HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE 2009-2010 YEAR CONTINUED
On
December 16, at the last meeting before Christmas, we
celebrated a "Rotary Family Day", as always
combined with the "Bread Basket Luncheon"
fundraiser for the Edgewater Meals-on-Wheels Program.
Thanks to Ray Pinard's enthusiasm (and, of course, "Amen")
we raised $7,300.00 (which is more than ever before).
A big "Thank you" to all the generous (and
some very generous) donors. An additional "Thank
you" to all the members who brought (unwrapped)
"Toys for Tots"; the Marines James and Ray
really appreciated your support.
On
February 10, fourteen significant others joined the
members of the club to celebrate Valentine's Day, with
a lot of wonderful singing accompanied by Bonnie Karger
at the piano. Thank you Ruth for having orchestrated
that event and Neil for having handed out so many long-stem
roses. The meeting on March 17 started a bit earlier
to celebrate St. Patrick's Day, with Clyde Wood playing
the bagpipes. Thank you Mary O'Keefe and Karen Mahoney
for this of course very green event prior to our regular
meeting, and "Thank you" Stephen Duncan for
showing off your Scottish kilt.
A
very special celebration every year is our "Salute
to Veterans". On May 26, we enjoyed having about
forty guests and honored more than thirty veterans (club
members and guest) for their service. As in all previous
years, Mike Guarino deserves a big "Thank you"
for again having so beautifully and tastefully orchestrated
this event.
Those
of you who did not come in the late afternoon of April
9 to Fisherman's Wharf really missed a nice social gathering
with complimentary hors d'uvres (the calamari
fritti really went quickly); do not miss the next social
whenever that may be! A great success was the "Bicycle
Helmet Give-Away" the next morning (April 10) at
the Grand Kids Festival; the helmets put a smile on
the faces of 330 kids.
In
1990, our Club established the Galveston Rotary Foundation,
Inc. (do not get confused, that foundation is completely
separate from "the" Foundation of RI). The
2009-2010 Board Members of our Club Foundation included
ex-officio: Neil Nathan (President), Bill McMullen (Vice
President), Jake Walsdorf (President-Nominee), and Bets
Anderson (Past President); additional Board members
were: Lise Darst, Brett Kirkpatrick, and Randy Klibert.
The Board allocated a total of almost $15,000 for support
of a number of community organizations and club projects,
including: two scholarships for High School students
and recognitions of "Students of the Year"
at UTMB, TAMUG and Galveston College (see below); the
Galveston County Science & Engineering Fair; Galveston
Catholic School; West Isle Little League All Star Team;
Developmental Momentum (books for island schools); Galveston
Fire Department (training manuals for kids); Lassie
League Softball of Galveston. Most of the above money
($10,000) was given to two Haiti relief efforts: Mercy
Ships and Shelter Box USA.
In
addition, our Club Foundation contributed $1,000 each
to RI for Polio Eradication and to District 5910 for
its Water Well Project in Nicaragua.
As every year, most money for the Club's Foundation
came from our "Chili Supper and Silent Auction"
fundraiser. It took place on November 5 in the cafeteria
of Ball High School and netted close to $15,000. A big
"Thank you" to Keith Bassett (Chili Supper)
and Dianna Davis (Silent Auction), who headed up these
two events, and to the many club members, who offered
a helping hand.
The
52nd Galveston Island 5th Grade Spelling Bee contest
for students from the Island's elementary schools took
place on March 7 at Austin Middle School and, as in
previous years, was sponsored by our Rotary Club. David
Bowers, Mary Brechtel, Ruth Suhler, and Zoula Zein-Eldin
served as competent judges. The winners of the contest
were Kayla Kaster from College Prep Academy and Austin
Middle School (1st Place), Cambry Carter from Austin
Middle School (2nd Place), and Mitchell Moreno from
Galveston Catholic School (3rd Place). As for many years
now, co-sponsored by our club (together with Galveston
College and Workforce Solutions) was the Galveston College
Career Fair and Transfer Day on March 30.
