" Friendliness knows no bounds; it surmounts all barriers; it navigates all seas." Paul Harris
June is designated Rotary Fellowships Month to recognize the significance of fostering international fellowship and goodwill among Rotarians who share common recreational hobbies, professions, and interests.
Cathy is back from her Fellowship Exchange to the Philippines in May and will tell our club all about it during our August meeting.
In May we sponsored a student for RYLA, and the president of the Interact club we are sponsoring attended as a counsellor. Hats off to our youth.
We have suspended the third Tuesday Happy Hour, please join us and be happy the fourth Tuesday at 5:00 as we discuss service projects. We also have social time starting 7:30 am on regular meeting days. Links to both meetings are on the club website.
The Ukrainian school project is still in-process. We are still gathering funds in District 6250, and the global grant will now be in the next Rotary year.
Please send me pictures and stories of your pollinator plants and projects (including shelter and no-mow) to wac7158@gmail.com. I am gathering them to compile our club activities for Operation Pollination.
June is the end of the Rotary Year. A year ago we set our annual goals, and we did pretty darn good. For Service participation we were 5 members out of a goal of 5. Social activities we met 12 of 12 times. Leadership development participation, 2 of 2. Use of official Rotary promotional materials – Yes. District training participation – 2 of 2. Annual fund contributions 2030 of 1000. Service projects complete – 1 of 1. PolioPlus Fund 310 of 400 (we still have until the end of the month to pull this up to 400). Club membership 10 of 12. Interact clubs – 1 of 1. Media stories about club projects 0 of 1. RYLA participation 1 0f 1. Strategic Plan Yes. Online presence Yes. Update website and social media monthly 4 of 4. Review club bylaws Y. In other words, we met 13 of our 16 goals. Way to go Changemakers!
As my year as president comes to a close, I would like to thank all of our members, especially LeRoy, Peter and Sharon for going above and beyond. Also to Gayle for bringing up interact. Sharon will be our president starting in July, lets help her out and wish her the best. I’m sure she will do great.
The regular July meeting will be held on July 12th instead of the 5th so we can enjoy the holiday weekend with our families.
It is an honor to create HOPE in our world together.
The Rotary Clubs Joint Online International Mega Meeting specially invites you to the MEGA MEETING June 18th 2024.
With GORDON R. MCINALLY Rotary International President 2023 – 2024.
TOPIC. CREATING HOPE!
THE JOURNEY AND THE ROTARY EXPERIENCE.
Join us in one of the largest gatherings of Rotary Leaders, Rotarians, Friends of Rotary, Rotary Partners and Peace Builders around the world as we host the Rotary International President Gordon R. McInally in his last Mega Meeting for this Rotary Year. He will share with us his journey in creating
Hope in The World.
Join us to ask a question or send a goodwill message to the Rotary International President as he takes a bow for the 2023-2024 Rotary Year.
Mega-meetings are an opportunity to Connect, Network, Engage and Build Goodwill and Better Friendship around the world.
ARTHUR KANEGIS, the President of Future WAVE, Inc., will introduce Gordon McInally. As a Rotarian filmmaker, he directed TheWorldIsMyCountry.com with Martin Sheen, and produced "WarWithoutWinners.com" narrated by Paul Newman. He heads Future WAVE, a nonprofit organization dedicated to shifting our culture of violence to a culture of peace. A Podcast host, journalist and visionary writer, he is on a lifelong mission to use the power of film to help inspire the world toward a peaceful and positive future.
DATE: 18TH JUNE. 2024
TIME: 4:30 Pm Edinburgh Scotland 10:30 Am Chicago USA
For those of you on vacation or otherwise unable to attend, here is a recap of our June club meeting.
We recited the four way test to remind us of our Rotary ethics of truth, fairness, goodwill, friendships and beneficial to all.
We are looking for more club members, if you know of anyone who may be interested, please get in touch.
Welcome to Rita Wachuta-Breckel, our newest member.
We are looking for members of Service committee, if you are interested, let anyone on the board know, or just show up. Meetings are on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:00, and can be accessed from our website. We are also always looking for service projects, if you have any ideas, come to the service committee meeting or contact a board member.
Our Third Tuesday Happy Hour has been canceled. Join us at the Service project meetings on the Fourth Tuesday.
