Our keynote speaker, Evan Burrell, learned a lot of new words during his stay in New England, including the proper words to describe our 2023 District Conference: it was "wicked pissah!" 

 

If you weren't there this weekend, you really missed a lot:

 

Pickleball, Wine Fellowship, Tutudesks, Microfinance, Rotaract, RYLA, Interact, Polio Eradication, ESRAG, Climate Action, Human Trafficking, Video Storytelling, Rotaplast, No Mow May, a new Rotary Club for Military Veterans, Juggling District Governors, wild (and unconfirmed) stories about a Tesla stuck in a snow drift, and much more...

“As a RYLA Alumni from 2019, I can say with high confidence that it has been one of, if not the most rewarding leadership experiences I have done. Helping others is something that I have strong passion for. RYLA not only provided that for me, but it gave me many other opportunities. I am so glad I attended RYLA, and I look forward to helping others have the same experience I had.” - Alyssa Louise

#reconnectingwithryla 

 

 

Speaker Opportunity: Advocacy Toolkit for Water Conservation.  Funded by RI Global Grant Saving the Ipswich River & Watersheds: The Lifeblood of Our Communities. 

 

The Ipswich River is one of the most Endangered Rivers in America, threatened by over-use of its limited flow. The Ipswich River Watershed Association (IRWA) and the Ipswich-Rowley Rotary Club are partnering on work funded by a Rotary International grant to reduce water use in communities across the North Shore. This grant funds the development of an advocacy toolkit and a new initiative to engage community members to spread the word about water conservation around the North Shore.

IRWA Planning and Resiliency Program Manager, Erin Bonney Casey, would love to speak with your club on the advocacy toolkit and provide a brief training for Rotarians interested in tabling at local garden centers and community events to educate the public about the water challenges facing us and the individual actions you can take to conserve water.

Contact Joan at joan@massteximaging.com to set up this incredible presentation/opportunity for your club.

The Rotary Club of Chelsea is holding a Chelsea Rotary Derby to raise funds to support their local scholarship program and send twenty Chelsea youth to Camp Rotary for a week.

 

The event will be held Tuesday, May 16, 2023, at Anthony’s in Malden. Tickets for a chance to be a horse owner are $100. Six tickets will be drawn to represent each of the six horses in the race. The race will be 10 “furlongs” in length. The payouts will be; Win; $2,500, Place: $1,500; Show: $1,000. Betting on individual horses will be conducted. There will also be numerous door prizes. Dinner tickets are $60 and are separate from the $100 race tickets. Corporate sponsorships are available for $1,000 and include four race tickets, four dinner tickets and a banner at the finish line.

 

For race or dinner tickets please contact Bruce Mauch at (857) 544-9041. Checks should be made out to Rotary Club of Chelsea Charitable Foundation, or you can Venmo the funds to Douglas-Mauch. 

The Burlington Lunch club turned their lunch meeting into an "all hands on deck" service project & lunch last week. It was the first service project that they've done in a while and the club's support was awesome! Members helped make kit boxes, fill and label them. The goal was far exceeded and the final donation was for 60 kits!

Connor's Kindness Project is an organization started by then 12 year old Connor to provide Kindness Kits to kids.  A Kindness Kit is a box of carefully thought out items selected by Connor himself. The kits are delivered to children in hospitals and shelters and are meant to be entertaining, comforting and fun for children in challenging situations.  

Prior to this lunch, Connor and his partner Sharon Marrama (also his grandmother) spoke to the club about his idea and what their plans are for the upcoming year. If you'd like to put together a speaking event and/or service project, please contact Assistant Governor, Lori Becker of the Burlington club for more information.

Soon after Governor Alexander took office, he challenged the Assistant Governors to take some courses in the Learning Center. Some of us took on the challenge, and this is the result!

Since I had just finished my term as District Governor, but still had paperwork to do, I started with Governor Basics. I found lots of useful information and clarity to the reasons we do things certain ways. From there, I went onto Governor  Intermediate and then Advanced courses where I found answers to some of my last questions on my paperwork.

As I now rejoined the Assistant Governor group and this tool was not available when last I was an AG, I decided to start there with AG basics and follow through with the Intermediate and Advanced courses. Again, I found a plethora of information! These are great courses for anyone who thinks they want to be an Assistant Governor before they actually jump into the role.