite clubs. She brought to our attention one global grant project which was highlighted at the International Project Fair. There is a Hobbs Interact Club member who is spearheading a project to bring clean drinking water to 3 Philippine schools. She encouraged us to find a way to support this project. She closed by listing a calendar of upcoming events calling special attention to the Epic Day of Service in May. She mentioned the Year of Cheer which is to collect gifts for children in the UNM Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital in El Paso. She listed local projects to participate in: bell ringing, Christmas giving tree, pints for polio, park clean-ups, read to kids or elderly, blood drives, collection of plastic bottle caps to be made into benches, etc. These ideas don’t call for a lot of back-breaking work and are easy to implement. She then mentioned a number of fundraising event suggestions: a restaurant night where the restaurant donates a percentage to Rotary, a bowl-a-thon, a pancake breakfast, a trivia night, a yard sale, farmer’s golf.
She ended by saying she stayed in Rotary because of a quote from Harry Truman, “Put a Rotary Club in every town, and I will
underwrite world peace.” That’s the kind of power that Rotary has.
After a question and answer period, the meeting was adjourned at 12:50 pm.
