Thursday, October 31, 2013

Halloween at the International Kids Fund


IKF’s Wonderfund™ a program of Jackson Memorial Foundation, seeks to provide life saving or life changing medical care to children in need. This includes international children who cannot be treated within their native country, as well as children living in the United States who, without the assistance of IKF ‘s Wonderfund, have no options for treatment. The fund ensures these children receive the best care possible at Holtz Children’s Hospital of the University Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center, one of the nation’s premier teaching hospitals.  IKF’s Wonderfund successfully raises funds and administers proactive assistance by having an efficient organizational and financial infrastructure in place to quickly respond to specific requests for help. Simply stated, IKF is in the business of saving young people’s lives.

For the past five years, Coral Gables Rotarians have made Halloween special for the children at Holtz Children's Hospital  with IKF.  They've dressed up, made fools of themselves, brought the kids candy, masks, pumpkins to decorate, Halloween balloons, cartoons and music to give them a special treat for the spookiest holiday of the year. It's anyone's guess who has more fun - Rotarians or the kids!  But you can decide for yourself - just look at the pictures from this year's party.

Thanks to Lorraine Sheldon, Community Service Chair who set everying up, and Judy Pantoja, who is devoted to the International Kids Fund, we are able to give these special needs kids a whole lot of fun on Halloween.  Participating Rotarians this year included Ana Fournaris, Sally B., Mead McCabe, Dick Golden, Heather O'Meara, Kelly Garces, Terry Long and soon-to-be-inducted Kristy Fueyo all had a really good time.  But don't take my word for it ... see for yourself!





Betcha don't know who this is!!!
One of the Special Kids





Pretty Scary Dentures
 Working Rotarians!





This is a pumpkin - not a bad dream!

                                                                          Do you know who this is??







Kids just really had fun






                                                                                   More decorated pumpkins!!!!






A great time was had by ALL!

Saturday, October 5, 2013

The Falls Auto Show

Rotary Service at the Falls Auto Show

Rotarian Fred Baddour put on a really nice Auto Show on Friday night, October 4th.  Some 30 gorgeous cars were on display along with a real fire engine and three young lovelies from Bacardi.

Fred asked Rotary to sell burgers and dogs, soft drinks and beer with the proceeds to be used for our Veteran's Bingo Project.  Well all you have to say to Rotarians is beer and they're there!  Friday night was no exception.  The turnout from our Club was awesome.  Almost as good as the cars themselves!

There was a raffle too and the BIG prize was two, round trip tickets to anywhere in the U.S. with American Airlines. There were lots of gift certificates to local eating establishments too.  We always buy raffle tickets so sales (by the Bacardi girls and Gloria Burns) were brisk.  Those who won the most were those who bought the most ... George Reeves.  But the BIG prize was won by the son of one of the luckiest guys in Rotary ... Nick Trombly!!  Must run in the family!

When the night was over we had made $800 less our expenses. Fred graciously covered those for us giving us $1,000 to use for our favorite VA Project!

Thanks of course go to Fred for making the night possible but also to Greg Martini and Don Trombly who cooked and sold and took the money and Fred's guy Doug the Grillmaster.

Scenes from the Scene

1941 Chrysler

PE Carlos in Andrea Covre's Masserati

Fred's WWII Jeep

'57 T-Bird

Community Service Chair Lorraine Sheldon on the job!

Waiting for the results of the raffle

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Presenting ... BRAZIL


A Presentation by
2013-2014 Rotary Youth Exchange
Danilo Masson

Today I'm going to show you a little of the wonderful country that I come from, Brazil.  Before I begin, I want to give you some general information about Brazil:

1.  Brazil is in South America
2 . The official language is Portuguese 
3 . The total area of Brazil is 8,511,876 km2
4 . The current president of Brazil is a woman, Dilma Rousseff 
5 . Time difference: 2 hours
7 . 5th biggest country in the world in area


Brazil is a big country. We have a great diversity of climates, people and cultures. Brazil has 26 states and a federal district and is divided into five major parts, each part being different from one another. I'll show you some of the most interesting places in each region ... 

Beginning in the north:
Manaus is the capital of the state of Amazonas and offers numerous tourist attractions such as the wonderful Teatro Amazonas. The world's biggest rainforest, the Amazon, lies in the north of Brazil. Tourism to the forest is also done by the city of Manaus. You can see many different animals, beautiful nature and amazing "meeting of the waters" between the Rio Negro and Rio Solums. A visit is breathtaking .

Northeastern
Here are the beautiful beaches that enchant tourists around the world during the summer. The northeastern Brazil has a hot and dry climate, making the beautiful beaches, a great success in the region.

Central Region
Herein lies the capital of Brazil, Brasilia. The city of Brasilia was planned and built in 1960, and displays great works of architecture. People interested in Brasilia's architecture should include the city on their list of places to visit.

Southern Region
In southern Brazil we have a huge Iguazu Falls, which straddles the border between Brazil and Argentina.

Southeast Region
Is the region that accumulates the greatest number of people, and is the economic center of Brazil. Here we have the famous cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The city of Sao Paulo alone produces 33 % of the Brazilian economy and has almost 11,250,000 people. The city of Rio de Janeiro serves as the cultural center of Brazil, attracting many tourists with its amazing beaches and Christ the Redeemer.

The traditional Brazilian feasts:
The first is the June Festival
Is not well known internationally, but it is very famous and traditional in Brazil. This festival takes place in June, and is therefore called Jerk (Portuguese in June). All are dressed in special clothes, clothes, there is plenty of food made with corn and all the gang dance, a traditional dance of Jerk. 

The second is the Carnival. 
This world-renowned event takes place in February in the cities of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The major attraction is the Sambadrome, a long street where the samba schools parade and all dance samba.

Six foods that are typical of Brazil and easily found:

1. Tapioca: made of grated coconut and stuffed with cheese or sweet .
2 . Brigadeiro : Brazil 's favorite dessert . Made with chocolate, butter and condensed milk.
3 . Guarana : Brazilian soft drink made from the guarana fruit .
4 . Rice and beans: Brazilians eat rice and beans every day. But beans from Brazil are salty.
5 . Bread Cheese: cheese bread is eaten at breakfast or between meals .
6 . Barbecue: the Brazilian barbecue is not the same as the U.S.  Brazilian barbecue only has beef.

2014 WORLD CUP and the 2016 OLYMPICS
The Olympics will be headquartered in Rio de Janeiro


So come to Brazil ! We are waiting for you to visit !