Stories

Our April - June dues billing was e-mailed through our club's website (Club Runner) last Friday. As you will notice, meal credits were given for meetings that were scheduled but canceled due to coronavirus closures. Please pay your dues promptly along with any additional fees you have charged on your account. Mail your check to: Rotary Club of West Wichita, P.O. Box 12064, Wichita, KS  67277.

Mark Hansen and his Easter Holiday Shopping crew: Randy Bowles, Phil Michel and Brian Goudie, will be purchasing and delivering groceries to 4 families (2  each from Lawrence and Benton Elementary Schools) this Saturday, April 11 at 9:00 a.m.. They will be sure to remain compliant with the coronavirus mandates that are in effect. Our thanks to this crew and to Tony Morrow for making the arrangements.

We had 31 in attendance at our club social at the Crown Uptown Theater last Saturday night. We listened, sang along, and some danced to the band playing hits from the 50's & 60's. Our thanks to Sharon West for organizing this event. Be sure to see Mark Chamberlin's post on our club's website of pictures from the event, as well as, other recent club activities, such as the Open World team and the Interact Dodge ball tournament video. Go to: https://www.facebook.com/rotaryofwestwichita/posts/

 

 

WEST WICHITA ROTARY CLUB OUTING is scheduled for Friday, June 12, in the picnic area at the new stadium. No charge for our club members + 1 guest for the game and an all-you-can-eat buffet. Additional guests are $35 each. John Oswald is organizing this event.

Due to the success of the Rotary Club of West Wichita’s fundraising efforts for our West Wichita Charitable Foundation (WWCF), we occasionally have a limited amount of funds available for additional charitable or educational initiatives. This year, a total of up to $7,500.00 will be used from our club’s Foundation fund;  $5,000.00 will be spent on gift cards for Lawrence & Benton Elementary teachers to help them buy supplies at the beginning of the school year and up to $2,500.00 will be available for additional scholarships to fund worthy projects in support of an educational initiative.  If a member of the Rotary Club of West Wichita would like to sponsor a project eligible to receive funding, that member should complete and submit the Grant Request form.  A project must be sponsored by a member in good standing of the Rotary Club of West Wichita.The WWCF is under no obligation to disburse these funds if no eligible projects are deemed worthy of funding.  All grant requests should be submitted to Diane by April 30, 2020. 

Our Interact Club (sponsored by WW & WSC Rotary clubs) is hosting a Dodgeball Tournament, Saturday, February 22 at 9:00 a.m., Colwich Elementary to raise funds for their service trip to Panama over Spring Break. Our club has been challenged to put together a team for the tournament.(FYI: our club's team has placed 1st in several of the past tournaments!) The teams will consist of 6-10 players with at least 2 girls per team. The entry fee is $10 per person. The winners receive bragging rights and prizes! If you cannot participate in the tournament, sponsorships are available or cash donations would be appreciated. Checks should be made payable to: Sunrise Charitable Fund and can be mailed to 11617 W. Binter Ct., Wichita, KS 67212 or brought to our Rotary meeting. 

Our David Weber Extra Efforts Awards were presented to the selected 2nd graders from Lawrence Elementary at last week's meeting.

This year's inbound RITE (Rotary Intercountry Teacher Exchange) teachers (2 from Argentina; 3 from Panama) spoke to our club last week. They are pictured here with Armida Hight, who initiated the RITE program with her husband, Ralph, in 1996 and Dalia Hale (Sunrise Rotary) and Shelli Kadel who have organized this project for the past 10 years.

We had a nice turn out of our members to help hand out bookshelves last week to the first graders at Lawrence and Benton Elementary schools! Our thanks to the Lawrence staff for treating us with a nice box lunch after the delivery! It's always fun to hear the comments of the 1st graders as they receive their bookshelf, 2 books and packet of decals. We heard many "thank you's" along with several boasting that they now have their very own bookshelf since their friends or siblings already have one. Some carefully decorated their new bookshelf with the decals, while others were anxious to start reading one of their new books. 

