This past Friday we had a birthday celebration which was well celebrated with balloons and cake of course!! Who’s birthday you ask…? Well only the BEST Rotary Club in the WORLD!! Besides having a delicious cake we also had the pleasure of some of our own Rotarian’s speak about our club as well as our guest speaker Mr. Greg Jones who is currently the Rotary Foundation District Chair. Bob Novell started us off with talking about “ What is Rotary “ and “ Who We Are “ . He shared this quote, “ Service to others is our rent for our room in the world “. I don’t think there could be a better quote for who we are and what we do!! Rotary’s main goal in the world is to eradicate polio and make a difference around the world. He mentioned we also Promote disease prevention and treatment, promote education and literacy and also among many other things sponsor economic and community development. All this is possible through our clubs with other clubs through the Rotary foundation! Gil Stromsoe got up to the front and went over our Paul Harris Fellowship recognition. Paul Harris fellow recognition begins for donors giving at least US $ 1000.00 to the foundation. Gil also showed us all the pins one can get for donating a certain amount towards a certain charity. Our last but certainly not least our very lovely Yvonne Flint came to the front to talk about District Simplified Grants (DSGs). The value of DSG is that we can do things within our district. Within district 5300, a club can use a DSG for either local or an international projects but priority is given to local projects. Yvonne also touched on the ways that we as Rotary Clubs Interact with foundation. Strong rotary clubs use and support the foundation, we use programs such as our scholarship,matching grants, polio, and group study exchange programs to make the world a better place. I don’t know about any of you but I am more than proud to be a Rotarian!!! Greg Jones ended our meeting with letting us know that we Arcadia Rotary are always in the top 4 of giving in the district and to “ Keep up the good work” !!! Great job Arcadia and lets keep moving forward!

(Nikki Adams)