Hello, fellow District 5810 Rotarians. What an amazing month October has been. I’ve visited forty-five D5810 Rotary clubs so far and met some amazing Rotarians.
World Polio Day Highlights
I spent several nights during the past two weeks at various District 5810 events highlighting the work our district is doing in the fight against polio. I played Music Bingo with the Plano club. I sat on a dock at White Rock Lake with the Dallas club during Pints for Polio and won a gift prize (beer socks) at Pours for Polio with the Richardson and Richardson East clubs.
Even with those outstanding events, I think the highlight for me was the success of our first World’s Largest Polio Walk. What an amazing morning we had on Saturday, October 24, at Brookhaven College for the Polio Walk. Our District Polio Chairs, Harsha Madhani and Tamara Thomas along with their team, did an unbelievable job putting this walk together. The team raised $25,415 and had 228 walkers registered, with over 150 walkers at the event. My counterparts in Zone 25B and 29 tell me that we had sixteen districts, 444 Rotary clubs, 120 walks and over $430,000 was raised. Along with the 2 for 1 match from the Gates Foundation, we’ll reach our Zone goal of $1,000,000 with almost $1.3 million raised.
Attn: Club Membership Chairs:
As RI President Yinka Babalola challenges us to “Be Better Than Your Best.” I challenge every club membership chairperson to do two things this month.
- Develop a plan to find the new Rotarians to exceed the previous best year for new members.
- Attend the monthly membership ZOOM call with District Membership Chairperson Susan Plonka. It’s usually on Tuesday or Wednesday night during the 3rd week of the month and takes less than an hour. If it helps you to find one or two new members this year, I’m sure that it will be time well spent.
Club Leadership Exchange
Have you attended a CLE meeting yet during this Rotary year? Ask any Rotarian that’s been to one. It’s not the same old Roundtable.
I encourage all Rotarians and recommend each club officer attend the monthly Club Leadership Exchange. These are held on the second Saturday of every month. In October, we learned almost everything there was to learn about the youth programs in our district, from our world-renowned Camp RYLA to the 4-Way Speech Contest to both our long and short term Youth Exchange Programs. Past District Governor Mary Bedosky also talked about what is happening with our Rotaract and Interact programs.
For our next meeting, we’ll be doing something a little different and focusing a little more on my wife Jill’s DG Spouse Project with the Senior Source and Dr Leigh Richardson of the Brain Performance Center. The topic will be Active Aging and maintaining cognitive strength, emotional resilience, and overall vitality as we move through midlife and beyond.
If you’re a Rotarian that used to wake up early on Saturday morning to watch cartoons or regularly used a landline phone, then you should make plans to attend this CLE.
The exchange is also a valuable opportunity to meet other Rotarians and learn what fellow clubs are doing.
Next CLE Meeting
Rotary is a big world, and our clubs and district are only a small part of it. Please join us for the next Club Leadership Exchange:
- Date: Saturday, November 14, 2026
- Time: 9:30 a.m.–noon
- Location: Dallas campus of East Texas A&M, 8750 Northpark Central
Yours in Rotary,