September 2020 District Newsletter

District 7610

Portals

September 2020

Notes from the Governor

Welcome to Holland! (Not Paris)

This was not the journey that any of us had signed up for. However, I find myself continually falling back on a story that my fellow special needs parents tell. It starts as a group preparing to go to Paris. We plan out the journey in great detail. We find the sights we are looking forward to and dream of what we want to do. However, when the plane lands, we find ourselves in Holland – not Paris. Now Holland is beautiful – it has canals, beautiful flowers and windmills. The people there are wonderful. But, it’s not Paris. It’s not what we were expecting, but it is where we are.

Now, we can be upset over not being in Paris, or we can be excited about being in Holland. For me, I choose to be excited about being in Holland.

So, as our calendars turn to fall and the traditions and festivals that we have attended in the past are no longer available to us during this pandemic, let us embrace and be excited about the new traditions that we are making. Let us reengage with our clubs and our membership to ensure that not one member is lost during this new journey we find ourselves on.

How do we accomplish that? Let us follow the Rotary Strategic Plan to address this challenge. The strategic plan calls on us to Increase our Impact through effective problem solving. It calls on us to expand our reach through efforts to activate and inspire one another. It asks us to enhance participant engagement through an understanding of the needs of others. Finally, it asks us to increase our ability to adapt and become more inventive, entrepreneurial and resilient.

So, I ask each of you during the next few weeks to think how you can help your community in a more effective way. I ask you to reach out to those in the community that may have a different opinion than yours and try to learn what their perspective is. I ask that you consider how to make your club meetings more engaging – more exciting, more interesting, and more interactive – while being safe. And finally, I ask that you find a way to adapt to our new way of doing things.

So, how do we put this into action? Let me give you a few thoughts of groups doing great things.

Recently, my family attended a drive-in movie sponsored by the Woodbridge Rotary Club where we watched Jurassic Park on a cool Saturday evening. We have a blast! It very well might have been the best time I have had at a Rotary event in a long time. It was a fundraiser and fellowship event all at the same time.

We also had socially-distanced dinner with a few members of our club recently in their driveway. It was simple with just take out brought from a local Greek restaurant. However, the fellowship that we shared that night with Gene and Gloria Rubin was fantastic. It also is something that we all can do, respecting that we are in “Holland.”

Finally, I had the privilege of presiding over the charter of our District’s first cause-based Rotary Club in the Global Peacebuilder E-Club of District 7610. This group brought together individuals from all over the world to find solutions to the problems that most impact us. What a wonderful group of new Rotarians who are seeking to increase our impact and expand our reach.

So, my question to you is: How can you make this trip to Holland enjoyable and exciting?

Thank you for everything you do.

Yours in Rotary,

DG Harry Henderson

In This Issue

Follow The Virtual Road
Arlington Challenges Racism
North Stafford Gets Ready for School
Rosslyn-Fort Myers Honors Charter Member
ShelterBox Hero Clubs
Flags For Heroes and Families
New Members

District 7610 Website

Zones 33 and 34 Website

My Rotary Website

District Public Image Chair, Loretta Princepe

Seattle to Washington DC, Via the Virtual Route

By Randy Fleitman, President, Rosslyn-Fort Myer

Our club's Seattle to Washington 3,000 mile Challenge is a virtual ride and hike across the U.S., from Seattle to Washington. Our members and supporters are riding their bikes, exercycles, and walking near their homes, marking their progress along the route. You can sponsor me with a pledge. Or you can take up the challenge, hop on your bike, and ask your friends and family to sponsor you. Here is a diary of how my journey has unfolded.

I chose the 282 miles from Seattle to Spokane for my virtual ride along Interstate 90. So far, I have biked a total of 240 miles and have 42 miles to reach Spokane.

I started my virtual ride at Seattle’s Space Needle on August 3 and headed east. I rode 40 miles my first week, and passed Snoqualmie Falls, a 268-foot waterfall on the Snoqualmie River. It is best known for its appearance in the cult television series Twin Peaks

I rode 44 miles my second week, climbing steadily. At about the 75 mile mark, I passed Kachess Lake.

In my third week, I reached the town of Ellensburg, WA, altitude 1,508 feet and found myself looking at some beautiful mountains. Trip counter 120.5

At the 136 mile mark, I found the Ginkgo Petrified Forest, overlooking the Columbia River. Then I crossed the Vantage Bridge over the river and continued east.

