Welcome to the Rotary Club of Nassau , the founding Rotary Club in the Bahamas. We are pleased that you have taken the time to visit our site and trust that you will visit frequently. We would love to have you join us at our weekly meeting held on Tuesdays at 12:30 at Luciano's of Chicago in sunny Nassau, Bahamas.  Please be sure to explore our site fully to be kept abreast of our various activities. New members are always welcomed and remember "Service Above Self". Please take the time and review our history by selecting "About Our Club" under Site Pages. Keep up to date with our activities using the following additional links:

 www.rotarynassau.com

A few Rotarians gathered to mentor the Interators of RM Bailey as many of the members are graduating this school year.  On hand were LaPaige, Dwayne T. and Raquel.  The winners for the speech competition

Kendranique Swan - winner

Shekeria Gilbert

were given books on leadership and LaPaige also gave Interact pins to two deserving students Antonio Smith who is the incoming president and Shakina Josey another member who will be responsible to carry the club forward and also the outgoing president Shekeira Gilbert.

The students were given some solid career and college advice and were challenged to do their best in whatever area of life they are in and reminded to make good choices.

Mr. Foulkes of Hospitality Management Services gives the club a complete break down of the amount of blatant crimes that have happened in our community.  He also brought to attention that the crime is not amongst us but its affecting the Tourism package and Tourists are now being robbed.

He calls on each of us and the government to take a closer look at the problem and enact new laws and stiffer penalties and well as swift justice to send a clear and present message to all that Crime Will No Be Tolerated in This Country! 

Treasurer Joan Pinder became the clubs newest Paul Harris Fellow.  Joan has been a member of the club for many years and this is her second consecutive year serving as the Clubs Treasurer.  On hand to celebrate with Joan his her only son John.

Several Members received Paul Harris designations

Tony Howarth a Past President of the club and has been in the club of many years.  Tony received Paul Harris +1 on hand was his wife Clarie to celebrate.  Tony received another pin with 1 sapphire.

Rev. Sam Boodle also a Past President of the club, has been in the club for many years also received the Paul Harris Fellow. Sam currently serves as the clubs Secretary and is serving for the 3rd consecutive year as secretary.

Winston Rolle also a Past President of the club, has been a member of the club for many years also received the Paul Harris Fellow.  Winston curently serves as the clubs Youth & Vocational Services Chairs.

Mark Munnings a long standing member of the club and avid contributor of the clubs annual golf tournament received Paul Harris +3- Mark received another pin with 3 sapphires 

Dr. Reg Eldon & Rev. Jevon Neilly from the Centre for Peace & Justice speaks on this venture to assist at risk youth.  The idea behind this venture is to provide alternatives to jail time especially for first time offenders.  To assist them in building self esteem and making better choices as they go through their life. 

They are seeking the assistance of other organizations either financial or partnership to move the program along.

Dr. Paul Crevello Ph.D. Chief Executive Officer for Bahamas Petroleum Company Plc.  Paul has received  numerous awards and distinctions from international socieies for authorship and invited papers on carbonate and sandstone geology.

He spoke to the club on Past, Present, Future of Petroleum Exploration.  He was able to give the club the history of petroleum exploration in The Bahamas by other companies and their findings and the expected finds once Bahamas Petroleum receives permission to drill.

The Vocational Training Team visited The bahamas from  Sunday March 27th and was first hosted to a dinner by our club at PP Sheila's home.  They were the speakers at our club on Tuesday 29th and the team of 3 spoke on their work and great information on Florida.  The Team Leader Rich Turnbull is an Environmental Consultant residing in St. Augustine Beach northest Florida and is the sitting President for The Rotary Club of St Johns County.  Jackkie Hird a Photograher resides in St. Augustine, Florida and Kristee Booth an Environmental Consultant who resides in Deland, Florida. 

They also celebrated our First Friday for April with us at Mario's Bowling and Family Entertainment.

