Tuesday, August 10, 2010

You are the Program for Rotary West El Paso

This coming Monday--August 16th--All Interact Clubs and Rotaract Clubs are invited to attend and "be the program". This will be each club's opportunity to tell your sponsor club what you achieved last year and tell us what you hope to achieve this year. You can make posters, power-points or just talk to the club. Each club will be allowed 10 minutes to present their program. If you plan to eat lunch, there is a $13 fee, it is buffet and usually very tasty.

The meeting will be at 12 noon at the Holiday Inn on Sunland Park Drive in the meeting rooms.

Please email Gail with your reservation, especially if you plan to eat and even if you do not plan to eat, but plan to come, let her know.

You can stay after the meeting to learn about an event that your clubs will be working on together with the entire city--An Environment Summit. You will also meet Janne Finderup our exchange student and her sponsor family and RSVP for the Leadership Seminar on Aug 21st.

Hope to see you at all of the events!

Leadership Training August 21 for all Interact/ Rotaract Students

Who: All current members of an Interact or Rotaract Club--it is not mandatory, but advised for current officers or those members seeking leadership positions.

What: Yes, it is that time of year again. The Institute for Leadership has graciously granted Gail's request to provide Leadership Training for any students wanting to make new friends and learn new skills that can be used the rest of your life.

When: August 21st at 8:45 a.m. It will close at 3:45 p.m. There will be snack breaks and lunch will be provided.
Where : Currey Adkins, the business down the hill from Coronado High School that used to be a movie theater. Address: 200 S. Alto Mesa, 79912

Each student that either took part in this last year or has been to the Adult IFL or is a RYLArian will help facilitate at some point in this great day.

Cost: $10 per person-- to cover snacks and lunch

Please RSVP with Gail at gailgale96@yahoo.com

Meet our new Exchange Student from Denmark

On Wednesday August 11 at 8 p.m. we will be meeting/ greeting the Rotary West El Paso's exchange student. Her name is Janne Finderup and will be arriving on flight 6889 on US Air. Carina, the advisor for the Exchange Program wants to meet at Mc Donalds on Airway at 6:30 to make a poster and rally to meet her.

Janne will be living with the Tribaldos Family, as their daughter Ana Sofia will be an exchange student in Australia this year. She will be attending Coronado High School.

We hope you can attend, please feel free to call Carina Munoz--227-8656.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Zoological Society Project

Come and join us in making the animals for the Zoo Vehicle Tuesday 6/29 from 1-5 at
324 Stotts Avenue 79932. WE are finishing up the animals we started to help with the parade (4th of July) which actually takes place July 3rd from Western Hills UMC to Coronado High School. If you are creative, or a good worker-bee, WE NEED YOU. We still have to complete the following:
a zebra, a giraffe, an alligator, a lion, a black monkey, a wild boar and a palm tree.

We will also need help with the West El Paso Rotary float for the same parade. These sessions will be Wed,Thurs and Friday from 4-8 at 424 S. Mesa Hills Drive 79912
Most of the construction will be painting. WE need volunteers to ride on the float as well!

The parade is fun and the events like these prior to them will be too.

We hade the El Paso Times taking pictures today for an article to run on Friday about making floats.

Hope to see you at some of these events!
GG

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Zoo Event for Volunteers already trained June 6th

The El Paso Zoo needs you this Sunday! Email me if you would like to work for the World Oceans Day event. They need volunteers, you will be directing visitor traffic, working at information tables and handing out brochures.
gailgale96@yahoo.com

You have to be on a list to work, as the zoo security is very tight. Renee will be working that day, you will be getting an email or phone call with instructions prior to the event.
GG

Monday, May 24, 2010

TeenFest at Cohen Stadium --Saturday 5/29 12-6 p.m. Event is FREE!

Please join in this city-wide fun event for Teens. We will be trying to assist the Faben's Interact Club at their booth to spread the word about Interact and Rotaract for Ysleta and El Paso High Schools, but we may get the opportunity to meet students from Socorro, Clint, Canutillo and Anthony. Bottom line, go the event with your friends and enjoy bands, a climbing wall, dialogue opportunities and other games.

