Join Rotarians for a walk at Trail Lake Park, 605 Ravenna Rd in Streetsboro, on Saturday, October 24 at 9am. The park has a 1.5 mile fully paved loop, as well as a 1.5 mile loop that is partially paved, and part grass and gravel. There is a lake for fishing or boating as well. Feel free to bring family, friends, and dogs. No need to RSVP; just show up.
Shannon at Over Easy At The Depot makes 350 mobile meals every other Monday and is looking for volunteers to help package those meals. The next opportunity to help is Monday, September 14, from 1:30 to 3:30. Please text Shannon if you are available to help.
The Salvation Army is in need of volunteers on the first Wednesday of each month for the Red Shield Food Pantry. Located in the parking lot at 800 E Summit St Kent, OH 44242 ( Corner of E. Summit St & Horning Rd.)
Time: 8:00AM - 11:00AM
September 2 , October 7 , November 4 , December 2.
Please reach out to Bill Childers 330-730-3458 or billc@uwportage.org
The Rotary Club of Kent is excited to introduce the Kent Rotary Flag Program, and community-wide initiative designed to honor our nation, beautify our neighborhoods, and support meaningful local projects. Entirely volunteer-driven, this program offers residents and businesses a simple and patriotic way to celebrate America's most cherished holidays. Join us in creating a powerful display of unity across Kent - one flag at a time.
An annual subscription is $55, and the flag can be displayed at your home or business.
Service Above Self Opportunities — We’d love to highlight more ways for our members to get involved. If you have an opportunity to share, please email the details to mstewart@ht.bank so we can include it in our weekly email.
These past two weeks, we heard from the District Chairs of two of our Youth programs. First Marc West spoke about RYLA and then Kevin Wermer spoke about Rotary Youth Exchange. The Star of the show this past week was our very own Inbound Exchange Student Sophia.
RYLA
Marc West spoke to us about RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards), also known as Camp RYLA. This program is directed at high school students generally preparing for their senior year. RYLA, encourages our youth to learn, live and lead by the principles Rotarians value. They encourage youth from all walks of life to work together and learn about each other. RYLA provides educational classes, team building exercises, and encourages personal growth through them all.
It was great to hear our own Rotarians share their experiences from when their children attended RYLA. Let's continue to provide the tools our youth need to build a greater tomorrow, today!
Rotary Youth Exchange
Kevin Wermer reminded us about the past 50 years of providing our youth the opportunity to change their lives through Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE). He also encouraged us not only to host inbound students but also to send students from our schools abroad, hence the "Exchange" portion of the program title.
The one thing that greatly differentiates RYE from other exchange programs is that there is little to no cost for the students and their families. Rotary views this as a Scholarship program for our students. Through this program our youth are able to immerse themselves in a new culture and educational system, create new friends, and become part of a new family. Even these cannot fully embody how our youth fully benefit from RYE.
I personally know some of the benefits, as my family hosted an Exchange Student each of the years I was in High School. Not only do the exchange students benefit from this program, but the host families do as well. I have kept in contact with all four of my exchange brothers.
In 2015, you probably remember that a devastating earthquake hit Ecuador, this happened a day prior to our District Conference. At the conference, I was speaking with Past District Governor Jack Young, The Chair for ShelterBox. I asked him if ShelterBox was on the ground in Ecuador, and he said that the Ecuadorian Government had not responded to their offers for support. I had been in communication with one of my Exchange Brothers, Javier, in Ecuador, making sure he and his family were alright. While speaking with Jack I remembered that several of Javier's family members had been part of the federal government. So I told Jack that I would reach out and see if he could provide any assistance to get ShelterBox in. I do not know if this communication had any part in it or not, but within an hour ShelterBox was contacted and asked for help.
Rotary is one of the largest Service Organizations in the world! We are in more countries than any other service organization! We have the largest and most impactful Foundation in the World! There is no other organization that performs anywhere close to the amount of service provided by Rotarians! To continue to build our relation through out the world and open doors to provide the needed services through ou the world, we need to build our youth programs.
Through programs like these, we are able to help build a better tomorrow—wait, no, a better today. I have always believed that our youth are not just our future; they are also our present. Thank you to Marc, Kevin and Sophia and all those that make it possible to bring incredible programs to our Youth.
Acting President (AP) / PDG Larry welcomed the group by calling the meeting to order at ~12:10pm. Our patriotic song was God Bless America with our tech team of Marc and Bill controlling the screen. Sandy Roeger delighted us with a medley of tunes this afternoon including Fight onKSU, followed by AP / PDG Larry leading us in the pledge of allegiance.
The Invocation for today’s meeting was offered by Dominique, with Nithya handling photos and Brian as the newsletter author.
There were no visiting rotarians.
Student of The Month
N/A
Visitors / Guests
Asad introduced Liz and Zack Sullivan, host family for RYE student Sophia Milia.
