2022-23 YEAR-END SUMMARY
MEMBERSHIP
Current membership: 58 (Men: 41 + Women: 17)
13 prospective members were brought to our meetings.
Nine monthly STAR Classes were held, organized by Mark Hansen.
We implemented a retirement recognition program to recognize any 20+year member who needs to retire their club membership. Jack Flesher was our first recipient.
CLUB SERVICE
Birthday Recognitions were led by Club Secretary, Heidi Bowen. A Rotary pen was given to our members the week of their birthday and they were asked to sign a children’s book to donate to the Lawrence Elementary library.
We celebrated Bob Goebel’s 90th Birthday a club meeting.
We raised $962 (to date) through the Happy Basket announcements at our meetings. The money collected is used in our club’s Foundation account to help fund our charitable activities.
We raised money through our Weekly Raffle to fund our Holiday Grocery project.
This year’s recipient of our club’s Service Above Self Award was Randy Bowles.
Dillons Community Rewards Program: Organized by Dave Abbott. We have 17 households currently participating and have earned $297.67 from the three quarters reported so far this year. The funds are used for our charitable projects.
Our Annual Christmas Luncheon was held at RHCC with an ensemble from Friends University as our program.
We had an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest at our last meeting before Christmas. Eleven members participated and Ed Frey was voted as the winner.
We participated in the District Rotary Night at the Wind Surge Baseball game. There were 282 Rotarians from various clubs in our District in attendance. We had over 50 members with guests there representing our club.
We will be having a club social at Prairie Pines Playhouse Mystery Theatre on June 30.
We had our Annual Soup & Dessert Luncheon in November, organized by Annie Pfeifer & Christy Barnett. We raised over $700 to donate to Shelter Box.
We had a Club Industry Tour at Maize Career Academy arranged by Jodi Besthorn. The Culinary students prepared our lunch and shared about the culinary program.
A Membership Survey was conducted at the first of the Rotary year to get member feedback on club experience and ideas to make our club better.
Roger Bowles provided a dinner bell to start our buffet line each week.
We raised $19,045.63 at our Annual Wine Dinner Event to fund our club’s charitable activities.
COMMUNITY SERVICE
Members helped paint a United States map on the playground at Pray Woodman Elementary and at Maize Intermediate School. This project was organized by Jon Roper.
David Weber Extra Effort Awards were presented monthly at Lawrence & Benton Elementary schools to each grade level during the school year. This project was organized by Terry Gardner.
Monthly Groceries: Organized by Rod Brown. Groceries were purchased and delivered to 10 families in need selected from Lawrence & Benton Elementary schools during the school year. 12 members were involved with the shopping and deliveries.
Holiday Grocery Project: organized by Mark Hansen. We had 11 members participate this year in purchasing and delivering groceries to four families in need each at Easter, Thanksgiving & Christmas.
Angel Tree project: organized by Mark Hansen, Diane Walker & Jodi Besthorn. Our members purchased 38 Christmas gifts which were distributed between four families in need from Lawrence Elementary.
Bookshelf Building project: Organized by Rod Brown & Vern Klassen. 150 bookshelves were assembled to hand out to the first graders at Lawrence Elementary, Benton Elementary and Christ the King. Star Lumber provided the supplies and Roger Bowles provided the decals to decorate them.
We had 10 members ring bells for the Salvation Army in December, organized by Allan Sands.
We had a Rotary booth manned by Jodi Besthorn, Bob Broeckelman & Maurice Linnins at the Lawrence Family Fest.
Members donated books for our Library Boxes.
Our club donated $500 each to the libraries at Lawrence, Benton & McCollum Elementary schools.
Our club donated $250 each to DECA at Northwest, Bishop Carroll, Maize High, Maize South, Maize Career Academy, Goddard High, Goddard Eisenhower and Goddard Academy.
We had 7 members and 4 Interact Students participate in the District Meal Packing Event.
We had 7 members sell Food Court tickets at Riverfest.
A few of our members helped Deliver Dictionaries to 3rd graders at several west side schools.
VOCATIONAL SERVICE
$1,000 High School Scholarships were awarded to four selected graduating seniors who will be attending a Kansas college or university.
We sponsored an Interact student to RYLA camp.
Randy Bowles got our Interact Club back up and running after a covid break. They ended the year with 20 members. 377 community service hours, 12 activities, 15 meetings & 3 High School Scholarships awarded.
Three members hosted Fireside Meetings at their place of business.
INTERNATIONAL SERVICE
Our club hosted an Open World Team from Ukraine for a week in November.
We co-sponsored with the Sunrise Club, inbound RITE teachers from Panama and outbound RITE teachers to go to Panama. This project resumed this year after a Covid break.
FOUNDATION
Our club has contributed $15,235 to date to The Rotary Foundation year to date.
Our club’s All-time Giving is: $284,242
33 members have made contributions to The Rotary Foundation of $100 or more this year.
We had 14 Paul Harris Fellow recognitions.
Grants were awarded using funds from our West Wichita Charitable Foundation to two organizations from applications submitted by our members: Open Door Homeless Resource Center ($840) & Phillips Fundamental Learning Center, Inc. ($1,000)
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