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We Are Present • We Are Available • We Will Help

Past-President Bob LaRiviere

Looking back to my year as President, 2008-2009 I am very proud of the projects that our club accomplished:

Rotarians at Work Day-we painted a house for a family that requested school bus yellow with white trim (Sparks Blvd just north of Prater Way) and put up blinds in their kitchen, provided a new microwave and stove-oven for an elderly couple.(See photos newsletter-April 30, 2019).

We partnered with a few local contractors, worked on receiving grant money and built a playground at Greenbrae Elementary School for the 6^th & 7^th grade classes. This project received the 2008/2009 District Award for Community Service Project and first place in the First Annual Photo Contest. Our DG-Wyn Spiller was at the groundbreaking (See photos newsletter-May 21, 2009).

We had adopted Greenbrae Elementary School and provided 60 families with Thanksgiving Meals and adopted 10-families at Christmas with meals and gifts for the whole family. On a personal note I read to 3-first graders each week for 10-years through the Read and Succeed Program.

We were also the first club in the district that participated in the Rotary Visioning Process.

I was also the editor of our weekly newsletter, which I had time for in our downed economy.

Kristopher Dahir

It has been quite a year!

There was no way of knowing what was about to happen when my year as president in 2019-2020 began. We themed the year "Join the Adventure" and that is just what we did! The adventure took us from morning meetings to monthly night gatherings. We went on exploratory discoveries to places like REMSA Head Quarters and the Northern Nevada Veterans Home. We also honored our first responders from across the valley.

Then Covid 19 hit and our time together shifted. We had to begin getting creative and find new ways to connect. We learned what the word ZOOM meant. We know that this upcoming year will require us to be wise, organized and flexible as we await for a vaccine and do our best to keep ourselves and others healthy. It is because of the demands of this season that we will meet in person using all the wisdom of social distancing and mask wearing but also continue to provide the online zoom access.

Please come join us on one of our scheduled meetings. We meet on Thursday mornings at 7 am at Red Hawk Events Center in Sparks except for the last Thursday of the month. Our last Thursday of the month is an evening meeting (6 pm) where we will choose different restaurants and places around town to meet and support their businesses. This is a perfect opportunity for you to come out and meet us and see what we are all about.

And yes, we do have our annual fundraiser quickly approaching. Please share the news with others and help us have a successful event. Our goal is to take a percentage of our finances raised and create micro grants for our local businesses. It is not time for us as Rotarians to sit back and each community as it struggles but it is crucial that we stand up and be the help that is needed.

Our theme for this year is "WE ARE HERE". To me this means that we are present and will help calm the fears as we come alongside and support our businesses, schools, families, and community.