Community in Schools Program

 

“School to Work”

April 22^nd & April 23^rd

Miami North Western Senior High School

1100 NW 71^st Street,  Miami 

Our Club was contacted by the Community in Schools program to speak to high school students about our professions and offer "pearls of wisdom" to graduating seniors.

Two groups of Rotarians spoke on Tuesday and Wednesday morning at Miami Northwestern Senior High School in Liberty City. They serve 1800 students. It was founded in 1955 and the current school building was completed in the 90’s. They are best known for their achievements on the sports field in football and track, but recently have made the headlines by becoming the first inner city school in Miami to go from an “F” class school to an “A” class. Their graduating class used to be 40% and now it’s over 80% receiving high school diplomas. The principal and staff are very proud and the students were respectful and attentive.

We met the students in the college resource center. The lobby is plastered with college acceptance letters all over the walls along with a national map showing the students name and the school they’ll be attending. 

The Rotarians who volunteered their time for this community service event were Carol Brock, Dick Golden, Felix Pardo, Keith Phillips, Jim Skinner and Diane Thurston.  They were both entertaining and informative.

Carol Brock spoke about her career in Broadcasting and Media. 

Dick Golden spoke about his career as the owner of an ambulance company. 

Jim Skinner spoke about his career in law enforcement and serving as a police chief for three different cities including Coral Gables. 

Keith Phillips shared his path of multiple careers, beginning as an aviation pilot and then pursuing a  career in the insurance industry which took a turn after Hurricane Andrew. Then one day his air conditioner broke and decided that may be a good career path.

Diane Thurston shared her pursuit of many fields in college, until one day she met a psychologist. Her interest was piqued and she spent  years studying to become a PHD.

Felix Pardo spoke about his career in architecture. He knew that was the career for him before he even entered high school.  He told the students to follow their dreams and pursue what felt right in their hearts.

I spoke about the interior design industry and showed a power point presentation of spaces before and after remodeling.

We all enjoyed sharing these pearls of wisdom with the students.  We tried to offer inspiration as well as a glimpse of reality into the outside world. We also learned more about each other and I can easily see why each of these people are Rotarians. Serving our community is just who they are.

 This is the final Community Service Project for this year.  I hope more of you will join usnext year.  Our final event will be a wine paring dinner on June 10^th at Angelique Euro Cafe to raise funds for Civic and Charity events next year.            Lorraine Sheldon, Chair

 

Blood Drive October 3rd.

Get Ready to Get Dirty!

 2013 Coastal Cleanup

Lorraine Sheldon, Community Service Chair 

 

Mark your calendar for Saturday, September 21st.  That's the day this year for our club's favorite Community Service Project, Coastal Cleanup.  It's the day when people all around the country spend the day picking up thousands of pounds of trash from the coastlines all around the USA.  

Our appointed spot is Matheson Hammock Park.  We meet there at 8:30 a.m. to get our trash location, our garbage bags and the very important reporting list that catalogs and itemizes all the different kinds of trash that we find.  And boy do we find stuff!  Whole households of utensils, dozens of pairs of shoes, more plastic bags than you can ever imagine.  Bottle tops and clothes.  Fishing lines and gear.  And sometimes things that you would never expect.  It's a weird kind of "treasure hunt".

If you have a kayak, bring it down.  The kayaks are great for picking up the trash on the outside perimeter of the bay.  The places where even the most hardy Rotarians can't go on foot.  

So wear your crummy clothes.  Bring your mosquito repellant, your sun screen, gloves and a "picker" and meet us all down at Matheson on Saturday the 21st.  It's a great day for accomplishing something good for our community.  It's also a great way to get to know your fellow Rotarians.  We have a lot of fun, do a lot of good and all go out for lunch afterwards.  

Sign up at the meeting or email terryclong@bellsouth.net to register.  BE THERE!  

 

 

School Supplies Project a HUGH Success

 

A big THANK YOU to everyone who contributed school supplies and/or cash to the school supplies drive, benefiting the Institute for Child and Family Health kids who have mental health issues, and often live at the poverty level.

 


Sharlane Kibbs and Maria Jimenez, who represented the non-profit at the club meeting yesterday, left with a truck full of supplies and $255 in cash and checks. 

This is the 3rd year the Rotary Club of Coral Gables has supported the Institute's school supplies drive.  Rotarian Betty Metcalf has served as a psychologist at the Institute for many years and is still honored as a member of their Board of Directors.

Thank you all so much for your generosity.

Terry Long, Project Coordinator

Lorraine Sheldon, Community Service Chair

 

Community Service Projects

Coral Gables Rotary Partners 

with 

Citizens for a Better South Florida

Community Service Chair, Lorraine Sheldon indicated the Neighborhood Tree Planting event held on July 20th in the Little Gables, was a great success. Citizens for a Better South Florida hosted the event and received assistance and grants from Miami-Dade County and the Forestry Service.

Volunteers from the Rotary Club of Cora l Gables, local schools, neighbors and the homeowners themselves planted 28 trees in total. The event also served to educate people on how to plant trees and take care of the new plantings. 

Here's a little known fact:  an average city has a tree canopy covering 33% of it's land area.  Miami's canopy coverage is only 12%.  Sounds like we have a lot more to plant!

Volunteers also planted trees across the street from the beautiful new green homes that were designed by Fellow Rotarian Carlos Ruiz de Quevedo.  Thank you to all our volunteers and to Citizens for helping to increase Miami's green canopy for everyone to enjoy!

Thanksgiving Service at Chapman Partnership

Chapman Partnership

Thanksgiving

For the 10th year our Club went to the Chapman (f/k/a Community Partnership for the Homeless) Partnership to serve Thanksgving dinner to the more than 500 residents of the HAC.

