Stories
Club Meeting Information

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 Amy Schmelzer - Executive Director of the Adult Literacy Center.

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:

  • Dan O'Connor (3/24)
  • David Petrulis (3/31)
  • Mika Frank (4/7)
  • Steve Peterman (4/14)
  • Brain Monroe (4/21)

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): 4/21, 5/19

Visit our website at mtsunriserotary.org.

Thought of the Week

Don't forget to tell your favorite people that you love them. - Shirley Temple

Working alongside ShelterBox after Super Typhoon Rai

Editor’s Note: In December 2021, Super Typhoon Rai hit the Philippines with gusts of up to 240 kilometers per hour, the equivalent of a category 5 hurricane. ShelterBox worked closely with Rotary contacts, local partners, international response teams and the Philippines Navy. Bernard Vonn Sia was part of a disaster response team working with ShelterBox.

By Bernard Vonn Sia, Rotary Club of Cebu, Philippines

As the son of a Rotary member, I was exposed to the organization very early. I thought of it as a group of like-minded people who wanted to help the poor. It wasn’t until I joined the Rotary Club of Cebu sometime later that I realized Rotary was about more than that. Rotary is about coming together to share our time, talent, and resources to better humanity. Giving becomes a pleasure, as we collaborate with other organizations to use our different strengths and competencies to save lives and build a better future.

I saw this very clearly as I got involved with ShelterBox. I had previously heard about ShelterBox when Typhoon Yolanda hit Western Visayas in 2013. It was a gruesome time in Tacloban City and Rotary members there reached out to our club for help. Two members of the Rotary Club of Cebu rushed to Tacloban City and brought whatever they could as relief goods. They kept going back and forth as  facilitators for the ShelterBox relief efforts.

In December 2021, Typhoon Odette (as Rai was known locally) hit our city hard. We had no water or power, and most of the roads were blocked. Thankfully, damage to our property and business were minimal. I was busy because I am in the building materials business, and the need for generators and roofing materials was at an all-time high.

Stephen Castillo asked a select group of Rotarians to accompany him with ShelterBox in distributing tarpaulins, nails, and tools to the remote mountain houses in Cebu. Our involvement included assisting in the distribution of these tarpaulins and tools, along with roofing materials and other goods.

Read more...
Troubling news for monarch butterfly populations

Presence of monarch butterflies in their wintering habitat drops 22% in one year

The Eastern migratory monarch butterfly is at risk: new reports show a sharp population decline and a loss of habitat in the forests where they winter each year. In just one year, the presence of monarch butterflies in their wintering grounds dropped 22%, from 7 acres to nearly 5.5. acres. This is part of a mostly downward trend over the past 25 years—when monarchs once covered more than 45 acres of forest.

Every year, Eastern monarch butterflies travel up to 2,800 miles from Canada and the US to their wintering sites in the forests of Mexico. There, in what is known as the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, monarchs cluster in shelter from winds, rain, and low temperatures.

Monarchs require a vast, healthy migratory path and large, robust forests for survival through the winter. Today, the butterflies face a reduction of breeding habitat in the US due to herbicide application and land use changes as well as forest degradation in wintering sites in Mexico. Extreme weather conditions in all these ecosystems can further their decline.

Rotary disaster response grants for Ukraine
Meme of the week
Viva Lviv: Life during war time

By Wen Huang

As the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approached, Rotary magazine’s Wen Huang went on a personal trip to Europe, where he witnesses the resilience of the Ukrainian people and the wide reach of Rotary’s global network. In the second installment of his two-part report, Huang crosses the border from Poland to Ukraine.

Friday, 10 a.m., southeastern Poland

“I can smell Ukraine now,” exclaims Vasyl Polonskyy with a broad smile on his boyish face. “We are getting very close to the border.”

We’re zooming through southeastern Poland on a newly paved country road. Polonskyy pokes his head out the window and takes a deep breath. I do the same but fail to catch the scent of anything distinctively Ukrainian. Polonskyy reads my thoughts. “Only we Ukrainians can detect the unique smell of our land,” he says. “Each time I return from trips abroad, I always know I’m home, just from the smell of it. I love my country very much, and the war has only made my love stronger.”

I met Polonskyy earlier this morning in the Polish town of Zamość. Tall with a slender build, he’s the president-elect of the Rotary Club of Ukraine Unity Passport. He rose at dawn to drive across the border to fetch me.

Rotary projects around the globe - Peru

This month the Rotary Club of Chincha is scheduled to unveil a new addition to a shelter that houses vulnerable girls ages 5 to 17 in the Ica region. The girls, some of whom have been abandoned by their families or are victims of abuse, “need a lot of psychological help,” says Mónica Avilés Calderón, a past club president.

The club completed the first building, with a capacity of 30 residents, in 2000. Soon the number of girls living in the shelter more than doubled. Starting in 2018, the club expanded capacity with additional buildings, costing about $35,000 each. The three new structures were funded primarily by donations from the Rotary Club of Flawil, Switzerland, and District 2000 (Liechtenstein and Switzerland). The Chincha club raised the remaining funds.

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