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A message for December from Changemakers Rotary Club President Sharon Bradish

This is the time of year when we count our blessings and look for ways to share with others. We also think about giving to charities by the end of December to get tax deductions. There are many worthy causes; however, I would like to remind you of “Every Rotarian, Every Year”. An annual campaign that encourages all members to donate to the Rotary Foundation. The goal is for each club to average $100 per member per Rotary Year. Our current year began on July 1st, 2024 and will end on June 30^th, 2025. District and Global Grants for the 2025-2026 year will be awarded through the Rotary Foundation to those clubs who meet this goal. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to anyone of our club officers. I hope you all have a My Rotary account with the International Rotary site, rotary.org. It is easy to set up and you are able to donate to the foundation online or to find information on how to mail a check.

I hope you can all join us for the December 6^th monthly meeting starting with social time at 7:30 and business meeting from 8:00 – 9:00. Our guest speaker is Susan Holding from The Little French Bakery between Baraboo and North Freedom. I visited Susan at the bakery and we taped an interview. You will learn how she evolved from nurse to pastry chef and bakery owner. Susan also will show you how to make a tart shell. If you cannot make the meeting in person, Val will post a link and it will by on changemakersrotary.org for you to view at your convenience. You might want to have head phones or earbuds in order to hear the interview better over the bakery noises.

We are still accepting donations to the Ukrainian-Hungarian Bilingual School in Budapest. You can give online at the 6250 District Foundation.

At our board meeting on December 10^th from 5:00 to 6:00 pm we will be discussing participating in a Rotary Global Grant project for the opening of new maternity wards in the Rhine-Sieg region of Germany. All members are welcome to attend our board meeting. The link is found on changemakersrotary.org

We were able to donate $500 to the Rotary Metro Club of Kalibo’s fundraising project for dental equipment. Thanks to all our members who donated.

This is my sixth month as President of Changemakers Rotary Club. My presidential year is flying by! I want to be frank with you. I cannot keep wearing all these hats, President, Service Club Co-chair, Interact liaison, and program chair. I need other people to share some of these duties. We still need a president-elect for 2025-26.

The Midwest President-Elect Training will be from February 28^th through March 2^nd at the Westin Hotel Chicago Northeast near Schaumburg, Illinois. For more information go to midwestpets.org. Our club pays for your registration fee but not for your lodging. I attended PETS last year and it was an incredibly rewarding experience. We also are looking for a treasurer for next year. Reach out to any board member for more information.

Wishing you all a wonderful December and holiday celebrations.

November Meeting Recap

Find a full recording of the November 1 meeting here. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ie_S5rn6Yr305vKiSmgsr1SrtQx9kebk/view?usp=drive_link

With Sharon in Paris, Val lead the meeting. We recited the four way test to remind us of our Rotary ethics of truth, fairness, goodwill, friendships and beneficial to all.

Thank you to current club officers, look for the full list on our website. We have leadership positions open for membership committee, foundation committee, president elect, president nominee, treasurer, and grants committee.

Peter spun the wheel and was the winner of the 50/50 raffle.

We are always looking for new members. If you're not a member already, join us for a meeting.

We had our monthly encouragement for contributing to the Rotary foundation Annual Fund-SHARE.

Anyone wishing to find more about the Rose Parade Rotary Float can click here.

Committee meetings are the 4th Tuesday of the month, November 26th this month. We encourage you to find your passion, enhance your Rotary experience, and join or create a Rotary committee.

Our Service Committee is still collecting funds for the District 6250 Ukrainian Refugee school, our district will match any donations 1:1. We viewed several photos of happy students and their certificates printed in the Ukrainian language.

We are still collecting for new dental equipment for the Kalibo Philippines Rotary club. Changemakers has pledged $500, and so far we have collected $135. To help out, go to the District 6250 Foundation on rotary6250.org. Click on Donate Now, and select the Kalibo Philippines Dental Clinic from the dropdown.

Operation Pollination's growing season is over. You can still participate by being lazy and Leave the Leaves until next Spring, so the pollinators have shelter for the winter. A winter reading assignment is to visit the website https://operationpollination.net/

Rotary Magazines - you can receive these online or print. The default is online. To switch to print, email data@rotary.ort or call the circulation department 866-976-8279. Rotary International has begun charging the clubs for the magazines, and so we need to pass this along to our members. Quarterly dues will be $75 starting on January 1st, 2025.