I continued on another 57 miles and reached the Potholes Reservoir and the city of Moses Lake, with an altitude of 1,070 feet meters. Moses Lake, on which the city lies, is over 18 miles long and up to one mile wide. It has over 120 miles of shoreline covering 6,500 acres.

I biked 93.5 miles during my third week and reached a total of 178 miles. In my fourth week, I biked only 20 miles, but according to my map, I have now arrived at the fabled middle of nowhere!

I am continuing my virtual bike ride along Interstate 90 through Washington state. I have now biked 240 miles and have only 42 more miles to reach Spokane. I'm having so much fun,perhaps I'll explore Idaho after that.

First, on my way to Spokane, I passed through the city of Ritzville, the seat of Adams County. With only 1,700 residents, it describes itself as a “vibrant, heart of wheatland community offering a quality of life that is rare.” Then I reached Sprague Lake, a popular recreation area.

Here is an aerial view of the terrain I am traversing. There may be more to come if I decide to push on through Idaho. If you would like to support my Rotary Club's project to buy X-Ray and Sonogram machines for a new health center in Tema, an underserved city in Upper Egypt, please contact me at [email protected]..

Arlington Challenges Racism, Invites Other Clubs to Join Anti-Racism Training Session

By Bob Carolla, Arlington

Arlington Rotary Club (ARC) finished the summer with a successful Blood Drive. Club member, Hugh Barton, coordinates the blood drive with our partner, the Rock Spring United Church of Christ three times per year. Thirty-one pints were donated to Inova from this drive. Even though Club President, Chelsi Dildine (left), didn't get to drive the Bloodmobile, the event was a big success.

The club’s virtual Trivia Happy Hours on the first and third Wednesdays of each month continue to be popular---with a special Trivia Night planned for Friday, October 23 from 7-8:30 p.m. ET (Players come from many time zones!)

ARC is also moving forward with planning a virtual anti-racism training workshop in December, and is inviting neighboring clubs to co-sponsor and participate. Approximately 50 seats will be available. Club presidents or diversity chairs can contact: Chelsi Dildine for more information.

The training will be conducted by Challenging Racism. Founded in 2004 in Arlington, its work is now spreading to other Northern Virginia communities, as reported in the District’s July newsletter.

“Racism in our society has to be addressed,” said ARC President Chelsi Dildine. “It has to include conversations in every community. The process will require what are often difficult conversations. Training for them is an essential first step.”

Challenging Racism's Executive Director, Alicia Jones-McLeod, has over 20 years’ experience working with business leaders.

Arlington Independent Media (AIM) talk show host and ARL.now columnist Krysta Jones spoke to the club about racial and gender equity mid-August.

Jon Haveman, executive director of the San Francisco-based National Economic Education Delegation (NEED) kicked off the club’s September speaker series with a presentation on the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic—providing perspective for observance of Community Economic Development Month in October.

Jorge E. Figueredo, executive director of Edu-Futuro (E-F), based in Arlington and Fairfax Counties also spoke to the club about its work supporting the potential of immigrant youth and families.

Arlington’s Latino population is approximately 20%. Seventy percent of E-F’s Emerging Leadership Programs (ELP) are students who are preparing to become first-generation college students—80% of whom are from Latino households.

“Our club’s programs recognize that steps are necessary to support the District’s goal of social and racial equity,” Dildine said.

“We need to challenge racism to overcome it. We need to strengthen education at all social and economic levels in our communities. Education has to support leadership and lead to expansion of economic opportunities.

“The challenge is even greater now because of the pandemic. Fresh analysis and new skills are needed.”

North Stafford Helps Foster Kids Get Ready for School

By Tracy McPeck, North Stafford

Though most students returned to school virtually this year, school supplies are still essential for academic success. Embrace Treatment Foster Care, a foster program that serves kids in the Fredericksburg region as well as around the state of Virginia, holds an annual school supply drive to ensure their foster kids have what they need to start the year with confidence and dignity. NSRC members personally donate each year, and this year we also partnered with e3kids international to give an even larger donation of much-needed supplies. If you’re interested in supporting foster kids throughout the year, Embrace Foster Care offers suggestions on ways you can help.

