• May 1 - Regular meeting at LaMagie- 6:45 AM - Guest Speaker, Char Wegner
• May 8 - Regular meeting at LaMagie- 6:45 AM
  
• May 15 - Regular meeting - Location TBD.  

OFFICIAL ROTARY INTERNATIONAL PRESS RELEASE:  On April 5, our own club member Harriett Schloer participated in Rotary Day at the White House, in which she was one of 12 U.S. Rotarians who were honored as Champions of Change for their volunteer work to improve the lives of others.  The 2-day event combined two weekly White House public engagement programs – Champions of Change and the Community Leaders Briefings series - to recognize the contributions of a single organization: the humanitarian service group Rotary International.  More than 160 Rotarians were in attendance at a round of Community Leaders Briefing sessions in which administration experts discussed a variety of relevant topics including health, violence prevention, and the environment.

“The entire event was highly informative and very inspiring, Schloer said.  The White House staff made it abundantly clear that having Rotarians honored as Champions of Change was something they were thrilled about.  Several had grown up in Rotary households and without exception, as each spoke to the assembled group, they stressed their respect and admiration for Rotary and its work not only in our local communities but around the world and specifically addressed Rotary’s mission to eradicate polio.  I am very proud to be a Rotarian and very honored to have been selected.  It was a day I shall always remember.”

Creating awareness of the importance of childhood immunizations and taking action to insure that all children are fully immunized, Schloer worked with the other partners on the Deschutes County Immunization Coalition to found the Rotary Shots for Tots program in 1999 for the children of Deschutes County.  Since then, the program has immunized thousands of children with no cost to their families.  In developing the Rotary-sponsored program which has become a Rotary model for developing community partnerships, Schloer, the program’s Executive Director, organized seven Rotary clubs and their 400+ members as part of a county coalition of volunteers that includes Rotary, the Deschutes County Health Department, McDonald’s restaurants, Vaccines for Children, and many others in the public, private, education and health sectors to insure the program’s success.  Shots for Tots clinics have been held in four communities during the year since May of 1999 and are staffed with Rotary, health department and community volunteers.  In addition, Schloer serves as her Rotary District’s Domestic Immunization Chair as well as the PolioPlus Chair helping to raise funds for polio eradication through Pennies for Polio and other club and community programs.

“Today we welcome twelve amazing Rotarians to the White House. Each of these men and women have spent countless hours helping communities both here in the U.S. and abroad. Collectively, these Rotarians members have touched the lives of thousands of people—whether by providing health services,  preventing hunger, supporting our poor communities, empowering unemployed, addicted, or homeless adults, or caring for students.  The Rotarians we honor today truly exemplify the Rotary Club motto: “Service above Self” and in doing so show that the American spirit is a generous one,” said Paulette Aniskoff, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement.

“It is a great honor to see these dedicated Rotary members recognized by the White House as Champions of Change for their work to improve the lives of people around the world,” said Rotary International President Sakuji Tanaka, of Japan, who participated in the day’s events with Rotary Foundation Trustee Mike McGovern and Rotary International General Secretary and CEO John Hewko. “Their commitment to humanitarian service reflects that of our worldwide membership of 1.2 million men and women, all of whom deserve to share in this recognition.”

On Thursday, December 20, Bend High Desert Rotary held its meeting at Mountain Star Family Relief Nursery.  We wanted to take the opportunity celebrate Christmas and to award our annual Duck Race proceeds as well as make some special presentations.  We were hosted with a delicious breakfast prepared by Mountain Start volunteers.  We also had some special Rotary guests for the meeting with Past Presidents Mari Latimer, J.C. Hallman, and Todd Dunkelberg in attendance.  Following breakfast, the meeting was called to order and we proceeded with the "business" of the day.  2012 was another very good year for our Duck Race proceeds and as is our custom the first $1000 was presented to the Rotary Shots for Tots Program to help continue with free immunizations in Deschutes County during January-February 2013.  The balance of the proceeds, in the amount of $8,862 was awarded to Mountain Star.  Tim Rusk, Mountain Star's Executive Director gratefully accepted the contribution.  We had not told them in advance how much they would receive and everyone was very, very excited.  To quote Tim . . . "Christmas came early this year."  In addition, two of Mountain Star's volunteers who had sold tickets received awards from the Duck Race Committee.  Kerrie Newman and her daughter Gabby went door to door to sell duck tickets and ended up as two of the top overall sellers.  In recognition of their effort, they were presented with Duck Race duffel bags by club president, Walt Schloer.  Finally, for her outstanding effort on behalf of Mountain Star and her commitment to service, Kerrie was presented with a Paul Harris Fellow.  It was a great meeting, wonderful to see old friends, and rewarding to know that our work on the 2012 Duck will have a truly significant impact on the Mountain Star program.

