A Message from the President

I woke up this past Saturday August 14th with a real passion for Rotary.  I got an early start as I was to meet my good friend Jerrold Dewease at the pancake breakfast by 6:30 in the morning.  On my ride to Nassau Bay, I thought about what it is that the Space Center Rotary Endowment Foundation does and why we were having a pancake breakfast.  Besides the wonderful fellowship working together in the kitchen and the honor of having Floyd Boze himself pin you as a Floyd Boze Fellow, our foundation has a much higher calling.  Just as in the old fable where the ants work diligently to pile up food for winter while the grasshoppers play and live hand to mouth, our Foundation is working hard to raise funds that will not be spent any time soon.  If we could tell the future, I think we are going to be so proud of what our Foundation does in the years ahead.  One day, the Foundation will grow large enough where the interest can be used to make a meaningful impact in the community year after year.  We may have enough to do a brick and mortar project in our own backyard, give scholarships, and fund projects that help people in need.  Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket and attended the breakfast.  I think if you could get in a time machine and go into the future you would be so happy that you spent that seven dollars.

After a great breakfast, I piled into Mike Dennard's car with Rena Dietrich and Bob Taggart and headed to District 5890 membership seminar.  When we got there, I was impressed to see an auditorium full of Rotarians and was very happy to see Jon McKinnie orchestrating the event, Suzi Howe answering countless questions, Kippy Caraway teaching a class, and our Assistant Governor Chris Schneider making sure Space Center Rotarians had everything they needed.  I have to admit being the President of Space Center Rotary is a very cool feeling because when you tell other Rotarians in our District that you are a member of Space Center Rotary Club, you immediately get their attention and they usually comment about how awesome our Club is.  The work that we do is well respected by our peers.  We learned a lot about membership at the seminar and were also honored by achievements made last year.  I think Kippy Caraway probably walked about a half mile between her seat and the auditorium stage as she collected four awards honoring our Club.  Under Jon's presidency and Kippy's leadership as membership chair, our Club earned the following awards.  Kippy was recognized by the District with the most new members proposed award. Our Club took a first place award for the Club with the largest percentage of net member growth and was among the top achievers for most new members and most members proposing new members.  Inserted photo is Assistant District Governor Schneider, Kippy, and Jon.

I am so pleased to be a Rotarian and look forward to seeing you all on Monday!

Yours in Rotary,

David