Zoo Training for Interact Members of Any El Paso Club

The training date for the El Paso Zoo is June 8th (Tuesday) at 1 p.m. Meet at the front gate by the Zoo Office on the right. We will be meeting with Renee the Executive Director. Please come with smiles, a great attitude and a willingness to fill out a Zoo Volunteer Application. This training session will be documented and you will not be allowed to volunteer for activities unless a training session is completed. There will be one or two other training sessions for any of you who would like ot become a zoo volunteer, but cannot come to this particular one. If you have an ID, please bring it with you. If you have questions please email or call Gail. Please email me your name, email address and cell phone number if you would like to go. My email is gailgale96@yahoo.com and my cell phone number is 575-312-5311 The address to the zoo is: 4001 E. Paisano in El Paso, 79905. Plan to be there for a minimum of 2 hours. Please be on time!

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Golf Enthusiasts--please respond

Kristi Albers the Executive Director of The First Tee of Greater El Paso and a LPGA Professional was the guest speaker at the RCWEP meeting last Monday, she is also a member of our club. The Desert Classic Golf Tournament that benefits these two great organizations will be held Saturday, October 16th. We usually like to have teen members for the tournament commitee. Please tell Gail if you are interested in serving on the committee, and she will get you plugged into meeting times.

Vist www.thefirstteegreaterelpaso.org to see if you would like to help Kristi with this awesome organization that promotes 9 fantastic values to kids who love golf. The course they play on is at Ascarte. If you love the game and you want to pass on your passion, then this is the perfect fit for you! Get in touch with Kristi, she needs help, she also needs more kids to be a part of the program. You will have fun and improve your game and make a difference in younger kid's lives. Just get involved! phone number: 252-6511

Rotary Youth Induction Service was held onThursday May 27th-7 p.m. at United Blood Services

Dick Jones the 2009-10 5520 District Govenor was in attendance to help induct all members of Interact Clubs and Install the officers of each club. There were other r Young Rotarian supporters from our Rotary Family. We inducted 22 members from 4 Interact clubs and any newly appointed officers. Clubs in attendance were: Coronado High School (2), Fabens High School (3), Franklin High School (10) and Santa Teresa High School(7). Scholarship winners were not specifically announced but the fact that 3 (all from STHS)will be awarded $500 scholarships. This announcement was made by Lu Ann Wieland, President for Rotary Club of West El Paso. Applicants had to write an essay and talk about their involvement in Rotary or Interact events. Names were not yet available to announce RYLA recipients. The RYLARIANs for 2010 will be notified the first week of June. Cake and coffee were served at the end of the event. Event was held at the United Blood Services located at 424 S. Mesa Hills Drive, 79912.

Environmental Issues-Events

There will be an Environmental Summit on Oct. 1st--Called Renewing your neighborhood.
Save that date, there will be some youth events that come from that. But for now there are three Sparks Neighborhood Clean-ups scheduled:
May 22nd, July 10, and Sept. 18th. More to follow with address etc.

Discover E-Waste Recyling Day
Sat. May 15th 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Located at TECH H20 Center-10751 Montana Avenue 79935
Exhibits on Water Conservation, Winning Posters about Stormwater displayed, Recyling event of e-waste: PDAs, music devices, tv's, game cartridges, personal computers, laptops----Keep them out of landfills! contact info 621-2000 or tech2o@dpwu.org

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Gems Gems Needs Volunteers Every Saturday

Gems Gems-our long-time literacy partner is now open every Saturday. They have a lot of new arrivals (books) and need help sorting and shelving them.

Address: 7744 North Loop 79913 (inside storage area on side of Compass Bank)
www.gemsgems.org for more information.

Call 915-845-5437 and ask for Marcia Gama if you have questions or comments about future events. Books for children are desperately needed so if you have books that you have outgrown, please donate them for other kids in El Paso to enjoy.

Franklin High School General Meeting 5/13/2010

At lunch there will be a general meeting on Thursday 5/13. Mary Len Stanton from Trinity First Summer Camps will be invited to be the guest speaker. She needs volunteers who have experience or want the opportunity to lead small groups, craft preparation, setting up meals and helping elementary and middle school aged children take part in the following camps:
Cooking Camp AM June 28-July 2 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon
Cooking Camp PM " 1:00 p.m to 4 p.m.
Sports Camp-July 5-9 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon
Performing Arts Camp July 12-16 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon
Desert Camp July 19-23 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon
VBS July 26- 30 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon

She will bring forms or send forms for volunteers to apply.
There is more information at www.trinity-first.org

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

El Paso Zoological Society Wants to Partner with Interact / Rotaract

We have a new service partner! The El Paso Zoo needs lots of volunteers for multiple reasons. They want to have at least 2 training events before school is out, in which attending 1 is enough, they will be about 2 hours long. As you may or may not know, the zoo has expanded recently with the opening of the African Exhibit featuring for now, 4 lions, and some meerkats (who have produced 2 litters so far) I saw 3 week old babies yesterday, they are adorable. This summer they will add Zebras and Giraffes.

