You are already a leader in your community, but good leaders know that learning is, and should be, a continual life-long process. Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) is hosting virtual interactive seminars in February and March; and, at a cost of $25 each, these sessions are designed to be not only fun and affordable, but will provide the participants with valuable tools and ideas to bring back to their clubs. Since the courses are discussion-based rather than lectures, the lively conversations will encourage the virtually-gathered Rotarians to present and exchange information that will energize or re-energize as well as educate.

 

We are pleased to announce that District 7930 will reimburse you for the $25 attendance fee upon completion of any of the RLI sessions in February, March, and April 2021!!

 

 

What is the District Assembly you may ask?  It’s when we start training for the upcoming Rotary year.  This year we will again be on Zoom.  The evening will begin at 6:00 p.m.  First up is the Club Secretary Training.  Learn how to navigate through Club Runner and the important aspects of your job.  Next is the Club Treasurer Training.  One of our current club treasurers will give you tips and hints on how to keep your club up and running. Don’t remember how to get into your My Rotary account to make your donation to the Annual Fund?  PDG Joan Arsenault will show you and answer any questions you may have.  After that Alexander Falk and I will take you through the PowerPoint for the District Qualification for next years District Managed Grants.  Everyone who is present will get credit for attending the qualification and those clubs with at least 2 members will get the memorandum of understanding sent out to them.  After this session Rotarians will need to go online and view the training and take the quiz at the end of the session.  The final session for the evening will be the district budget.  District Finance Committee Chair, PDG Peter Simonsen will take us through next year's budget.  Please note that a quorum of Presidents Elect need to be present to approve the budget.  Please register to attend the assembly on the District Webpage.  The morning of the assembly the Zoom link will be sent to all registrants.

Since the Fall of 2020, the Greater Salem Rotary Club has amped up its support of the 5 New Hampshire towns it serves.  "Even though we were limited in certain activities, the Club decided that we needed to kick it up a notch with our support," said Club President Chris Adams. The Club decided to extend direct help to groups and residents impacted during the past year.  This support came in the form of direct grants to provide fuel assistance, grocery store gift cards, food for the holidays and gift baskets.  The Club also purchased personal protection equipment for local police and fire departments.  The Club also provided 20,000 masks that were distributed throughout the community. 

 

Importantly, these efforts involved cooperation with local groups and businesses.  For example, the Club worked with local energy companies to identify people who needed fuel to stay warm.  The Club also negotiated discounts with the companies so the donations had even more impact.

 

Reading Rotary just completed our Rotary Readers project.  Rotary Readers is an annual literacy project where two reading books and a backpack are given to each Reading Public Schools student in kindergarten and first grade.  This year over 550 literacy bags were delivered by Rotarians to the five Reading elementary schools.  Due to the pandemic, Rotarians delivered them to the school offices rather to each classroom.  In non-pandemic times, the books and bookbags would be delivered in conjunction with a time where Rotarians would read to each class.  This year the reading is being done virtually.

 

This literacy project has been adapted from our previous dictionary and thesaurus giveaways.  We heard from teachers that they preferred to have the younger students receive reading books.  Basic Education and Literacy is one of Rotary's Areas of Focus.  This particular project was adapted from a Gold Award literacy project by Mary Kate Kelley, who is a Past President of RMHS Interact and one of its charter members.

 

Pictured here is President Elect John Douglass delivering bookbags to Killam Elementary School.

 

 

Each year the Wakefield Rotary Club hosts a spring and fall food drives to benefit the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry. With COVID-19 concerns still on everyone’s mind, the club got creative. Past President Barbara Worley explained, “We didn’t want to add contact points between our members and grocery store shoppers this year, so we did something a little different. Traditionally the Wakefield Rotary does a food drive at Shaw’s in March however this year we thought we might be able to make an impact another way. We created an Un-Food Drive.” In March, Rotarians were asked to make a direct financial gift to support the pantry and the results were amazing. Worley added, “We raised way more than we expected.”