At our Rotary Club meeting on October 29th, Lieutenant Paul Sullivan came to talk about emergency preparedness and safety during active shooter situations.  He shared how communities are moving towards training schools, churches, and the local organizations in A.L.I.C.E training.  A.L.I.C.E is an intense training program that teaching people how to actively respond to threatening situations.  He encourages the community to be a support for this type of training. 

Only Halloween brings characters like Buzz Lightyear, Spiderman, Elsa, and unicorns together as they patrol the community seeking candies.  This year, Rotary was delighted to join in the festivities by hosting the annual Halloween Trick or Treat Trail.  On, Friday October 25th, the lines at Gille Park were packed by enthusiastic kids ready to fill their bags with goodies.  Community organizations decorated canopies that added to the excitement of the event.  We were blessed by the presence of the Sanderson Sisters preforming their known hits such as "I Put a Spell on You", "Come Little Children" and their own parody of the "Adam's Family" song.  At the end of the trail there was a DJ and snacks offered by the Rotary Club of Forked River.  We are grateful for the outpouring of support from the Rotary Club and Community Organizations that made this event a success!

 

Hard work and a community mindset among our youth is something to be celebrated.  On October 8th, The Rotary Club of Forked River was blessed with the opportunity to honor two youth recognized for these wonderful qualities.  Lacey High School's September Seniors of the Month, Dylan Danko and Jenna Stiffler, visited the evening Rotary meeting where they were honored for their achievements and encouraged to continue towards their leadership potential.  We are indeed grateful for the chance to be an encouraging support for the youth in our community.

Rotary is an organization that has over 35,000 clubs meeting all over the world.  That's what made it special when we have fellow Rotarians visiting from the Rotary Club of Vijayawada of Rotary District 3020 of India.  Our special guest were Naveen Dasari and V. Hema Chandu visiting to tell us about a special project called "Rotarians Against Leprosy".  They are seeking to establish a "Clinical Leprosy and Awareness Program" that will treat and help individuals diagnosed with leprosy. Leprosy is a big concern as more 130,000 are diagnosed every year, mostly being children.  As a Rotary Club we celebrate the work that Rotary International has done around the world.  It was a blessing for our special guests to visit us and to bring awareness to this growing concern.  As we exchanged Rotary Club banners, we also were able to begin new international friendships. 

As fall kicks off, so also the local community gets ready for the annual Lacey Day and Apple Festival.  On September 28th the festivities were held at Gille Park.  Many local businesses and non profit organizations gathered around to make this day a big success.  Rotary Club had the pleasure of being an active presence at Lacey Day.  We had a booth where we could share about Rotary's passion of "Service Above Self".  We also had the opportunity to become a living example of our motto by working with the LTHS Interact Club in handing out sub sandwiches along with other food to those that attended Lacey Day.  Thank you to the local businesses Anthony’s Pizzeria, Conca D’Oro Restaurant and Fusciello’s Deli for providing submarine sandwiches for the event.

On Tuesday September 24th, a couple of students were recognized at the Rotary Club Evening Meeting for attending RYLA.  RYLA is the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards that seeks to train youth in qualities of leadership.  The students who were recognized at the Rotary Club meeting were Jacob Serrano and Kimberly Martinez.  They are both Lacey High School Students.  We are very proud on the young youth leaders in our community that attended RYLA.

On September 17th, the Rotary Club of Forked River was blessed to have Pam Capaci the CEO with Heather Price the Volunteer Coordinator of Hope Sheds Light.  Pam and Heather shared with the club how Hope Sheds Light exist to support individuals struggling with addiction along with their families.  Hope Sheds Light provides education, resources, and support to those impacted by addiction and the growing opioid crisis.  The Rotary Club was pleased to give Pam and Heather a donation of $500 to support the programs and mission of Hope Sheds Light.  To learn more about this wonderful organization check out their website at www.hopeshedslight.org

 

The Rotary Club of Forked River has started selling tickets for the Annual Autumn Windfall Reverse Raffle Fundraiser.  To purchase a ticket the donation is a $100- Entry.  This ticket includes entry in the 50/50 raffle along with an invitation to attend The Autumn Windfall event at Captains Inn on October 27, 2019 where there will be an open bar  and hors d'oeuvres.  

 

This is a Reverse Raffle, you want to be the last ticket drawn to win $8000 Grand Prize - Only 250 Tickets being sold! There will be 10 winning tickets selected!

​Prizes are as follows: if all tickets sold:

1st Ticket Drawn-$100, 5oth Ticket Drawn-$100, 100th Ticket Drawn-$100, 150th Ticket Drawn-$100, 200th Ticket Drawn-$100, 246th Ticket Drawn-$1000, 247th Ticket Drawn- $1000, 248th Ticket Drawn-$1000, 249th Ticket Drawn-$1000, 250th- Last Ticket- $8000 Grand Prize

Event proceeds benefit Rotary Charities.

 

On September 3rd, at the Rotary Club of Forked River's lunch meeting, we were blessed with a visit from Joanne Ventura, the District Governor for District 7505.  Gov. Ventura talked about the theme for Rotary International of "Rotary Connects the World".   She also shared how she met Rotary International's President Mark Maloney at the Strike Out Hunger event at the Phillies game in August.  

 

As part of Gov. Ventura's visit, she presented to us the Rotary International Vision Statement.  The Vision Statement is "Together, we see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change across the globe in our communities and in ourselves."  Along with this vision are four priorities.

 

Gov. Ventura also shared her personal goals of starting two new clubs or satellite groups, assessing groups, partnering with other clubs, and developing strategies of continued leadership.  She announced that on Oct 5th, there will be a Rotary Leadership Institute at the Indian Cultural Center in Marlton, NJ.

Lastly, Gov. Ventura presented our Club's President, Donna Volz with a flag of this years logo, "Rotary Connects the World".  We were grateful to have Gov. Ventura at our lunch meeting and learning more about the direction of Rotary International along with our Rotary District.