The team leaves Nassau on Monday 4th for Eleuthera and then onto Abaco and on to District Conference in St. Thomas USVI, where they will be making a presentation.

As we ceebrate Literac Month Rotary invited Ms. Arthurlue Rahming from Project Read spoke to the club on the work of Project Read in helping adult students on realizing their dream of being able to read and hence move on to receive gainful employment and pursue higher education.  Ms. Rahming was accompanied by Mr. Albury a product of the programme who read one of his stories he wrote.

The club also made a donation to Project Read to assist with the work of Literacy in The Bahamas. 

Claude Smith a Past President fo The Rotary Club of Nassau has recently passed and is being laid to rest on Saturday February 12th, 2011 at 2:00 p.m.

May his soul rest in peace! 

Paul Bower was a long standing member of The Rotary Club of Nassau.  He was actually listed in Honorary status at the time of his passing.  He was laid to rest January 31st at 4pm at Sacred Heart Church, Shirley Street. 

Left to mourn are his wife Ericka and children Bobby, Nigel and Victoria.

We held our Annual Health Fair on Thursday November 18th again at Stephen Dillet Primary School.  This years topic was "Obesity".  Speakers included, Dr. Alvira Higgs- who spoke on Nutrition, Dr. Percival McNeil who spoke on Obesity in Children and Ms. Tanya Woodside of Woodside Brokerage, who spoke on Obesity & Insurability as well as Derek Bullard from Mystical Fitness ho spoke on the importance of exercise, not just to avoid obesity but for overall good health.

All speakers were very informative and gave us all something to think about in our lifestyles.

All presenters were given fruit baskets and all attendees were given a Rotary gift bag that contained nutritious treats.

Prizes were also given out for correctly answered questions.

The week of November 2nd was World Interact Week and the Interact Club of RM Bailey visited our club on a two visit.  One to give the members an opportunity to share their vocation, best practices etc wit the students and two to have them address the club on their plans for the Rotary year.

Our Guest Speaker was Sara Sorensen who addressed the Club on one of her passions. She spoke of a friend who was born and raised in Nassau, and has recently relocated to the United States, living with his wife and child (3 years old), in Santa Barbara, California. As recent as July 2nd, 2010, Lee was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer, which will require a bone marrow transplant in order to save his life and is currently undergoing a very aggressive chemotherapy regime.

Her quest is to organize a Bone Marrow drive in Nassau so as to garner as large a population of donors as possible. As finding a suitable match is very difficult, the numbers are important and should come from the same ethnic grouping. She explained that HTLL is a rare leukemia most prevalently noted in people of Caribbean origin, often associated with HTLV1 infection.  The higher incidents of this rare cancer in the Caribbean population results in difficulty in obtaining a suitable bone marrow match within the broad US resident population. Even if someone being screened is not a match for Lee, they can be a match to someone else, and have the opportunity to save a life; all efforts are worthwhile!

She provided some details as to what can be expected from a bone marrow screening and that fact that it is easier than donating blood. She also pointed out that this exercise will benefit the community at large. Her intent is to provide as much information as possible before actually organizing the drive locally.

  
Below is a link to the website for Lee's Bone Marrow Foundation:

http://www.bonemarrow.org/onetoone/121-adderley.html

Be sure to read the latest Rotary Foundation Minute from Foundation Chairperson PP Sheila.

The Rotary Club of Nassau recently awarded a Paul Harris Fellow Award to Steven Kelly for his dedication, commitment and support of theRotary Club of Nassau and to the community. In the picture Mr. Kelly accepts his award from the visiting District Governor for District 7020, Diana White and current President of the Rotary Club of Nassau, Raquel Wallace.

Select the link below to read Mr. Kelly's deserving biography.

District Governor Diana White and her husband Roger recently visited with Board Members of the Rotary Club of Nassau to discuss plans for the Rotary Year. As the keynote speaker at the weekly meeting, she delivered an inspiring speech addressing the importance of ethics.

Select the link below for DG Diana's presentation.