May is Youth Services Month. We are in good hands in 5810, with the myriad of youth programs our clubs undertake. Our RYLA program is a pioneer of innovation, and have expanded to winter and summer summits for their alumni.

Join this live event on Saturday, May 2, 2020 at 10AM to hear stories of hope, inspiration and gratitude from Rotarians, Rotaractors and friends of #Rotary from across the globe as they share what they are doing to help their communities. The telethon will also showcase how our polio eradication infrastructure is helping to combat COVID-19. The goal is to raise more than $1 million dollars! To watch, visit facebook.com/rotary. Here is how you can participate:

District 5810, despite having a generous year of sharing Local and world-wide grants, scrambled to identify any surplus funds that could be used to help during the Crisis. It was decided that local food distribution points needed help, and a challenge was issued to the clubs, allowing for a matching grant.

Last week, the Rotary Club of Allen Sunrise decided that their community’s spirits might welcome a boost.This week, volunteer-teams began a special deployment of 600+ flags to their flag customers’ neighborhoods, without financial impact to their current dues and in addition to the year’s seven flag holidays.

Just when you think things are going smoothly, a far less than microscopic virus on the other side of the world brings our economy to a halt, and with it a crisis for many of those most in need of help.  One of Rotary Club of Park Cities' collaborative partners, the Salvation Army, funds its Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) through their Family Stores. The ARC provides access to a new life for the men who live there hoping to overcome their addictions. However, with the Family Stores closed, 98% of the funding for the ARC was gone.

Mesquite Rotary president John Taylor has sent donation checks of $500 each to support the work of Sharing Life Community Outreach and Mesquite Social Services during this time of the coronavirus crisis.  

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed our healthcare system to its limits. We can take action now through a citizen volunteer opportunity called Volunteer Surge! Rotary Clubs across the country are partnering with Volunteer Surge to recruit one million volunteers to participate in a new program that provides training online, for free, to become a Telehealth Worker or a Community Health Worker. Rotarian founded nonprofit The Global Impact Group is leading this effort. Click here to join the effort called Volunteer Surge! 

Life is a little different for us now. You will not see many fun photos of Rotarians at work in person at the moment.. However you can find a plethora of evidence of Rotary at work! This somewhat 'boring' photo show fruits and vegetables growing in the Sisters' Garden, an enclosed garden run by nuns (Mother Theresa's order) as part of a convent in South Dallas.

“The mobile food pantry giveaway is expected to be one of the largest in North Texas,” and “North Texas Food Bank to distribute free food at Fair Park with mobile pantries” are just two of the recent headlines as more and more families seek assistance. The North Texas Food Bank is a collaborative partner of RCPC. As one of our major projects, in 2015 Rotary Club of Park Cities raised the funds to donate the first mobile food pantry to the North Texas Food Bank.

Agape Clinic, which provides medical services in East Dallas to the homeless, the poor and the working poor, and a collaborative partner of Rotary Club of Park Cities, remains open to provide crucial medical care.

Frisco Sunrise Rotary Club sponsored Frisco Young Entrepreneurs Academy (YEA!) graduate, founder and CEO of Generations Hope’s mission to bring memorable experiences and meaningful relationships to underprivileged youth living in multi-family residences.

When the national, state, and local governments added ’stay-at-home’ to the collective vernacular and called on Americans to practice new social distancing guidelines in an effort to help flatten the pandemic curve, Lindsey Lloyd, a retired army veteran military bandsman and Rotarian in the Allen Sunrise Club, placed calls to his friends and neighbors around the country to cheer them up during the quarantine by playing requested familiar eventful songs on his trumpet. (https://youtu.be/Oiwj8qr6Nek)

A really unique opportunity was presented to Plano East Rotary from Darren Cooins, a Rotarian in the DeSoto Rotary club.  He called PDG Ean Sullivan, a member of our club, to tell him that the Kenyan Ministry of Health had contacted him and asked him to create a video for Kenyan TV using puppets to teach the WHO procedures for  hand washing, social distancing, and coughing techniques, specifically targeting children.

Interview with Jeet Solanki regarding Preston Hollow Rotary Club project supporting Inspired Vision Food Bank in Dallas. Click photo to listen to interview.

When local non-profits in McKinney described mounting needs at a time when their scheduled fund-raising activities were cancelled due to the
coronavirus quarantine, McKinney Sunset, a satellite of the Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise stepped up.

There is a company called Trusted World that provides services to a variety of 501 C 3 entities.  It is a unique company started by Michael Garrett from his garage about 10 years ago.   If you think of them as a clearinghouse for other 501's to shop for the needs of their recipients that is accurate. 

Coppell Rotary continues to meet via ZOOM in place of our regular meetings, the 1^st and 3^rd Thursday’s of each month at 6 pm. Attendance has been stellar as we have learned to lean on each other during these hard times. Coppell Rotary, a proud supporter of Metrocrest Services,  had Tracy Eubanks, CEO of Metrocrest Services as our first ZOOM speaker.

The Rotary Club of Dallas has launched Rotary Feeds The Need a matching fund supported by The Rotary Club of Dallas encouraging members watching via Facebook to donate their lunch funds through the Dallas Rotary Club Foundation to a worthy organization that supports our affected Dallas community by feeding those left hungry or our first responders working tirelessly.