Our speaker at the July regular meeting will be Fran Wargalot, discussing Shelterbox. The July regular meeting has been rescheduled to July 12.
Val had presented on Operation Pollination at the May meeting. Our club has signed the Pollination Pledge.
Our 50/50 raffle winner was Rita Wachuta-Breckel.
Sharon updated us on our Ukrainian-Hungarian Budapest school service project. There was an online session from the Hungarian Rotary clubs earlier this week explaining the status. It is back on-track. The Hungarian sponsors are working with their government to allow for the teachers to be paid by the government. That had been delaying the global grant, and it won't be done this fiscal year. Our 6250 grant money will go into the next calendar year. Another stumbling block with the project was that they had to go to another building, but the new building is better than the original plan. 11th grade students in the current school had very good presentations during the online session.
Cathy updated us on her attendance at the friendship exchange to the Philippines. While there, she visited two of the projects that the Oshkosh Rotary Club had contributed to. There is a possibility of doing a service project with them in the future.
Our Speaker was high school junior Teegan Davis, speaking about the new Sun Prairie East Interact Club that we are sponsoring.
She described her Rotary timeline. She was invited to be a participant at RYLA last Spring, before that she didn't have any interactions with Rotary. At RYLA camp she didn't know anyone, but the program got her involved and interacting with others right away. They did a scavenger hunt, intellectual mind games, tactical toxic river scenario, inclusive and directive traffic jam, and trivia.
Some of the other RYLA participants were Interact members, and she wanted to get involved with that. She was already involved with Habitat for Humanity, church volunteering and other projects. In February of this year the Sun Prairie East Interact Club was formed. By April they were actively packing books from a book drive. When school starts back up next September they will be participating in the September 21st farmer's market.
This May Teegan was a counsellor at RYLA, helping new sophomores gain the same skills she learned last year.
This summer, her family will be hosting a girl from Italy, and then later in the summer she will be going to Italy. This is through the Short Term Exchange program sponsored by Rotary. Only four students from district 6250 are participating this year. She noted that students just don't know about RYLA, Interact, or the Exchanges.
Teegan is thinking of Biomedical Engineering as a career.
Who doesn't love flower and butterfly pics? Please submit yours! Primrose - LeRoy; Peonies - LeRoy; Lilly and Primrose - LeRoy; Assorted waiting for bloom - Val; Butterfly on Wild Blue Indigo - Val;
On May 14th, Changemakers signed the Operation Pollination Pollinator Resolution and Pollinator Activity Pledge. These are through ESRAG - The Environment and Sustainability Rotary Action Group.
We declare that it is our goal to support the goals of Operation Pollination, and to collaboratively and strategically protect and enhance pollinator species and their habitat on public and private lands throughout our geographic area.
Additionally, we pledge to maintain flower beds and potted plants on our private lands. Our activity categories include 1) Plant or enhance 2) Value added features (nesting, no-mow etc.) and 3) Promote or publicize.
We're off and running with the project. Several members are already growing pollinator plants. Some of us have no-mow and nesting areas on our lands.
In early May, Val installed two raised beds and filled them with native pollinating plants. We are documenting and sharing their growth. First, the area was cleared. Next, the boxes were assembled and filled with dirt. The abundance of rain this Spring has helped with keeping the soil moist. Then plants were added. The box on the left is mostly Ox-Eye Sunflower. The box on the right has Black Eyed Susan, Rattlesnake Master and Red Milkweed. Volunteer Lavender Hyssop is in both.
Now in mid-June everything is still growing like crazy. The Red Milkweed is getting ready to bloom.
Click on the Read more... box to see the Pollinator Resolution, and look for another article about other pollinators in our yards. Changemakers - submit your photos to wac7158@gmail.com!
I hope you all are doing great. Sorry for being silent for a while, but I had to solve dozens of tasks related to the Ukrainian school to ensure that we can make our ongoing Rotary project a reality.
Below you can find a link to a short video showcasing the currently operating school that was equipped with your help and support. Since September 2023, this school has served almost 200 Ukrainian refugee kids in Budapest: Video Link
Here are some key updates about our ongoing Ukrainian School Project:
Over the last few months, I have been working to engage new potential sponsors, and it looks promising that we might reach a total budget of $300,000.
The Rotary International President 2024/2025, Ms. Stephanie Urchick from Pennsylvania, USA, and the Rotary International Director, Mr. David Tanase from Romania, have visited the currently operating Ukrainian school and are enthusiastic about supporting our project. Please see attached some photos of their visit.