They will train you in how to do mini workshops in the exhibits. Enthusiasm is a key ingredient to that and the love of people and kids. You will learn how to do some small crafts that will be given to visitors, decorating the safari van for the 4th of July parade (on the 3rd this year due to 4th being on Sunday) They will be doing outreach programs to Albertsons, Walmart and Target parking lots throughout the summer to inform the public about the new displays. Some of the service hours are at the zoo, others as outreach around town. I need a project leader from each school, so please email if you are interested. They also have some brochures that need to be put together in-mass.

The training sessions will be from 4 p.m to 5:30 or 6:00 after school after May 10th, we will discuss exact dates in club meetings.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Franklin Interact Club to help Girl Scouts- May 15th

This is an all day event in collaboration with many other clubs at Franklin High School. The students of various organizations will be helping a Girl Scouts in the Brownie and Junior Levels to earn up to 4 badges. The Interact Club will help them with math. This is an all day event: 8:30 - 4:00 taking place indoors. Mrs. Gatlin is helping on this project, there is a meeting in her room 207 W on Friday at lunch 5/07/2010.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Imagine Peace Event-May 23: 12 -4 p.m.

Hosted by the YWCA of El Paso at the Joyce Jaynes Branch on Brown St.
We will have a table to promote Young Rotarians. Last year we made a peace quilt with poetry. If you have ideas on what we could do to promote our organization and peace, please let me know!

Youth Rotary Clubs Unite in Global Youth Service Day Project on April 24th

Project is in Mariposa Park in Vinton, TX--on Saturday, April 24th (which
BTW is the same weekend as Earth Day!)
Here is how to get there!
Take I-10 west toward Las Cruces. Take Vinton Road exit after outlet mall on Transmountain. Exit and turn left over freeway. About 1/2 way down the hill, you will see the Sheriff's Dept. on the left. Look for Kiely Road and turn right. At the next street, Copper, turn left. The park is on the corner of Copper Road and Steel Drive.

The project begins at 9:30 a.m. and will go until completion. Estimated finish time at 5:30 p.m. Pizza and water provided. Please wear long pants and closed -toe shoes, bring sunscreen, hat, work gloves.

We are completing a park for the kids of Vinton to play in. They have never had a park in their community. Activities include: assembling equipment, digging post holes and placing signs, painting equipment, painting lines in parking lot, moving gravel and dirt, and mixing cement to use for the project.

Project leader is Justin Churchman of the Coronado High School Interact Club.
This project is collaborative with any Interact or Rotaract members, their families and / or their able body-recruits. The goal is to complete the project as promised and to have fun.

Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Winners of 4 Way Test Essay Contest for Rotary Club West El Paso

Winners of the 2010 essay contest have been announced. Students are all from St. Marks School on Love Road, submitted by Principal, Linda Smith. The winners are:
1st Place with $100 Savings Bond --Chelsea Boushka
2nd Place with $50 Savings Bond-- Rebecca Ed
3rd Place with $25 Savings Bond--Marisela Gonzalez

All 8th graders. First place entry was submitted to District 5520 contest. Winners of that contest were recently announced: 1st-Ciara Cox of Tularosa, 2nd-Sidney Salas of Las Cruces and 3rd-Katelyn Jordan of Roswell.

Congratulations to all of you!

TEEN FEST 2010

Teen Fest- 2010 Concert and Car Show sponsored by El Paso Public Library--
May 29th, 12 -6 p.m.
Cohen Stadium home of the Diablo's Baseball Team
FREE!
No cost to have a booth. We want to have one for Rotary--at least an information table. The Interact Club of Fabens has been going to this event for a few years now!

Contact for this event is:
Carmen Hernandez 543-5479
hernandezca@elpasotexas.gov

Global Youth Service Day--April 23-25, 2010

All Interact and Rotaract Clubs are encouraged to participate in the El Paso-Global Youth Service day by either coming up with your own project or joining UTEP Rotaract project or Coronado High School's Interact Project. Franklin Interact is thinking about doing a cell phone collection to help the community center (Houchen) in central El Paso, more details to follow. The CHS project with be Sat. April 24th, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Project will be led by Justin Churchman in Vinton ( I believe it is between Canutillo and Anthony). The work will entail helping to establish a playground in that community.

UTEP has a project that utilizes the skills of Computer Science Majors, and has a fundraising/ service component. Please feel free to post your projects on this blog, so you can solicit help from other current Rotarians or invite potential members as a recruiting mechanism. Youngsters who like community service, should love this!

