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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

May 5, 2020


Meetings

May is Youth Service Month

5/14 Moved to June...It's a Fancy Grand Evening at the Business Exchange
5/21 Dr Chip Bragg
5/28 Awards Day!!!! Moving to June - Date to be announced.
6/4 Regular Meeting

Our Rotary Family
BIRTHDAYS

5/1 Nathaniel Abrams
5/2 Lauren Radford
5/15 Angela Williamson
5/17 Charlene Parrish
5/20 Thomas Carlton
5/25 Bill Blackburn
5/27 Noel Ellis

WEDDING ANNIVERSARIES

5/4 Frank Helms (14)
5/4 Barbara Williams-Anderson (21)
5/8 Danny Braddy (124)
5/13 Will Brown, III (2)
5/15 Angela Williamson (10)
5/17 Charlene Parrish (124)
5/18 Kurt Stringfellow (18)
5/21 Susan Backofen (43)
5/21 John Blackmon (32)
5/22 Eric Ward (16)
5/23 Marta Turner (28)
5/26 Lorraine Williams Rahming (4)
5/26 Nic Rahming (14)

YEARS OF SERVICE

5/1 Eugene McNease (42)
5/1 Oscar Mims (65)
5/4 Bob Drummond (3)
5/5 Dicky Demott (5)
20 years in Rotary
5/7 Stuart Jackson (6)
17 years in Rotary
5/11 Ray Thompson (3)
8 years in Rotary
5/16 Lauren Radford (1)
5 years in Rotary
5/22 John Bracey, Jr. (5)
36 years in Rotary

Rotary Online

https://thomasvillerotary.org
https://rotary6900.org/
https://rotary.org/

ROTARY CLUB OF
Thomasville


Thursdays, 12:00 pm
Online currently (The Plaza Restaurant typically)
217 South Broad Street
Thomasville, GA 31792

LEADERSHIP

President Kim Walden
President-Elect John Brown
Immediate PP Andre Marria
Vice President Terry Rouse
Treasurer Rick Piper
Treasurer Teri White
Secretary Angela Williamson
Foundation John Glenn, Jr.
Membership Adam Carvin
Sergeant-at-Arms Danny Braddy
Program Director Jay Flowers
Bulletin Editor Susan Backofen
Sergeant-at-Arms Mary Beth Donalson
Public Image Mike Bixler

VIRTUAL Wine or Whine Tuesday at 5:30

Grab your favorite beverage and join us on Tuesday, May 5 at 5:30 for a virtual Happy Hour. Invitation and link will be sent separately.

Rotary Update from President Kim

Hello Rotarians! You probably know the Plaza Restaurant is not open this month and we also want to be sure to keep safety first so we will continue to have our Rotary meetings online via Zoom. Please remember, you can call in and listen to our meetings from your phone or you can click the link from your cell phone or computer and see the meetings online. It's so great to see our Rotary Family faces and catch up!!! We've been starting 15 minutes early so we can visit for a while prior to the beginning of the program.

Your Rotary Board has been busy. We've reviewed the Club Bylaws and will share those with you when we are together, the pandemic has given us time to look at what we do as a Club and consider ideas to grow our Club so we can continue to be the best ever Rotary Club. Although all of our programs and projects have been cancelled we are hoping to be able to gather together in June and give an update on the Rotary year. We have accomplished many wonderful things both near and far and I'm looking forward to sharing that recap with you all when we can meet together again. In short, I'm working on 'year end' reports and awards and President-Elect John Brown is gearing up for his year to begin July 1!

Please reach out to your Rotary friends and Stay Safe!

This week our program will share the challenges of education during a pandemic and insights for education in the next year

Dr. Andy Sheppard, President of Thomas University and Dr. Randy Watts, Headmaster at Brookwood will share some of the challenges they have faced during the Covid 19 outbreak. They will also share insights about what to expect in education in the coming year. Be sure to tune in to hear about this program.

