The Rotary Club of Placencia ended the Rotary year 2008-2009 (Rotary years run from July to July) with meetings to plan for the 2009-2010 year and the successful running of a joint booth at Lobsterfest with the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department, and started the new Rotary year with the annual Handing Over Ceremony. The 2008-2009 year was a successful one and we anticipate that the 2009-2010 year will be even better, as described by our outgoing President and incoming President, as follows:

MESSAGE FROM SANDRA JOHNSON ñ 2008-2009 President
As President of the Rotary Club of Placencia 2008/09, it has been a very busy year and with that came the satisfaction of seeing a lot of our goals accomplished. Instead of listing everything, I will just highlight on most of our projects for this past Rotary year.

Education projects included giving money to paint the outside of St. Alphonsus Primary School in Seine Bight Village, distributed free dictionaries to all Standard III students in Placencia, Seine Bight, Independence, and Monkey River, provided a second year scholarship to an Independence High School student, and with the assistance of Rotarians from Massachusetts, assisted building the second story of St. Johnís Primary School.

Medical assistance was given in the form of over BZ$20.000 worth of medical equipment to the Placencia Health Clinic, $1000 to assist building the sidewalk that connects the main road to the clinic, and $1000 was given to the Rotary Club of Puerto Barrios to buy potable water for earthquake victims in Honduras.

General community service included support for the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department (PVFD) financially, with training and with much needed equipment. We installed an electric box at the Placencia sports field to assist everyone that holds functions there. We hosted the 2nd Annual Seniors Luncheon for all Placencia and Seine Bight senior citizens. We also donated money to Rotary Foundation Polio Plus, which is trying to eradicate polio world wide in the next 3 years.

All of the above was made possible due to community support with our fund raising. We brought back cricket to Placencia by hosting several matches, held a live auction, our famous duck race, annual haunted house and annual flag raising ceremony. Our club was awarded the Presidential Citation from Rotary International, 1 of the 2 clubs in Belize to receive this award. With all of this we enjoyed the fellowship of Rotary and had fun!

As we move into our 5th year, the Rotary Club of Placencia remains active and committed to community service. It was a great experience being President and I look forward to supporting President Harald Wallen throughout his year as President.

I would like to end with a quote from Henry Ford that I think describes our club

Coming together is a beginning,
Keeping together is progress,
Working together is success.

Sandra Johnson
President 2008- 2009
Rotary Club of Placencia

MESSAGE (INDUCTION SPEECH) FROM HARALD WALLEN ñ 2009-2010 PRESIDENT
Good night everyone. First of all, I would like to say, that Iím looking forward to following up and continuing the good work that was done by our previous four presidents. As you all know, our clubís ìflagshipî project, is the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department. During my year, this will continue to get high priority, through both local and international initiatives.

We will also continue with our established fundraising activities, such as the Haunted House, Cricket Match, Duck Race, Auctions, and Raffles. We will also continue with our ongoing community service projects, some of these being: the Senior Citizens Dinner, Flag Raising Ceremony, Dictionaries for all Standard 3 students, maintaining the Graveyard, uplifting the schools in the area, and supporting our Health Clinic, and assist visiting Medical Personnel from abroad.

Of course, new fundraising ideas will surface, as well as more service project, and we will give these our 100% to ensure their success. And, I must say, that we will ìhave funî, doing it.

We will also, as we did this year, join our sister clubs world wide, in the final push to eradicate Polio once and for all.

On a personal side, I would like this year to be one that awakens Public Awareness in the community, of what our club, and Rotary, in general, is all about. During this time of international scarcity, the general public, must continue to support our endeavors, knowing that their contributions are going to a worthy cause.

Going hand in hand with Public Awareness, is Civic Pride. During this coming year I would like to reach out, especially to the school children, with some sort of ongoing program to instill Civic Pride. Civic Pride has many facets, from ecology, to cleanliness, to volunteering yourselves to community efforts. The concept of volunteering, which we Rotarians all understand, might be the most important facet of Civic pride that we teach our children, and members of the community at large.

Living in a tourism area, the idea of Civic Pride is mandatory in maintaining the integrity of this area, to ensure that our unique attractions will survive. That is my personal direction that I would like to see our club go.

