The World is a Stage

Meeting: Monday, July 11, 2011 

Page Hayhurst, Executive Director of the Virginia Living Museum presents a gift to Jim Bynum, Rotary District Governor during his visit July 11.



Jim Bynum, our new District Governor joined us for a special meeting on July 11th. A man of an extraordinary charisma, he thinks of the world as if it were a stage. "If the show was good, you should be leaving the stage feeling happy", he says.


He presented the Rotary International theme "Reach from Within to Embrace Humanity" and listed the areas to attack this year's theme:
1. Family: good families lead to good neighborhoods, and good neighborhoods build good communities.
2. Continuity: ensuring continuity in all we do is crucial for our success. Ex: polio eradication.
3. Change: in order to follow this year's theme, Rotarians must be open to go after some things and eliminate others.


Mr. Bynum continued his presentation with four small acts where he asked us to create words by using a few letters that he gave us.
Scene 1: ACT: Assist, Commit, Tell It
Scene 2: ONE: Orienting, Nominate, Extend
Scene 3: TWO: Together We're Outstanding
Scene 4: TT: Tell It, Tell it Again


Turns out "you don't have to be a star to be in the show, but if you choose to join Jim's act, you will definitely shine."


Next meeting: August 1st, 6:00 PM
Introducing the monthly service project series at VLM 

LET'S JOIN HANDS TO START A NEW SERVICE AT VLM THIS YEAR

Dan Summers, VLM Education Program Director, will be at the August 1 meeting to begin training for the club members at the touch tank as our service component.  We will start with the horseshoe crab!  At future "service" meetings. we will work with other sea creatures there, then program animals behind the scenes and using the telescope.  When trained, club members will be able to work these areas for Rotary events or tours as needed/desired.

It's a monthly service project at VLM from 6 to 6:30PM, as suggested by our President Page and as she says, let's have fun while serving others.

On Monday, we will also be introducing a new member,  Col. Mike Dwyer. 
Looking forward to seeing you all at 6:00PM!


Posted by Cristina and Baljit

Warwick Rotary Moves to the Virginia Living Museum

May has been a very busy month for the Warwick Rotarians. The club focused on moving to a new location; participated in charitable activities like Run for the Dream 8K and Half Marathon in Williamsburg; inducted a new member; hosted several speakers and worked on developing upcoming programs for this year.

June, 6th- The club moved to the Virginia Living Museum located at 524 J Clyde Morris Boulevard Newport News, VA 23601. 

Jim, Dave, Iza, and Baljit did a tremendous job coordinating the move. Thank you!!


The Board had the first meeting on Monday prior to the main program. We held the meeting outside on VLM's beautiful terrace. As you might already know, the Board has been discussing the option of moving the regular meeting time 30 minutes ahead to run from 6PM to 7PM every Monday. The decision is up to a majority vote of the membership. Please vote by sending Brad an email at brad+rotary@swatter.net

 a) approve the change to 6:00pm b) prefer to meet at old time 6:30pm or c) abstain (either one is fine with me).


Welcome Pjerin!
On May 23rd, we had the opportunity to induct Pjerin Luli into the world's leading service organization of business professionals. Pjerin is a graduate of the MBA Program at the College of William and Mary and currently works as a Product Marketing Manager in the Medical Devices industry. I've known Pjerin for about four years. He has a great sense of humor, very captivating; always willing to help, always expressing an interesting opinion.
The WRC is pleased to have you, Pjerin!


Run for the Dream, May 21st, Williamsburg, VA
WRC has been actively involved in inaugurating Run for the Dream 8K and Half Marathon, an event that benefited An Achievable Dream and The Wounded Warriors Project.
Jim, Dave, Pjerin and Brad served up about 800 beers over 3 hours on Saturday morning for "a group of crazy health nuts" - if you ask Brad.
I ran the 8K, which wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. I confess that the medal and the three scoops of ice-cream after the race helped ease the pain. 

Guest Speakers

May 2nd, 2011 

Col. Michael Dwyer spoke to us on his work as a military weatherman, its impact on readiness, and the cooperative efforts that may take place between military and local agencies in case of severe weather conditions.

May 9th, 2011

Nearly 100 years strong- an update on Riverside

Bill Downey CEO of the Riverside Health System honored us with his presence and spoke about how by providing a diversity of services and achieving strong outcomes that continue to improve, Riverside is well positioned for the new Healthcare Reform.