The RC of Bend High Desert is now meeting upstairs at the "La Magie" Bakery and Cafe located in downtown Bend on 949 NW Bond Street between "Soba" and the "Red Chair Gallery" and across from OnPoint Credit Union.  The club is in the process of reorganizing in anticipation of rechartering and welcomes visitors who are interested in becoming part of Rotary.  We are a very "hands on" club with an extensive history of service to our community,  Come for a visit and hang out with us for a while.  Find out how you can become involved in the world's oldest  (107 years) and largest (1.2 million members) international service organization.  For further information call Club President, Walt Schloer, or Club Secretary Harriett Schloer at 541-388-0769.  We look forward to meeting you.  Continental breakfast is free for all of our visitors.

We received notification over the holidays that Ronald McDonald House has completed the application of the Rotary logo on the Golf Cart that was purchased with their 2011 Duck Race Proceeds.  The carts are used to transport families between the House and St. Charles and they are outfitted for both warm weather as well as cold weather.  The logo as illustrated below appears on both sides of the winter canopy and when the canopy is removed it appears on the cart itself.  A great project that was sorely needed all thanks to the annual Rotary Duck Race.

Once again, Bend High Desert is reaching out to Bear Creek Elementary School.  At our regular meeting on December 13, we unanimously voted to sponsor a Cub Scout Pack at Bear Creek.  Club Member, Paul Abbott, is the Scout Executive in Central Oregon and brought this opportunity for service to our club.  Many of our club members have a history of scouting from Eagle Scouts to Order of the Arrow to Den Mothers, to Crater Lake Council Executive Committee member.  There was great excitement among club members when Rotarian Abbott made the proposal.

This new service opportunity is an excellent “fit” for Bend High Desert.  Our newest member, James Wiggins, stepped up to serve as the liaison between our club and the Cub Scout Pack.  Paperwork was received on Saturday, December 15 and will soon be submitted to the Crater Lake Council.  BSA Scout Executive Abbott informed our club president that the new Cubmaster, David Clinton Burliegh ("Clint"), a Bend Police Officer, upon learning that a Rotary club was going to be the Pack sponsor, was truly excited.

Club members look forward to interacting with the Pack in the future and will be invited to attend the annual “Blue and Gold Dinner”.

Earlier this year, the Bend High Desert Rotary Club applied for a District Simplified Grant to purchase books for the Bear Creek Elementary School library.  Bend High Desert adopted the school three years ago and named it the recipient of its weekly Speaker's Gifts . . . books that are purchased by the club are signed by our speaker's each week and then placed in the library in the speaker's name.  Due to reductions in the Bend-LaPine School District's budget, library funds have been significantly reduced and very few books are being ordered.  The Bear Creek school library had been identified as the school most in need of replacement books but the budget cuts meant that they would not be receiving them this year.  BHD learned of the need and selected the Bear Creek library to be the recipient of their annual District Simplified Grant project.  More than $2000 worth of books were purchased with the grant and donated to the library.  The club worked closely with the school librarian to insure that the books purchased were the ones they needed the most.

When the books arrived at the school shortly after the start of the school year, members gathered to place custom-printed bookplates in each of the books and then help get them shelved.  The students were very excited to see all of the books that had arrived and were anxious to check them out but they had to wait until the Rotarians completed their part of the task.  When preparing the books for the students, there was much laughter among club members as they found books that they had read as children and even more laughter about the books that are currently popular with today's young people.

About a week later, the club received a phone call asking that someone stop by the school office to pick up something the students had prepared for the club.  In the photo above, club members Walt Schloer, Paul Abbott, Cindi O'Neil, and Tom Greene are holding up the large Thank You poster with the school's mascot on it that was signed by all of the students in the school.  We love our partnership with Bear Creek school.  It's a great school with really great kids.

DICTIONARY PROJECT

Last week, we visited Bear Creek again and this time we handed out dictionaries to all of the Third Graders.  They all knew the Rotarians were coming and were very excited to see us.  We will continue to support Bear Creek and its students in their literacy endeavors.  The teachers and the students are so appreciative for all they have received.  During the same week we also delivered dictionaries to Ensworth Elementary and Trinity School.  Thanks to everyone for helping on this annual project which is truly rewarding for everyone.

Two years ago, Bend High Desert applied for a District Simplified Grant to build a deck for Grandma's House as part of its big expansion.  The club was awarded the grant by the district and after nearly a year's worth of permits with the city, numerous revisions to the plans, and a lot of hard work on the part of club members to get it built, the job was done.  However, for almost a year, it was not used as the Grandma's House expansion took place around it.  Finally, last summer, the expansion was completed and what a wonderful expansion it is.  BHD had worked closely with the architects for the entire project to insure that the deck would fit "seamlessly" into the overall expansion plans and it more than exceeded everyone's expectations.

In October an Open House was held to celebrate the completion of the expansion.  The above photo shows the completed deck fully integrated with the patio expansion  For additional photos of the overall project including the kitchen, dining room and computer center, check the photo album on the club web site.  CLICK HERE