In
April and September, members of our club again participated
in the state-wide Beach Clean-Up. For our club, John
Augelli continued to be the organizing hand. Club members
who helped him picking-up East Beach trash were: Ulli
Budelmann, Marie Garrett, Randy Klibert, Bill McMullen,
Ray Pinard, and Ruth Suhler in April; and Ulli Budelmann,
Brett Kirkpatrick, Neil Nathan, Juan Peña, Gary
Peters, Ray Pinard, George Ritz, and Jake Walsdorf in
September. During the April 24 event we certainly could
have accommodated many more trash-picking Rotary hands.
This year, our Club Foundation honored six students
as "Student of the Year" and presented them
a certificate and a $50 check: Samuel Bernal (O'Connell
College Preparatory School); Michael Dent (Ball High
School); Christof Straub (UTMB Graduate School); Michaela
Marek (UTMB Medical School); Kisa Young (Galveston College);
and Amy Reeves Leuchtag (TAMUG).
Unfortunately,
our Interact Club at O'Connell and Rotaract Club at
Galveston College/TAMUG stayed inactive for another
year. With your help the respective club committee chairs
could certainly bring them back to an active life by
which they could join the other 284,000 Interact and
184,000 Rotaract members world-wide!
 |
Our
club sponsored a Rotary Exchange Student every year
since 1992. This year's student was Nuttanich "Meaw"
Reaungvetvorrachai from Bangkok in Thailand. Meaw
stayed with us in Galveston from August 8, 2009
to June 14, 2010; during that time she attended
Ball High School. At the beginning she stayed briefly
with Jay and Lori Carnes (in Texas City), and then
until December with Rusty and Lisa Carnes. Her host
family till the end of her stay was Kelsey and Laurie
Maxson (while they were on a mission trip to India
for two weeks, Karen Mahoney and Casey and Mary
Brechtel helped out hosting). A very big "Thank
you" to all of them for having so wonderfully
cared for Meaw. It is the quality and passion of
the host families that make the Youth Exchange Program
work. As for the eleven previous exchange students,
Meaw's counselor and legal guardian was Ulli Budelmann.
Meaw was one of ten exchange students in the District.
All ten students got together several times: August
28-30 for an orientation meeting on the west-end
of Galveston Island ("Thank you" Jay Goss,
College Station RC, for allowing us to stay in your
beautiful beach house); October 23-25 for a fun-filled
weekend at Crystal Lake near Palestine; January
29-31 at the South Central Rotary Youth Exchange
(SCRYE) meeting in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they met
almost 200 |
| other
Rotary Youth Exchange students from 30 Rotary Districts;
April 30 - May 2 at the Multi-District Conference
in San Antonio; and, for the last time, May 14-16
for a real "Texas" experience at a ranch
in Harper near Fredericksburg (generously made possible
by PDG Chuck Mason's family). |
This
past year our club sponsored 11 Galveston high school
students to participate in the "Oh, we feel so
good" RYLA weekend camp-out. This educational,
fun-filled and all-expenses-paid activity took place
January 8-10 at the Pineywoods Baptist Encampment in
Woodlake near Lufkin. Eight students were selected from
Ball High School: Michele Chen, Hannah Cleveland, Charlotte
Dearman, Tierney Foreman, Natalie Giesen, Vicki Jean
Hallcolm, Dominique Hellmich, and Victoria Vazquez;
and three students came from the O'Connell College Preparatory
School: Marcelo Arredondo, Catherine Trimarchi, and
John Villareal. Our 11 students joined more than 200
other students from High Schools elsewhere in our District
(and about 40 adults). Juan Peña gave us a slide
show of the event at our January 27 meeting. Beside
Juan, other chaperones from our Club were Pat Bumpus,
Ray Pinard, and Elise Worthen. As every year, they all
had a great time.
