Join us Tuesday, February 17th at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center where our guest speaker will be Curt Smith, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Rochester.

Curt will discuss what Republicans can learn from Bush's successes and failures as President as they nominate a Presidential candidate next year.

2/17/2015 Curt Smith, Senior Lecturer in English at the University of Rochester

"George H.W. Bush - and the 2016 Election"

Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center

2/24/2015 Jack Garner, Freelance Writer for the Democrat and Chronicle

Locust Hill Country Club

3/3/2015 Breakfast Meeting

Allison D. O'Malley, Executive Director, RESOLVE

Children of Domestic Violence: Terror, Courage, Resiliency & You

Please RSVP to Brandi in the Rotary Office at 546-7435 x210 or brandi@rochesterrotary.org

3/3/2015 Bob Duffy, President and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance

Locust Hill Country Club

3/10/2015 Edward Doherty, retired from Rochester Area Community Foundation where he served as VP for Community Programs

" Understanding the Concentration of Poverty in Greater Rochester"

Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center

Sunshine Kids Gala Information  

This year's Joseph A. Floreano Sunshine Award will be handed out at the Sunshine Kids Gala and this year's recipient is Chuck Wolcott. This award recognizes a Rochester Rotarian who frequently and continuously contributes to the success of the Sunshine Campus.

Chuck Wolcott has been a member of Rochester Rotary since 1998 and has been coordinating, working, volunteering and consulting at the Sunshine Campus for over 20 years. Chuck is the Owner of Wolcott Contracting and Consulting.

Chuck has helped to coordinate many projects at the Campus, just to name a few the Gateway project, Adstaff building addition, Dick Mack Nature Center, Haccamo Train track and platform installation,renovations of Robert Clinger Memorial Miniature Golf Course, Bucky's Splash Pad, building of newest Cabin (Tuscarora), building of new maintenance shop, and most recently the Treehouse project.This list just hits the surface of Chuck's work and dedication to the Campus, his contributions are endless and matched by few others.

Congratulations Chuck!

Each year, the Rochester Rotary Club Presents its historic Rotary Award to an individual who most exemplifies the motto of Rotary International: 

Service Above Self

Deadline for submitting a nomination has been extended to Friday, February 20, 2015.

Rotary Award Application

We hope you will join us Tuesday, March 3rd at 8:00 a.m. the Rotary Offices for our monthly breakfast meeting.  We will welcome guest speaker Allison O'Malley, Executive Director of RESOLVE.

More than 1 billion children around the world bear witness to domestic violence and live in homes where adult caregivers fail to provide a safe, nurturing environment. UNICEF calls the impact of children living with domestic violence "the most pervasive human rights violation in the world'. The consequences to children witnessing domestic violence are far reaching, lasting into adulthood and subsequent generations, but there is reason for hope. As spouses, parents, managers and community leaders, find out how childhood domestic violence may be impacting you and people you care about and what you can do to help.

Please RSVP to Brandi in the Rotary Office at 546-7435 x210 or brandi@rochesterrotary.org.

Join us Friday, March 6th from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for a behind the scences tour of Precise Tool & Manufacturing Inc.

The company was founded in 1974, and started off as a quick turn around small parts manufacturer. Over the next few years the business grew and expanded. Precise Tool and Manufacturing Inc. diversified its capabilities and earned its reputation by building special machinery and prototype equipment for several local industries. Throughout this time the company built up its CNC machine tool base to support the efforts of its design and build department. Seeing the potential growth in CNC parts manufacturing Precise focused its efforts in this area and moved to its current location at 9 Coldwater Crescent, starting with 7,500 square feet of space. At this location Precise put on multiple building expansions and new equipment purchases to support its core competency of precision CNC machining.

Reserve your space today by contacting Myrna in the Rotary Office at 546-7435 x201 or myrna@rochesterrotary.org.

Participants will be required to sign a waiver form prior to entering the manufacturing floor in addition to wearing safety glasses which will be provided.

For those who are interested, join us for lunch at Rohrbach Brewing Company on 3859 Buffalo Road immediately following the tour. 

Join us Tuesday, March 24th from 12:00-1:30 p.m for our B2B Trade Show at the Joseph A. Floreano Rochester Riverside Convention Center.

This is a great opportunity to showcase your business to your fellow Rotarians and guests.

Booth Size: 10x10 w/8' table

Booth Cost: $100 (includes two lunches)

LIMITED BOOTHS AVAILABLE - Half of the booths are already sold.

Reserve your space now with Heather at 585-546-7435 x204 or hrossi@rochesterrotary.org.

