Story

Recap of last week

Program Recap
Our speaker last week was GRSP student, Alice Löfving, who shared her presentation, “My Amazing Year in Georgia”. Alice will soon complete her studies as a first-year student at Georgia Gwinnett College and return home to her family in Sweden. In a summary of her year here, Alice described her time with her host parent, Susan Bacon, weekend getaways with other GRSP students, and the many wonderful professors and friends she met at GGC. She, also, reflected fondly on her culinary experiences in Georgia. Alice will most especially miss banana pudding, and shrimp and grits. She has become a lover of Waffle House, and enjoys boiled peanuts now that she has learned to first remove the shell before eating. Her most meaningful experience during her year as a GRSP student, though, was attending a Rotaract Leadership Conference, where she participated in a “service above self” team project. Alice’s team won and was awarded a $1,000 cash prize, which her team then donated to a children’s charity in Darjeeling, India. Alice’s presentation was an emotional one as she expressed her gratitude to our Club for the experience, and to her host family, Susan and Kenny Bacon.

Elleda Rule made Alice a homemade quilt to take back home as a reminder of her time here in Georgia. You can see some of her favorite memories by clicking Alice's Slide Show

Alice penned a letter to the Rotary Club below:

Friends and family

It really is difficult to summarize this year. I have experienced more than I could ever dream of and met people who have become some of the most important in my life.

I am very grateful to be able to say that I have a family right here in Georgia.

At GGC I have met several friends, friends who will most certainly last a lifetime. I studied courses that have been eye-opening and If I could pick two favorites, I would choose anthropology and sociology. These courses and the wonderful professors have truly changed the way I view myself and the world around me. It has given me more confidence to start studying psychology when I go back to Sweden. I can’t begin to thank you for the opportunity to experience college here. I really understand now why people hold their college years so close to their hearts. I have had the pleasure of attending several students' weekends, which has been a great opportunity to interact with other students. I have participated in several rotary projects and have truly understood the meaning of “service above self”.

I can truly say that the southern hospitality is very true, from the moment I arrived, I was met by only love from everyone in this state. I truly hope I can take after that behavior and bring it with me, back home.
But the thing I hold closest to my heart is the blessing of my host family. Susan and Kinney Bacon have been the prime example of everything that Rotary stands for. I am both happy and proud to be able to say that I have done this year in Georgia, and that is all because of you and everyone who works with GRSP.

GRSP is something special, it is always going to be something special. From this day I will do my very best to everyday try to live up to the Rotary pillars, I will never forget about this, and I promise to spread the word about GRSP and Georgia, because this is something that I hope more people get to experience, just the way that I did.

Thank you all!
Alice

New Member Induction
Last week, we welcomed and officially inducted our newest Gwinnett Rotary Club member, Olga Gorman. Olga is the CEO of the nonprofit organization, HelpingUkraine. Her sponsor, Emory Morseberger, along with Tom Upchurch, facilitated Olga’s induction, and Olga’s husband, Steve Gorman, was able to attend, as well. Welcome to the Rotary Club of Gwinnett County, Olga!

Support our 2024 District Conference Girl Empowerment Service Project
Did you know 1 in 4 Georgia women struggle to afford necessary period products to be able to manage their menstrual cycles with dignity? 1 in 5 low-income women report missing school, work, and other key life events due to their lack of access to period supplies. Learn how you can help at this year's District Conference.

That’s why we will host a huge period product drive at our 2024 District Conference focused on improving menstrual equity, fighting period poverty across District 6910. Working in partnership with Helping Mamas® we will do our part to ensure girls and women in our District are never left behind and have access to necessary period supplies essential to their education and workforce development success.

More information will be shared during this week's Club meeting.

GRSP Fellows
Katheryne Fields (Rotary Club of Griffin) joined us last week as the Program Director for the Georgia Rotary Student Program. During our meeting, Katheryne inducted Bill McCargo as a Will Watt Fellow for his generous donation of $1,000+ to the GRSP endowment. Katheryne also inducted Joie Hain as a Hue Thomas Fellow for her contribution of $2,500+ to the GRSP endowment. Thank you, Joie and Bill, for your amazing support of our GRSP students!

Rotary IGNITE Mobile App
During our meeting, members were introduced to an innovative tool that our club will use: the IGNITE Mobile App. The IGNITE Mobile App connects to DACdb and serves as a powerful platform designed to facilitate interaction, collaboration, and impact within our club. Developed with the principles of Rotary's service at its core, IGNITE empowers us to connect with community members, organize events, and mobilize resources more efficiently than ever before. In addition, we are working on setting up the ability to pay club invoices through the app!

As members of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett, you now have access to this app. You are encouraged to download the IGNITE Mobile App and explore its features firsthand. Log-in with your DACdb username and password. Keep in mind, if you have not logged into DACdb within the last 12 months, you will not be able to access IGNITE and will need to get a new password.

If you have any questions, reach out to Jennifer Hibbard - [email protected].

6th Annual Derby Down South - Time To Saddle Up!
Thank you to our Derby Hat Sponsors!

So far, our Club has raised $75K+ in sponsors!! That's the most to date, but we still need to raise money in ticket sales too. The website to the Derby Party is live and can be found by visiting https://bit.ly/2024derby.

For those of you who have yet to attend Derby, check out last year's video -  Saddle Up!

We need items for our Silent Auction and on the website, you will see that there is an "Item Donation" form on the website that you can fill out and submit.

If you, your company, or someone you know would be interested, please direct them to the website for all the information.

Let's make the 2024 Derby our biggest and best event ever!

Your Rotary "Why"
Be on the lookout for Joe and/or Marlon to contact you about sharing your "Rotary Why" and/or "Why Rotary" story. To learn more, feel free to reach out to either Marlon or Joe.

The Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship
Elliott Brack, in talking with Adele Steele, the widow of our former member Jim Steele, reported that so far people have contributed $15,000 to the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia to the Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship. If you have not remembered Jim in this way, consider such a contribution to further such scholarship. The donation link: Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship