On April 21, 2020, the Magnolia Rotary Club listened (via Zoom) to Mark Maloney, Rotary President, talk about how the COVID-19 Virus has affected Rotary Clubs all over the world. Pictured above is Mark Maloney.
Rotary President Mark Maloney (via taped message) spoke to the need for clubs to increase their ability to adapt to these trying times in order to keep up with Rotary's support and commitment to the many charities supported by Rotarians. It was a positive speech and pointed out that Rotarians remain united in this fight.
Janice Thigpen (President Magnolia Rotary Club) told everyone that we will continue to meet via Zoom until such a time as we are told we can go back to face to face meetings.
Janice also told everyone that an individual named Michael Conteh commented on our Facebook Page about our club's Sierra Leone project with the following statement: "My parents are from Sierra Leone so this resonates strong with me. What fantastic work you do!". Janice then reached out to Michael who will be our guest speaker next week.
Janice then told everyone that our District leadership has announced that they will soon be giving each club in our District 5910 a total of $500 plus $7 per member to be used to help out their local community with problems associated with the COVID-19 Virus. For our club, that means we will get a check for $710 (30 members). After some discussion it was agreed by those in attendance that our club would chip in the additional funds to bring this amount up to $1,000 and give $500 to TOMAGWA and $500 to SOS.
Richard Allison then updated everyone on the status of our club's scholarship program. Richard pointed out that all the schools have been closed for the rest of the year so he has redesigned the application form to make it much simpler and has sent the new form out to the high school counselors. Richard has also pushed out the date to respond back to him until the end of May 2020. Once the forms come back, the committee for scholarships will meet (via Zoom) and determine which students get the scholarships.
Real Provencher then showed everyone some photos from Sierra Leone that showed some project photos as well as playing a project jingle created and used by the project team to help local residents learn and remember how to protect themselves from the COVID-19 Virus. The photos were of the water buckets, face masks, soap bottles, hand washing instruction handout, and paper towels (for drying hands} that are given out to the local communities participating in the project.
A photo of those in attendance for this meeting can be seen below:
