ROTARY FOUNDATION NEWS

Looking for Ambassadorial Scholar Candidates
Someone from your community is a candidate to be an Ambassadorial Scholar and spend 3 - 6 month (Cultural Scholar) or an academic year (or two) studying in a foreign country and serving as an ambassador between the two cultures. Please see the appropriate page on our district web site for more information and deadlines. The Oak Ridge club has already submitted a candidate, but what matters is finding and educating the best possible candidates.

2007 Best Year Ever for Type 1 Polio Cases
There were 293 reported new cases of Type 1 polio in 2007, as compared with 616 in 2006. Type 1 is the most dangerous of the three types of polio. Type 2 has been eradicated. Overall, there were 992 new cases of polio reported last year, as compared with nearly 2000 in 2006. This disease can and must be totally eradicated!

District Simplified Grant Money All Claimed!
Clubs in our district have stepped up to the challenge of identifying new projects and applying for the $25,000 of our District Designated Fund that was allocated for a District Simplified Grant. By the end of October, clubs in our Matching Grants Subcommittee had reviewed applications from clubs and committed the $25K available this year. If your club has an application prepared, please submit it to Chair David Carroll at dcarroll1960@aol.com. Last year, some clubs completed their projects at lower cost than budgeted, which allowed another project or two to be funded.

National Immunization Day in Nigeria
Rotarians will be traveling to District 9120 (Nigeria) February 17-28. The immunizations will occur in the Kano and Kaduna states of Nigeria. Our district had a Group Study Exchange, Safe Blood Africa projects and a water project in D9120 during the 2005-2006 Rotary year. For more information, please contact Polio Plus Chair PDG Alan Marsh (Sparta) at alnan68@blomand.net. The trip will be led by Ann Lee Hussey and PDG Dave Groner, who will be presenters at our Multi-District Conference. If you are interested in participating in this NID, the time is short.

IS YOUR CLUB SPONSORING A 4-WAY TEST SPEECH CONTEST?

New District Program

The District Vocational Service Committee has asked each club to consider hosting a speech contest on the 4-Way Test for high school students in its service area. Forms and information about the contest were sent to all club presidents recently. The winners of the club contests will be invited to participate in a final round at the Multi-District Conference on April 19. If you are interested in helping, please ask your club president where the planning stands for your club. The materials about the speech contest should be posted soon at www.rotary6780.org.

JOINT MEETING OF WCS AND WMHH COMMITTEES

What do all those initials mean?

Last Friday, the World Community Service and Water Management, Health and Hunger committees held their quarterly joint meeting in Chattanooga. Members present were (from the left) Doug Nichol (Knoxville Breakfast), Stephen Caine (Shelbyville), Ken Thoms (Kingston), Don Ritzhaupt (Cleveland), Mike Brown and WCS Chair Jim Roxlo (North River) and WMHH Chair Frank Rothermel (Knoxville).

The chart behind the committee members is an assessment of which clubs have become Globe Clubs, which are "sure things," which are probable, etc. The committee reviewed the projects known to be underway and a discussion of how to get more clubs involved in International Service. The clubs in our district are considerably ahead of previous years in meeting the criteria to become Globe Clubs and a number of presentations of globe patches will be made to clubs by committee members.

Please see the criteria for being a Globe Club on our web site. It isn't too late to join this parade of clubs

CROSSVILLE CLUB HAS BUSY HOLIDAY SEASON!

Three Service Projects Completed

During my official visit with the Crossville club, I was particularly impressed with how much fun these Rotarians had during their meeting and how many local community service projects it has underway in addition to their Matching Grant project in Ghana. One of Crossville's drivers to attract new members is to allow the club to grow its list of projects!

The first was an all-day outing for 39 children with special needs. Titled Generation Next, the club members provided a variety of activities in a special place with enough volunteers so there could be one-to-one interaction.

For the seventh year, the club provided needy children with new pairs of blue jeans. With the cooperation of the teachers of the 9 public and 3 private elementary schools in Cumberland County, this was arranged in a discreet manner. There were 419 pairs of jeans in 46 different boys' sizes and 45 girls' sizes. An evening before Christmas was dedicated to wrapping each pair in holiday paper and including a special gift of a book and a Beanie Baby for each child.  A large number of Interactors joined the Rotarians at the wrapping party held at the historic Crossville Depot.

Over 110 boxes of food were packed and readied for delivery the next morning by Rotarians to senior citizens living in the public housing units. 

Chair persons for the projects were Soni Nelson for the children's outing, Pepe Perron for the Blue Jeans Project and Sean Stephens for the food boxes. The projects were financed by several fund raisers and by special gifts.

Shows what a club of 69 can do during one season! No wonder they want to grow!

WHAT'S YOUR HOBBY OR SPECIAL INTEREST?

Rotary Fellowships and Rotarian Action Groups

For many years, Rotarians have been building relationships with other Rotarians around the world based on their special interests. For information about all these, please click on the Global Networking page at the RI web site. What brought these to mind recently was a message seeking Rotarians who ride motorcycles. The North American Chapter of International Fellowship of Motorcycling Rotarians has a web site at www.IFMR-NA.org. If you like bugs on your teeth, check it out! If you don't, but enjoy traveling, you may be interested in the International Travel and Hosting Fellowship of which PDG Jim Andrews (Cookeville Breakfast) is the Administrator. For an example of a RAG, there is the Water and Sanitation RAG, to which some of the Rotarians in our district who are interested in water treatment issues belong.

Important Upcoming Dates

January 13-19: International Assembly - San Diego CA
February 1-2: District Mid-Year Leadership Retreat
March 1: Leadership Skills Training (Maryville)
March 7-9: Interact Conference (Pigeon Forge)
March 24: GSE Team from South Korea arrives
March 27-28: Mid-South PETS (Nashville)
April 18-20: Multi-District Conference (Nashville)
April 21: GSE Teams to and from South Korea depart
May 17: District Assembly (Cookeville)
June 14-19: International Convention (Los Angeles)

Where's Governor Robin This Week?

Wednesday - Oak Ridge Breakfast Club
Thursday - Oak Ridge club
Saturday - Orientation for Outbound GSE Team (Cookeville)

Rotary Shares

What do the members of your family know about your Rotary experience? Do you share a copy of your bulletin with them, so they know who your members are, what your club programs are, what your club is doing?

DG Robin Textor
Rotary International District 6780
www.rotary6780.org