Riverside is focused on:

- Integration - to make information flow more efficient

- Growth - 100 providers, opening a new facility of approximately 100,000 sq feet in Williamsburg, and adding three more PACE programs

- Quality and Safety 

June 6th, 2011

Dave Niebhur - Executive Producer / Managing Director at Man and the Sea Project / Watermen's Museum in Yorktown, VA

Dave entertained us with the Brave Yankee Boys, a Post Colonial song. He spoke about some of Watermen's many challenges (hurricane Isabel), but focused on the interesting programs that they offer such as "Catch of the Day", Special Needs Educational Program, Boat Building, Summer Camp and others. To learn more check out their website http://www.watermens.org/

Birthdays in June:

Happy Birthday, Jerry! Jerry Brink- 6/25 

The raffle has not been won in months. Keep playing!!

Have a great weekend and see you all on Monday at 6:30PM at the VLM!

Posted by Cristina.

STOP HUNGER NOW SERVICE PROJECT

Saturday, April 30, 2011

Two of our sponsored interact clubs (Warwick and Menchville High Schools) joined hands with club Rotarians (Jim Probsdorfer and Baljit Gill)  to pack 6000 meals for the needy in Honduras.  The event was held on 04/30/11 at Warwick High School Cafetaria.  There were 17 interactors, 4 teachers (Interact club mentors) and 2 Warwick Rotary club members.   Warwick High School interactors raised $1000 and Menchville High School interactors raised $500 to purchase the necessary food to pack.  Each meal is to provide 250 calories.   It had the necessary vitamins source, protein and carbohydrates to meet the daily food allowance for one person.   Food material was purchased from mid west area of USA.  

It was  amazing to see the young Interact Club members at work in the service of others.  They opted for this service rather than enjoy the beautiful spring day outside.  We are pleased to see the spirit of Rotary in these youngsters.  There was a talk of having a bigger event next year when we will have the opportunity to involve more club Rotarians, other families and students from respective High Schools.

It's a humble way to shape the world and foster world peace.

In Service of Rotary,

Baljit Gill

Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters

Meeting: Monday, April 18, 2011

Iza Cieszynski, Dave Fisher, John Mattern and Jim Probsdorfer participated in the JRA Extreme Stream Makeover project and as you can see from the pictures below, they had a great time.











For those who couldn't attend, this is a volunteer group that designs and implements projects to support the clean-up, and long-term health of the James river watershed. Among other things, this includes rain gardens, rain barrels, and landscaping modifications that help buffer run-off into our streams.

Announcements:
- End Polio Baseball Game on July 30th, DC Nationals vs. NY Mets at 7:05 PM, Nationals Park, $30. If you are interested, contact chair Jerry Fields at jfields49@aol.com or 757-220-2692. Deadline is June 30th.

- Run for the Dream Half Marathon and 8K, May 21- 22 benefits An Achievable Dream and Wounded Warriors If interested in volunteering or participating, please register online http://www.runforachievabledream.com/. If you have questions, please email me Cristina.Stoia@gmail.com or Brad Sawatzky brad+rotary@swatter.net.

On Monday, our guest, Sarah Claassen talked to us about Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters and what makes this organization so special. CHKD provides care to all children with or without insurance. The King’s Daughters, founders of CHKD, lead the way among hundreds of friends providing volunteerism, advocacy and fund raising, including our ever-popular thrift stores in every corner of the region.

Their main campus is located in Norfolk, but they also have three outpatient centers (Newport News, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake) and 29 locations for Pediatric Practices. School programs, aqua therapy, pastoral services are only a few of the programs CHKD provides.

"A child who needs a cardiologist is treated like a child who needs a cardiologist and not like a regular patient because symptoms manifest very differently in children" said Sarah. They treat children from 0-21 years old, so they need a lot of stuff in many different sizes.

CHKD focuses on providing the care that children need and this commitment manifests in everything that they do from the services and programs they provide to the way the hospital is designed. Therefore, if you ever wondered why there are glass windows at every door, Sarah has the answer: kids get scared easily and want to know what is on the other side.

 Sarah shared a few stories with us. One of them was about Sophie, a six years old girl diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The one thing that Sophie wanted was a dog. Through the therapy program, CHKD made sure that Sophie had a dog at her bed every day. This simple thing put a smile on her face every day. Unfortunately, Sophie lost the battle.. Her parents ended up getting the dog she always wanted and trained it to help support other kids.

Impressive stories, many of them successful which reminded us that miracles do happen.

Happy Easter everyone!

Looking forward to seeing you next week.