The organization of two summer camps in Sátoraljaújhely and Mórahalom (Hungary) for 30 Ukrainian refugee children, free of charge, is progressing well.
On Thursday, a trainer who might potentially hold smart board training for the Ukrainian refugee teachers will visit the school, and hopefully, we can finalize the structure of the training that is in line with the Global Grant requirements.
New sponsors to cover the salaries of the currently working teachers were secured.
Sponsors have been found to pay the two months' deposit and one month pre-payment for the larger building. The larger building contract was signed yesterday.
At the moment, we are waiting for the school license from the Hungarian Government.
To provide you with the latest status, we would like to kindly invite you to an online Zoom meeting on 4 June 2024, at 7:00 PM (Budapest time) to update you all about the progress and the current status.
PS: The Rotary Club Budapest City will send a photo related to the Ukrainian School Project to the Moon, showcasing our mission of Peace on Earth. If you want to participate in this unique Rotarian project too, you can upload your photo or text related to our Ukrainian School project on www.RotaryOnTheMoon.com too.
I am looking forward to seeing you all on 4 June at 7:00 PM (Budapest time).
" Friendliness knows no bounds; it surmounts all barriers; it navigates all seas." Paul Harris 
We have suspended the third Tuesday Happy Hour, please join us and be happy the fourth Tuesday at 5:00 as we discuss service projects. We also have social time starting 7:30 am on regular meeting days. Links to both meetings are on the club website.
June is the end of the Rotary Year. A year ago we set our annual goals, and we did pretty darn good. For Service participation we were 5 members out of a goal of 5. Social activities we met 12 of 12 times. Leadership development participation, 2 of 2. Use of official Rotary promotional materials – Yes. District training participation – 2 of 2. Annual fund contributions 2030 of 1000. Service projects complete – 1 of 1. PolioPlus Fund 310 of 400 (we still have until the end of the month to pull this up to 400). Club membership 10 of 12. Interact clubs – 1 of 1. Media stories about club projects 0 of 1. RYLA participation 1 0f 1. Strategic Plan Yes. Online presence Yes. Update website and social media monthly 4 of 4. Review club bylaws Y. In other words, we met 13 of our 16 goals. Way to go Changemakers!
As my year as president comes to a close, I would like to thank all of our members, especially LeRoy, Peter and Sharon for going above and beyond. Also to Gayle for bringing up interact. Sharon will be our president starting in July, lets help her out and wish her the best. I’m sure she will do great.
For those of you on vacation or otherwise unable to attend, here is a recap of our June club meeting.
We are looking for members of Service committee, if you are interested, let anyone on the board know, or just show up. Meetings are on the fourth Tuesday of the month at 5:00, and can be accessed from our website. We are also always looking for service projects, if you have any ideas, come to the service committee meeting or contact a board member. 
Our Speaker was high school junior Teegan Davis, speaking about the new Sun Prairie East Interact Club that we are sponsoring. 
Some of the other RYLA participants were Interact members, and she wanted to get involved with that. She was already involved with Habitat for Humanity, church volunteering and other projects. In February of this year the Sun Prairie East Interact Club was formed. By April they were actively packing books from a book drive. When school starts back up next September they will be participating in the September 21st farmer's market.
This summer, her family will be hosting a girl from Italy, and then later in the summer she will be going to Italy. This is through the Short Term Exchange program sponsored by Rotary. Only four students from district 6250 are participating this year. She noted that students just don't know about RYLA, Interact, or the Exchanges.
On May 14th, Changemakers signed the Operation Pollination Pollinator Resolution and Pollinator Activity Pledge. These are through ESRAG - The Environment and Sustainability Rotary Action Group. 
In early May, Val installed two raised beds and filled them with native pollinating plants. We are documenting and sharing their growth. First, the area was cleared. Next, the boxes were assembled and filled with dirt. The abundance of rain this Spring has helped with keeping the soil moist. Then plants were added. The box on the left is mostly Ox-Eye Sunflower. The box on the right has Black Eyed Susan, Rattlesnake Master and Red Milkweed. Volunteer Lavender Hyssop is in both. 
meeting from the 5th to the 12th so that everyone can celebrate the fourth of July weekend with their families.
.png)
