Remember we will have our annual Club Assembly on May 15 at St. Andrew's Episcopal Cathedral. 305 E. Capitol St., Jackson 39201. The Holy Smokers are providing the food. The cost is $25.00 which will be included in your next club invoice.
Prayer.O God, our refuge and our strength, we are grateful for the confidence with which we can live because you are the Source of our ultimate security and hope. Grant us those blessings in response to our tenacious holding on to integrity and faith.
Help each of us to be among those who set worthy examples of integrity and compassion. Bless our gathering here today, including the food of which we partake and the fellowship we enjoy. Amen.
Club Announcements
Birthdays and Anniversaries
Birthdays
Sara White May 18
Pat Vivier May 19
Virginia Carlton May 20
Wedding Anniversaries
Mark & Alice Nicholas May 16
Witt & Sabrina Ruffin May 17
Membership Anniversaries
Bill Osborne 8 years, May 18
Rotary Membership Drive. Please see the following from Membership Director Lee Jenkins.
" Our Membership Drive is still in progress! For those of you who have brought guests and have interested prospects, thank you for your support in keeping the North Jackson Rotary Club what it is and always has been - a great club with the best members around! We need for "Each One to Bring One" like we talked about last month. If you haven't brought a prospective member yet, think of who you know that would be an asset to our Club and invite them to a meeting. Their lunch is on us!
To encourage more participation, we are planning a Membership Social at "The Fairview Inn" ion May 10th from 5:30-7:00. You must bring at least one prospect in order to attend. We'll have beverages, delicious appetizers, and a little music as well! We want the Social to be fun and give the guests a chance to meet our members and to find out who we are. If you have brought in new members, you and your new members will be invited to the Social as well so don't wait!
Don't forget the incentives available for bringing in new members right now through the end of May.:
1) 500 Paul Harris points for each new member
2) $200 gift certificate to The Manship to whoever recruits the most NJRC members
3) $500 cash for the person who brings in the most new members in the District!
Think about who you can introduce to Rotary! Only we can keep our Club great! Please let me know what I can do to help."
This week’s Rotary Foundation Thought is about how a Matching Grant can make a difference.
Recently, Rotary clubs in Brazil and Mexico and the United States joined together in a matching grant to aid the Lar das Criancas Children’s Home in Tanabi, Brazil. The institution provides free extracurricular activities and much-needed daycare for low-income families. A matching grant was used to help the Home purchase uniforms for all of the children. Each student also received school supplies, gym shoes, swimsuits, and caps. Tanabi Rotarians have seen the student’s interest in learning and participating in activities improve as well as the children’s sense of self-worth after the uniforms and equipment arrived. This is just one of the many examples of how the Foundation’s humanitarian grants programs can make positive changes for children.
Billy Brumfield House. The Rotary Club of North Jackson is serving supper once a month at The Billy Brumfield House, a Stewpot Community Services ministry. Our club serves on the 1st Tuesday of each month. Interested members need to meet @ Baker Donelson located at the corner of Eastover Drive and the I-55 North Frontage Road @ 5:15 PM and then travel together to Billy Brumfield. Also, if you are interested in sponsoring a month, the est. cost is $180 for the food. Mike Dawkins is project chair and can be reached @ 601-351-2428 or mdawkins@bakerdonelson.com.
Between the Lions. Please remember to sign up for Between the Lions. During the school year, we read weekly to pre-Kindergarteners at William Walton Elementary School on Bailey Ave. It is a wonderful experience! The children are truly information sponges and very willing learners. Contact Jenny Price (662) 213-1294 for more information. Our reading for the 2017-2018 school year is complete, but please sign up for 2018-2019.
Member Care Committeereminder: for anyone who needs assistance getting to a meeting, please call Luther Munford at (601) 985-4418.
Thinking of Proposing a New Member?
First, discuss with Classification Committee (Paul Miller) He will provide a membership application, check classification availability and discuss occupational qualifications.
Rotary Membership Occupational Qualifications Applicant should be one of the following:
A corporate officer
A Professional (Attorney, CPA, Physician. Engineer, Architect, etc) A Proprietor
An Agent of a reputable company
A Manager or Supervisor of a department or section of a business
Rotarians, don't forget to like the club's Facebook page to stay up to date on the latest happenings. Search us out at Rotary Club of North Jackson or click the link:
Members of the Silverton Rotaract Club at one of their projects fixing up a playground.
Rhett Martin
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of blog posts from the 2018 Youth Leadership All-Stars, participants in Rotary’s programs for young leaders, in celebration of Youth Service Month.
By Rhett Martin, Rotaract Club of Silverton, Oregon, USA
Everyone comes to a crossroad at least once in their life. As a young adult, I have actually already faced two big-time choice moments. The first came six years ago when deciding whether or not to quit school in order to start a career I knew nothing about. The second came twelve months ago as I was presented with a job offer from one of the world’s biggest, up-and-coming tech companies. The job would pay over six figures, offer great health benefits and stock options, as well as a chance to expand my professional experience. The catch? I would have to leave the quaint little town I love for the hustle and bustle of Los Angeles.
In the end, I opted not to take the job. But I decided that if I was going to pass it up, I needed to give all I’ve got to the community I chose over money and career expansion. Coincidentally, around the same time, a spot on the Silverton City Council opened up. Instead of appointing a replacement as usual, the mayor and council decided to open the position up for applications. Becoming a city councilor and eventually, mayor has always been a goal of mine, but for when I was in my 30’s or 40’s – not at the age of 26.
But I decided that this would be my best chance to get more involved in my community and represent an age group that has been missing on the local government level. After two rounds of interviews and competing against many qualified candidates, I was selected to fill the position as the youngest-ever Silverton city councilor.
