Founded April 1915 • A Century of Service Above Self

Wine tastingscheduled forApril 5, 2016

The annual tradition of a wine-tast-ing event as the club’s main fund-raiser will resume in 2016. An eve-ning of food, wine and entertainment has been scheduled for Tuesday, April 5. Proceeds will go to the club’s new tax-exempt foundation.

Our last wine tasting was held in 2014. This year, because of the club’s centennial, a banquet celebration took its place.

Revenue will come from ticket sales, sponsorships and a commis-sion on all wines sold. Details in-cluding ticket prices and sponsorship levels are being determined and will be announced shortly after the begin-ning of the year.

The Wilmington

Club

CLUBNEWSDecember 15, 2015

Rotarian Ben David was invited to join in a national initiative aimed at reducing the number of inmates in America’s jails and prisons.

He discussed the proj-ect, and his participation in the Oct. 21 Washington event, at the club’s Dec. 1 meeting. He is district at-torney for New Hanover

and Pender counties,Ben was one of sev-

en leaders who spoke at a national press confer-ence about the need to re-form the criminal justice system by eliminating “mandatory minimum” sentences, returning dis-cretion in sentencing to judges and prosecutors.

The group, Law En-

forcement Leaders to Re-duce Crime and Incarcer-ation, includes 130 police chiefs and elected offi-cials from all 50 states.

The group met with President Obama at the White House. They dis-cussed their goal of im-proving public safety by reducing unnecessary in-carceration.

Rotarian David joins incarceration project

Ben David was the only prosecutor among the seven law enforcement leaders who spoke to the national news media Oct. 21 in Washington. The others, seen here, were big-city police chiefs.

Dr. Bert Williams Jr. dies at 95Rotarian R. Bertram Williams

Jr., a member of this club since 1964, died on Nov. 16. He was a retired thoracic surgeon and a World War II veteran, and had been among the founders of what it now New Hanover Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Bert held the club’s badge #4. His son, R. Bertram Williams III, has been a member of the club since 1979. The chief eulogy at his funeral was delivered by the Rev. Michael Queen, pastor emeritus of First Baptist Church, who is an hon-orary Rotarian.

A high school student from Aus-tralia will be spend-ing 2016 in Wilm-ington through the Rotary Youth Ex-change. Our club is his sponsor.

Unlike most Ro-tary exchanges, we are not sending a student abroad next year. We are supplying the incoming stu-dent’s spending money for the year he is in Wilmington.

Keehlan Ferrari-Brown is a

competitive swim-mer and comes from Frankston, a beach town in the state of Victoria, near Melbourne. He will turn 16 in February.

Keehlan will be attending Hoggard

High School. Rotary District 7730’s youth exchange offi-cer, Jean Hall, is on the Hog-gard faculty. She is recruiting host families who live in the Hoggard district.

Club sponsors exchange student

Elaine Andrews was elected presi-dent-nominee at the November Board of Directors meet-ing. She will be-come president for 2017-18, succeed-ing Mike Beaudoin.

Andrews to be president

Nine businesses, nonprofits and pub-lic agencies played host to Rotarians on Oct. 20, the annual Vocational Fel-lowship Day program.

Instead of meeting together for our

usual buffet lunch, members were as-signed to visit and tour one of the work-places around New Hanover County.

Organizing this year’s event was Gabe Rich.

Vocational day exposes Rotarians to workplaces Strategic planning toset long-range goals

Reaching a consensus about the club’s priorities—in fundraising, projects and membership—will be the topic of a strategic planning workshop on Jan. 30. President John Meyer appointed a working group of 20 Rotarians, including a cross section of members, who will participate in this session. Dale Smith will be the facilitator.

Chief objectives of this process are to help us make better decisions about where to focus our energies and resources, and to more clearly define our mission to the public.

Early October flooding disrupted water supplies to parts of Columbia, S.C. With help from Rotarian Sandra Kalom, volunteers provided safe drinking water to affected areas.

Water filters delivered for S.C. flood victims

A days-long deluge in early autumn caused cat-astrophic flooding across South Carolina, cutting off water supplies to much of the state’s capital, Columbia. The Charleston-based charity Water Missions International dispatched reverse-osmo-sis treatment systems to Columbia, but making them work required special filters manufactured by a small Wilmington company.

The Water Missions staff reached out to the Wilmington Rotary Club because we had part-nered with the organization for a water supply project in Honduras several years ago.

An emailed appeal on Oct. 6 brought prompt responses from a number of Rotarians. First to answer the call was Sandra Kalom, who drove a supply of water filters to Marion, S.C., halfway to Columbia, where she met a Water Missions volunteer and handed off the precious cargo.

By the next morning, residents of a Columbia neighborhood had safe drinking water again.

Greenfield fundraiser goes onTorrential rains caused postponement of the Garden Party at Greenfield, the fundraiser for the Greenfield Lake Collaborative. That’s the coalition formed by Wilmington’s Rotary clubs to improve and maintain the Rotary Wheel Garden. Originally to be an outdoor afternoon event, the party came back to life as an evening masquerade dance under canvas on Nov. 13. This is a snapshot inside the tent just before the band started.

