Message from President Keith

We got rockin' and rollin' with our first hands on Old is Gold project. Thanks to Jan we managed to get an entire house prepped and painted in two Saturdays of work with only minor items to be done this next weekend to completely wrap it up. Thank you to everyone, Rotarians and Interactors who went out and got dirty on this project. Don’t forget to thank Jody King of JTJ construction for helping us with some carpenter work with absolutely no hesitation so we could get the job done right.

We attended DG Ernie’s district conference where Fort Yuma showed up in numbers and made an impact on District 5500 with the displays that represented our projects and fundraisers and proved to the world once again that no one can party like the Fort Yuma bunch. Our reputation has been well preserved for at least another year. Special thanks to Kelly, David, Dan, Everett, Rocko, Robin, Karen, Renee, and Ronna for making the trip. Ronna, Jack and Bobbi Jo for making our displays and Karen for taking over the service project presentation so I could go golfing. I was told by many that our Dateland project touched their hearts and gave them that boost they needed to go out and do the great work of Rotarians.

And our Pars under the Stars... Holly moly! The record books have to be rewritten. Thanks to Robin and her committee we raised about $4,000.00 more than was used to create our budget for this year. That puts us in the black even with the extra projects we decided to take on. I don’t want to overlook anyone who helped out on this fundraiser but I have to say that we have two super stud muffins who went way way beyond their given duties and made this the biggest golf tournament we have ever had. Minda and David. Minda did the raffle prizes and David did the golf ball drop. Robin would agree that without their efforts this would not have come close to what it did. Also congratulations to Brad for winning the $1,000.00 ball drop. I wonder what that money will be used for?

We gave away a 50/50 pot of $3,400.00 + to our very own Dan Montoya who was so kind to split it with a prospective new Fort Yuman. Way to go Dan, I guess this means you finally caught up with your never ending bar tab.

Kelly got the Cookbooks off and running. Please try to get the recipes in so we can meet our quota. This fundraiser has been estimated to make our club about $4,000.00 with almost no effort. Well, Kelly may not think that. Thanks Kelly for taking care of this and everything else you do behind the scenes for us.

We managed to make considerable contributions to our Rotary Foundation this month also. Several of our members took advantage of the buy one get one free offer from the Rotary Foundation. We will be taking great pride in recognizing them as new Paul Harris Fellows as soon as their stuff comes in. Make sure you make it to all the meetings so you can find out who they are. SPEAKING OF THE FOUNDATION, we will be having our Presents for Polio fundraiser this month. Please make it a point to put this on your calendar and join us at Brewers and at the same time get a little Christmas shopping done.

Well that’s about it for now. I hope I did not forget anything or anyone but with so much stuff going on I am forgiving myself if I did. I will make it up to you next month. Let’s keep this year going and again thank you for being you, the greatest Rotary Club in the world.

Keith