President's Message
Greetings to all. I am pleased to say I have really enjoyed the past two months as President of Fort Yuma Rotary. We participated in our back to school clothing drive and we clothed 50 young boys and girls in July. Fort Yuma paid $2,500, Mervyn's matched it with another $2,500 and Mervyn's also gave us 15% discount in addition to the many already discounted items. Mervyns funds this grant program each year through sales of their stuffed dogs priced at $5 each. These are the same dogs we are using for our speaker gifts.
In August we welcomed our Inbound Youth Exchange Student, Niklas Egberts, from Germany. Congratulations Keith and Kelly Boyd on being his first host parents. Niklas is enrolled at Cibola High School taking several AP courses and is playing football. Go Raiders! Niklas' games will be Thursday evenings at 6:00 p.m. All of his games will be at Cibola HS or at one of the other high schools in Yuma. I would be happy to email you his schedule. Not long after Niklas arrived, we said farewell to Lizzy Parker, our Outbound Youth Exchange Student. Lizzy, a recent graduate of Yuma Catholic High School, has dreamed of being an Exchange Student for years. Lizzy left for Ecuador on August 16. Please go to the Fort Yuma Website to see some of Lizzy's pictures of Ecuador and her host family.
I am excited to report that Fort Yuma has a significant fund raising opportunity. We have been donated a custom made (fancy name for home made) air boat. This is perfect for the shallow waters of the lower Colorado River or for that matter, anywhere there is water shallow or deep. We will be selling raffle tickets for $20 each. The drawing is planned to take place during our Mardi Gras block party. 10% of the proceeds will go to the Humane Society Building Fund and 90% will go to the Rotary Foundation designated for Polio Plus eradication. Please stay tuned for more information.
We are looking for a couple more people to share in the duty of providing the opening prayer at our meetings. This is an easy task and a great way to participate in our club meeting.
District 5500 Governor Tom Tilton will be our guest for the September 4th meeting. We have several special presentations to club members planned and Governor Tom will present his goals as District Governor. Most assuredly, Gov. Tom will add plenty of humor to his presentation.
That's all for now, President Rob