Mody Gorsky presented President elect nominee Don Kennedy, who will take his presidency after Lucy Walther’s term. There were no additional nominees, Mark Brubaker moved to close nominations, and Don Kennedy was ratified by the members..
Community Service Report/Avenues of Service:
The Irvine Rotary Club is giving a lot back to our communities and working a lot.
Lucy Walther led the summary of our community service accomplishments:
1. Richard Milo reported on the success of our partnership with causes for diabetes and cancer.
- The Juvenile Diabetes walk in Newport Beach recently held in November had a large contingent of Rotarians, 21 walkers from the club who added $2,000, one third of the event net revenue, for Juvenile Diabetes.
- In addition, the club provided $1,000 to support the spring Komen Walk for the Cure.
- Children’s Book Drive-Richard encouraged members to stop at garage sales and purchase books for children that we can donate during the Orange County Fair Book Drive. It’s a district wide project. Last year we donated more than 30,000 books for kids. Simply spend no more than $10 to buy books and the club will reimburse you.
2. Ed Hardenburg indicates we will have a walk this year at the Dana Point Harbor in April which includes a donation to Cystic Fibrosis.
3. Cisca Stillhorn reported:
- Our support of South County Outreach is complete for the year, we provided a total of $1,000 to SCO. Our contact has changed so we will be engaging them to come to a future meeting to re-establish with them.
- We provided a work day for the Irvine Animal Shelter with 13 Rotarians helping with the facility build out.
- In addition, we will be doing a project to support Irvine Adult Day Health. We made a donation of $1,000 and will work on conducting a work day on their behalf.
4. Rick Topping reported on:
- Injured Marines Simper If Fund which supports injured marines
- Wounded Warrior Fund
- Holes for Heroes
- ALS Society
5. Leslie Mogul reported the $1500 support of The Laguna Playhouse’s Youth Theatre world premier of Looking for Home, a Story from the Orphan Trains, was made possible with the support of IRC. Children from Orangewood and Orange County foster care were able to attend performances free of charge.
6. Ray Benedictus reported that Community Service from our club members does a lot to make things happen in the community. He added we provided support this past year for the American Heart Association.
7. Mody Gorsky reported we continue our successful partnership with the City of Irvine with our Irvine Public Safety Partnership Awards. Lucy and Mody have had four meetings with the city and they are thrilled to continue the program.
8. Austin reported on our international projects:
- Mexico (Ensenada area) Clinics-April 2012 we will conduct our 100th Mexico Clinic. We conducted four dental and two medical clinics during the year. These are fabulous opportunities for our club to team with our local Mexico Rotary partners, who identify the location, to provide needed medical and dental care. He would like more club members to participate. We stay in nice hotels, meet great people. He’ll be scouting some more locations in Mexico, including orphanages in Corazon, to continue this avenue of service. The Ensenada clinic cost $4000 for two clinics, and we provided $30,000 worth of service.
- Haiti Adult Clinics-we’re determined to continue the project when the country provides us the opportunity.
- India Clinic-were committed to doing a clinic in India, Austin will talk with Harry on this.
- Bolivia Prosthetic project is being executed with 8 other rotary clubs. It is under review at the International Rotary Foundation. Our goal is to produce 135 prosthetic legs, the program trains people to manufacture the prosthetics, and give to local disabled.
- Stove project is still being executed in Guatemala. The goal is to produce 1500 stoves, we are mid-way through production.
- Romania Orphanage-we are in the process of determining is this is feasible.
Local and International Irvine Rotary Club projects are funded by our three major fundraising efforts including:
- Bowlathon-this year raised $5,000
- Cash Bash
- Holes for Heroes-2012 will be our first year for this annual fundraiser. The San Diego Downtown Rotary Club created the successful model, in this their 10th year they raised $109,000 from the golf tournament. 75% of the proceeds are donated to International and the rest goes into their club foundation. Sign up now to be a donor or sponsor of this spring event. Wounded warriors are invited to play in each foursome.
New Member Projects: Jay Spencer suggested each new member adopt a fundraising project to participate in. Each week new members and red badgers man the Check in Desk so they can quickly get to know our members. It starts with a sincere smile and handshake, this effort is winning us a new member each week.
Finance Report: Tom Mahony reported our charitable goal for 2012 is $35,000. We currently have $70,000 in the bank. Our club does not charge dues. We are changing the name of our foundation to Irvine Rotary Foundation to match the new club name. Here’s how our club operates and where revenues are derived:
- Rotary International Foundation-provides matching grants back to the district and club.
- Club Operations –Dale Ford and his weekly fining pays for club expenses.
- Irvine Rotary Foundation-is our charitable arm from where we donate money back to local and international projects.
Ed Hardenburg reported we have an accumulated cash balance in excess of $5700 which will be used to supplement sending the club president to International Rotary Conference: Lucy to Thailand in 2012, Don Kennedy to Lisbon in 2013.
Mark Brubaker added any extra money we raise is donated to new charitable opportunities to help individuals or organizations during the year.
Officers for the Irvine Rotary Foundation are:
President: Woody Jones
President Elect: Ray Sanford
Vice President: Kris Khurana
Secretary: Mary Mar
Treasurer: Tom Mahony
Club President: Mark Brubaker
Club International Rotary Foundation Chair: Ray Benedictus