Sun Prairie East High School Interact is up and busy. They will be doing Operation Christmas Child mid-November, packing Christmas shoeboxes for children in need. As Changemakers is the Interact club's sponsor, it would be nice if our members could chip in on the cost of supplies. Anyone wishing to help out, contact Sharon or venmo her, and she will see that they receive it.

Vibrant Club workshop is next Saturday, November 9th in Tomah. There will be another session in Madison in January.

Tricon will be April 25 - 26 in Brookfield Wisconsin next Spring. Registration opens December Ninth.

Next month's meeting will be Friday, December 7th. Sharon will be with Susan Holding of the Little French Bakery. Come and meet the Master Pastry Chef and get some ideas for holiday baking.

Erin Luken was our guest speaker, talking about things that our foundation is doing in the district and around the world. She started with a Polio update, as October was Polio month. The Foundation has already awarded nearly $70,000 to 12 district grants, and the money for this year is gone. District grants are increasing in popularity, so they may require goals and prioritize requests in the future. They are accepting applications for Graduate level Global Scholars and Peace Studies.

There is a new Service Project Center spc.rotary.org . This will replace the project showcase, and any club member can add a project, or view what other clubs have done or how they did it.

District Designated Funds, or DDF is going through some changes. DDF funds will expire after five years, so the money must be spent or it goes back to International. This is because other districts were holding onto large amounts of funds instead of spending it on projects. Our district will implement solutions to spend down what is currently in D6250. Keep an eye out for news in the District Dispatch.

The Rotary Foundation is launching a Million Dollar journey in November, to be completed at Trican 2026, about 18 months later. Erin shared a slide of how a monetary gift can grow and produce more earnings than the original amount, funding more projects.

Coming up in D6250 - Vibrant Club Workshop in November, and again January 11th in Madison. Grant seminar will be held in February 2025. Tricon will be April 25 & 26. The RI Convention will be in Calgary, June 21 - 25. Someone from our club needs to attend the grant management seminar (2025). Online training also available, cert needs to be sent to Erin.

The presentation ended with a request to support the Rotary Foundation. DDF comes from the Annual Fund-SHARE. Giving is easy using Rotary Direct. Consider giving at the Paul Harris Society level.

October Meeting Recap

For those of you on vacation or otherwise unable to attend, here is a recap of our October club meeting, held on October 4th. The meeting recording is available here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T80A-LhZz9rJWpiQAuZSv79Xk4f9G4kE/view?usp=drive_link

We recited the four way test to remind us of our Rotary ethics of truth, fairness, goodwill, friendships and beneficial to all.

Officers were named, with a call out for volunteers for additional positions. We need a Membership Committee Chair and a Foundation Chair for this year and a President Elect, who will attend President Elect Training and be president for 2024-2025.

50/50 raffle: Congratulations to Allison, our winner again!

Please remember that in order for our club to apply for district matching grants we need every member to donate $100 to the International Rotary Foundation. Donations to Polio Plus also count toward this. You can make a donation or set up ongoing donations through My Rotary https://my.rotary.org/en/donate.

Anyone wishing to donate to the Rotary float in the Rose Bowl Parade can find out more at www.RotaryFloat.org.

We are always looking for new members. Please invite people you think might be interested to join us for a monthly meeting.

Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, October 22nd at 5 pm via Zoom. If there is something that you are passionate about that would help Rotary to advance its mission, let a club officer know, and form a committee and set a meeting time if the fourth Tuesday doesn't work.

We are continuing to fundraise for the Ukrainian Hungarian Bilingual School in Budapest. Our district will match any donations 1:1. Donations can be made directly to the District 6250 foundation on line, https://rotary6250.org/page/district-6250-foundation or a check can be mailed to Rotary District 6250 Foundation c/o Brian Watson, 4030 E. Stone Ridge Dr, Milton, WI 53563. The International Grant application is in-process.

Operation Pollination: Pollinator season is drawing to a close, but remember that the insects over winter in sticks, leaves and garden refuse. So you have an excuse to not clean out the garden until Spring.

The executive board has voted to raise our quarterly dues to $75 starting on January 1st, 2025. If you are only receiving the online version and would like to get the magazine mailed to you, email data@rotary.org or call the circulation department at 866-976-8279.