District Assembly - Rotary District 7600

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Reach Within to Embrace Humanity

Rotary District Assembly, Tidewater Community College- New Portsmouth Campus

Baljit, Jim and I attended the District Assembly last week. We enjoyed learning from Jim Bynum (District Governor -elect); Chuck Arnason (District Governor- nominee Designate); Kenneth I. Wright (Mayor, City of Portsmouth) who encouraged us to be the change we want to see in the world; Dr. Deborah DiCroce (President, Tidewater Community College); Jayne Sullivan (District Governor); Kalyan Banerjee (Rotary International President - elect); Jim Pierce (past District Governor); Bill Pollard (District Rotary Foundation Chair), Jim Probsdorfer (terrific presentation Jim!) and many others.

The program started with a Presentation of Colors given by the Girl Scouts of America; continued with a set of presentations on America, Pledge & Invocation, Reach Within to Embrace Humanity, Building Community, Bridging Continents, this year's Group Study Exchange Team and other humanitarian themes. 

The foundation's goals for this year:

1. Increase service above self

2. Increase Rotary public image

3. Presidential citation

4. Increase membership

5. Increase foundation and polio giving

Following this set of presentations, the participants attended breakout sessions to learn more about their area of expertise and share best practices with fellow Rotarians. I thought the sessions were good. I liked the fact that we were given an opportunity to meet others with similar challenges and discuss ways to help us grow as an organization.

The event ended with an inspirational message to remind us that we joined Rotary to serve our community, to serve the world, and to serve our people.

Announcements:

-Polio Challenge Grant fundraisers (ongoing) present End Polio Baseball Game on July 30th, DC Nationals vs. NY Mets at 7:05 PM, Nationals Park, $30. If you are interested, contact chair Jerry Fields at jfields49@aol.com or 757-220-2692

- Foundation & Membership Workshop: August 13, District Office, Williamsburg

- Foundation Banquet- November 16th, Colonial Heritage, Williamsburg

The mission of 100 Black Men of America, Inc.

Meeting: Monday, April 11 2011


Everett Browning, former President of the 100 Black Men of the Virginia Peninsula accepted our invitation to tell us about the mission and activities of this organization.


The 100 Black Men of America is headquartered in Atlanta and has four international chapters. Their purpose is to show young people that education gives you the power to have options in life. As a result, mentoring plays a special role because through mentoring they encourage young people to get involved in the community, be good citizens, and help their peers. 


Programs:
1. Mentoring- encourages them to believe in education, develop a plan for success, always go out and surround yourself with people who share the same vision with you
2. Education- they provide scholarships for college 
3. Health & Wellness- 150 people get medical exams locally every year
4. Economical- teaches them to pay themselves first, build assets in their life and stay away from liabilities. Within the program, students put together a portfolio plan for their families.


The mission of 100 Black Men of the Virginia Peninsula was founded in 1991. Achievable Dream and Toys for Tots are two of the organizations they collaborate with. Their programs are focused on mentoring, career, health (swimming lessons) placing an emphasis on re-stabilizing families within the community.


Announcements:
Hamilton: the WRC raised $1,200 through brackets last month. Great job!!
Upcoming golf tournament: June 21st at 10:00. 


Raffle: we all tried but none of us won. Keep on buying tickets!

Newport News Public Library System

Meeting: Monday, April 4, 2011


Hello fellow Rotarians,


This week we had the opportunity to listen to Iza giving a very interesting presentation on the Newport News Public Library System. Did you know that the Newport News Public Library System consists of four full libraries and more? Did you know that by signing up for a library card you get access to all the library services and programs? They provide books, books on CD, eAudiobooks, music on CD, DVDs, playaways, fully equipped computers (software, printers, fax service etc.) plus other services such as research assistance, meeting rooms, job-seeking assistance, special collections. Did I mention that all these goodies are FREE?


The library also offers a set of free classes and programs to support children, teens, and adults in their personal development. Basic computer skills, using laptops, resume writing, job-seeking workshops, reading programs, crafts are just a few of the programs they provide to promote the growth of a well educated community. 


The Newport News Public Library is also available online at www.nngov.com/library




Announcements:
1. Upcoming presentation on how to use LinkedIn- details TBD
2. WRC to participate in Extreme Stream Makeover Service Project in Denbigh from 1–4:30pm on April 15.  Contact Brian Caro bcaro@cmlarchs.com for details to and/or to sign up.


Reminder: there is a board meeting on Monday, April 11 at 5:15PM


Raffle: nobody won this week. Keep playing!