LOBSTERFEST
As has been done in past years, the Rotary Club of Placencia worked with the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department and shared a booth at Lobsterfest to provide the public with information about our organizations, what we have accomplished, and what we hope to accomplish. The booth was set up jointly by members of the Rotary Club and the Fire Department and featured photographs, information, and a willingness to answer questions for the many people that stopped by. The Fire Department also handed out pencils, rulers, stickers and plastic fire hats (all courtesy of the Rotary group that came down from Massachusetts to work on the Placencia school earlier this year), but, the most popular thing proved to be the cutout (artfully prepared by Wini Mertens) that allowed children (and more than a few adults) to have their picture taken dressed as a firefighter.

Also, tickets were sold for our famous Duck Race, which was held on Saturday, with the winners being Steve D ($250 First Prize), Claudia ($100), and Nick ($75). Unfortunately, the names of the $50 and $25 winners were unavailable as this was being written, however, they will be put in next monthís article if they are available. All of the money raised by the Duck Race was turned over to the Peninsula Fire Board for the use of the Fire Department. Our thanks go out to Wini Mertens for her fantastic artwork on the firefighter cutout (which will be used many times in the future) and Steve Christensen for the use of his boat to launch the rubber ducks for the big race. Also, we are grateful to all of the members of the community and the visitors that stopped by, bought tickets, and supported our efforts.

HANDING OVER CEREMONY
On July 4, 2009, the Rotary Club of Placencia held their annual Handing Over Ceremony at the Pickled Parrot. Master of Ceremonies Ellison Flowers (Past President of the Belize City Rotary Club) called the meeting to order which was followed by the Rotary Prayer, the Belize National Anthem, and a welcome address by Maretha McCullock. New member Sandra Steele (manager of Los Porticos) was then inducted into our club and Outgoing President Sandra Johnson presented awards for outstanding service over the past year to Wanda Stakutis and Jim Weller before addressing the group regarding her year as President.

The stage was then set for incoming President Harald Wallen to address the group and introduce the officers (Wanda Stakutis, Secretary and Nazle Frutos, Treasurer) and Board of Directors (Sandra Johnson, Past President; Lydia Villanueva, President Elect and Director of Membership; Bob Edmonds, Director of Rotary Foundation; Maretha McCullock, Director of Club Administration; Eugenie Gabourel, Director of Service Projects; and Greg Valiton, Director of Public Relations) for the 2009-2010 year as well as designating John Solomon as Sergeant at Arms and recognizing Carl Law for his ongoing work on the Club's web site (www.rotaryclubofplacencia.org). Lydia Villanueva closed out the business part of the evening with a thank you to all involved and a delicious dinner was served. Our thanks go out to Ellison Flowers for acting as our Master of Ceremonies and keeping us entertained with his jokes and to Wende Bryan and the Pickled Parrot for hosting the evening.

UPCOMING PROJECTS AND EVENTS
As indicated, the Rotary Club of Placencia intends to continue holding our regular events and hopes to add more in the coming year. Our first event this year will be our second annual Open House, which will be held at Yoliís on August 29, 2009. We are still in the planning stages as this is being written, so, please listen to LOVE FM, check the local access channel on the Cable TV, and watch for signs around the Village as the event approaches for more information. Last year we had an excellent turnout for this event and we hope to build on that this year as we try to inform the public about what we are doing and enlist their support and help.

The next event being planned is our annual Flag Raising Ceremony, which will be held on September 20, 2009. We will be raising funds and working with the Pre-School for this event and plan on providing an evening's worth of entertainment and fun for everyone with Truckee Graphite performing, a DJ to provide music the rest of the time, and the sale of refreshments to ensure that everyone has a good time celebrating this important day. As with the Open House, please watch for additional information as the date of the event approaches.

Work projects will also be an ongoing and important part of what we do. Initially, plans are to do some painting and cleanup at the Placencia Cemetery in late July and to assist in the interior painting of the school in Seine Bight in August. Additional projects are also in the works for the Seine Bight school, which we will describe in greater detail as the work is performed.

OUR CLUB
The Rotary Club of Placencia has, over the past 5 years, accomplished much (most notably the establishment of the Peninsula Volunteer Fire Department) and, as indicated , has plans to build on those accomplishments in the coming year. This club is made up of a diverse group of business people and retired people united in our desire to give something back to our community. We welcome anyone who shares that desire and encourage anyone interested to attend one of our meetings (Tuesdays at 12:30 PM at Yoli's) to see what they can do to help. For more information, please visit our web site (www.rotaryclubofplacencia.org) or speak to any Rotarian.