District Governor Debra Warner

I want to thank the Fargo-Moorhead and Minot Clubs for combining their clubs when we visited.  Rotary International is suggesting that District Governors around the world combine their club visits whenever possible.  They feel the combined visits will decrease the expense and amount of time that a Governor spends visiting clubs in person while increasing fellowship with other clubs. I have had good feedback from the clubs during the combined visits and our District Governor next year, Blaine Johnson, will be combining even more.  I hope you will be open to this idea!  A special thank you to Assistant Governors Megan Laudenschlager and Kay Parries for setting up the meetings. 

 

We had our second One Rotary Summit in Fargo on October 21^st.  We had over 50 participants from 23 clubs in attendance.  We had an additional 40 participants from 10 clubs in attendance at the One Rotary Summit in Duluth.  I feel this is a great turnout considering the vastness of our District! I want to thank our District Trainer Linda Marrin who made it all happen!  Please read the article that Assistant Rotary Coordinator for Zone 28, Irene Sottile, has written about One Rotary Summits. 

 

October 24^th was World Polio Day.  How did your club celebrate this day?  Please let us know for future newsletters. The internet was lit up on October 24^th during a livestream on Polio updates and I’m sure global awareness grew to new heights!  Rotarian David Manning from the Rotary Club of Fargo-Moorhead AM hosted the livestream at Concordia College and raised $127 for Polio Plus.  Way to go David!  Please see Zone 28 End Polio Now Coordinator Gary Nolte and District Polio Chair Cindy Nolte’s update in this issue.

 

November is Foundation month in Rotary. Did you know that The Rotary Foundation has been rated 4 stars on Charity Navigator with a rating of 100% in accountability and transparency?  Now this is the type of foundation where I want to contribute my money!  Paul Harris said, “Whatever Rotary may mean to us it will be known to the world for the results it achieves”.  The Rotary Foundation started over 100 years ago with a simple vision: to do good in the world.  When Rotarians share this vision and contribute to the Foundation, we can achieve unbelievable results!  During the past 100 years Rotarians have raised and invested over 4.1 billion into programs, projects and scholarships. How is your club celebrating the Foundation this month?   Several clubs in our District hold special dinners to celebrate the foundation while raising awareness and money for the Foundation.  I would love to have clubs submit a newsletter article for next month on how they celebrated the Foundation this month.  In short, the Foundation is living history of the power of an idea! Rotary International’s Foundation Trustee Paul Netzel is asking each Rotarian to think about “What can I do as a Rotarian that is near and dear to me and how can I use the Foundation to help me?”  Please read the article and see the beautiful pictures that our District Foundation Chair Keith Brokke has provided in this month’s newsletter regarding Foundation activity in our District.

 

Congratulations to Lynne and Keith Brokke for becoming Major Donors in The Rotary Foundation.  Keith shares his heartfelt reasons regarding why he contributes to The Rotary Foundation in his article this month.  Be sure to read!  Also, five Rotarians and two community members were recognized with Paul Harris Fellowships (PHF) at the Thunder Bay Port Arthur Club on September 26^th.  Congratulations to Pritam Lamba, Mo Nelson, Fred Baker, Joe Comuzzi (former MP), Martti Tenander, President Brenda Winter, and Erin Beagle from Roots to Harvest.  Their club presented Erin with a PHF for her community service and Rotarian Maria Hudolin and her husband Jack honoured their friend Joe Comuzzi for his many years of service to our community and the people of NW Ontario.  I had the honor of presenting 4 first time PHF to Mark Olson, Joe Uhan, Tom Witty and Joe Dennie from the Quad Cities Rotary Club.  William Culbert also received a PHF but was not able to attend.  Congratulations to all!  Have a great month and we look forward to visiting many of you this month as we continue our visits!

 

As District Governor, I love when I get the opportunity to visit clubs for their service projects.  I was in Fargo for our One Rotary Summit, so I was able to help the Fargo-Moorhead AM, Fargo-Moorhead PM, Fargo and Fargo West Rotary Clubs put name plates into 1982 dictionaries to be distributed to 30 schools and 93 classrooms in the Fargo-Moorhead area.  Arden Glanzer from the Fargo West Rotary Club has been coordinating this project for years!  Also, talk about a beautiful Rotary love story! Rotarian Heather Ranck from the Fargo Club and Ryan McManus from the Fargo West Rotary Club met a meeting for the Dictionary Project in 2009.  They fell in love, got married and had two darling children Aurelie and Oliver who they bring every year to help with this project!  It is so nice to see how these clubs have been working together to collaborate on this project for years.  A special thanks to Arden for coordinating the project and thanks to all that were there to help.  I had a blast!

 

Also, Ed and I participated in a service project at the Shelter House in Thunder Bay.  The Satellite Club from the Rotary Club of Thunder Bay Fort William volunteers there monthly.   The Shelter House provides dignity and comfort to people living in poverty in many ways such as providing 3 hot nutritious meals daily.  We met a few hours in advance to prepare an Octoberfest Dinner to serve.  Rotarian Stephen Margarit was the Master Chef who came up with the menu!  Stephen had just returned from Germany where he had spent a year as a Rotary Exchange Student.  Stephen is a very active and dedicated Rotarian which reminds us to ask our past Exchange Students to join Rotary!  I met a man named Serge who was a former resident at the Shelter.  He shows up on most days to do laundry and to help with the dishes following dinner.  He shared that he wants to help people who are in the same situation as him; how beautiful to have met him.  Thanks to all that participated; Ed and I had so much fun joining you!