Advertise in the Utah Rotary Conference Program

Hello to all Utah Rotarians and those who love them!

The 2012 District Conference is near!

If you are interested in advertising in the 2012 District Conference program, NOW is the time to act.

Go to www.urdc2012.com and click on the Advertise link on the web page.

Hundreds of Utah Rotarians will be reading the Program, don’t miss out on this opportunity.

Utah Rotary Conference promises to be a party as well as a learning & service opportunity

Hello to all Utah Rotarians!
Online registration is now available on the Utah Rotary Conference website.
Please go to www.urdc2012.com to register online for the 2012 District 5420 (Utah Rotary) Conference.
You can register using a credit card or PayPal.
Or you can download a registration form and send it and a check by mail.
Come Join Us for a unique Conference experience as we celebrate Rotary!

FUN RUN TO END POLIO

On April 7, the Saturday before Easter, Blanding, Utah Rotary is sponsoring the First Annual 5K/1 Mile Fun Run/Walk to End Polio. All proceeds go toward immunizing children worldwide against polio. Bring your family and enjoy fun and fitness. The event begins at 8:00 am in the Arts and Events Center in Blanding, Utah. There will be an opportunity to learn about polio from college faculty and students. You can even see an actual iron lung. The cost is $25 with a shirt or $20 without. You can register your whole family, including shirts, for $100. To register, email Worthy Glover at wglover@citlink.net. 

BLOOD DRIVE AT RC WILLEY SPONSORED BY MURRAY ROTARY

Come sign up to donate blood today from 10 am to 3 pm at RC Willey in Murray.  We will have a table set up by Customer Service.   Tuesday, March 20th, the Red Cross will have the Blood Mobil at RC
Willey parking lot at 3:pm to start the scheduled donors process.

From Haiti to Rotary: Thank You, Thank You

Chicken Skin, Chicken Skin!  (Hawaiian verbal response to a goose-bump-stimulating event).  I first experienced this about half way through a meeting with visitors from Haiti.  I was in a small conference room in the School of Business on Westminster College in Salt Lake City on March 8, 2012.  In attendance were five visitors from Haiti, three men and two women, comprising a contingent brought in by the U. S. State Department under the auspices of the International Visitor Leadership Program (more on this program and its similarity to the Rotary peace initiative later).  Also in attendance were an English to French simultaneous translator and a French to English simultaneous translator.  The meeting was arranged by the Utah Council for Citizen Diplomacy (see http://www.utahdiplomacy.org ), one of several organizations in the U.S. that cooperate with the State Department to provide relevant programs for the visitors.  I serve on their board as vice president.

The purpose of the meeting was for me to explain the purposes and functioning of Rotary at the local and international level to the visitors.  They were in the U. S. studying the topic “Changemakers:  The Impact Of Social Entrepreneurs In The U. S. (Haiti), A Project For Haiti.”  There were four goals: 1)  Introduce how social entrepreneurs recognize, create, manage, and sustain solutions to social problems; 2)  Examine the culture of service in the U.S. as reflected in government initiatives for civic engagement and innovation;  3)  Explore business strategies for using new and social media for fundraising, grassroots mobilization and strategic collaboration;  and 4)  Discuss the role of social entrepreneurs in job creation and how business community benefits from the work they do.

I did all the talking for the first part of the meeting.  I used “Guiding Principles” from http://www.rotary.org/en/aboutus/rotaryinternational/guidingprinciples/Pages/ridefault.aspx.  It is a perfect talking point source when introducing Rotary.  When I got to the point to discuss some of the international projects that Rotary does, I started with Polio Plus, then moved on to the Shelter Box program.

That was about the last thing I got to say.  The visitors began to speak.  The Chicken Skin came first when the two women announced that they lived in Shelter Box tents for over 2 months.  Understand that these visitors were selected by the U.S. State Department as up and coming individuals in the infrastructure of Haiti, not someone off the street!  Not only did the two women live in the tents, they said the tents were far superior to tents provided by other aid organizations. They mentioned the importance of the various utensils and the water purification system packed in the Shelter Boxes.  And, they, and others took the time to repack the Shelter Boxes when better housing was available.  In one instance, the tents were used a second time after a severe after shock threatened their fixed shelter!

Utah Chili Open distributes funds to charities on March 22

The premier fundraising event for the Rotary Club of Sugar House is the Utah Chili Open. The funds raised during our 21^stannual event in January will be distributed this coming March 22^nd. Because of additional guests, our meeting will be held at the Sons of the Utah Pioneers building. If you are interested in attending, please RSVP with Glenn Mills at gfminc@xmission.com .

The charities receiving funds on March 22 are:

Carmen B. Pingree Center for Children with Autism – Valley Mental Health

Cancer Wellness House

People Helping People

Reach Out and Read Utah

SPLORE

Teen Challenge New Hope House

The Sharing Place

 

Sugar House Rotary hosts Benefit Concert for Adoption Awareness

Last September, The Rotary Club of Sugar House held a party.  The honorees were either “adoptable children” in northern Utah or families hoping to adopt.  The party lasted two hours.  The results will last multiple life times.  A 17 year old girl met a family and magic happened.  5 months later, she was part of that family.  A girl who in only  a few short months would have turned 18 and become a legal adult, thereby leaving the Child Protective Services safety net, now has parents who love her, a family relationship for life, and grandparents for any future children she may have.  Obviously, the event was a success.

To insure other children will have this same opportunity, Sugar House Rotary is holding a benefit concert to raise funds to secure a healthy future for this event.

The concert will star Ricci Martin, son of Dean Martin, remembering his father through song and stories.  The date is April 28^th, 2012 7:30pm in the Vieve Gore Concert Hall at Westminster College.

I believe you would enjoy attending this event; but even more, I hope you would like to feel that you have done something to help a youth in the care of the Child Protective Services find HOPE that they, too, will find a family to love them.

There are two ways to support this program: