Rotary International celebrated its 110th birthday on February 23rd and as the Rotary Club of St. Martin Sunrise continues to celebrate its 10th year President Virginia Asin found it fitting to donate to groups who have been in keeping with Rotary’s motto “Service Above Self” .
Rotary Sunrise began its “Rotary has Heart” initiative by donating funds to three groups: I Too Can Learn Foundation, St. Maarten Generation New Status Drum Band and Sister Magda Parent Teacher Association were all recipients of this initiative. On hand to accept the donations were Beverley Gibbs of I Too Can Learn Foundation, Youmay Dormoy of Generation New Status Drum Band and Bregje Boetekees of Sister Magda Parent Teacher Association. All recipients thanked Rotary Sunrise and encourage them to continue supporting them and the community at large. I Too Can Learn Foundation will be using their funds to provide breakfast and lunch to its students. Sister Magda PTA plan to put their donation to use by providing breakfast to students in need. Generation New Status Drum Band will use their funds towards a trip to Howard University to learn about how a university band works in hopes of improving their already top notch skills.
Those in attendance learned new facts about Rotary’s founder Paul P. Harris, such as his work for a newspaper as a salesman and a reporter, on fruit farms, as an actor and cowboy, and on cattle ships that traveled to Europe and also got kicked out a couple of schools, thanks to a synopsis of Rotary’s origin by Assistant District Governor Rebecca Low. Ms. Low also pointed to how one person can in fact make a difference. 110 years later, with over 33,000 clubs in over 200 countries with over 1.2 million members, Mr Harris indeed showed the power of one can indeed lead to the power of many.
President Virginia Asin expounded on the power of one fitting into the Rotary International’s year theme “Light Up Rotary”, which was derived by a Chinese proverb “it is better to light a single candle than curse the darkness”. She encouraged everyone to be a source of light in the world. President Asin was very ecstatic about the start of Rotary Sunrise “Rotary has Heart” initiative and looks forward to their next project of making a three course meal for kids at a children’s home.
Rotary Sunrise will also be holding a food sale that will enable to continue the good works they have been doing for the past 10 years this Saturday, February 28, any Rotary Sunrise member can be contacted for tickets.
The club meets at Philipburg Jubilee Library Conference Room every Tuesday mornings at 7:00am for fellowship and breakfast. For more information on the club visit us at sxmsunrise.org or email su***************@ho*****.com, we are also on Facebook: Rotary Club of Saint Martin Sunrise