The Sun Prairie Interact Club that we are sponsoring is active in the Sun Prairie area, contributing to International and local Rotary projects. They have a Google classroom set up, and participated in the Sun Prairie Farmer's Market on September 21st.

Rotarians from the Philippines District 3850 were here for two weeks in September. They spent a couple days in Chicago, six days in the Madison area and another week in the La Crosse area. This is the Exchange from our District 6250 trip in May. Sharon hosted one of the guests in exchange for Cathy's trip last Spring. Everyone had a great time and couldn't say enough about how great the Rotary Exchanges are. District 3850 is the FUN district with a heart for SERVICE.

Next meeting: Friday November 1, our speaker will be Foundation Committee Chair Erin Luken.

District 6250 Governor, Todd Restel, spoke to our club. His advice is to be a great story teller and get people's heads nodding. He spoke to us a lot about toilets. For instance, Chicago had the first city sewer plumbing in the USA. November 19th is World Toilet Day. The World Toilet Organization - WTO - is working to provide clean, safe toilets around the world. A lack of clean safe toilets keeps girls from attending school.

Todd also spoke about Peace - that there are wars going on around the world except in North America. Most of us lack the correct words to discuss peace. District 6250 is a Peace Building district. Rotary International website has lots of information on Peace. Todd asked us all to take the two hour course "Rotary Positive Peace Academy" available for free online at https://www.positivepeace.academy/rotary

The power of Rotary comes through each Rotarian. We should approach our community to make us simply irresistible to them.

September Meeting Recap

For those of you on vacation or otherwise unable to attend, here is a recap of our September club meeting, held on September 6th. New! The meeting was recorded, if you prefer to watch the link is here.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1s2xHSVOtYdzI2ctIZZ6r1bEL8mIZ8BYY/view?usp=drive_link

Teegan Davis, our Speaker and the Sun Prairie East Interact Club president started the meeting off with a recap of her International youth exchange in July. She had an exciting trip full of activities every day. Watch the team meeting link to see all her exciting adventures.

After Teegan rushed off to school, we recited the four way test to remind us of our Rotary ethics of truth, fairness, goodwill, friendships and beneficial to all.

50/50 raffle: Congratulations to Allison, our winner!

Congratulations us! We were awarded the 2023-24 Rotary Citation for meeting the majority of our goals that the club set and worked towards last year.

Did you know that Rotary has been sponsoring a float in the Rose Bowl Parade since 1980? 2025 will be the 45th consecutive Rose Parade Entry. Find out more at www.RotaryFloat.org.

We are always looking for new members. Please invite people you think might be interested to join us for a monthly meeting.

4th Tuesday of the month is our Committee Meeting time. We encourage everyone to join a committee to enhance their Rotary experience, and are open to new ideas! Just let us know how you would like to serve our club. Our next meeting will be on Tuesday, September 24th at 5 pm via Zoom. If there is something that you are passionate about that would help Rotary to advance its mission, let a club officer know, and form a committee and set a meeting time if the fourth Tuesday doesn't work.

Our executive board has approved $500 for the project proposal from the Rotary Club of Metro Kalibo, Philippines for updated equipment for the dental clinic. Meg Lunns, the 6250 District Administrator, is a member of this club. Tax deductible donations can be made through the district website foundation page https://rotary6250.org/page/district-6250-foundation Be sure to select Kalibo Philippines Dental Clinic from the dropdown when selecting the amount.

Operation Pollination: Our club has signed the pledge backed by Rotary District 6250 and we would like you to send any photos of what you are doing to promote pollinators in your yard or neighborhood to wac7158@gmail.com.

The April District 6250 Friendship Exchange to the Philippines will be hosting Philippine Rotarians in September, one week in Madison and one week in La Crosse. Sharon will be a Madison host, in Cathy's place.

Rotary Magazine and dues. As of the current invoice for Rotary International, the magazine is no longer included in your RI dues. Either the digital or print copy subscriptions are now $18 per year, charged back to Changemakers. The executive board has voted to raise our quarterly dues to $75 starting on January 1st, 2025. If you are only receiving the online version and would like to get the magazine mailed to you, email data@rotary.org or call the circulation department at 866-976-8279.

Next meeting: Friday October 4, our speaker will be District 6250 Governor Todd Restel.

How to Give 2024 - 2025

Changemakers Rotary Club Club ID 224620 District 6250

We have a new check mailing address.