In case you missed our April club meeting, here’s a recap.
TriCon will be April 27 – 29 in La Crosse. Several members of our club will be in attendance. Our club will have a booth in House of Friendship explaining how a virtual club works, and our LaClinica project. Changemakers will have our own fun social event at the end of the conference on Saturday. TriCon Tickets are still available if you want to go.
Cheryl is on the Budapest friendship exchange, and Cathy will join the exchange for part of the time.
The Croatia exchange is in September.
Rotarians from Poland will be in our district this summer.
Check out the district website rotary6250.org for more information.
Dwight updated us on our service projects. We are at $9,800 of our $11,000 goal, with a couple more donations on the way. We hope to spread the word and get a few more contributions at TriCon. Even more exciting – other Rotary clubs in LaClinica’s service area are considering other projects that they can work on together. Talk about setting things in motion. Yay service project committee!!!
Our speaker was Dean Ryerson. He recently was on a friendship exchange to Poland, and they focused on helping the Ukrainians. The topic of our meeting was Refugee Resettlement. He was inspired by the Polish people housing Ukrainians.
Dean is assisting with the US Refugee Resettlement Program. The Jewish Social Services (JSS) of Madison is the South Central Wisconsin NGO that the US program works with. JSS had heard, through Rotary connections, that Dean had housed international exchange Rotarians before, and asked if he would be willing to help their cause. All of the refugees are fully vetted before they come to the US.
Two refugees from Afghanistan and one from Rwanda have been Dean’s guests, all at different times. All three of them have had varied needs and abilities. One had never seen a car wash, a fast food drive up, or bank drive through. Besides providing housing, Dean helps them get set up, look for a job, and become self-sufficient. Dean does it because Rotarians help people, one person at a time. The presentation was very moving.
Don’t forget about our Happy Hour Tuesday the 18th at 6 pm central. The winner gets $25.
Changemakers Rotary is currently celebrating our founding with a service project to benefit the patients of Family Health La Clinica. These are largely migrant farm workers in 10 central Wisconsin counties who are unable to afford the life saving supplies required to monitor their diabetes. We are in the midst of a campaign to raise $10,000 to supply blood glucose monitors and testing strips to these important people whose work puts the food on our tables.
D6250 has approved matching District Designated Funds up to $5,000, so any contributions from Rotarians or Rotary Clubs will be matched dollar for dollar! Double your gift by making your contribution by April 30!
Super active club member Dwight Heaney is well known throughout the district by many Rotarians. He has ongoing health concerns, and has shared his CaringBridge site with us. He will be posting updates there going forward. Follow the link below to his site. You can choose to get updates by choosing to "Follow". He promises not to overwhelm you with posts.
We have all heard the proverb "many hands make light the work" and our Changemakers Rotary Club is no exception. Starting in July, you will notice some changes in our roles.
Our first Friday of the month club meetings will be led by Peter Groth.
Cheryl Mader will be in charge of lining up the guest speakers.
Third Tuesday Happy Hour and other social events will be led by John Lock.
President / Primary Contact for the club will be Valerie Wachuta.
Officers/Offices continuing into the next year:
Membership - Petra Roter
Public Relations / Social Media - Peter Groth
Club Service Chair - Dwight Heaney
Club Service Chair - Cheryl Mader
The Rotary Foundation - Dwight Heaney
Secretary and Web Master - Valerie Wachuta
Treasurer - Cheryl Mader
Congratulations and Thank You to the entire team, your efforts are greatly appreciated.
If anyone else wants to be more involved, please contact a member of the executive team.
If it's almost spring then it's almost book packing season.
In new Books for the World news, Baker Tilly (who have been regular volunteers) have contacted us about partnering with their "Next Gen" volunteering team. We have set up an event with their team on Friday, April 14 from 3-5 to launch our partnership. We hope that many of you can attend. This will be our first book packing event of the spring/summer.
We have also scheduled packings on the following Saturdays, from 10-12:30 and will add more dates as we get into summer:
April 22, 29; May 13, 20; June 3
Please respond to Ellen Cook - ellenburleighcook@gmail.com if you can make it on any of these dates. It helps to know ahead of time if we will have enough volunteers. April 10 will be a social event and go to dinner afterwards at our usual place near the warehouse, the Lazy Oaf. Please let Ellen know if you will be attending.
You can help promote peace in the world by encouraging peace and development leaders in your community to apply for the Rotary Peace Fellowship.
Each year, Rotary awards fully funded fellowships for peacebuilders from diverse backgrounds to study at one of our peace centers located at premier universities around the world. This year, we’ll select 50 peace fellows to study in our master’s degree programs and 40 fellows to earn a professional development certificate.
Rotary Peace Fellows use their training to amplify their work at the local, regional, or global level. Clubs and districts can partner with them on peacebuilding initiatives before, during, and after their fellowships.
But we need your help finding candidates. Rotary and Rotaract members can get involved by:
Taking the All About the Rotary Peace Fellowship course to learn about the qualification criteria, eligibility restrictions, the application process, and more
Forwarding the fellowship announcement to your contacts and including it in club and district communications
Using our referral form to tell us about potential candidates so we can contact them
Sharing a PowerPoint presentation about the fellowships with your club members and community
Candidates have until 15 May to submit applications to The Rotary Foundation.
Thanks to generous support from donors and the dedicated participation of Rotary members, the peace fellowship program has more than 1,600 alumni working to make positive change in more than 140 countries.
To learn more about how you can recruit the next generation of peace fellows, contact your district Rotary Peace Fellowship subcommittee chair or write to rotarypeacecenters@rotary.org.
Upcoming opportunities for travel to Guatemala with Jennifer Demar! Maybe you or someone else might be interested?
You would get to experience the delivery of water filters exactly like the ones Rotarians funded last year, as well as have a wonderful week of service experiencing many other things too!
The next trip is from March 25 - April 2nd.
The other two this year will be July 8-16 and October 28 - November 5th.
Anyone with an interest in considering it to reach out to Jennifer by email or by phone/text.
TriCon will be April 27 – 29 in La Crosse. Several members of our club will be in attendance. Our club will have a booth in House of Friendship explaining how a virtual club works, and our LaClinica project. Changemakers will have our own fun social event at the end of the conference on Saturday. TriCon Tickets are still available if you want to go. 
Cheryl is on the Budapest friendship exchange, and Cathy will join the exchange for part of the time. 
Dwight updated us on our service projects. We are at $9,800 of our $11,000 goal, with a couple more donations on the way. We hope to spread the word and get a few more contributions at TriCon. Even more exciting – other Rotary clubs in LaClinica’s service area are considering other projects that they can work on together. Talk about setting things in motion. Yay service project committee!!!
Our speaker was Dean Ryerson. He recently was on a friendship exchange to Poland, and they focused on helping the Ukrainians. The topic of our meeting was Refugee Resettlement. He was inspired by the Polish people housing Ukrainians.
Don’t forget about our Happy Hour Tuesday the 18th at 6 pm central. The winner gets $25.
Super active club member Dwight Heaney is well known throughout the district by many Rotarians. He has ongoing health concerns, and has shared his CaringBridge site with us. He will be posting updates there going forward. Follow the link below to his site. You can choose to get updates by choosing to "Follow". He promises not to overwhelm you with posts. 
If it's almost spring then it's almost book packing season.
Upcoming opportunities for travel to Guatemala with Jennifer Demar! Maybe you or someone else might be interested?
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