With the opening of the new school year, it is appropriate to
spotlight Morgan Hill Rotary
’s involvement with the youth of our community. Rotary is very
supportive of our youth, especially in recognizing and fostering
assets and skills that will make today’s youth tomorrow’s community
leaders.
With the opening of the new school year, it is appropriate to spotlight Morgan Hill Rotary’s involvement with the youth of our community. Rotary is very supportive of our youth, especially in recognizing and fostering assets and skills that will make today’s youth tomorrow’s community leaders.
With the opening of the new Sobrato High School. Morgan Hill Rotary can now boast that we sponsor and mentor four Interact Clubs in the Morgan Hill community. Interact is a youth version of a Rotary Club, where with mentoring from faculty advisers and local Rotary Club members, students meet weekly to organize and execute their own local service projects and fund raising events for projects they support both locally or internationally.
Our four clubs and their mentors are: Live Oak High School: David de la Cuesta working with teacher Charlene Wiltsey; Central High School: Dan Newquist working with new principal Irene Macias-Morris; the Charter School of Morgan Hill: Brian Martin working with principal Paige Cisewski on a junior high (7th and 8th grade) version of Interact; and Sobrato High School: Dana Ditmore working with faculty rep Christine Filios.
We are all looking forward to the official chartering of this brand new Interact Club, the first extra-curricular club on the Sobrato campus!
Rotary also celebrates a “Student of the Month” twice a month at our regular meetings. By honoring two students each month, we are able to recognize a student at every Morgan Hill school – public and private – once a year. The student winners are selected by the school faculty and come with their families to share lunch and a few words about themselves and their future plans with the Club.
Next spring, Rotarians will gather on our three high school campuses to interview students for two awards. Sophomores and juniors are interviewed for appointment to the annual Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA) camp, a week-long stay in the Santa Cruz mountains in June that builds interpersonal and leadership skills for those selected to attend. Morgan Hill usually sends five or six students to RYLA. We will also be interviewing for the awarding of 11 scholarships to graduating seniors, 10 at $1,000 and the $2,000 Fitzsimmons agricultural scholarship.
Rotary values youth and serves youth to help build a better community today and tomorrow. Rotary also values fellowship. Recently many of our Club members and spouses attended a San Jose Giants game, enjoying the pre-game barbecue and the ambiance of the Friday evening ballpark environment. We’ve scheduled a fun “Texas Hold ‘Em” event in October and plans are already under way for the annual Christmas dinner event in December.
This year, Rotary will have a booth at the Taste of Morgan Hill on Sept. 25- 26. We invite you to come by and chat, learn more about Rotary and see if perhaps you would like to get involved. Hope to see you there!
The week after the Taste is one of the biggest events of the year for Rotary, our annual Golf Tournament on Friday, Oct. 1. Played at the lush and lovely San Juan Oaks course just outside San Juan Bautista, this is our primary fund raiser for the year, an annual event that usually brings in over $30,000 to help fund our charitable giving – all of which goes right back into the Morgan Hill community, like the annual youth scholarships. Look for entry forms in the Morgan Hill Times or go to http://www.morganhillrotary.org/golf.html to sign up as a sponsor and/or a player for this fantastic and fun event. You get breakfast, lunch, dinner, beverages on the course and the opportunity to play a great golf course.
Thank you goes to our major sponsors: South Valley Internet, South Valley Developers, South Valley National Bank, Saint Louise Hospital, Anaerobe Systems and the Animal Care Center. There is certainly plenty of time to add your name to this list, and there are many sponsorship opportunities at various levels.
Come see Rotary at the Taste of Morgan Hill or at our golf tournament. If you have interest in learning more about or getting involved with Rotary and our activities, and can’t make it to these events, contact me at st*******@*****er.net or 779-6992.
Steve Tate is immediate past president of Morgan Hill Rotary.
