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Rotary Club of Placencia News
The Rotary Club of Placencia started the new Rotary year with several projects and events and planning for what promises to be another active year. During this year (July 2009 to July 2010), under the leadership of President Harald Wallen, we hope to build on our past success and work more closely with local groups and Rotary Clubs in other countries to focus our efforts on specific projects, some on a larger scale than those we have undertaken in the past. Our Club’s new Rotary Foundation Director, Bob Edmonds, has been hard at work to unravel the Rotary International Matching Grant process which may result in our having the ability to secure the funds to take on bigger projects. The Club will work with Bob in the hopes that we can all obtain these much needed funds to complete some vital work in our community.
PLACENCIA VILLAGE CEMETERY
Two years ago, the Rotary Club of Placencia completed the construction and painting of a fence around the cemetery in Placencia Village. This year, a group of Rotarians from our Club spent a Saturday morning trimming and raking at the cemetery as part of a general cleanup and, with cuttings provided by Miss Cunchie, plantings were done along the front fence line, which we hope will grow and beautify the area. The weather forecast and fatigue (hey, most of us aren’t young) prevented the painting of several areas of the fence needing it, but, the fence was pressure washed and painting will be completed in the near future.
FIRESIDE
Anyone who has regularly read these articles knows that Rotary isn’t all about work. Our Club tries to schedule 4 strictly social events (known as Firesides) each Rotary year where we can include our families, friends and significant others to socialize and get to know each other in a non-formal setting. Our most recent Fireside was held at Los Porticos and, as always, featured good food (these are done pot-luck), good drink, and, especially, good company. Each one of these Firesides seems to have it’s own feel, sometimes depending upon the venue, but, the one constant is that a good time is had by all. The party started with swimming in the beautiful pool at Los Porticos and segued into various board games followed by a lively round of charades which exposed the superior skill level of the women’s team, even though the men wound up taking the crown for the evening. We wish to thank Sandra Steele for her hospitality in hosting this event, the property is beautiful and the perfect setting for one of our parties.
PLACENCIA PRE-SCHOOL
At the request of the Committee for the new Placencia Pre-School, several Rotarians have been helping out painting the building being renovated for use in the coming school year. We understand that the current plans are a temporary solution to allow the Pre-School to move out of the Community Center and that a permanent solution is being worked on, therefore, we will be working with the Committee on our annual Flag Raising event and will be donating the funds raised by Rotary (minus the small amount we must reserve for our Club’s administrative costs) at the event to the permanent solution for the Pre-School. We hope that the community will come out and support this worthy cause through donation of labor or funds at the Flag Raising Ceremony and the Pre-School Committee directly.
SEINE BIGHT PRIMARY SCHOOL
Thanks to the generosity of a Rotary Club in Canada, funds have been obtained for the much needed interior painting of the Primary School in Seine Bight. The funds were recently received to purchase the necessary supplies and a willing labor force has been recruited, so, it is expected that our next article will report that the work has been completed. Our thanks go out to the Rotary Club of Saskatoon Nutana for providing us with the funds to complete this project.
UPCOMING EVENTS
As we indicated in last month’s article, it is the intention of President Harald Wallen to continue to hold our regular events this year, as well as some new ones. Our next two events are our annual Open House on August 29 and our annual Flag Raising Ceremony on September 20. The Open House will be held at Yoli’s staring at 7:00 PM and will include information on Rotary International and the Rotary Club of Placencia including what has been accomplished and what is planned for the future. Our Club is dedicated to working to make our communities on the Peninsula better places to live and work, so we hope that the support we have received will not only continue, but grow. The Flag Raising Ceremony will be held at the basketball court in Placencia Village and will feature a performance by Truckee Graphite as well as a DJ to be named to provide music for the rest of the evening leading up to the raising of the flag at midnight. As previously indicated, we are working with the Pre-School Committee on this event and will be donating our proceeds to them for a permanent solution. In addition to these two events, planning will be beginning soon for a cricket match that we hope to host in October and our annual haunted house to be held on Halloween. Information on all of our events will be included in these articles, on LOVE FM (with our thanks, as always, to Rene Villanueva), on the public access cable TV channel, and on posters throughout the Village.
OUR CLUB
The Rotary Club of Placencia has worked for the last 5 years to make our community a better place and has many plans for the future. While we do obtain funds and assistance from other Rotary Clubs (mostly from Canada and the U.S.), we rely on the local community for support of our projects and are always looking for assistance to complete our work. We hope that the support we have received will not only continue, but, grow so that more may be accomplished. We do work hard, but, we also have fun and develop friendships that go beyond our work with Rotary. We encourage anyone that cares about their community and has a desire to give back to make the world a better place to stop by our Open House or attend a meeting (Tuesdays at 12:30 PM at Yoli’s). Also, information may be obtained by visiting our web site (www.rotaryclubofplacencia.org ) or speaking to any Rotarian.
P.S. As promised last month, the $50 and $25 Duck Race prizes were won by Bob Rogers and Doug, respectively.