This
year only two of our club members were active at District
5910 level: beside his position as Governor-Nominee
Ulli Budelmann served as Assistant Governor for the
Friendswood, Galveston, Galveston Island, and Mainland
Rotary Clubs; he also continued as Inbound Coordinator
on the Youth Exchange Committee; and Harold Fattig served
his second year as District Chair for the "Roll
of Fame" and "Four Avenues of Service"
awards. If it would be known how rewarding (and fun!)
it is to participate in District activities (of course,
beside the hard work), surely more of our club members
would serve Rotary at that level.
After
an involuntary pause last year because of the aftermath
of Hurricane Ike (we did not have much to show at that
time), our Club again participated (at least for a day)
in hosting the visiting GSE team from São Paulo,
Brazil (District 4430): Bruno Katayama, Eleonora Cordeiro
Mattoso, Elidy Cavalcanti, Fernando Tetsuo Nebuya, Leandro
Fabrício Dix, William Medeiros, and the Rotarian
team leader Regis Yoshio Shimanoe. In the morning of
April 14, they toured Moody Gardens and at lunch time
presented a program about their home country at our
club meeting.
Randy
Klibert became our Club's newest member in the District
5910 "Roll of Fame". He received this award
in recognition for his "Loyal and Dedicated Service
and Devotion to the Ideals of Rotary". Well deserved,
Randy! You are the Club's 32nd member in the District's
"Roll of Fame".
Every
year the club recognizes members with a Paul Harris
Fellowship for their special service to the club and
beyond. This year's recipients were: John Augelli, Robyn
Bushong, Keith Bassett, Lise Darst, and Scott Livanec.
In addition, John Schmidt contributed the necessary
funds and became a Paul Harris Fellow. He also became
the 63rd member of the club's VIT Association and Al
Miller became member #64.
For many years Mike Guarino has been the chair of the
"Remembrance Committee". This year he has
been honored as the Club's Most Valuable Member. Thank
you, Mike, for your many years of service to the club.
The
Club's "Bell Ringers" for the Salvation Army
collected about $1,500. A "Thank you" to the
twenty club members who rang the bells and to Pat Bumpus
and Jerry Vaughan for organizing that event.
During
the entire year, many of our club members lived Rotary's
motto "Service above Self" beyond the club
and Rotary levels and excelled professionally or voluntarily
served the Galveston community in a variety of charitable,
civic and professional organizations. To name just a
few (in random order, to avoid complaints): Dianna Davis
was named "Outstanding Juvenile Placement Officer
in the State of Texas", John Augelli "Librarian
of the Year" by the Texas Library Association,
and our late Richard Squier Hitchcock's "Citizen
of the Year"; following Tom Schwenk, David Bowers
served as President of the Galveston Historical Foundation
and he also served as President of the Galveston Association
of Realtors; Libbie's Place Adult Daycare honored Buddy
Benson; and "congratulation" to John Zendt,
who became the CEO of Moody Gardens. Many more of our
members have voluntarily served our community in one
or the other way but are not mentioned here; they know
who they are and we all appreciate their service and
dedication.
Finally
and as a historical note, for the first time in the
history of Rotary International, six Texas Rotary Districts
(District 5730, 5810, 5830, 5840, 5870, and our own
5910) celebrated the accomplishments of their District
Rotary Year together. This "Tejas" Multi-District
Conference took place in San Antonio April 29 - May
2. Unfortunately, only three of our club members attended
(Neil Nathan, Harold Fattig, and Ulli Budelmann); the
rest missed a wonderful Rotary event.
Many
of the accomplishments listed above were beautifully
highlighted in a special 12-page, full-color insert
in the Galveston County Daily News, published in a full-run
issue on July 1, 2010. "Thank you!" Robyn
Bushong for having put together yet another outstanding
insert. Copies of it (in addition to the almost 25,000
inserted in the GCDN) will be distributed at our annual
Chili Supper, RYLA, the Galveston College Job Fair,
the Annual District Conference, and at other community-wide
events.
To
summarize, "Thank you" President Neil for
having taken the Future of the Rotary Club of Galveston
so perfectly into your caring hands and "congratulations"
for all the accomplishments that made the 97th year
of our existence another successful year of Rotary service.
Back
to welcome ...click here.