Roberta introduced member-candidate Kathy Bates.
Announcements
AP/PDG, Larry once again reminded rotarians about the MANDATORY Youth Protection Training. Presently, the club is just under 60%. Our meeting on the 29th will be held at the home of Sue Whiting. It will be in a “Speak Easy” format with a $20 door charge (of which a portion will be used for student scholarships). Attendance is limited to thirty-five members so please get your name to Larry if you are planning on attending. Finally, CoCoDa sent a thank you regarding the most recent water project in Central America.
Jen announced the next meeting with our companion club is tomorrow the 9th, at the Bell Tower. Also, on Oct 24th the tree planting project will happen. There will be at least fifty oak trees. Planting commences at ~9:00am.
In the month of September, Doug announced there will be a series of events designed to highlight Kent history – 15th at North Water Brewing – history of Kent music (7-9pm); 16th will be an open house at the Kent Historical Society (4-7pm); 17th KSU Museum (5-7pm); 18th Historic Pub Crawl – Over Easy at the Depot (5-7pm); 19th Historic Landmark Building Tour (11am-1pm); and 20th Historic Homes Tour (2-4pm). More details can be obtained from the Main Street Kent / Kent Historic Society websites.
Janet Mortimer Sessions reminded the audience that the Portage Foundation Online Auction is up and running through the month of September. You may find it on the website: PortageFoundation.org.
Todd Packer, who works for American Network Preservation, announced that a program titled Building Network Innovation Ecosystems, will be held next Tuesday the 15th at 5:00pm. See Todd for more details.
Past president Rachel announced that she was part of a committee at the district level dealing in matters related to peaceful societies. She was happy to announce that our club is now a “peace building club,” and has extended invitations to any member who may wish to be part of our club committee for peace.
Past president Kathy reminded members about the upcoming Coleman Health Services auction, “Changing Destinities” on September 17th. It is not too late to register for the event, which will feature an online auction element.
Program
Rotary Youth Exchange
presented by
Kevin Wermir, Past president
Rotary Club of Medina/ Sunrise Club
with RYE student,
Sophia Milia
Two-time past president Kevin Wemir, has been a member of the Medina and Medina-Sunrise clubs for the past thirty years. Across that time he became involved in what is referred to as Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE). RYE is a program that was started some fifty years ago in response to the need to foster understanding between different cultures – a charge consistent for an international organization that has touted understanding, peace, and caring since the time of its own inception.
The idea, simplified, reperesents an exchange of high school students (inbound [IB] or outbound [OB]) for a full academic year.
The two primary goals are simple and daunting: 1) become proficient with the local language and, 2) develop a strong sense for the culture, all-the-while learning and forging new friendships. While expectations are high, the student ambassador will have the support of a local host family to provide a comfortable home during their stay, as well as the support one might expect from a caring family environment. For Sophia Milia (Kent’s IB RYE student), Liz and Zach Sullivan are that host family that has stepped up to the plate.
Moreover, the program provides support to address other basic needs, academic challenges, or running interference on matters that require more practiced hands. For Kent, Ryan Brannan and Shawn Gordon are two such people that serve in those roles.
On the matter of Sophia, she was given the opportunity to speak about her country (Italy), on the island of Sardinia, a moderately-sized land mass off the west coast of Italy’s mainland in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. Her sponsoring district, 2080, has ~1100 clubs with ~3300 members. As one might expect, the mountains, architecture, local customs and festivals are important parts of her culture, all of which were representated in her power point.
On school, Sophia commented on the differences that seem to stand out. Differences such as when school starts and ends; when lunch is served; or the opportunity to participate in school-sanctioned sports, such as field hockey – something she is having fun with.
What often goes unnoticed in presentations by young adults is the enormity of the task of speaking to a gathering of older adults from a different country, all speaking a different language. This RYE student was very poised and organized in her presentation, sporting a confident attitude with an infectious smile – a fact that underscores the care Rotary takes in selecting the best candidates. It should not be surprising who Sophia becomes ten months from now – something she will have the opportunity to show towards the end of our Rotary year.
Fellow Rotarian Past president Asad, delivered the club’s response.
Only around 50% of our members completed the training.
Youth Protection training is mandatory per the District and must be done annually
All current members have been sent an email to the address they have in ClubRunner to complete YP training
The email comes from NAYEN Training Administrator with a subject of Rotary District 6630 Training Course: Youth Protection Awareness
If you have not received an email, please look in your junk / spam folder. If you still cannot find it, please email Todd Kamenash at tkamenas@kent.edu
Information in this eBulletin comes primarily from the Rotareminder, board meeting minutes, and stories submitted by members.
If you have any Rotary stories, events or speaker information to benefit the Club, please submit it to rotarykentohio@gmail.com or mstewart@ht.bank . We will add it to the next appropriate eBulletin.
Trail Lake Park
