I am so excited to kick off the 2024-2025 Rotary year with each of you. Thank you for this amazing honor to serve as your District Governor. Congrats to all the new Club and District officers on the start of your term on July 1st. Many of you were able to join us at the Installation Celebration, where many District officers and about 1/3 of the incoming Club Presidents were inducted before we danced the night away to our favorite 70’s and 80’s songs.
There was so much excitement in the air as we welcomed in the new Rotary year in style. Thank you so much to all our sponsors. It was a magical night perfectly suited for our new Theme this year: The Magic of Rotary.
During this month of July when we celebrate the birthday of the USA and remember those who have served our country so we may all be free, please also remember that your membership in your club, your District and Rotary International offers you the chance each day to change yourself, your community and the world by growing personally and working together with others to create positive impactful change. Together we are stronger. This is the Magic of Rotary.
With the new year, I know you can’t wait to get started on projects because we are People of Action. Many of you have heard me say, I really love community service projects and I also hope each club completes at least one international service project this year. After all, we are part of this amazing network of 1.4 million leaders and problem-solvers called Rotary International. In that light, I have a suggested July/August/September project for you that is the trifecta of local, international and green. How about a Back-to-School drive and then keep ½ for your local community and donate ½ for your first International Service project for 24-25. While there will be no District Roundtable in July, we will be meeting on Saturday August 10th at Dallas College-Brookhaven Campus in Farmers Branch where we will be packing boxes from 11 am to Noon after our regular meeting from 10-11 am. Please bring school supplies, new or gently used tennis shoes (which is a great no-cost Interact project), sporting goods like deflated soccer balls, footballs and basketballs for easy packing, K-12 books in Spanish, and K-5 books in English. Our goal is to recycle books to save them from the local landfills, so please don’t buy any books. We would rather you coordinate used book donations with your local schools (who are cleaning off bookshelves to get ready for new books in early August) and public libraries. Then buy school supplies at the low price back-to-school specials. You can easily find a box of 24 crayons for 50 cents at the big box stores in late July and throughout August. Think of that cute kindergartener who will love your donation and all the art ready to pour out onto the paper to be proudly hung on the wall or refrigerator. Please contact our new District International Service Chair Jerrica Anderson at (214)385-8559 for more details regarding donations to be brought to Roundtable and to find out about the manifest that is required for each 12” x 12” x 12” box of donations that your club packs. Donations will also be accepted at the September 14th Roundtable, with a cutoff of Sept. 25th on donations due to the lead time we need to clear customs. All of these boxes will be delivered to Costa Maya/Mahahual, Mexico during our District Conference Service Cruise January 12-19, 2025 on the beautiful Regal Princess. Please contact PDG Bill and Lisa Dendy at rotary5810@gmail.com to sign up for the cruise. Act now so you don’t miss out on the current great cabin rates and $99 refundable deposit.
Note while we want everyone to join us to deliver the 250+ boxes and meet the kids, we do understand not everyone can come. We do hope all clubs can join us collecting and/or boxing donations. FYI: in case you don’t know, District 5810 serves as an International Service role model for other Districts. We are a powerhouse! For example, on top of all of the great international District matching grants and global grants that you guys have completed, our District delivered 21 pallets of donations to Honduras and Mexico including 50,000+ recycled books during calendar year 2023. I can’t wait to see what we can accomplish this year working together.
I look forward to meeting each of you as I start my tour of the wonderful clubs in the District I am so proud to serve.
Best wishes for a magical year,
Regina
District Governor Regina Edwards