The theory behind Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is that within several times zones and days, more youth can participate in multiple projects simultaneously, so in effect they all work together on the same day!
http://elpasogysd.pbwiki.com/
http://elpasogysd.pbworks.com
If you contact Nicholas, your group may be able to join in on the taping of a commercial for this event on Tues, April 6th.

Contact for GYSD is Nicholas Fernandez: fernandez.nicholas@gmail.com or 999-1468

Awareness Picnic--in collaboration with Anthony Rotary

This event is going to be fun! Save the date!
Saturday, May 1st from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. --The Armstrong Equine Farm in La Mesa, NM--175 Esslinger Road, La Mesa, NM 88044-
Picnic for 136 kids that are in the New Mexico Foster Care system, some of them will be adopted someday. This picnic is to make families aware of this great program and to honor the foster parents who take care of them. There will be families there that look forward to adopting some of these kids someday. The Anthony Rotary Club needs our help from all Rotaract and Interact members to assist in entertaining the kids and families: play games (3 legged race, bag races, and other games or contests, there will be horse rides etc.) The Anthony Rotary Club has arranged for picnic food and the items we need for the entertainment. They ask that we be there to help set up at 9:00 or as close to that time as possible to help set up tables, games etc. It is about 22 miles from the west side of El Paso, so gauge your trip time. Bring sunscreen, hat, glasses etc. If you have a club shirt, wear it!

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Pictures of Interact Activities

If you would like to see some of the pictures taken in 2009 and 2010 of Interact/ Rotaract Activities, please visit this site:
http://interact.shutterfly.com

Officer Elections for Officers in Interact Coming Soon

FHS has already completed their elections for officer slate for 2010/2011.
CHS and STHS elections TBA.

For more information about Interact, please go to Rotary International website and look for Interact Handbook. If you familiarize yourself with the "youth" part of the website you can learn about all kinds of opportunities.

www.rotary.org

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Essay Contest for 8th Graders

If you know an 8th grader who might be interested in participating in an essay contest that has prizes on the club level and district level, have them contact Gail Gale or post to this blog. There is specific criteria and essays must be between 300-500 words, written in a timed setting.
The theme this year is "How can applying the 4-Way Test now influence my future?"

Prizes for Rotary West El Paso are:
1st Place: $100 savings bond, certificate, essay gets forwarded to District Contest
2nd Place: $$50 savings bond, certificate
3rd Place: $25 savings bond, certiciate

District prizes are !st-$400, 2nd-$200 and 3rd- $125
for more information you can go to http://rotary5520.org/
There is a link on the front page of the website.
Good Luck!

RYLA Applications due 3/15/ 2010

All members and nonmembers of Intereact are cordially invited to fill out applications for the Rotary Youth Leadership Award ( a week long camp that is awarded to applicants, i.e. no cost to you). You must currently be a JUNIOR in high school. The camps are separated by gender and selected throughout the district (5520). Girls Camp is 7/18 through 7/24, 2010 and Boys Camps is 7/24 through the 30th.

Please go to this link to download application:

http://rotary5520.org/ryla/index.html

Applications must be submitted to a Rotary Club member or Interact Sponsor by 3/15.
Questions can be directed to Gail Gale : youth5520@gmail.com

If you would like your application to be proof-read or receive tips, comments, please turn your applicaiton in earlier than the deadline.

2010 first meetings of the year

FHS elected new officers on 1/20. New slate of officers is as follows:
Pres-Alex Wilts, VP-Aaron Alonso, Sec.-Jackie Mc Mahon, Treas.-Calder Hussman and Historian-Kyle Vogelmeier. Officer's meeting on 1/27 at lunch in Mrs. Gatlin's room.
General meeting TBA. Idea proposed to do "Race for the Cure" as a group.

CHS had an officer's meeting 1/19 and general meeting on 1/20. A small group of students went to La Casita on 1/21. Next meetings: Officers 2/16 and General membership 2/17 in Mrs. Haefner's room. Idea proposed to look into group registration for "Race for the Cure" and to encourage everyone's participation.

STHS will have their first meeting on Feb. 2nd in the Bandroom at 3:45 p.m. Agenda: to meet Rafael Padilla and Lorraine Huit. Talk about RYLA applications, charter documents, upcoming projects.

Rotaract UTEP will have their first general meeting 1/27 at 5:30 p.m in the UTEP Library room 410. Will talk about upcoming projects. Bring clothes donations--pizza served at meeting.