"Rotary Serves" is the 2007-2008 Rotary International theme established by President Wilfrid J. Wilkinson's.  This year's theme reflects the 81 year tradition of the St. Helena Rotary Club and encourages our club to extend our efforts in the future.  I am deeply proud of the members of the St. Helena Rotary Club.  Club members make substantial contributions to their community not just through Club service, but through their roles as leaders and members of numerous civic and charitable organizations throughout the Napa Valley and beyond.  Wherever you turn in St. Helena I think you are bound to find a Rotary member "serving" our part of the world.
 
Our Club is proud of the enormous success of our Winter Ball which has raised over $3,000,000 in the last seventeen years.  The proceeds from that event have allowed us to serve our community through generous contributions  to the  Boys and Girls Club of St. Helena and Calistoga for both ongoing club operations and the building of the new clubhouse that will open in October of this year.  Equally as important, we've been able to make financial contributions to numerous other important causes including the St. Helena Public Schools and Montessori Programs, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, swim and other recreational programs, as well as tutoring, mentoring, and counseling programs for those in need. 
 
But, the St. Helena Rotary Club does not just write checks!   Club members serve the community through their own personal efforts as well, from helping to deliver food from the Farmers Market to the Food Pantry, conducting Junior Achievement Programs in the schools, judging student senior projects, helping to clean up after a devastating fire, or rebuilding the local teen club.  In 2007-2008 we're continuing the tradition of hands-on service by providing all of the labor to construct the Crane Park Picnic Shelter to provide protection on hot and rainy days for years to come.
 
We also serve the international community through financial contributions and hands on support of housing in Nicaragua, the delivery of needed help through The Wheelchair Foundation and our support of the International Student Exchange Program and Rotary's Polio Plus.  Moreover, while we've been long-term financial supporters of Rotary's "Rotaplast" program that repairs cleft lips and palates and changes the lives of children throughout the world, we have substantially extended our commitment to that program by funding and staffing our own Rotaplast mission to Mexico in September of this year.  We are excited to find yet one more way "Rotary Serves" through the St. Helena Rotary Club.
 
If you wish to learn more about our Club please do not hesitate to contact me at meibeyerlaw@aol.com.  We look forward to hearing from you.