Chef Carl from Yavapai College's Culinary Arts has invited all Rotary Club members to a Showcase of the Culinary Arts Program at Yavapai College’s West Sedona Campus. The event, featuring food tasting and a tour of the facility is on Wednesday, December 7 from 4:30 - 7 p.m.  This is an end-of-semester program that will hopefully evolve into a recurring event.  A "course final" if you will.  

 

If you have any questions, please contact Rotary Club of Sedona President Jean Barton at jeancbarton@icloud.com or reach out to Yavapai College.

The Holidays are here!  It is a time to reflect on what we are grateful for as well as for giving gifts.  Khalil Gibran said, "You give but little when you give of your possessions.  It is when you give of yourself that you truly give."  The following are opportunities to give of yourself this December.  Please join in as many as you can!  ALL are welcome to join!  (You do not have to be a member to come help!)

 

Adopt-a-Family.  The families are chosen and the wish lists have been compiled.  Please email Heather (heather@frontburnermedia.com) with what you'd like to purchase before you do so!  We don't want to duplicate gifts this year!  Shopping not really your thing?  Then please go to our website to the yellow Donate button on the right side, select Adopt-a-Family and make a donation.  All money collected will go to supplementing gifts and purchasing gift cards for Clark's and gas stations, etc. to help with family expenses.  Please complete your donations and bring your gifts to Eye Boutique of Sedona Storage by December 14th at 5 p.m.  We will be wrapping those gifts in our own Rotary wrapping paper at our meeting on December 15th.  Please bring scissors, tape, and ribbons if you'd like to participate!

 

Manzanita Outreach.  We will be packing food boxes for the Hopi Reservation at 406 S. 6th Street in Cottonwood.  Contact Heather if you'd like to carpool.  We will start with a tour of the facility at 7:30 a.m. on Thursday, December 8th.  We will finish up by 9:30 a.m.  This may develop into an ongoing club project!

 

Winter Wonderland at Verde Valley School has been postponed!  Due to several active cases of COVID on campus, the VVS administration has moved to partial COVID restrictions.  This is due to the fact that many of the students have upcoming international flights home.  If these students cannot get home, they will be homeless for the holidays as the campus is closed.  But things always happen for reason.....perfect those chili recipes as there will be a chili competition!  Please mark your calendars:  Saturday, January 21st from 2 - 6 p.m.  Even though Iranian officials have signaled that they are going to shut down the "morality police," we cannot let up.  Join VVS Interact at Winter Wonderland to raise money for United for Iran.

 

Sedona Area Homeless Alliance.  Come to Decanter on Wednesday, December 14th from 5 - 6:30 p.m. to complete what we started last month:  plarning.  This is the last chance to repurpose those plastic grocery bags!  (At least until next year!)

 

Verde Valley Care Givers.  Every year VVCG gets gifts for their "neighbors."  The challenge is finding enough "Santas" to deliver them!  Miki will let us know when the gifts are ready for pick up.  Addresses and phone numbers of the recipients will be provided.  We then make contact and deliver whenever it is convenient during the week of December 19-23.  Please contact Miki (medzugan@gmail.com) if you have any questions.  

Rob gave us a year-end review of our Veterans' Raffle.  We will be giving a check for $10,000 to the VA in Prescott at our meeting on January 5th.  Be sure to join us for that award presentation!

 

Speaking of awards, Rob was our Veterans' Raffle MVP, earning an Above and Beyond pin.  He was assisted by Robert and Ernie, who each received a special Rotary Veterans' pin.  Thanks to all who participated and made this event a huge success.

 

Of special note, Phong's wife, Donna, won one of the raffle prizes!  This meant a lot to her and was a poignant ending to this year's fundraising drive.

 

We did some Monday afternoon quarterbacking after the raffle and celebrated our successes while finding areas for improvement.  Cathleen Banister-Marx joined us and enthusiastically appreciated the opportunity to review the event.  She offered her heartfelt thanks to the club for continuing her father's legacy.  Stay tuned for new updates to the raffle format for 2022-23!

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Carolyn was at it again, asking us to think about how we see our club.  This time the question is, "Are we a fundraising organization or a service organization?"  At the heart of that question is, "How do you define service?"  Carol said that when people ask what Rotary does, we don't say we are a fundraising organization.  So what do you say besides our motto, "Nurturing our communities through service"?  What does that even mean to you?

 

The Community Service team has the lead on our "Signature Event."  Event does not mean fundraising by definition.  Can we have an event that just brings community together without money as a focus?

 

John Maynard Keynes said, "The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones."  What do you think?  We'll continue this discussion while we wrap presents at our next meeting!