On behalf of the NSRC, Rotaractor George Omiro and Rotarian Lena Gonzalez Berrios partnered with e3kids international to gather donated school supplies for local use.

Rosslyn- Fort Myers Honors Charter Member

Dr. Merton Bland

By Randy Fleitman, President, Rosslyn-Fort Myer

At our first live meeting since March, the Rosslyn-Ft Myer Club met to honor our last charter member, Dr. Merton Bland and (belatedly) celebrate our club's 40th anniversary. Mert was among the people who established our club in 1989, and has been a Rotarian around the world for over 50 years. Dan and Judy Burkitt offered their condo building's plaza as an outdoor space that provided room for social distancing. Janine Bland invited her children to the surprise event for their father and President Randy Fleitman invited current and past District 7610 Governors and Arlington Club Presidents to join us. Tin Tin and Bilal Raschid came and told us how they met Mert in Bangladesh before they came to live in the U.S. President Randy Fleitman presented Mert with a special lifetime service award plaque and everyone related anecdotes about their experiences with Mert and Janine.

President Randy also took advantage of the live meeting to award plaques to Dan Burkitt and Tim White for their years of service arranging speakers and maintaining our website respectively. We had to speak up through our masks, but the meeting was safe and we were delighted to see each other again. We plan to meet in the plaza again in a month or two. Let's hope the weather is as perfect then as it was last week!

ShelterBox Recognizes Hero Clubs

By Wayne Chiles, Springfield

On August 31, ShelterBox USA announced that sixteen Clubs in our District achieved HERO status during the last Rotary year. Kettle Run High School Interact Club in Fauquier County and eight Rotary Clubs were recognized for their consistent support over three consecutive years. One of those Clubs, the Rotary Club of Vienna, was recognized as a Silver HERO for giving between $3,000 and $4,999 annually. All other HERO Clubs gave between $1,000 and $2,999.

The Clubs honored were:

Clubs which have contributed for three Consecutive Years:

Kettle Run HS Interact
Annandale
Fairfax
Lake Ridge
Springfield
Tappahannock
Vienna
West Springfield
Woodbridge

Those which contributed during RY 2019-20

Blue Ridge Mountains
Crystal City- Pentagon
Centreville and Chantilly
Dunn Loring- Merrifield
Gainesville- Haymarket
Gloucester
Stafford

Wayne Chiles receives a check for $1,000 from PDG Sandy Duckworth and Stafford Club President, Linda Knecht

Starting as a Rotary Club project in the UK in 2000, ShelterBox, now an independent charity, has served over 1.5 million survivors of conflict and natural disasters, mostly women and children, around the world. Since 2012

ShelterBox has been Rotary’s only official Project Partner for disaster relief, a formal arrangement that provides huge benefits for both parties. In 2018 and 2019, ShelterBox was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, recognizing our work with refugees.

A ShelterBox HERO is a Rotary Club that has committed to making an impact in worldwide disaster response by giving $1,000, $3,000, or $5,000 within the Rotary year. HERO Clubs enable ShelterBox to have the resources and time to be ready when disaster strikes by allowing ShelterBox to purchase and pre-position aid in or near countries where we respond often, resulting in a more efficient and timely response. “HERO gifts” will be designated to Deployment Essentials, directly and quickly aiding families in need.

With more than 80 million people around the world displaced due to conflict and natural disasters, and with the threat of Covid-19 in congested areas without access to clean water and adequate medical care, the need has never been greater.

Please contact me if you have questions or need more information. I am available to join your meeting via Zoom, or other platforms, to share the current situation with ShelterBox. Please contact me at [email protected] (preferred) or via phone at 571-344-1241. Wayne Chiles, ShelterBox volunteer Ambassador

Flags for Heroes and Families

By Daniel (Kaz) Kasmierski, Gainesville-Haymarket

Over the 2020 Labor Day weekend, The Gainesville-Haymarket Rotary Club held its 3rd Annual Flag For Heroes that displayed 100 US flags from 4-7 September 2020 in the Haymarket

Community Park to honor heroes past and present. The corporate and individual Flag sponsorships benefited the “Making Everything Good” that is a Haymarket based 501(c)(3) formed in 2018. Their mission is to assist and support the needs of individuals, families, and organizations associated with public safety, military, and the local community.