June 1997 Public Relations

Public Relations Newsletter June 1997

When you join Rotary, you accept a total package of Club Service,

Vocational Service, Community Service, and International Service.  Each of

these four avenues has its own unique purpose and reason for being

reflected in the Object of Rotary.  The complete Rotarian does not

concentrate on only one or two programs or projects, but treads a well-worn

path on all four Avenues of Service.

Help your club grow by using Rotary's unique classification system as the

framework for membership development.  Attract new members by developing

the kind of meaningful service projects that offer qualified men and women

a reason to join Rotary.  Give all your members an opportunity to use the

leadership skills and experience that qualified them to become Rotarians in

the first place.  Create an ambience of fellowship and friendship that will

contribute to effective service.

Restore Vocational Service to its original Stature by assuming leadership

roles in your professional or trade associations and sharing Rotary's

ideals and high ethical standards with your professional colleagues.

Address practical workplace issues, such as labor negotiations, using your

considerable influence as business and professional leaders to effect

viable solutions,

Make COmmunity Service the hallmark of Rotary by developing meaningful

projects that clearly identify your club as a leader in the community.

Tackle the most difficult community problems - hunger, poverty, illiteracy,

child abuse, and street crime.  Rather than simply raising funds for other

organizations, put Rotary's stamp on your projects and involve members in

all stages of planning and implementation.

Expand your efforts beyond national borders to help achieve better

communities in other parts of the world.  Support World Community Service

projects that combat poverty and hunger - the number one obstacle to world

peace - and promote literacy for all.  Participate in The Rotary Foundation

programs as a way of further extending Rotary's human highway to peace.

Support your Foundation through gifts to the Annual Fund and the Permanent

Fund, so that these programs can continue to relieve human suffering and

foster international understanding.

Recruit parents of Ambassador Scholars

Recruit people who have hosted exchange students

Have a car/float in parades - with youth exchange students, scholars, etc.

or recognize the language teachers and have them ride in the car/float.

 by Judy Andersen

Adult literacy was a 1983 pet project of president Reagan's.  In 1985

Governor Jim Thompson appropriated special funds for teaching illiterate

adults in Illinois.  Thus began Volunteers in Teaching Adult Literacy

(VITAL) at Sauk Valley College at Dixon, IL.

VITAL found representatives in each of the surrounding communities to help

with public relations as well as locating people who are willing to

volunteer their time as tutors.  I was one of those representatives along

with a friend Carolyn, who also belonged to Bryant Club, an old time

literary club in Walnut.  The Bryant CLub is not a service organization but

it contributes a small donation from its treasury each year to purchase

paperback books for children.  Carolyn's husband who is a Rotarian

encouraged his organization to also donate funds for the purchase of the

books that would go into Food Baskets for Needy Families and to go to our

school's Tot SPot, a preschool class of At-Risk children, and their younger

siblings at their party with families in attendance at Christmastime.

The paperback books, when purchased from a children's book club (Scholastic

Books) at school, become reasonably priced with volume buying which the

Sauk Valley Reading Council undertook to organize.  This year our Bryant

and Rotary Clubs contributed $80 toward the books' purchase, and 80 books

were chosen from the Council's selections for children in our community who

might not have the chance to have their own personal books.  Putting the

books in the hands of children is the goal for these organizations.

Perhaps they will develop an appreciation and interest in reading them.

Last September the organizer of VITAL provided a Rotary program during

Literacy Month.  A short video tape about adult literacy was also shown to

the Walnut Retailers Chamber of Commerce organization along with pamphlets

and brochures.  As a result of these two community exposures, the wife of

one of our Rotarians was a guest that day, decided she would like to use

her retirement time to become a tutor and is now thrilled to be helping a

young woman.  This writer, a new Rotarian and a retired teacher, is

teaching an adult young man to read and is thoroughly enjoying the

experience as he progresses.  I am sure his employers encourage him to get

the help he needed to learn to read.  His needs and aspirations are much

different from the classroom needs of children.  He wants to become a

volunteer member of the fire department; perhaps someday when he has

learned to read, he will be qualified to reach his goal.

Being literate is an asset; being illiterate is a handicap.

The Oregon Rotary Club reports raising $7000 from their golf outing last

month.  Great Job!  Community organizations will benefit from the effort

put forth by their members.  Talk about playing through, they are already

into another fund raiser, staffing the "jail" at the Rock N River Fest.

Marseilles Rotary Club held a car wash last month and raised $250 toward

their WCS (World Community Service) Project.  80% of the members turned out

on a beautiful day.

East Moline Rotary raised $5700 for D.A.R.E. and the Make-A-Wish FOundation

by sponsoring an all area Rotary Club dinner.  They sold raffle tickets for

$100 each and solicited items for a silent auction.  Area clubs were

invited to attend a dinner on May 22 where people could write their bids

for 15 great items and witness the drawing of cash prizes from the raffle.

Some of the items in the silent auction were a John Deere lawn mower, a

print by Edna Hibel, athletic shoes, a stereo, and $500 in legal fees.