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Georgia Rotary Student Program & Awards

The Rotary Club of Thomasville is the Home Club of the Georgia Rotary Student Program. After observing the damage in Europe following WWII, the dream of Georgia Rotarian, Past District Governor William A. Watt of the Rotary Club of Thomasville, was that we would have world peace. He believed that “Peace through Understanding” would be possible if students from foreign countries would come to Georgia colleges and universities to study and develop a better understanding of their fellow man. Thus, the Georgia Rotary Student Plan was born in the spring of 1946, some 73 years ago, with the adoption by Rotary District 165, which covered all of Georgia. The rest is history. In the ensuing 73 years, 3,750 students, now from all over the world, have come to spend one year in Georgia and study at our colleges and universities. This extended hand, begun by our own Will Watt, has translated into an inestimable wealth of good will and understanding between Georgia and countries around the world. Many of these students have risen to positions of honor and prominence in their own countries, which allows them to promote their friendship with Georgia Rotarians throughout their nation. Our own Rotary Club here in Thomasville has sponsored 89 of those students. Felipe Fernandes Lopez from San Paulo, Brazil was the GRSP student for 2018-2019 and Rotarians Arlen and Doris Yokely served as host parents for the year. Felipe attended Valdosta State University for the two semesters funded by the Rotary Club of Thomasville. Our gifts to the Georgia Rotary Student Plan allow our Endowment Fund to continue to grow and support the costs of tuition and housing for the GRSP students. The Endowment Fund is necessary to ensure that we continue to have funds to continue this “one of a kind” program in the Rotary world. The vision of Will Watt continues to pay dividends, not only to us in Georgia, but also to the whole United States, in the form of good will and understanding to us from the nations of the world.

GRSP Report of Donations to Endowment Fund for 2018-2019:

I thank all of our Club members for their generous donations to the GRSP Endowment Fund for 2018-2019. As of March 22, 2019, our GRSP Endowment donations for the Rotary year, were $28,887.00, an all-time record in annual giving from our Club. Donations exceeded our goal of $25,000 by $3,887.00, which is $2,259.67, a 9.3% increase over last year’s donations of $26,627.33. 100% of our members are donors, 127 members have earned the levels of Sustaining and above with 40% of members, 57 individuals, earning Will Watt Fellow levels and above. This year’s per capita giving, calculated based on each of our 140 members, is $206.34. We are pleased to announce for the benefit of our President, Andre’ Marria, that at this point in the Rotary year, this puts us in first place in per capita giving for Clubs our Size in District 6900, and in line to receive the Jake Cheatham Award at District Conference. We are also appreciative that our level of giving enables over $3,000 to return to the Club in the form of a credit on next year’s GRSP bill, which will especially excite next year’s President, Kim Waldon and our Club Board. We are also very proud to inform Club members that our of giving to GRSP overtime is nearing $500,000.00 [a half million dollars] with $445,846.07 in current donations.

Posted by Teri White
April 18, 2019

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