The Rotary Club of Westchester is now seeking to identify worthy families to consider for its fourth “Rotary Home Makeover” project. If you know a deserving family in the Westchester/Playa Del Rey area who should be considered for this year’s Home Makeover, please send their name, address and phone number to Rotary Home Makeover, 8939 S. Sepulveda Boulevard, #518, Westchester, CA 90045 by June 30. Please include up to 250 words about why the family deserves a home makeover, whether the family owns or rents, and ages of children in the family. Include your contact information as well. Submissions must be made by June 30, 2012. If you are interested in contributing goods or services to this project, please call (310) 645-2295.

The annual Westchester Rotary Book sale is coming up from Friday May 25 through Saturday June 2nd in the Ralph's parking lot at Sepulveda and Manchester in Westchester. You can donate books at Armstrong Printing Co. 524 West Arbor Vitae Street, Inglewood, or call Rod Tyler at (310) 677-6132.

We're starting to lineup auction items for our March 16th Murder Mystery FUNdraiser, including exciting African safari packages. They are 4- and 5-night packages that include all meals and morning and evening drives. The packages expire one year after the date of purchase.

The 4-night package retails for $5,000 and the opening bid will start at $1,950. The 5-night package retails for $6,250 and the opening bid will start at $2,450. Details on the packages are available at www.ezulwini.com..

All the proceeds go towards supporting Westchester Rotary's international and community service projects, including the upcoming Extreme Home Makeover.

 This year's Westchester Rotary spring FUNraiser is a Murder Mystery night on Friday, March 16th at the LAX Crowne Plaza Hotel.  Cocktails at 6pm and dinner at 7pm.  All proceeds go to support Community Projects including the next Home Makeover.  For event information contact Rich Musella at rbmusella@earthlink.net or 310-649-0374.

Westchester Rotary had its annual welcome of the outbound New Zealand Rotary Youth Exchange students.  During their stay they went to Venice, Santa Monica, Disney/CA Adventure, and Universal Studios.  One night they were hosted by the Club for dinner (see the picture) and another they had a pizza party with the Westchester, St. Bernards, and El Segundo Interact Clubs.  The 42 students came from all 6 Districts in NZ and were chaperoned by Debbie and Ross Loomans of the RC of Otorohanga (D9930).  The students will spend a year with a host Rotary Club in North America or Europe.

The Rotary Art, Music and Speech Contests are here! Entrants must currently be enrolled inhigh school (Westchester or St. Bernards) or home schooled at the highschool level in Westchester or Playa del Rey.

Acceptable media for the art contest: Oil, watercolor, drawing, photograph, sculpture.

The music contest is open to musicians of orchestral instruments and to singers. Applicants must provide their accompanist if necessary.

For the speech contest, speeches shall be between 4-6 minutes with a 30-second grace period. Contestants will be disqualified if the speech does not fall within the allotted time.  Speaker shall identify a current challenge within their family, school, community, state, nation, or abroad and answer: “How can one solve this problem by using Rotary's Four Way Test?"

Entrants will compete at the Westchester Club level during February 2012. Club winner will win a cash prize of between $200 and $1,000 for each discipline, in the sole discretion of the Westchester Rotary Club vocational chairman.

Club winners in each discipline will advance to the district finals on or about March 3, 2012. Awardsof $1,000, $500, and $250 will be given to the top three district finishers.

District winners in each discipline should be available to attend at the District 5280 Annual Conferencein San Diego on Saturday, April 21, 2012.  Art work will be displayed at conference.

Applicants must complete application, which includes parental permission for contestants under age 18.

For details and an application, you may contact Edgar Saenz, Westchester Rotary Clubvocational chair, (310) 753-1668.

Westchester Rotarians joined a band of more than 130 volunteers to makeover the home of Jackie Hunt and her 17-year-old son, Wesley. In 2001, at the age of just 46, Jackie suffered a massive stroke that severely affected her speech, left her bound to a wheelchair and changed her life forever. Once vibrant and active, she struggled to do the things we all take for granted - brushing her teeth, cleaning her house and using her nearly inaccessible bathroom. To make matters worse, Jackie is slowly losing her eyesight as a result of retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease that is gradually shrinking her field of vision.

You can pay your dues or for other Rotary events using the Pay Now button below.  Note that a 4% handling charge will be added to the amount.