President Tim’s Mid-Year Report
The first half of our Rotary year is over. We heard from various outside speakers, from a project manager restoring one of the Boblo boats, an award-winning producer and writer, to a state of Michigan Bureau of Labor demographer, to a civil engineer talking about how roundabouts and other roadways are developed and implemented. Several Rotarians spoke on many professions and hobbies, including some old guys that can still really sing! We even had Santa Claus show up for a meeting.
Members are pleased to meet at the Rochester Community House. Still, three meetings were taken off-site (RH Innovation Hills for a presentation on the park by the City Naturalist, the Rotary Emblem Dedication at Rotary Park, and finally, at Neighborhood House to hear how one of our community partners is doing.
Several of our meetings featured future leaders such as Mariana Celorio, the Mexican exchange student we are sponsoring. Our Interact clubs are flourishing, with two out of three high schools earning their Presidential Citations from Rotary District 6380.
Our post-pandemic fundraising has picked up speed with a successful golf ball drop and golf outing, which proved to be a day of glorious camaraderie and horrible golfing. Our Shred Polio surpassed last year’s, and we ran another successful Poinsettia sale. We also held another successful Wine and Beer Tasting Fundraiser.
We are not all work and no play! Many members participated in social events, including the talk of the town social, a Jimmy John's baseball game, two cocktail hours at local watering holes, a family-oriented event at the Van Hoosen calf barn playing with trains, and the annual Christmas party.
In our pursuit of Service Above Self, we lead a new Celebrate Community event where four local service clubs gathered necessities for 11 local foster programs. The combined service clubs collected 3042 diapers; 194 pajamas; 2,586 socks; 1354 undies;13 sweatpants; 22 sweatshirts;10 pairs of pants/jeans; 37 tops and jackets; 6 backpacks; 6 duffle bags, plus numerous miscellaneous items, including costumes, hats, gloves, and school supplies.
We continued to support Neighborhood House through the Meijer Simply Give! DOUBLE Match Day and NH’s Blast Off 2 School event, which donates school supplies to community children that need them
Our sweat equity helped Free Bikes 4 Kidz Detroit clean up and service over 3000 bicycles, given directly back to the community so every kid can have a bike and helmet. We marched in the Rochester Christmas Parade showing off our new float.
While our membership numbers stayed strong, the Club’s finances for the first six months yielded a surplus, almost the total income budgeted for the entire 12 months. Our Finance Committee invested $55k in treasury bills, earning 4+%. Essentially, this turns our investment into another fundraiser, giving us $2k yearly in additional income.
Our club survey told us we are on the right track, and this information helps solidify the Board’s direction for the rest of the Rotary year.