Recently club members Rosemary Shaw and Everett DuBois were invited to attend a rehearsal of Ovation Arts & Music Education Bainbridge's Glee and Voice youth singing and dancing groups.  While in attendance, they were shown a plaque that Ovation has affixed to its rehearsal studio wall that says "Thank You Rotary for making our new rehearsal floor possible"  In addition to attending the rehearsal and viewing the plaque, Everett and Rosemary were presented with hand-written "thank you" letters from each student.  Excerpts of the letters included the following:

"Thank you sooo, sooo, sooo much", "I hope you understand how thankful we are for our floor.  Before, it was slightly dangerous to dance, now we can be safe when we dance.  That is very important to me, because VOCE is a huge part of my life, so having it safer and prettier is always great", "Thank you for our new floor: it is awesome.  N ot only is it gorgeous, but way safer to dance on.  VOCE is so important to me: thank you for helping", "My time with Ovation has been even better because of Rotary".  These are just a few quotes taken from the letters.  Rosemary Shaw has assembled all of the thank you letters into a notebook along with the pictures which she will circulate at future club meeting.  Be sure to take the time to read through them: They reinforce our reasons for being Rotarians.

Back (L to R): Kristi Worley, Nico Lucioni, Syndey Barnes-Grant, Emily Applewhite, Cali Moore, Kendall Beckett, Isabelle Minasian

Front (L to R): Sabrina Weschler, Kristen Siefert, Nicole VanderMeer

1. Caroline Clucas "Love Bites"
2. Nancy Rekow reading for Rebecca Rekow "You are a longtime islander"
3. Beverley West "19 Cigarettes - San Francisco, 1974"
4. Joanne Pramhus "Woman with a Fork"
5. Cindy Vandersluis "So Long"
6. Laura Schaeffer Untitled

Foundation Chair,Bob Linz,  presents Angela Bambridge her first Paul Harris award at the lunch meeting January 30, 2012.
Congratulations to Angela on her commitment to The Rotary Foundation.

Rotary’s Challenge for polio eradication has reached the US$200million milestone. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded TheRotary Foundation an additional $50 million grant, which is not a challengegrant, in recognition of Rotary's early achievement of this milestone.

The fundraising milestone was reached in response to $355 million in challenge grants awarded to The Rotary Foundation by the Gates Foundation. All funds have been earmarked to support polio immunization activities in affected countries where the vaccine-preventable disease continues to paralyze children.   

Read the complete story here

Registration if now open for the DLTA being held at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Victoria, BC on the weekend of March 31-April 1. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn more about Rotary and enjoy a mini-vacation in Canada.   Just click on the "event" on our web site and register or follow the link in this email.  Remember the club pays for your registration.  Just fill out a check request form for reimbursement.   Click here for a link to the registration.

Past President 05-06,Charlie Averill, President Tom Rees, Past President 97-98, Daryle Schei, President Elect Vicki Evans, Past President 03-04, Tom Lindsley & Past President 01-02 Brent Olson are ready for our first dinner meeting held at Bainbridge Thai Cuisine.

Adrian Sawyer

Grace Purdy, Mary Stewart, Carolyn Milander, Samantha Scott, Nico Lucioni, (not pictured)  Cali Moore

President Tom Rees pardons Henrietta Hen. She will now live out the rest of her life in the barnyard.  

Multiple Paul Harris Awards presented during Foundations Month!

President: Vicki Evans 

President Elect: Larry Smith

Secretary: Todd Tinker

Trust Treasurer: Jim Parsons

Operating Treasurer: Gary Kuntz

Director (3 year term): Marina Cofer-Wildsmith

Director (3 year term): Gordon Hewes

Vice President lunch: Larry Judd

Vice President dinner: Mike Rosen

BIR representatives visited 5 Ugandan RC fellowship meetings: (2) Kampala-Ssese Island, (1) Kampala, (1) Lira and (1) Kuyenga [Largest RC in Kampala]. BIR representatives participated in the new RI WASH (Water, Sanitation, Hygiene) conference in Soroti. WASH goa; is to allow 77% of Ugandan w/ access to clean water by 2015. BIR representatives visited 38 villages, auditing 26 boreholes and interviewing water committees and villagers at 12 new village sites.

Dick Brown also participated in RC & Rotaract Clubs of Kampala-Ssese Islands "Health Day" on a Ssese Island. Dick audited the Bio-Toilet & gas stove, watched a sand-filter installation/demonstration and helped dedicate a girls dorm w/ President Joy of RC K-SI.

Bart Kent, Larry Smith, Mike Rose, Andrea Anderson & Vicki Evans.

Sat. Oct 22 was a grant management Seminar & workshop held in Silverdale.  Along with these 5 club members was Past President Brent Olson, one of the presenters and the District Service and Wold Community Service Committee chair.

 Bainbridge Island Rotarians taking part in the Pumpkin Walk at Bainbridge Gardens.

The Bainbridge Island Rotary Club’s Uganda Committee, part of the club’s World Service Committee, announced that as of mid-September 2011 the club has 17 new borehole wells now drilled and operating in the Northern Region of Uganda thanks to a $97,000 Global Grant (#25130). Clean water is critical in supporting health, sanitation and education in the region.  Each borehole well serves from 300 to 1500 people and from three to five villages.

Bainbridge Island Uganda Committee project leads Vicki Evans and Dick Brown visited the Northern Region of Uganda April 2011, and selected the 17 new sites. Drilling was accomplished by the Nile Drilling company of Uganda, which has worked consistently with the Bainbridge Island and Lira Rotary Clubs to provide clean water to wide range of villages and districts in the Northern Region.

Eric Kimani, District Governor of the Rotary District 9200 from Nairobi, Kenya, honored the Lira Rotary Club - host club for the Global Grant - by attending the ribbon cutting ceremony for a borehole in Agebo, a Ugandan village just outside the town of Lira. Rotary District 9200 comprises the five East African countries of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.

October 21, 2011

Oct 20th Roger Merrifield and Vicki Evans attended the Sequim Noon Rotary Club which meets at SunLand Golf & Country Club. Roger gave a presentation on our club’s membership committee’s work. He covered our Friends of Rotary event & why, the Team approach involving all club members, and our session A & B for proposed members. He shared our Session A & B packets.  Roger is a past president of BI Rotary  & is now membership chairperson.

The team spent 8 or 9 days in the bush up country visiting existing wells and interviewing villagers about potential new ones.  Progress has been amazing.  The Workshops they have attended show that our project has amazing potential.  Bainbridge Rotary will be in touch with Rotarians from around the world to greatly expand our very successful project in the near future with funds from outside Rotary.  We are pleased that the team was able to take the time to be in Uganda for these important launch meetings.

The team is now back in Kampala where they will be attending the 20th anniversary of the Kampala-Ssese Islands Club.  Tomorrow they leave for Ssese for a medical and dental outreach. They will be chair side assistants for two days.  The team returns to Kampala on Sunday evening and leave for Bainbridge on Tuesday evening.

The Uganda Borehole committee has printed a yearly calendar for 2012 with pictures of the water projects in Uganda. To order a calendar write to Uganda Calendar Fund, P.O. Box 11286, Bainbridge Island, WA. 98110. The cost is $20.00 (including postage) with the funds being used for more boreholes in Uganda.  Email your questions to ugandacalendarfund@bainbridgeislandrotary.org.

From July 26, 2011

Welcome Frank Cunningham!

From Rotary

Larry Smith presents the Auction's closing report to members at Wing Point. 

Rotary Theme 2011 from Rotary International on Vimeo.

Here is an excellent slide show of where our auction dollars have gone since 2009.