FRIDAY'S MEETING (12/23) HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO WINTER STORM
When: We meet Friday mornings from 7:00 AM to 8:00 AM.
Where: We meet at the Mequon Public Market, 6300 W Mequon Rd, Mequon, WI 53092.
Program: This week's program will feature our own Brittany Vulich. Brittany's topic will be The Redress Movement.
The greeter will provide either the thought, a Rotary minute, share a family moment or a cultural tradition ... anything they would like to start off the day positive.
Upcoming "It's your Rotary moment" assignees:
Lucia Francis (12/23)
Cori Guerin (12/30)
Joe Gutsmiedl (1/6)
Dean Johnson (1/13)
Note: If you are unable to act as "It's your Rotary moment" assignee when scheduled please arrange for your replacement.
Club Assemblies have been scheduled for the following date(s): 1/20, 2/17, 3/17, 4/21, 5/19
On Thursday, December 15th, several members of the MT Sunrise Rotary Club, along with spouses and friends, volunteered as ushers at the Milwaukee Rep's annual production of Christmas Carol.
The evening started with a social hour at the beautifully decorated Wisconsin Club followed by a shuttle bus ride to the Pabst Theater and a heartwarming presentation of the Dicken's classic. The evening ended with a shuttle bus return trip to the Wisconsin Club to retrieve our cars.
Special thanks to Kay Newell, a member of the Wisconsin Club, for making this enjoyable evening truly special.
Pictured from left: Bob Blazich, Jan Blazich, Dave Schlageter, Jen DeLaura, Clarene Mitchell, Brian Kendzor, Alice Sedgwick and Tetiana Zabeivarota.
MT Sunrise Rotary partnered up with Family Promise to identify six local families who were in need of assistance this holiday season. Photos by Dean Johnson.
By Bruce Templeton, Rotary Club of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
In 1979 – when I was 34 – an aunt of mine, the head of crafts for our province, asked if I would appear as Santa at a child’s event. I told her I would think about it. I went to various places and looked at Santa suits. I didn’t like the looks of any of them, so I called her back and said “No.” And she said, “Bruce, if I make the suit, will you do it?” Well, you don’t turn down the director of crafts for your province. What arrived at my house were a suit made of velvet and lambswool, a beard made of real hair, and prescription glasses. It was absolutely flawless. And that was the beginning of my Santa journey.
When I started, I was acting as Santa. But over time, you become so comfortable in a room with children that you begin to believe that you are Santa. Your behavior changes. You’re aware that there are some very serious responsibilities that come with this. I grew into being Santa. It’s something that becomes a part of your life.
Being Santa took on a larger purpose when I realized the responsibility that was being entrusted to me. I was asked to go into very tough situations, like the children’s cancer unit at the hospital. Last year I saw four children who were terminally ill and will not be alive this Christmas. When you’re prepared to make these visits fearlessly and confidently, that’s when you’re really doing the work that – I believe – we are called to do. That is when St. Nicholas joins me, and we bring hope and reassurance.
I sometimes have to find the strength and the peace to go into a senior home or a children’s hospital and visit with someone who is dying. Once I went into the room of a dying child, and the mother was there, and the little baby was in the bed. The mother took a pair of white angel wings from a bag and put them on her daughter’s back. She said, “Would you kiss her on the back of her head to start her on her journey?” So Santa did exactly what the mother asked. Then I took the prayer to St. Nicholas for a sick child from my mailbag. We prayed for peace and for freedom from pain. And then Santa left the room.
Two days later a call came from the hospital. “Mr. Templeton,” they said, “will you come to the children’s department? There’s a letter here for you.” The letter was from the mother. It said, “My daughter and I have gone home. My daughter started to get better the minute you said the prayer for her.” And that little girl lived for another three years before she passed away. And then I went to her funeral.
These are experiences that have nothing to do with playing Santa. It’s something you evolve into, and I only think of it as a calling in Service Above Self.
The Rotary Club of Guadalajara Internacional in March began training girls from the city’s underserved communities in the Korean martial art of taekwondo. The Reconoce Tu Poder, or Recognize Your Power, program has trained dozens of girls, says creator Bertha Sánchez García, the club’s immediate past president.
Sánchez García, a brown belt in the discipline, and Zulema Fernández Sariñana, a member of the Rotary Club of Guadalajara, developed a manual and a training regimen with the assistance of Patricia Mariscal Alcalá, an Olympian who is one of Mexico’s most accomplished female taekwondo athletes. “At the end of the program, each girl knows that she is capable of knocking down her obstacles by breaking a board with a kick,” says Sánchez García. The effort has been replicated by clubs in two other Mexican towns as well as in India.
Rotary Youth Exchange inspires young leaders to serve as catalysts for peace and social justice in their local communities and throughout the world, long after their exchanges end. This program is possible because of the dedication, leadership, and passion of the tens of thousands of volunteers — Rotary members and nonmembers alike — who make this unique program so successful.