Guyana villagers extending water systemThe people of Coomacka are at work to add another 30 standpipes, like this one, to the 20 that are now supplying their community with clean water. They are financing that project locally. Our club, with partners here and in Guyana, helped build that system and is now planning a similar project for the nearby village of Old England, Guyana.

Rotarians touring woodworking shop at Kids Making It, and on deck of Battleship North Carolina.

Giving thanks: appreciation from near and farExpressions of gratitude aren’t the reason for Service

Above Self, but they can help us remember the value of what our club does in the community and around the world. This page includes some of those “thank-yous.”

The card below, decorated with exotic postage from the Republic of Kiribati, came from Sister Margaret Sullivan on the Pacific island of Tarawa. Our club’s foundation, using a gift from Rotarian Wilbur Jones, had bought her convent’s archives a badly needed laptop computer.

“It will be a great boon,” she wrote, “as we collect docu-ments from outer islands. God bless you all abundantly.”

The winners of Williston Middle School’s student-o f - t h e - m o n t h awards for Oc-tober signed this card for Rotarian Pat Watts, who bought an entire year’s supply of retail gift cards.

Our club’s chari-table foundation also thanked Pat for her generosity.

Donors who have given $1,000 or more were presented with pins at a ceremony on Dec. 1. Different lev-els of giving are rec-ognized with awards in the names of the club’s district gover-nors, beginning with the Roger Moore so-ciety for $1,000. Pat was honored in the name of Eugene Mer-ritt, our club’s fifth district governor, for contributing $5,000.

Students at College Park Elementary School thanked the club for our Literacy Committee’s donation of books by creating this collage of two owls, the school’s mascot.

Rotarian Robb Lapp presented it on Oct. 6.

Mary C. Williams School, which got a large gift of books, chose to invite Rotarians to an early-morning get-together in its library on Nov. 24. Members of the Student Council read from some of those new books, and first-graders and kindergartners sang and recited poetry.

Above, Rotarians Chris Hoenig, Sandra

Kalom and Seth Newman read with Mary C. Williams

Elementary School pupils. At right,

Rick Lawson and Rob Zapple talk

geography with some of the students who

turned out to give thanks for the club’s

contributions to their school’s library.

Board of Directors Meeting5:30 pm, 4th Monday of each MonthLS3P Associates Ltd.2528 Independence Blvd # 200Wilmington, NC 28412

Get In TouchPresident John Meyer 392-5228President-Elect Mike Beaudoin 518-466-9832Secretary Elliott O’Neal 397-3613Newsletter Editor John Meyer 392-5228Webmaster Robert Baron 508-385-4839

Submit News ItemsSend photos or other information for the newsletter to john@capefearpublishers.com. Please include all pertinent names, dates, etc.

Websitewww.WilmingtonRotaryClub.org

‘Sweat equity’doubles reach ofhome-repair grant

Our new Community Service Committee’s first work project of this Rotary year replaced rotten floors in the home of an elderly Wilmington woman. The Nov. 14 work day was to augment a $1,000 grant to WARM, the Wilmington Area Rebuilding Ministry.

That money, half from a District Grant, was to pay a plumber to repair leaking pipes. But the Rotary work crew tackled the plumbing, freeing the grant money to be used for a second home-repair project.

The result: Two livable homes for the price of one.

Photography by Robby Collins, John Meyer

and Mike Beaudoin

Community Service Committee co-chair Sharon Huffman works with Don Skinner on South 13th Street sidewalk, measuring plywood for floor repairs. Inside, a Rotary crew fixes plumbing and rebuilds floor structure under bathroom and laundry room.

Seven residents of the Rotary Cottage at the N.C. Boys and Girls Home at Lake Waccamaw had a night on the town Dec. 10 courtesy of our Boys & Girls Home Committee. Their evening included dinner, shopping and a visit to Enchanted Airlie.

Rotarians also presented the cottage with a new TV and a gaming system. It was all paid for by Rotarians’ contributions to our club’s tax-exempt foundation.

On 101st birthday, ex-prez becomes Paul Harris fellowand an honorary member

Bill Nisbet was president of this club in 1953-54. On Nov. 5, he returned to the fold as an honorary member. He was also recognized as a Paul Harris Fellow, for a $1,000 contribution to the Rotary Foundation in his name. All this on his 101st birthday.

Bill is a retired clothing retailer. He had visited the club earlier this year, as a guest of Past District Governor Russ LaBelle. Russ and Past Presidents Jeff Newman and Connie Majure-Rhett presented him with his membership and Paul Harris Fellow lapel pin, certificate and medallion.

A birthday cake commemorated the fact that the club now has a member older than the club itself.

Foundation donors provide Christmas outing for Rotary Cottage boys

More news soon;Happy holidays!

We have too much news to fit in this edition’s four pages. I have not forgotten such important standing features as our programs, new members, Paul Harris Fellow presentations, and photos of the Salvation Army bell ringers.

Stay tuned for a special edition coming in January to catch up on everything that didn’t fit here.

~ John Meyer