Volume 2, Issue 3 – September 2012

In This

Issue

1. New Generations

Month

2. Governor’s Letter

3. Empowering Others

4. Clubs Partner on Well

Projects

5. 104th RI Convention

New Generations Month

Rotary District 5340

Monthly Newsletter

September is New Generations Month in Rotary. Every year,

thousands of talented and dedicated young people, ages 12-30,

have an incredible experience in a New Generations program.

As Rotaractors and Interactors, they serve in communities at

home and abroad. Through Rotary Youth Exchange, they explore

new cultures. And as Rotary Youth Leadership Awards

participants, they learn skills that will help them succeed as

future community leaders.

New Generations is Rotary’s fifth Avenue of Service. Learn how

your club can get involved in An Introduction to New Generations

Service (735).

Rotary Youth Exchange

Building cultural understanding one

student at a time.

Rotaract

Connecting young adults to a global

network of friendship, engagement

and action.

Interact

Fueling a lifetime of service for young

people ages 12-18.

RYLA

Inspiring the next generation of

community leaders.

Page 2

Governor’s Letter

Greetings,

New Generations is one of our District’s strongest Avenues of Service.

Music Camp, LEAD and Model UN give us three programs unique to

most of the rest of the Rotary world. Model UN and LEAD will be

featured at the November Zone 25 and 26 Institute in Lake Tahoe

(the training meeting for District leaders from British Columbia to San

Diego).

Music camp has just finished and the partnership between the San Diego Youth Symphony and Rotary

has been magical. I would encourage all of you to take in their concert next summer. The level of

professionalism of these young musicians is impressive.

At last count, we had 56 Interact clubs; four of which are in middle schools. Of our 66 clubs, 40

sponsor one or more Interact clubs. If your club is interested in starting a new Interact club, please

contact Richard Arroyo. He has developed a “how to” program that he is happy to share with you.

Presently, we have five Rotaract clubs that are regularly operating. The newest was recently formed in

Imperial County with the help of the Rotary Club of Calexico. Kendra Jeffcoat and Cynthia Villis are co-

chairs of the Rotaract programs. You can contact them for information on Rotaract clubs for 18-30

year olds.

LEAD will hold its annual two-day camp October 6 and 7. John Harmata is responsible for this year’s

program featuring leadership skills and ethics training for 8th graders.

The RYLA committee, headed by Kevin Forrester, is beginning to put the pieces together for our Rotary

Youth Leadership Academy which will be held the third weekend in April 2013 in Idyllwild. Like our

other outstanding programs, this weekend can change the lives of 11th grade participants.

We have not been as active as many districts are in the International Youth Exchange. Aside from

Music Camp, and a few other short-term exchanges, we don’t often host longer-term student

exchanges. If you or your club would like to explore this area, please contact Ed Scarpelli, the District

Youth Officer. Long-term exchanges, generally for the school year, can be a highly rewarding

experience that will have a lifetime benefit for you and the student you host.

I want to thank every club that puts all our youth programs together each Rotary year and also Marge

Cole for leading this Avenue of Service.

Yours in service,

Dick Stevens

Page 3

Empowering Others

“It feels, in a way, that we have empowered

a club on the other side of the world and

underneath the highest mountains in the

world to make a difference in their own

community!” John McLevie

40 Years ago, John McLevie, a Rotarian from the Encinitas

Rotary Club, was headmaster at a British board school in

charge of a 100-student hostel for children of British,

Australian and New Zealand servicemen serving in the

Malayan Emergency in the 1950’s and 60’s. Today, McLevie

is coordinating a Nepal grant project between the Rotary Club

of Encinitas and the Rotary Club of Kasthamandap in Nepal.

This project is a result of a recent reuniting of McLevie and 14

of the 100 students, now retired majors and captains along

with a retired lieutenant general named Phatteh Bahadur

Limbu, who was President of the Rotary Club of

Kasthamandap in 2006.

Following a long chat about their Rotary interests, McLevie and Limbu decided they wanted to do a

project together to help Nepal women become entrepreneurs. They started a project entitled the

“Women Entrepreneurs Association of Nepal” (WEAN) where the village women are trained starting with

health background and followed with numeracy so that would be able to count to 12 for packing products

into packages of a dozen items.

McLevie is very excited about the progress this group is making. He recently returned and shared that

these women started out making basic products such as bees wax. Now several of the women are

turning into skilled capitalists and, with further revolving loans, have moved on to the raising and selling

of pigs. These women represent the two lowest Hindu castes in the region.

The success of this project ignited a desire among locals to take change a step further and prompted the

local Rotary club to adopt the village in various ways, including awarding six girls scholarships to

complete elementary school at a nearby private school. They are the first children from Poudal Village to

attend elementary school. According to McLevie, “it feels, in a way, that we have empowered a Club on

the other side of the world and underneath the highest mountains in the world to make a difference in

their own community!”

Story and photos provide by John McLevie

Page 4

Clubs Partner on Well Projects

District 5340 Rotarians recognize we have a pretty nice life here

in southern California, and that it’s important to help others

have the same opportunities. That’s why we work so hard to

ensure people here and around the globe have sustainable

access to water and sanitation.

Several Rotary clubs in District 5340 have joined forces with

other clubs to maximize their efforts to really make a difference

in improving health conditions associated with lack of access to

water and sanitation conditions. Their combined efforts have

raised nearly $2 million in resources. These clubs have

partnered with Water for South Sudan (WFSS), a separate

501c3 organization with board members who volunteer their

time, three of which are Rotarians.

Before 2006 when Rancho Santa Fe Rotary Club (RSF)

partnered with WFSS, there were only 17 wells drilled. Since

2006, they now have drilled an additional 120 wells. Shown in

the picture to the right is Orin Abrams, a Rotarian in the

Anaheim Hills Rotary Club, District 5320 who is passionate

volunteer helping WFSS raise money through donations in his

district.

On his most recent drilling trip, Orin traveled in March to South

Sudan with Rotarian Chuck DuVivier from the Encinitas Coastal

Rotary Club. They located many wells which had been drilled in

prior years on GPS locations. All 137 Rotary funded wells are

functioning.

More recently, four clubs joined forces with WFSS to complete

one of our District's first District Grants under the Future Vision

Pilot program. The new grant structure provided opportunities

that were never available through Rotary in the past. Rotary

Clubs of Rancho Santa Fe, San Diego Coastal, Fallbrook and

Rancho Bernardo Sunrise each pledged the maximum $4K for a

1:1 match from our District. Armed with $32K at ~$15K per

well, the team was able to provide two new wells w/back-up

supplies in an area considered to be one of the most neglected

populations in the world. The grant was the first Future Visions

grant in the newest country on Earth, South Sudan.

Its estimated that over 9,000 children’s lives have been saved.

Without these water wells, these children would have died by

the age of 10 from waterborne diseases.

Story and photos provided by Ole Prahm

and Mark Evans Kirkpatrick

Page 5

104th Rotary International Convention

Lisbon, Portugal is the site of the 104th Rotary International

Convention June 23-26 2013. Perched on the west coast of Europe,

Lisbon, a charming combination of old-world appeal and modern flair,

is one of the oldest cities in Europe. Known as A Harbor for Peace,

Lisbon is the perfect venue to celebrate RI President Tanaka's 2012-

13 theme of "Peace Through Service". RI conventions offer an ideal

opportunity to network with Rotarians from all over the world,

develop leadership skills, and connect with others who share your

recreational, professional, or humanitarian interests. Online

registration is now open! Visit the Rotary International Lisbon

website and sign up today! For more information, go to:

www.riconvention.org