A Message from the Club President

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Carolyn J. Brown

Montecito Rotary Club

President 2011-2012

Welcome to the 2011-2012 Rotary International Year!

“Reach Within to Embrace Humanity” is the awe-inspiring Rotary International theme for 2011-2012.  Embracing humanity is something Rotary has been doing since its inception and continues to be our motivating force, both internationally and locally.

To stress the importance of both membership and continued support of The Rotary Foundation, Kalyan Banerjee, President of Rotary International for 2011-2012, has identified priorities for 2011-12:  strengthen clubs, increase humanitarian service, and enhance public image.  Rotary’s strength lies in it’s 33,000 clubs and 1.2 million members around the world – but the whole is only as strong as it’s individual parts – and individually, each Rotarian can have a significant impact! 

Wade Nomura, our 2011-2012 5240 District Governor, is excited to lead our district in a successful, productive year.  His goal is to listen to what the clubs need, coordinate communication between the various clubs in District 5240, help us implement our goals, and be a conduit between Rotary International and the clubs.  Wade will be visiting the Montecito Rotary Club on August 30, 2011, to bring his mission and vision to our members.  We look forward to his inspiring leadership!

The Montecito Rotary Club will continue with many of our projects that truly have an impact on our community and the world, such as:

• Distributing books and dictionaries to students at Cleveland Elementary School
• Providing five $1,000 scholarships to students at Santa Barbara City College, through the Vocational Education Program; currently, Rotarian James Fenkner and his wife Tanya have donated $5,000 towards SBCC Scholarships for Chinese Languages Studies; the $5,000 was matched with another $3,000 so we will award 2 $1,000 scholarships a year for four years!!
• Sponsor an Ethics Essay for high school students.
• Continue volunteer projects with Friendship Center in Montecito
• Montecito Beautification
• Raised money in support of the Ushindi Project in the Congo
• Provided grants to Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara, Dyslexia Awareness & Resource Center, Montecito Friendship Center
• Partnering with Rotary International in the unprecedented opportunity to eradicate polio world wide!

I’m truly looking forward to serve as President in 2011-2012 -  to celebrate the continuity of our worthy causes and our collective impact, strengthening our community as we continue to grow and serve others.  Thank you to every Rotarian that continues to put “Service Above Self”.  Remember….things don’t really get exciting …. until you show up!  Thanks for always showing up!