It's been quite a week to say the least! As we recover from the largest Mayor's Corporate Challenge in our Club history, we are thankful for the sponsors who have entrusted us with both their annual staff engagement activity (ex. Fiserv 653 entrants) and their sponsorship dollars which will enable us to serve our local community in impactful ways. We will have some preliminary numbers for you on Friday, but be confident that we have exceeded budget expectations. It is now up to us to utilize this funding to the benefit of those who need us most.
Week in Review
Following the conclusion of the Mayor's Corporate Challenge on Thursday evening, a number of our Rotarians were fine tuning their ice cream recipes for Mary"s Ice Cream Crankin' on Sunday afternoon. Huge kudos to those who served and those who made ice cream. And while "Fancy Vanilla" and 'Cookie Dough" all sold out, it was Karen Nolan's "Cookie Monster" (blue) ice cream that stole the show, and Mickey Rogers' non-dairly pineapple that was sought-after by many others. We had a great time at a wonderful community event in Roswell for the benefit of The Drake House. Special thanks to Dwayne Kasper who stepped-in for Steve Gillard as lead Rotarian. What a pleasure to serve!
On Monday afternoon I chaired a North Fulton Rotary Opioid Taskforce meeting at the Alpharetta City Hall which included Presidents of our North Fulton Rotary Clubs, two members of the Fulton County School Board, FCS staff members, community organizations supporting the issue (like our own Kirk Driskell), and law enforcement, among others. Our purpose was to ascertain how Rotary can be of impact in this multi-faceted issue. We learned a lot, and will utilize the community stakeholder information we received to consider next steps. I am proud of our Rotary Clubs for stepping forward in such a proactive manner. There is much good work to do in prevention, intervention and recovery from the devastating consequences of drug addiction. More to come...
As always, we appreciate those who make the daily Fresh Market runs in support of the food pantry outreach of North Fulton Community Charities (NFCC). If you have not served before, or if it has been too long since you last volunteered, please be sure to sign-up as the clipboard crosses your table. I would be happy to serve along with you your first time.
New this Week:
We will take a little "breather" from our hectic meeting schedule with a Club Assembly to celebrate, learn and plan. We will have visitors from Roteract, recognize our newest Will Watt Fellow (What?), develop a list of initial Rotary Interest Groups, learn more about Casey Robinson in his Vocational Minute (3...), and celebrate a milestone anniversary of our Alpharetta Rotary Club that you will not want to miss.
Opportunities for Service and Fellowship:
Help clean out the Rotary Closet this Friday following our meeting
Grilling & Gridiron - 9/09, contact Mickey Rogers at 770-378-2697
Rotary After Hours - Ruth's Chris 9/20 (bring a prospective member)
Coat Drive - 10/06-10/20. contact Mickey Rogers
Oyster Roast 10/21
At the Rotary International (RI) Convention this summer, RI introduced a new Rotary brand "concept" which defines Rotarians as "People of Action." Nowhere could this be more true-to-form than within our Rotary Club of Alpharetta. My challenge to you is to seek new avenues, inside and outside of Rotary, to engage in our community. Service Above Self is a way of life modeled by Rotarians, that extends beyond the walls of our Club. It's simply what we do.
See you Friday - and save me some bacon this time.... :)