Aloha Rotarians and Friends,
I hope everyone is staying healthy and safe during this time of difficulty and transition to home-based activities. The federal government and Governor Ige has asked us to participate in home-based activities until April 30th (excluding necessary travel to refresh food and supplies, and medical care). This will not be forever! We will come back together as a group soon in May, with a renewed heart of gratitude to help others in our community. I have also been provided an excellent facts-based presentation regarding COVID-19 passed on by a military professional. It has very good graphs to help visualize information.
We have some exciting club updates to share this morning!
Our club has submitted two emergency grant requests to provide relief to our community through two projects, partnering with Rotarian Kathleen Merriam. These are requests and have not been approved yet (they were submitted this past weekend), but I wanted to share this information with all of you to show that even during this difficult time and social distancing, Rotarians can still make a difference by helping others in our Windward community.
1. $5,000 COVID-19 Grant Application: There are five Clubhouses on Oahu and each has relationships with at least one Oahu Rotary Club. Clubhouses are rehabilitation day programs for people with mental illness funded by the Hawaii State Adult Mental Health Division. The programming provides stability and routines, as well as vocational rehabilitation services. They are accredited by Clubhouse International for quality. Each Clubhouse will be "adopted" by a Rotary club near them and receive $1,000 in grant funds. Ours is the Ko’olau Clubhouse in Kāne’ohe.
Each Clubhouse and Rotary Club would identify key items to be included in a “Care Package” for community members that are homebound by the COVID-19 virus. An example of care package items would include: Canned meat and soup, Slippers and socks, Hygiene products that include shampoo, soap, toothbrushes, Toilet paper, Laundry detergent, Face/body wipes, and small-amount Longs gift cards.
We have partnered with four other Rotary Clubs for this project, and our club will be the primary coordinator, hand in glove with Kathleen Merriam from the E-Club.
2. $2,000 COVID-19 Grant Application: Similar to amazing response garnered in such a short time, we will work with our "adopted" Windward Community Mental Health Center in Kāne’ohe to provide similar care packages from this past week's project on a larger scale. The grant request will cover the above materials and some family-centric items for children.
Missing Rotary? (of course you are!) There are opportunities to meet online with E-clubs. In our Hawaii District, we have two e-clubs that you may want to check out, as well as the first-ever e-club in Rotary!
* The Rotary E-club of Hawaii will be meeting online. Please go to their website for http://www.
rotaryeclubhawaii.org/e- meetings for information. * WE Rotary meets on the 1st and 3rd Monday at 3pm HST. Today they have a special online meeting and Kat Huber will be talking about the Coronavirus. Their web address is: http://
rotaryeclubdistrict5000hawaii. org/
That said, we have had a suggestion of holding our Windward Sunrise Rotary meetings via Zoom, as some other local clubs have begun doing to check in with members and pass information. If there is interest, please let me know! I would be happy to coordinate with President-Elect Sarah Herrmann to make this happen for our WSRC members and friends.
- Hawaii Food Bank - Want to personally better our community? If you'd like to help those in need, here's your chance! needs: Monetary donations, food (drop off at Napa Auto Parts in Kailua), and your help to sort/pack donations.
- April Events: Participate in the Rotary Spring Training Assembly online! The District has shared a Spring Training Assembly webinar schedule with each class lasting Saturdays, 9:00 am to noon. You can pick what topics interest you most - they are diverse and wide-ranging, applicable to business interactions and management! They can also help us all understand a little bit more about our Oahu community and the social issues we face. Check it out:
Apr 4 - Youth Service, Community Service, Vocational Service, education/literacy
Apr 11 - International Service, Grant Management, climate change/environment
Apr 18 - Public Image, Online Resources, Disease prevention/health
May 2 - Membership, Club Service, Club Trainer, Peace initiatives
May 9 - Rotary 101, Foundation 101, Homelessness on Oahu
May 16 - Secretary, Treasurer Basics, Leadership Opportunities, Mental health/Suicide Prevention Update
Zoom online meeting webinar codes and directions will be posted on the rotaryd5000.org website (left side) and will be sent out to members via e-mail (I will send them to our friends and future Rotarians). You can listen in on just the ones that interest you or do them all. I guarantee you that you will get a ton of great information and ideas - and please take notes so we can share ideas at our next club meeting in May!
Please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, concerns, or just need someone to talk with! If you have any photos of your activities during social distancing, feel free to e-mail or text them to me to be featured on our social media :) All information from our weekly e-mails will be posted here as well.
In health and wellness,
Brenna Dicks
WSRC President