Thanks to Mark Chamberlin for taking pictures and posting them on our club's Facebook page! To see more photos, go to: https://www.facebook.com/rotaryofwestwichita/photos 

   

Our membership voted to approve the following slate of Officers & Directors at last week's club meeting.

Thanks to Randy & Roger Bowles for delivering Dictionaries to the third graders at Lawrence and Dodge Elementary schools this past week. This is an annual project generated and funded by the Downtown Rotary Club with delivery help from our area Rotary clubs.

Thanks to our members who volunteered to ring bells for the Salvation Army last Saturday!

Randy Bowles (organizer), Stan Krehbiel, Lori Taylor, Vern Klassen, Jodi Besthorn, Bob Goebel, Roger Bowles, Rod Brown, Ed Frey and his wife, B.J. (pictured), Brian Goudie and Allen Sands.

Extra Effort awards were presented to selected 4th grade students from Benton Elementary. The students are pictured here with their teachers.

Mark Hansen reported that all went well with the grocery shopping and deliveries last Saturday. The crew consisted of club members: Mark Hansen (organizer), Terry Gardner, Randy Bowles, Scott Hinderliter, Bob Broeckelman, Jon Roper, Brian Goudie and Rod Brown, along with Interact students: Halle Zwetow, Andi Zwetow and Evan Dome. They delivered Thanksgiving groceries to two families from Lawrence and two families from Benton Elementary Schools. The Christmas Holiday grocery shopping and delivery will be on Saturday, December 21.

Jon Roper receives his Blue Badge. Presented by sponsor Bob Broeckelman.

 

180 bookshelves built in 180 minutes! It's quite an impressive process...just like Santa's workshop! Our thanks to Roger Bowles for organizing this project and Bob Goebel for providing the wood, supplies and workshop! A special thanks to our District Governor Kurt Harper and Jessica, 4th grade teacher from Lawrence Elementary for taking time out of their evening schedule to lend a hand! All those in attendance last Thursday evening include: Roger Bowles, Rod Brown, Bob Broeckelman, Bob Goebel, Grady Goff, Cindy Hand, DG Kurt Harper, Jessica (teacher), Shelli Kadel, Vern Klassen, Dan Kreis, John Mosley, Jonathan Roper and Diane Walker. The bookshelves will be delivered to the first graders at Benton and Lawrence Elementary schools on Tuesday, January 21, during our regular club meeting time (mark your calendar now). The remainder of the bookshelves will go to another area elementary school.

180 bookshelves built in 180 minutes! It's quite an impressive process...just like Santa's workshop!

Members from Rotary Club of West Wichita present teachers at Benton Elementary and Lawrence Elementary with gift cards. Teachers use the funds to purchase school supplies for the upcoming school year.

Members of Rotary Club of West Wichita deliver and handout bookshelves to the students at Lawrence Elementary School.

This is the club's longest-running service project 

 

We've done lots of playground maps using a stencil of the United States. We just completed creating a stencil that will let us do a world map.

Next up will be to actually put a map on a playground. Anyone have a location in mind?

 

Katy Dorrah became the executive director at Mark Arts, then known as the Wichita Center for the Arts, in December 2014. Before joining Mark Arts, she was the Vice President of Resource Development for United Way of the Plains since August 1994.

Our Rotary District teams up with Southwestern College Leadership to provide an intensive training program that brings together high school aged youth to further develop character and leadership skills and learn about the ideals of Rotary.

Our club awards three $1,000 high school scholarships to graduating seniors in our area. Information and applications have been distributed to the schools but if you know someone that is eligible, please encourage them to apply!

Volunteers from the club shop for groceries for needy families. It was a tradition started years ago by the late Dr. David Weber. This video shows the effort right before Thanksgiving 2017. 

In 2017, West Rotary turned 30 years old. This slideshow captures some of the memorable activities and events undertaken by members during its first three decades

 

Annual project by Rotary Club of West Wichita. Members gather to build small bookshelves in the woodworking shop of Bob Goebel. Completed shelves are given to local school children to inspire a love of reading.

President Jamie has plans to paint United States maps on up to 11 area elementary school playgrounds and has secured a matching grant to help achieve that goal.