(RYLA). “RYLA is a truly Rotary Youth Leadership AwardsA month into my term, the mayor, who happens to be a Rotarian, pulled me aside and explained an upcoming program called life-changing experience,” he said.
Sounds cheesy, right? Well, the joke was on me. “Life-changing” was not only accurate but an understatement. That one week at RYLA shaped me in ways that are hard to describe, across all aspects of my personal and professional life. But most of all, I left with a raging desire to become a better leader and even more active and involved in my community.
In the months following RYLA, the mayor, my friend Elvi, and I, began discussing the possibility of starting a community-based Rotaract club. By January of this year, those discussions became a reality as we held our first Silverton Rotaract meeting. In what has seemed like a whirlwind of the last few months, we have now been officially chartered, helped with various community projects and events, and learned from many different local professionals.
One of our most exciting projects is the establishment of Silverton’s only college scholarship specifically for young adults ages 24-30 going back to school and continuing their education. Since I was appointed to City Council, and especially since being elected as our Rotaract club’s charter president, my biggest goal has been creating an environment that drives growth and outreach into the community. The hardest part about getting involved is not knowing how and where to start.
By opening up avenues such as Rotaract, we can give our young adults a place to find themselves and to give back. In helping each of our members grow personally and professionally, we are creating driven, well-rounded individuals that are ready to go out and make a change in the world. If I can succeed at this goal, that will be my biggest accomplishment.
Anna LeBreton, Outreach Coordinator, Mississippi Blood Services spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club’s May 8, 2018 meeting. Ms. LeBreton discussed the need for and uses of blood by MS Blood Services. In particular, she discussed the use of blood by Sickle Cell Anemia patients, the misconceptions on what disqualifies someone from donating blood, the “2018 ABOut a Cause Partnership” by which MS Blood services will make monetary donations to its partner organizations when people donate blood to MS Blood Services. Those organizations are listed in the first photo.
The second photo is of Ms. LeBreton(center) with Club Program Director Matt Monsour (left) and Club President, Witt Ruffin (right) following her presentation.
We thank Ms. LeBreton for her presentation and for what she and MS Blood Services do for the citizens of Mississippi. We also note that The Rotary Club of North Jackson has a long-term relationship with MS Blood Services and it conducts a Blood Drive annually in conjunction with its Pancake Breakfast.
Lolly Rasher, Executive Director of the Mississippi Heritage Trust spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at its May 1, 2018, meeting about the history, projects, and accomplishments of the Heritage Trust since its founding. The Trust was founded in 1992 and continues to pursue the preservation of Mississippi's heritage. With programs like as the 10 Most Endangered Historic Places in Mississippi, the Mississippi Historic Preservation Conference and Heritage Awards, the Mississippi Heritage Trust shines a spotlight on the need to save the treasured historic resources that make Mississippi such a special place.
Ms. Rasher is shown during her presentation in the first of the accompanying photos and following it with North Jackson's Program Director Matt Monsour (left) and club President Witt Ruffin (right following her presentation.
We thank Ms. Rasher for her presentation and for her service in preserving Mississippi's rich heritage.
The Rotary Club of North Jackson recognized 10 Star Students and their teachers from Jackson Academy, Jackson Prep., and St. Andrew's Episcopal School. The students and their Star teachers are as follow:
Jackson Academy: Dolph Maxwell. His teacher is Schuyler Dickson. They were, unfortunately, unable to join us on the 24th because of a school awards assembly that day.
Jackson Prep: Graham Robertson, Mary Margaret Mitchell, Morgan Williams, and Gregory Vance. Their Star Teachers are Kimberly Van Uden, David Hogue, Lou Ann McKibben, and Marsha Hobbs.
St. Andrew's. Christopher "C.J." Carron, Joe Han, Charley Hutchison, Julia Jia, and Emily Kruse. Their Star teachers are Donna Patrick, Roscoe Stribling, John Applegate, and Ruth Holmes.
The Mississippi Economic Council and its M.B. Swayze Foundation sponsors the Student-Teacher Achievement Recognition (STAR) Program in an effort to encourage scholastic achievement among the state's high school students. The STAR Program has two specific purposes:
1.) Emphasize scholastic excellence and encourage greater scholastic effort among Mississippi students. 2.) Recognition of the teaching profession.
The students and their teachers at the April 24 meeting are shown in the accompanying photo.
Dr. Robert T. Brodell, Professor, and Chair, Department of Dermatology, University of Mississippi Medical Center (UMMC), spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson at the club's April 17, 2018 meeting. The title of his presentation was Instructive Cases from the Deep, Deep, Deep South, Mission Medicine, Who Benefits the Most. It was an illustrated show of a mission trip that he took to Nigeria along with one of his residents, who is a Nigerian.
Dr. Brodell discussed the preparation for the trip, the statistics about Nigeria and the location of the hospital and medical school in which they worked, in Enugu State. He commented that the major problem in Nigeria is the deferred maintenance of infrastructure. For example, the Enugu School of Medicine has no running water.
According to Dr. Brodell, the exposure to the hot Nigerian sun creates a large number of skin cancer cases. He showed examples of these cases in his presentation. The hot humid climate in Nigeria also contributes to frequent skin disorders, not cancerous ones. He also showed examples of these.
Interestingly, Dr. Brodell discussed the culture of Nigeria, which includes gifts to officials for services, such as, a gift to the immigration clerk at the passport desk to overcome a procedural problem one of his colleagues had with his immunizations for yellow fever prevention.
Dr. Brodell also discussed the assistance that his group received from a nonprofit named Drug Relief who donated medicine to them for treating Nigerian patients. We thank him for his very interesting presentation and for his service to the citizens of Mississippi. Dr. Brodell (center)l is shown in the accompanying photo with Club President Witt Ruffin (left), and Matt Monsour, who is program chair for the club.