The Community Service Committee was given a $1,000 grant from our Club Foundation to purchase the food for the Thanksgiving feast.  And what a feast it was!  Besides turkey and killer stuffing they had mac n' cheese, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, root veggies, collard greens, salad, cornbread, sweet potato pies, red velvet, chocolate and vanilla cake!  An awesome spread that they spent three days preparing.

DGE Wolf & Inge Stullenberg

Ten Rotarians, and their friends and families, AND our Rotary Youth Exchange Student, Mailys Ooghe, some 25 people were on hand to serve, waitress and bus tables for the families that are living at Chapman.  We even had a visit from a traveling Rotary District Governor Elect, Wolf Stullenberg, District 4160 in Mexico!  He and his wife Inge were in Miami for Thanksgiving and wanted to do "something traditional".  He found out about our service project on the website and showed up to serve with us for the morning.

We had a great time.  We served some terrific food.  And being there made us all a little more grateful for the blessings we have in our collective lives.

Rest assured we'll be back there again next year.  Why don't you join us? 

All of us!

Getting ready for the crowds

Community Service Chair Deena Bell-Llewllyn with DGE Wolf & Inge

 

Happy Turkey to you all!

Pretty Muddy Saturday

Pretty Muddy Saturday

President Walter was approached by the organizers of a new kind of 5K fund raiser ... it's called Pretty Muddy.

It's a women's run that is routed through the muddiest places in town.  This one was at the Amelia Earheart Park in Hialeah.

The organizers heard about our skill at pouring beer(!!!) and wanted us to use our skills to help make their event an even wetter success.  AND the proceeds from the beer sold went to the Coral Gables Rotary Foundation.  What more can we ask?  


Fun, fellowship, mud, beer, pretty ladies and money for our many projects.  It was a win/win and a deal that not even Walter could turn down.  A great time was had by all!
 
           

                                                                       

Coastal Cleanup 2012

Miami-Dade 

Coastal Cleanup

Saturday, September 15th

In addition to hundreds of other volunteers, Miami Brickell Rotary, South Miami Rotary, Miami Rotary and the Miami Interact Club joined the throngs that showed up at Matheson Hammock Park on Saturday morning to clean up the trash that litters the mangroves after a summer of storms trashes the shoreline.

A dozen Coral Gables Rotarians and friends showed up looking for trash and treasures.  We stuffed 10 - 30 gallon garbage bags full of "little pieces of plastic" which seemed to be the bulk of the trash we found this year.  A few shoes, some cans and bottles but mostly those awful little pieces of trash that the turtles and other creatures think are food.  

Mailys Ooghe, our Rotary Youth Exchange student was on hand to help - and she was willing to go way back into the underbrush to get the bigger items that were stuck there.  The mosquitoes had a good time with her - fresh meat from France!  

President Walter was there, Liz Silverman (she brought some terrific "pickers" that we used to get the bags out of the roots) and two of her friends from the Miami Ski Club,  Rodney Langer, Carol Alexander and her daughter, Deena Bell-Llwellyn, Sally B., and Andrea Stone were also there slopping through the mud and muck to keep the bayfront pristine.  

Of course the real reason that we do this is so we can all go to Scotty's Landing for lunch and libations immediately after all our hard work!  It was a beautiful Saturday and we had a lot of fun doing something good for our community.  What more can you ask for? Service Above Self. 

Getting our marching orders

Exploring for trash

A lonely search ...

Mailys with Sally B.

Liz Silverman with pickers

President Walter's pretty  dirty

Mailys really got "into it".

Pretty sweaty crew!

Lovely breeze at the "After Party" at Scotty's

Really hungry

And thirsty!

Community Service Event

Dear Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors, and Friends~

Please read below for the next big event Rotarians will be participating in on Sept. 8- a run/walk to salute our troops and to commemorate the anniversary of 9/11.

Anyone interested in participating is asked to either sign up to run or walk by registering on their website ( see instructions below), or simply show up at the event wearing your Rotarian at work T-shirts and join Gloria Burns at her tent she has set up with the Community Newspapers.

Either way, this will be a rewarding and fun event!  So, if any of you plan on participating, let me know, and take some photos you can email to me for our Rotary Blog!

YIRS
Deena Bell Llewellyn
Rotary Coral Gables Community Service Chair

Community Service Project

Habitat for Humanity Service Project

Construction Workers 

for the Day

Five hearty Rotarians reported for duty in Liberty City at punctually at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday.  The workers for a day were President Elect Walter Alvarez (who organizes our projects with Habitat), Sally B., Ana Fournaris, Frank Sexton and Steven Spann.

We were met by a group of women who chased us away from their house - one that was built entirely by women, for a woman and her daughter.  They fed us but wanted no part of us on their house.

We were assigned to Marti, one of the regular crew bosses for Habitat for Humanity.  He's from Costa Rica originally and he's worked for Habitat for three years now.  He loves his work (at which he is very competent!) and enjoys working with amateurs like us.  Probably because we work harder than professionals to make up for our lack of skill and knowledge.  But it didn't matter because he was a great teacher.

The project for the day was to install the drywall in a house that belonged to a couple, the Collons, who were contributing their own sweat equity right alongside the Rotary volunteers.

The ladies from the Women's house had snacks for everyone for break time and brought lunch for the entire volunteer contingent working at three houses on Saturday.

Marti kept us a little late because he really wanted to get the ceilings finished.  And finish them we did!  You can be sure that the drywall will never come down .... volunteers always use too many nails!

It was FUN for all concerned and beneficial for the future owners of this sweet little home.  If you've never participated in a Habitat project you should try it sometime.  It's great fellowship and a very satisfying day of manual labor with measurable results!

Scene Scenes

Just setting up

Hmmm, looks easy enuf!

Ana discussing the project
with Maureen of Habitat.