Every guest that a Rotarian registers in advance will enter the Rotarian into a drawing for four free Rotary lunches! 

This fall, the International Service Committee (ISC) partnered with the University of Rochester chapter of Engineers Without Borders (UR EWB) to support the development and implementation of an improved portable water distribution system for a primary school campus within the community of El Play, Don Juan in the Dominican Republic. UR EWB is a student chapter of EWB-USA, a nonprofit humanitarian organization established to support community-driven development programs worldwide. EWB-USA encourages "global engineers who are capable of working in multicultural and multidisciplinary teams to effectively manage projects both domestically and internationally."  Over the past few months, the ISC has supported UR EWB on several fronts, from providing insights about businesses and other organizations that may be willing and able to assist on this water purification project, to offering advisory support, and connecting UR EWB members to Rotarians from other clubs and districts by inviting them to have a table at the Eastern Cities Dinner (picture attached).

The UR students involved with Engineers without Borders recently returned to Rochester from their assessment trip to the Dominican Republic in connection with their project (pictures attached). During their ten-day visit, where they stayed with host families in the school community, they gathered valuable information regarding the current state of the water (high total hardness, but no serious bacterial contaminants), and signed the official program contract with a community-based organization of parents, teachers and friends of the school and two NGOs connected with the school. They also took measurements throughout the school complex, visited hardware and plumbing stores to make an inventory of available, local materials, and administered surveys to children at the school to gain an understanding of their knowledge of personal hygiene practices. Additionally, they attended a Santa Domingo Bella Vista Rotary Club meeting, and met Miguelina Acosta de Guillermo, their District Governor-Elect, who was in Rochester in January as a participant in the Milt-Matthews District Governor-Elect Hospitality Program.

The five members of the UR EWB and their engineering mentor, Gary Moore, saw first-had that Don Juan is rural and remote, with most of its almost 2,500 inhabitants lacking access to basic services. Diarrheal diseases attributed to poor sanitation are common. The primary school that is the focus of their project, Escuela Taller Santa Maria Josefa Rossello, currently has over 400 students from the poorest families in Don Juan; many have developmental disabilities. The school cannot maintain a constant water supply because it depends on electrical power supplied sporadically by the state. There are frequent unscheduled power outages during the day that leaves the school without any water, resulting in the cancellation of classes and meals, and the unavailability of the restroom facilities. When water is available to students, it is not potable. Students who drink the water are exposing themselves to bacterial and viral infections, which are endemic to the Dominican Republic.

As a result of this assessment trip, UR EWB has decided to design and build a water storage and sanitation system for the primary school to ensure reliable access to a potable water supply.Specific elements under consideration include installing a 4,000-gallon water tank, as well as a water purification facility. The water system will be self-sustaining and be designed to allow for easy maintenance by the local community in the long term. The goal is to provide potable running water for the school so that is less affected by power outages plaguing the area, and to improve the quality of life for the local community, in terms of both health and overall living conditions. 

The Rochester Rotary Club with support from the Rochester Latino Rotary Club (picture attached) is currently in the process of submitting an application for a Rotary District Simplified Grant to help UR EWB raise some of the funds necessary to return to the Dominican Republic to begin the implementation of this system in early 2016. Between now and then, UR EWB will also create relevant educational materials that will provide training for the school community members who will be monitoring and maintaining the system.

The Rochester Rotary Club, in cooperation with Exploring division of the Seneca Waterways Council, BSA, has planned a unique opportunity for area youth from ages 14 to 21, focusing on the many aspects of business, finance and entrepreneurship.  Students will meet once a month at the Rochester Rotary offices and hear from exciting and dynamic business or finance leaders, who will share their personal story, and have a hands-on activity related to their field.  You may be called upon by the Business & Finance Explorer Post advisors Jeff Halik and Mark Kluge to be a guest speaker in your field of expertise.  If you'd like more information on how you can get involved, please contact Jeff at jhalik@bonadio.com or Mark at mark@bluemarkadvisors.com. 

It's that time of year - the 2015 Entertainment Books are now available.

For just $25.00 you save thousands of dollars on everything from the movies to food, groceries to vacations.

To purchase a book stop by the Rotary Office or contact Sally Stookey at 385-3498 or sstookey@frontiernet.net.

  

Birthday gift contributions made will benefit the students at our adopted school, School #8, Roberto Clemente School #8 scholarship students and community service projects with in our community. You may mail your gift to the Rotary Office or bring it with you to a Tuesday meeting.