December is Family Month for Rotary. Thank you for participating in the Salvation Army Bell ringing event as we strive to help families in our community. And I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for what you are doing for Rotary to help make a difference and to be the inspiration.
Please remember that there will not be regular meeting on December 18, 25 or January 1.
Seasons greetings to all. To get you in the mood for a possible trip to the internal conference in Germany next year, folks there would say, Fröhliche Weihnachten, Mögen alle eure Wünsche in Erfüllung gehen und Alles Gute zum Neuen Jahr, or however you choose to say Merry Christmas, may all your wishes come true and happy new year!
Please plan to attend our Annual Rotary Holiday Party on Wednesday, December 19, 6:00 to 9:00 PM. All members, both regular and honorary, and spouse/guest are welcome. The party will be hosted by Kent and Diane Peterson, 1070 Bucher Avenue, Shoreview. That’s off Lexington Avenue just north of Turtle Lake Elementary School. Besides a festive food and beverage, this is a great chance to get know members and spouses/friends better. Please RSVP by December 14 to Kent Peterson at peterson751@msn.com or 651 483-3935.
UPDATE Re: Arden Hills Shoreview Rotary Club Receives Approval for District 5960 Grant to fund
Sewing School in Amaravahti, Andhra Pradesh, India
As you all know, our club submitted a request for a District Grant from Rotary District 5960 to fund the development of a Sewing School in Amaravahti, Andhra Pradesh, India. We received tentative approval from the District some time ago, but the grant was put on hold after it sent to Rotary International (RI) for final review and RI required us to find an Indian partner that had an Indian Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA)Certification. As such, the District has set aside funds for the grant as a contingency we were able to find a way to comply with this regulation.
Recently, with the help of Craig Leiser (PDG)of the Stillwater Sunrise Club we were connected to the Vuyyuuru (we u ru) Rotary Club in Andhra Pradesh that has a Rotary Community Service Trust that has the needed FCRA certification and they have agreed to receive our funds for the Amaravahti Sewing Project and distributed them funds as needed to support the project. As such, we have now received final approval from Rotary International (RI) and District 5960 has advised us that we may go forward with the project and begin to raise the necessary funds.
The requested funding is for a new school that would be developed by an Indian NGO called PUSHPA, which is the outgrowth of a Minnesota Non-Profit Corporation, also named PUSHA, organized by Arden Hills residents Gummadi Franklin and his wife Shirley. The Franklins spoke to our club in November, 2017, regarding the activities of PUSHPA’s charitable programs in India that are designed to help marginalized low caste or Muslim peoples help themselves out of impoverished circumstances. The kids that would benefit from such programs are kids like some of those pictured below.
If you have interest in or suggestions for this long awaited fund raising
campaign, please contact Kent Peterson or Bob Freed. Thank you.
The Club welcomed prospective member Mike Spellman and the guest speaker Bill Phillips. Mr. Phillips was representing the Medtronic Foundation and providing information about a trip he made as part of Medtronic's Global Health Initiative. Bill is typically a manager of new product development at Medtronic. He reviewed a trip he took with others in July, 2018 to rural areas in South Africa with a goal of improving health outcomes to under served populations. Medtronic used its health rise program to expand access to care by partnering with Project Hope and Expectra Health Care in an effort to reduce the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCD's). He noted that two-thirds of global deaths are from NCD's. As part of the program, they would provide the appropriate medical devices to community health care workers. These health care workers would go door to door in communities to check for diabetes and perform other routine health checks. The health care workers would help educate the population about methods to reduce the incidence of NCD's like diabetes, obesity and heart disease, etc.
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