Newsletter - Archive  Jan 19, 2010

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Tennessee's First Breakfast Club - Charles Crowe - President 2009-10 Rotary Club No. 3878 - Oak Ridge, Tennessee - District 6780 VOTED DISTRICT 6780 BEST ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER - 2007-2008
Volume 30 - No. 15	Lydia Birk - Breakfast Bytes Editor	January 19, 2010

This week - January 20 there will be a Board meeting following the regular meeting.

  Annoucements:

Linda Brown and Martha Hobson reported wonderful news about their latest health reports and Pat Postma gave a very positive report on Charlie Jernigan's progress - he is now at home.  Pat Parr was seriously injured in a car accident and Teresa Venable is resting at home after knee surgery.   Ben Adams provided information about how Oak Ridgers can help people through this tough cold spell by donating to Project Safe - an account that has been set up at ORUD to assist those people having trouble paying their utility bills. 

Jim Bradbury invited club members to a "going away" party for his wife who passed away recently.  He said that it was a mark of her character that she did not want a funeral, but would rather have people get together and celebrate her life.  The event is scheduled for 7 p.m. on January 23^rdat the Westside Unitarian Church in Knoxville.  This will be a wonderful time to celebrate her life.

A total of $50.00 in Happy Dollars was collected.

The program: Emory Valley Center, introduced by Gene Caldwell.

Dottie Thompson began the presentation on the Center which provides a comprehensive array of programs, supports, and services which strive to maximize the abilities of those served and to integrate them into their community to the greatest degree possible.  She stated that the people who live, work, and attend Emory Valley Center have a variety of mental and physical disabilities, including varying levels of mental retardation, physical and emotional disabilities.  The Center has grown into a comprehensive facility which serves approximately 140 adults and 60 preschoolers with opportunities they might not have otherwise had...opportunities to become productive citizens and have meaning in their lives.  Without the Emory Valley Center, many of these individuals would have very meager existences.

Gene Caldwell, followed Dottie's presentation with a road map of how the various entities morphed  into the Emory Valley Center from 1955 to the present, which was an excellent picture of how the Center has progressed over the years.  He stated that because of the vision of parents in 1955; a vision that included compassion, innovation, leadership, integrity, and action, many individuals are living longer and living meaningful lives. 

·Editor's Note: The PR/Communications Committee is working to provide a synopsis of each week's meeting for those who weren't able to attend and for those who WERE present who might have missed a detail or two. If you'd like to help by "covering" a meeting once in a while, please let Pat Powell·(email ppowell@infointl.com) know you are interested.  

And, yep, writing UP a meeting can count for a meeting makeup (one of those "service to the club" things!).

Guests and Visitors

Lisa Laphear, Resource Director for United Way

Francis Hall

Hugh Ward

P. K. Nguen

 

Visting Rotarians

Tom Hilton - Oak Ridge Noon Rotary

NOTES FROM HAITI

For information about our District's (and clubs in our district)·response to developments in Haiti, click here.

·

Jim Palmer, who has been working with Rotarians and others in Haiti on our clean water efforts, has had email contact with·several folks and has shared first-hand emails of personal accounts. Jim warns that they are hard to read, so use your best judgement. "Be aware that the enclosed report is gut wrenching," Jim writes.·"If you don’t want to expose yourself to an emotional stab in the heart, don’t open and read the enclosed report; be content to know that Chris and Leslie survived.· I have hesitated quite a while about even forwarding this report.· However, I have decided that it is only through people like Chris and Leslie sharing their personal experiences that we will come to understand the breadth and depth of this tragedy." Click here for Chris and Leslie's account.·

·

And following is another accout from provided by Jim Palmer: Again Jim writes "I thought I
would pass this one along to ORBRC'ers since it involves one of our team
members on the water filter project - "Clean Water for the World."· The
person who forwarded this to me is Charles Adams, who until just recently
was the leader of that organization.· The originator ("D") is David Putt who
has now taken over that activity." Click here to read this email.
·

Information for Rotarians interested in making donations to Haiti:

·

A Donor Advised Fund has been established at The Rotary Foundation and
information about it will be made available. For Rotarians who wish to
donate in a manner that the funds will be overseen by Rotarians for use in
Haiti, this will provide a means that does provide US income tax
deductibility. The model is a similar DAF that was established to respond to
Katrina/Rita. In the Haiti case, two of the overseers are past RI directors
Barry Rassin and Bob Stuart. Rassin is a hospital administrator in Nassau
and very involved in disaster response (mostly hurricanes) in the Caribbean.
·The Haitian Rotary clubs are in district 7020 which includes a
number of other countries. The Dominican Republic clubs are in district
4060. Both districts have established funds in response to the Haitian
disaster.

For more on how Rotarians around the world respond to this and other
disasters, I would invite you to go to http://www.drrag.org/, the web site
of the Disaster Relief Rotarian Action Group. This is an organization of
Rotarians around the world who have a common interest in disaster response.
It is sanctioned by the board of RI and operates under rules established by
the board.

Regards,
Robin Textor

DON”T FORGET WORLD ROTARY DAY IS COMING ...

February 23·

 

	The special section we produced for distribution through The Oak Ridgerlast year raised visiblity about Rotary and our club in the community and won an award from RI. · It also raised about $5000 for our club's charitable efforts. Click here for more information on how you can be a part of this year's effort. · Reserve your ad space by JAN. 30!
	REMEMBER, TOO ... Karen Bridgeman will be available to take YOUR photo for one of the "FACES OF ROTARY" ads this week before or after our club meeting. · For $150, you can choose your nouns (see the text at left) and show your support for your favorite Rotary program or project. · Call·Karen Bridgeman·(463-0043) or Judi Gray (483-8643) for more information.

Notes from last week's meeting - January 13, 2010

By Pat Powell