ShelterBox: 20 Years of Disaster Relief

Thank you to Bill Tobin, Rotary Relations Manager, for a wonderful program on ShelterBox USA

Bill began as a volunteer for ShelterBox after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Since then Bill has shared the ShelterBox story to thousands of Rotarians, organized fundraisers and awareness events for ShelterBox USA and helped lead the team of USA Ambassadors in raising over 1.4 million dollars for ShelterBox in 2017. For his volunteer efforts with ShelterBox USA, Bill has received the United States Presidential Volunteer Service Award seven times.

Here are some additional resources for you and your members, I highly recommend the family activity page while we’re all ‘sheltering in place’.

Links
1. Our Website: https://www.shelterboxusa.org NOTE: direct to volunteer page https://www.shelterboxusa.org/volunteer
2. Action Tool Kit: https://www.shelterboxusa.org/actiontoolkit

3. Family activities: Educational and fun, something for everyone. https://www.shelterboxusa.org/coronavirus/family_activities

4. Sell a House, Give a home- Our vocational philanthropic partnership for those in Real Estate. https://www.shelterboxusa.org/giveahome

  • VIDEO: 20 Years of ShelterBox (6 min 13sec) https://youtu.be/Kagua1_lLrs
  • VIDEO: Kunyumba- Home. (6 min 34 sec, Subtitled) Having lost everything after Cyclone Idai in 2019, Stephano and Mary were determined to rebuild their livelihoods in Mwalija, Malawi. https://youtu.be/U-11SdugQjU

BIG DAY OF GIVING: We have a donor who will match at least $15,000 of the online contributions through our website made during a special Big Day of Giving on Thursday May 7th. http://www.shelterboxusa.org/donate

GRSP Awards Thank you for your generosity to this amazing program.

GRSP began in Thomasville and so it is with great pride that we share the amazing support by our many members for this program!

Our Goal for 2019-2020 was $25,500.00. We raised $33,787.63!!! That's +$8,287.63!!! Last year, we raised 2018-2019 $28,887.00

Our New Awards! Thank you so much for your generosity!

Ronnie Waller Fellow - Philip Cargill Watt and Teri Hurst White
Jake Cheatham Fellow - Carol Jones
Kendall Weisiger Fellow - Wilson Carraway III, Powell Jones, Rankin Smith, Jr.
Hue Thomas Fellow - Mary Beth Donalson, Dale Hodges, Bradford Jackson, Frances Parker, Gerhard Sommer, Michael Stephenson and Jeffery Zoller
Will Watt Fellow - Mark David Lowe

WWF Honoree Awards April 16, 2020

GRSP Donor

Jill Carraway

Evan Carraway Wortman

F. Wilson Carraway, III

Ross Andrew Jones

Linda McGarrah

Carol Jones

Betsy Melissa Jones

W. Powell Jones

Mary Tomlinson

Harry Tomlinson

Alston P. Watt

Philip Cargill Watt

Edna Graves Hurst

Teri Hurst White

Machelle Watt

Past President’s

Governor’s Associate - Christy Cooke, Shanna Derby, William Dickey, Tim Filston, Frank Helms, Cameron Jahnke, Janet Liles, Vann Middleton, Wayne Newsome, Shelba Sellers, Howard Stephens, Randy Watts, Angela Williamson

Sustaining Member - Alexzandria Bighams, John Blackmon, Matt Brown, Will Brown, Julie Cannady, Gerry Gilmer, Lorraine Williams Rahming, Susie Shin, Dawna Bicknell Tanner, Barbara Williams-Anderson

Special Thanks to our GRSP Endowment Fund Committee!!!

Debbie Goodman, Wallace Goodman, Scott Rich, Teri White, John Brown, John Glenn, Carol Jones, Homer Pankey, Harry Tomlinson, Gary Tucker, President Kim Walden, Will Watt III and Angela Williamson