This Week: Celebrate Dunwoody High School - Laws of Life, RYLA
Join us Friday morning for a special treat - as we are joined by Dunwoody High School students:
- Several will read the essays they submitted to the Georgia Laws of Life Essay contest.
- Others will share their experience at the Rotary Youth Leadership Award "camp" last June, thanks to RYLA scholarships funded by the Rotary Club of Dunwoody.
Who better to introduce our Laws of Life Essay contest winners than George Stewart, who has been a strong advocate for this program since Georgia Rotary first got involved in about 2004. The Georgia Laws of Life contest invites students to select a Law of Life and to use it as a prompt to write about a core character value such as honesty, generosity, courage, compassion, or perseverance. On Friday, George will tell us a little about the program and introduce us to Heather Carter, the Teacher Contest Chair. Then Dunwoody High contest winner Mia Whitehurst and several of the students who received Honorable Mention will read their essays. These students are among 44,185 Georgia high school students who submitted essays this year - from 69 Georgia High Schools in contests sponsored by 53 Rotary Club. Dunwoody Rotarians joined others across the state in judging the competition. The program awarded $21,100 in cash prizes - including money from our weekly scholarship drawing. Thanks to our essay readers and to Rotarians who took charge of our weekly scholarship drawing!
RYLA is a Rotary International program designed to help youth hone their leadership potential and our club has participated for more than 20 years. In District 6900, the annual camp is organized and run by the Rotary Club of Americus. Dunwoody sends board members of the Dunwoody High Interact Club and children of Rotarians.
Rotary Club of Dunwoody Receives Many Honors at District Conference
On April 25, the Rotary Club of Dunwoody officially celebrated its 35th birthday! The celebration continued all weekend in Sandestin:
- On Friday night, President Rick Woods was one of five current D6900 presidents to receive a Sheffield Leadership Award and Jeannette Jezerinac-Prince was honored as D6900 Rotarian of the Year - in large part for her years of behind-the-scenes work to make the district conference a success.
- On Sunday morning, Dunwoody was named Club of the Year in our size category!
- And in between, we received many other awards, including the Governor's Citation and Best International Service Project for our GRSP Leadership Weekend (which also was one of the top four projects for our size category in the Service Oscars - congratulations and thanks to Louise Barden and her team). Other recognition included Wins for Best Public Image Service Project (for our USO support) and Best Youth Service Project, and Runner Up awards for Best Internal Service Project, Best Senior Service Project and Best Rotary Has Heart Project. And we won for Best District Conference attendance.
You Can Still Come and Help at the Dunwoody Arts Festival - May 11 - 12, 2019
Next weekend is the Dunwoody Arts Festival - an event that's been supported by amazing Dunwoody Rotary volunteers for the last 10 years. The Rotary Club of Dunwoody (RCD) is recognized as one of six “Leading Sponsors” for this community event. We have no meeting next week, so the Arts Festival is your opportunity to enjoy time with other club members and show our support for the community!
The Dunwoody Art Festival, has become a beloved Dunwoody community tradition, attracting 40,000 attendees and 155 artists annually. It certainly is “the place to be” in Dunwoody on Mother’s Day weekend. Join with fellow Rotarians, family members and friends to be part of this significant community event! You may join us:
- As an·ARTIST AMBASSADOR on Saturday, 5/11 from 5:00 – 8:00 am - or some part of that shift. Dunwoody Rotarians welcome the artists to Dunwoody and assist with the transformation of Dunwoody Village into a very cool Artist’s Market. Heavy lifting is NOT required for this volunteer assignment. Your time, energy and friendly hospitality will help the festival get off to an excellent start! To do this, please contact Kathy Brandt, 404-797-0705, kgbrandt1@comcast.net.
- In telling the “Rotary Story” to the community at our RCD exhibit space for a two-hour shift … on Saturday, May 11 between 10:00am and 6:00 pm or on Sunday, May 12 between noon and 5:00 pm. To do this, contact Ardy Bastien, 516-967-7619 or ardy11422@yahoo.com and indicate your preferred shift.
Our participation and support for this event gives our club significant community visibility during the eight weeks leading up to the event, as well as the opportunity to “tell the Rotary Story” to thousands of attendees in our Rotary booth.
We hope to see you at the Dunwoody Arts Festival! It's a great opportunity to support the community, build our image in Dunwoody and grow support for the good work we do!
Thanks!
Kathy Brandt and Ardy Bastien
A Spruce-Up for Monroe Park
Last Saturday, Rick Otness, Eric Schuetz and Warren Turner joined me - "Ranger Fred" - at Monroe Park to spruce up this RCD-adopted traffic island across from the Dunwoody branch of the DeKalb Public Library. We adopted the island at least 20 years ago and gather every two months to enjoy each other's company as we weed, trim, sweep and/or lay down pine straw.
Happy Birthday Dunwoody! A Deeper Look at Our First Full Year
Have you ever wondered where some of our Rotary Club of Dunwoody traditions began? What Dunwoody Rotarians 25 or 30 or 35 years ago were doing to make a difference? Well, Jackie Cuthbert and I are going to try to answer many of those questions in our year-long celebration of RCD's 35 years!
We're starting with more about our first full year as a club. That year started with John Ellis as our president - he served for only a few weeks before he was promoted by the Air Force Reserve and required to move to Washington DC. That's when Robert W. (Bob) Lewis agreed to move up from his role as Vice President.
During that first year:
- The Family of Rotary gathered for our first holiday luncheon at the Dunwoody Country Club - a tradition that has continued most years ever since then. At the first luncheon, Community Service Director Bill Mulkey presented our first charitable contribution - $300 - to Emily Pritchett, Coordinator of Volunteer Services at the Georgia Retardation Center. The holiday luncheon continues to be one of our best attended events of the year. Our Dresden Elementary book project started in 1998, when each club member brought a book to the holiday luncheon, and the Dresden Elementary Choir has provided "sunshine" at the luncheon since 2003. For the past several years, we have supported Toys for Tots at this holiday event.
- We were there at the start of the DeKalb Rotary Council and took the lead on the Council's "Arrive Alive - Safe Ride Home" program for high school proms and graduations. The first annual meeting of the Council took place on July 20, 1984 at the Century Center Hotel - South DeKalb Rotarian Jack Mathis served as Council Chair.
- We started a Scholarship Essay Contest - the subject was Business Ethics and we received 41 essays. We presented a first place scholarship of $2,000 ($500/year for four years) to Katherine Doyle of Maris School and a $1,000 second place scholarship to Todd Young of Peachtree High School.
- Our membership grew by 50% - from 34 to 51. New members included future presidents Chris Gutschenritter and Lang Wooddy, and Pat McMahon, now an Honorary Member.
- We held our first social events - a night of card playing, cigars and refreshments at the home of Bob Mingus, and our first "On to Jekylll Party" ahead of District Conference at the home of Hardy and Maureen Croom. Eight Dunwoody Rotarians attended District Conference!