Tags
#STARS, Appaiah Ballachanda, Bill Billings, Chana Amaro, Chuck Arnason, Colonial Heritage Williamsburg, David Rosenthal, Dianne Shannon Gordonn, District Rotary Foundation Chair, Don Vaught, FISH Food Bank, Fun, Jan Rowley, JoAnn Meaker, Joy Kline, LaShonda Delivuk, Membership, Mike Jallo, Mustard, National Mustard Day, Neva Lynde, Public Image, Rudy Lee Garcia, Shel Douglas, Stan Wall, SuAnne Hardee Bryant, The Rotary Foundation
Over 100 attended the Sensational Trio of August Rotary Seminars (#STARS):
It was a day filled with information, suggestions, innovative ideas and just a little bit of fun. We were all there to equip ourselves to “Be the Inspiration”. The Colonial Heritage Country Club in Williamsburg may never be the same. And Rotarians are innovative. Sometimes they switched seminars. Gotta love these D7600 Rotarians
Public Image or How to share our Rotary stories:
Lead by the District Newsletter Editor and Public Image Chair, JoAnn Meaker, the 25 or so Rotarians in the Seminar, enjoyed intimate surroundings, printed materials, and demonstrations of the EZ Bulletin feature on dacdb.com. LaShonda Delivuk, Public Image Chair from District 7570 also inspired the attendees with her presentation on the interplay between membership and public image.
Membership, It’s the only thing!
The takeaway, oft repeated in the plenary sessions was “Membership, it’s the only thing.” 35+ Rotarians in the Membership seminar were led capably by District Membership Co-Chairs, Mike Jallo, and Shel Douglas. LaShonda Delivuk also spoke in this session about the synergy between membership and public image. No one will know our Rotary stories unless we have members to share their stories and unless our members share them.
The Rotary Foundation: How our good works are funded:
Approximately 42 Rotarians attended this session. Chuck Arnason, Rotary District Foundation Chair, and his team of Rudy Lee Garcia (Development), Joy Kline (Annual Giving), Bill Billings (Endowment), Appaiah Ballachanda (Paul Harris Society), Stan Wall (Polio Plus), SuAnne Hardee Bryant (Grants), and Don Vaught (Grants Auditor). Just when one thinks there is nothing new to learn, Foundation-wise, there arise new requirements. In this session, SuAnne focused on global grants, and our featured speaker Shel Douglas spoke on the more formal Community or Needs Assessments required of global grant applications. The materials from The Rotary Foundation Seminar on d7600foundation.org on The Foundation Workshop Materials 2018 page. There were no slides or handouts for the Paul Harris Society (PHS) as Appaiah is a walking cheerleader for the PHS.
The learning was not the only fun:
JoAnn Meaker designed the STARS meme and hashtag #STARS to help promote the workshops. Dana Rieves, JoAnn Meaker, and Prince George Electric Cooperative provided the stellar door prizes. David Rosenthal made all aware that it was also National Mustard Day. We decided to inspire every registrant to bring a new, unopened container of mustard to donate. Those who forgot often donated cash instead. Neva Lynde and her fellow James City County Satellite Club volunteered to carry the mustard to the FISH Food Bank.
The photos are part of the fun … thank Dianne Gordonn, Bill Billings, Jan Rowley, Chana Amaro and others who took many photos and shared them freely.

We are all now ready to “Be the Inspiration”.
Yes, we were rained out in May. The whole idea had been to have our Richmond area game earlier in the year to beat the heat of July. Well, we did, but what had not been anticipated was the rain, not a polite, respectful rain, but a deluge of a rain. The Squirrels, rightfully, called the game and helped us reschedule for the June 14th date.



have red ‘End Polio Now’ t-shirts for sale, $10 for most shirts and $12 for the fulsome 2x and 3x sizes. A dollar from each shirt sale goes back to End Polio Now.
more to the Annual Fund will be matched dollar for dollar with district recognition points. This is only on Tuesday. Not Monday. Not Wednesday. Tuesday!
The first of our two End Polio Now Baseball Games in Richmond on July 7 was a huge success. Game Coordinator and now Assistant Governor Stan Wall and Debbie Wall, District Secretary, sold 1016 tickets, a record for the Richmond Squirrels Game. Two dollars from each ticket was a donation to End Polio Now, the Squirrels threw in a bit more, and Debbie’s employer Sabra Dipping added another $2 for each of the 400 tickets that Debbie sold. Add the matching contribution from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and our Richmond Squirrels game raised over $8000 for End Polio Now. At left District Polio Plus Coordinator, Colleen Bonadonna, under the watchful eye of that giant Squirrel, Nutzy.
, Zoe Romano, Skyped in from Maine to share her plans for her two-year graduate program which will span three South American countries and will include academic semesters and semesters of volunteer teaching in under-served schools. She especially praised Delmar Dayton of the South Richmond Club for his patience and persistence in the two years it took to steward her acceptance as a global scholar.
So two weeks in and there is another fantastic End Polio Now Baseball Game in Norfolk on July 27th being organized by David Mansfield. There is still time to get tickets for this Triple-A game. Join in with hundreds of area Rotarians doing their bit to eradicate Polio and have a heck of a lot of fun. Rip Tide will be so disappointed if you don’t show. Check the
Wall, Dan Jones, Cynthia Gregg, Philip Ford, Dennis Wool, Bob Harper, Louis Tayon, James P. O’Brien, Suzanne Luna, Paul L. Strong, and Heather Martin each handled their roles in a different way with varying levels of intensity, but each carried a strong commitment to The Rotary Foundation in their DNA.Their involvement helped us ‘Bee’ a Gift to the World.

