Each year volunteers from the three Traverse City-based Rotary Clubs join together to lend the essential volunteer support required to make Kids Free Fishing Day a resounding success.

How could you possibly resist being around these kids with their smiling faces?!

The event takes place on Saturday, June 20th and volunteers (about 60 of them) are needed to staff two shifts from 8am to noon, and from 11:30 to 3pm. All the details and online signup are found in our events listing.

We're excited to share the news that our Board of Directors has supported Membership Committee recommendation of Ryan Sterkenburg for membership in our club. 

Please review and share any comments/concerns with Sean, Nancy, or any member of the club board or membership committee.

Ryan Sterkenburg Application

Guests: Kyle Skarshaug

​Visiting Rotarians: none

50/50: Steve McGregor was the lucky winner of $29 proceeds.

Announcements

1. Please support our club's upcoming service projects through your volunteer participation:

   • ​​Blessings in a Backpack breakfast food drive (May 20 and May 27) and stuffing/distribution (May 27)

   • Kids Free Fishing Day (June 20)

2. ​During the upcoming two weeks we will be passing the hat to collect funds from those interested in helping to support emergency relief efforts in Nepal. Our club's Foundation will match contributions.

3. We're pleased to announce Ryan Sterkenburg as a candidate for membership.

4. Each May we have our longest list of membership anniversaries as we celebrate our club anniversary. Be sure to give a special shout out to our Charter members! (May 27, 1999). Also . . . plan to join us next week on Thursday at Bubba's for our monthly happy hour. Let's make this one a great one . . . it's a party!

Program - 2015 Rotary Peace Fellow Sarah Sanderson

Sarah was born and raised in Holland, Michigan and attended Holland High School.  She attended and graduated from Hope College.  She holds a M.A. in Spanish Linguistics from The Ohio State University and is a Fulbright scholar.  She also recently participated as a clogger in the Hope Tulip Festival. 

Having recently returned from Brazil, Sarah is in the process of visiting a number of Rotary Clubs within the state of Michigan.  Sarah has already led, at a very young age, a very adventurous life, along with her very supportive husband Sean.  As part of her many sojourns around the world, some of the more notable locations where she has lived and worked at the Vienna Summer School; Kenya, Tanzania; the Amazon; Galapagos Islands; Santiago, Chile; AmeriCorp volunteer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Quito, Ecuador; River Range in Wyoming; China; Queenstown, New Zealand; and Concordia, Minnesota.  She’s very much looking forward to her next assignment at the Peace Fellowship Interaction Christian University in Tokyo, Japan.

Sarah explained the journey associated with becoming a Peace Fellow, and how the process works, adding that she is hopeful that others within the state of Michigan will pursue such a calling someday.

Sarah’s website address, for those who might be interested, is http://sarahandersonwanderlustblogspot.com

Learn more about the Rotary Peace Fellowships program.

These are exciting times for Traverse Bay Sunrise Rotary Foundation given the recent relaunch of our mini-grant program, and you have a great opportunity to engage in support of its good works.

Each year we hold elections for our Foundation Board of Directors. It is a Board of up to nine club members who serve a two-year term. Terms coincide with club board, starting July 1.

The Foundation is accepting names of individuals interested in filling three positions on the Board for 2-year term starting this upcoming July 1st. We are planning to proceed with elections at our May 27th meeting. If you are interested please speak with Becky Ewing or Valerie Kirn-Duensing.

At our May 6th and 13th meetings we recognized six members who became a Paul Harris Fellow, or advanced to the next level of PHF recognition.

A Paul Harris Fellow is anyone that has cumulative giving of $1,000 to the Annual Fund or PolioPlus funds of The Rotary Foundation. It's a tremendous achievement, and this support is what helps us achieve the tremendous work not just at the International level, but it also helps create the pool of matching funds which our club is able to tap for local/global projects.

Of our sixty-six members (many of which are VERY new), 41% of our members are Paul Harris Fellows. We thought it appropriate to recognize them all!