August 4, 2020

Rotary’s Four Way Test of the things we think, say or do: 1.) Is it the TRUTH? 2.) Is it FAIR to all concerned? 3.) Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS? 4.) Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

The San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club meeting for Tuesday, August 4th at 6:00 p.m. Zoom meeting - www.zoom.com

Meeting ID: 971 0278 0940 Password: 925593 One Click Link - https://zoom.us/j/97102780940?pwd=WG9CQjZsYStVRlRuZEU0S204RDV2dz09

San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club Chartered May 19, 1987 - District 5840 - Club #24625 www.sanortheastrotary.com

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Mayra Rivero, Honorary Member of the San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club, will be celebrating her birthday on August 9th. Happy Birthday, Mayra.

Have you signed up for the San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club team that will be participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s? The event will take

place on Saturday, October 24th. This annual event is held in over 600 communities nationwide and is the world’s single largest fundraiser for Alzheimer care, support and research.

Although there is no fee to register for the walk, each club member is encouraged to join the team through the link listed below. This will help track our individual donations towards our club’s goal of raising $1,000. The page also has multiple ways to forward the donation link through social media and other forwarding sources which will make it easier to get our team’s donation link out and will help us out towards that goal.

https://act.alz.org/site/TR/Walk2020/TX-SanAntonioandSouthTexas?team_id=624034&pg=team&fr_id=13878

If anyone has any questions, please contact Russell Sturgeon at: Russell.Sturgeon@frostbank.com

Our guest speaker tonight is very familiar with the San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club. Chelsea Torres is an Honorary Member of our Rotary Club and took great care of us when we were meeting at The Lion & Rose in The Forum.

Chelsea is a San Antonio native and joined the KRIS 6 News team in April of 2017. Chelsea graduated from Texas State University in December of 2016 where she was the Assistant Program Director for the school’s radio station, KTSW 89.9. Immediately after graduating, Chelsea went from intern to morning production assistant for News 4 San Antonio and was also the TV Insider for the former San Antonio Scorpions soccer team.

Before moving to Corpus Christi, Chelsea worked with Cox Communications at the CBS Sports Radio and KKYX stations as a radio DJ. Chelsea is currently a Sunrise News reporter and KRIS 6 Sports Weekend Sports reporter. Chelsea has competed in a few pageants and was an active volunteer with Meals on Wheels. She enjoys watching a good game or MMA fight and spends most of her time outdoors, hiking or fishing. But most of all, she enjoys meeting new people and telling their stories!

UPCOMING GUEST SPEAKERS

August 11th Jan King, Alliance between Rotary and Toastmasters

August 18th George Green, The Public Theater

Rotary District 5840 is excited to announce the first-ever Virtual District Town hall event starting Thursday, August 13, 2020, at 6:30 p.m. The virtual town hall events will bring in special guest speakers from all around the world with varying topics to inspire, inform, and support the work we are doing as Rotarians!

The first guest speaker will be Assistant Governor, Gloria Wilson, from Del Rio! Gloria will provide insight into the International Bi-District collaboration between D5840 and D4110. Also, learn more about who benefits the most from such collaborations and how Rotary opens opportunities! Follow the link below to register: https://www.rotary5840.org/Stories/district-virtual-town-hall-event-series

A reminder to club members that club dues for July - December 2020 are now past due. If you have not already done so, please remit your payment to club

treasurer Becky Robles at the address below:

Rebecca Robles IBC SC Tesoro-Corporate Credit 8770 Tesoro Drive San Antonio, TX 78217

Not just one hour a week,

but a way of life. 7/28/20

Discovering the power of Rotary during a pandemic by Nathan Rizzo, Rotary Club of San Antonio, Texas

I have been a member of my club for two years, but it was in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that I learned what it truly means to be a Rotarian. When my state of Texas went into quarantine, our club president, Brandon Logan, set up a ‘virtual happy hour’ on Thursday evenings. It was amazing to see all of the friendly, smiling faces of my fellow Rotarians. We spent an hour catching up; and then our conversation turned to service, and what we could do to help during the pandemic.

Our club had adopted a local elementary school, the Martin Luther King Academy, for the 2019-20 Rotary year. We had already created a Rotary Reading Room at the school to provide a quiet place for the students to read and do homework. We also made improvements to the campus through a program we call Kingdom for Kids. We knew we could not abandon the school during this time of need. When we reached out to the school principal to ask how we could help, her answer was succinct. They needed:

1.Food 2.Access to food drives 3.School supplies.

It was in organizing an event to meet those needs that I learned about the power of Rotary. Our club had connection with the San Antonio Food Bank and the United Way. Within a week, we had a project confirmed and scheduled. We had offers of trucks, boxes, and anything else we needed to run the food drive, and it all came from our members.

Three weeks later, we had 60 Rotarians, 10 other volunteers, and staff at the school ready for our first Saturday delivery. The plan included sorting food pallets dropped off by the San Antonio Food Bank in the parking lot of the school, creating separate stations for individual food items. Volunteers would then drive by each station while other volunteers loaded the items into vehicles.

We had a well-thought-out plan. But then 250 cars showed up, more than double the number we anticipated. Fortunately, our club has so many outstanding leaders that we were able to pivot in a short period of time and rearrange the drop off site, repacking food to feed as many families as possible.

Each family received meat, vegetables, fruit, non-dairy milk, bread, flour, and other staples. Through our third distribution, we have delivered over 100,000 pounds of food to serve approximately 5,000 people.

I knew our club was more than just a “lunch” club but I was amazed at how quickly we were able to come together to serve our community in such a meaningful way. I truly believe that when Rotarians unite in a mission, we can do anything.

The article and photo above were published in the July 24, 2020 edition of the Rotary in Review online publication.

With social distancing being practiced of course, the San Antonio Northeast Rotary Club held a fundraiser at Willie’s Grill & Icehouse on Tuesday, July 28th. These photos contain just some of the folks that attended the fundraiser. Willie’s donated 15% of each customer’s total back to our Rotary club. This Willie’s fundraiser raised the most funds of any fundraiser that we have held at Willie’s in the past. This can be attributed to a couple of factors: 1.) Willie’s counting sales for all day and not just dinner; 2.) this event taking the place of our regular weekly meeting, and therefore, only having folks get out once during the week, and 3.) people wanting to get out of the house, responsibly, during the current COVID-19 pandemic. Thanks to all that came out to support our event.