Home Page | Rotary Club of Ankeny

Bike Ride Cancelled

Unfortunately, due to continued light rain after heavy rain, wind, and hail Friday night, the city of Ankeny decided to cancel the "Mayors Bike Ride" on Saturday, May 12th. The evening club had received donations of bottled water and bananas and was planning to display the World Bike Relief Bike and hand out pocket calculators.

Rotary Foundation Minute

The Rotary Club of Leogane, Haiti, brought electricity to the Respire Haiti Christian School in Gressier - and with it, education for children and adults. The school serves 500 orphans, disadvantaged children, and restavecs (Child domestic servants). For a long time, its six buildings had no electrical power, forcing teachers to rely on the sun as their primary light source and preventing the school from offering evening classes to address the community's high adult illiteracy rate. Using funds from a Rotary global grant, the Leogane club and its international partner, the Rotary Club of Parker, Colorado, installed a hybrid energy system, featuring locally sourced solar panels, to power lights, computers, and even the school's water pump. Teachers received training in adult literacy instruction so the school could offer evening reading and writing classes in Creole and French. Now both adults and young students are receiving the education they deserve.

Your contribution to The Rotary Foundation enables this to happen, Thank you for your support.

$893.18 Raised for Special Olympics

In five hours, members of the Rotary Club of Ankeny with some assistance from the Our Lady's Immaculate Heart Youth Group, collected $893.18 on behalf of Special Olympics. This was less than the $1,220 collected last year but comparable to the prior years. Donations at the North HyVee which was primarily staffed by the OLIH youth group totaled $395.68 and donations at the South HyVee totaled $497.50. A total of 50 liters of root beer and 20 tubs of ice cream were used at the two HyVees.

Mike Lydon Named May Member of Month

Mike Lydon joined the Rotary Club of Ankeny on August 17, 1987. In recognition of his being a member of the club for over 30 years and having perfect attendance for 29 years, President Sally Schroeder named him "Rotarian of the Month" for May.

Records Fall At Clean Up Days

Twenty one Ankeny Rotarians assisted City of Ankeny employees in unloading cars, pickups and trailers during Ankeny Clean Up Days May 19th & 20th. The city allows the Club to accept donations which set a record of $2,349.88 and one parking token. This compares with $2,118, $1,932 and $1,953 in the previous three years. The Club will use these funds to complete part of this year's contribution to the Rotary Foundation's PolioPlus Fund. Thank you to all the Rotarians that helped and to Justin Carlson for his leadership on this project.

Jim Foreman Wins the Pot

Jim Foreman joined the Rotary Club of Ankeny two months ago and has only purchased 50/50 tickets for a few weeks but on May 8th his ticket was drawn and he picked the "Ace of Hearts" to win the $250 pot. Congratulations Jim!!!

Evening Club Plants Flower Bed

The Evening Rotary Club of Ankeny has adopted a flower bed from the City of Ankeny for the fourth consecutive year. The flowers are provided by the city and the members gathered at the flower bed on the evening of May 8th to plant the flowers. During the summer the members will take turns watering and weeding the bed.

Rotary Foundation Recognition Points

Foundation points are awarded to donors who contribute to The Rotary Foundation through the Annual Program Fund or PolioPlus. Donors are recognized by being named “Paul Harris Fellows” or “Multiple Paul Harris Fellows” at increments of 1,000 Foundation points. In addition, a donor receives one Foundation “recognition” point for every U.S. dollar contributed. These recognition points are available for the Rotarian to gift to a family member, another Rotarian, or non Rotarian. These gift of recognition points must be a minimum of 100 points

The Rotary Club of Ankeny currently has 30 members with more than 1,000 Foundations recognition points and many additional members with several hundred points. Several of these members have indicated an interest in making a gift of all or a portion of their points. If you would like to know how many points you have and/or would like to make a gift of some of your recognition points to another person, contact Steve SchraderBachar.

Thank You From BSA

The club donated $1,250 to the Mid-Iowa Council for Boy Scouts of America in support of their "2018 Friends of Scouting" campaign. The following thank you letter was received:

"Thank you for your generous donation! You are changing the lives of youth in Iowa by providing high quality Scouting programs that prepare young people to become confident, successful, and responsible adults. Thank you for being a Friend of Scouting in 2018. Your generosity is one of Mid-Iowa Council's greatest blessings. We appreciate your support. With gratitude, Robert E. Hopper, Scout Executive."

Board Approves Donation Requests

During their May meeting the Board approved the following donation requests:

American Cancer Society - $500 - The club will be a sponsor for the Des Moines Robotics Team 4646 in the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life. The two Ankeny High Schools Robotics Teams will also be participating. This will be the sixth consecutive year the club has supported this event.

Des Moines Rotary Multi-Club - $1,000 - The nine Des Moines area Rotary Clubs have selected mental health as their project for this year. The donations from the clubs as well as the proceeds from the May 17th joint meeting will be used to support mental health activities in the Des Moines area.

Mayor's Bike Ride - Saturday May 12!

Proposed New Members

The Board approved two applications for membership to the Rotary Club of Ankeny at its May meeting. They are:

Carolyn Formanek is a former member of the Rotary Club of Knoxville and will be transferring her membership to Ankeny. She now lives in Ankeny and does residential property management. She is being proposed for membership by Sally Schroeder.

Kurt Backes will be a Branch Manager for the University of Iowa Community Credit Union as soon as they open their new office in Ankeny later this year. Kurt was a four-time qualifier for the NCAA wrestling tournament while competing at Iowa State University and finished his career as the NCAA runner -up in 2007. He is being proposed for membership by Kent Patterson.

Comments regarding Carolyn and Kurt's proposed memberships may be forwarded to any Board Member.

Rotary Multi-Club Program

The annual Des Moines area Rotary Multi-Club Program will be held on Monday, May 17th from 4:30 to 6:00 PM. at Des Moines University, 3200 Grand Ave, Des Moines. The program will be on mental health. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Lisa Streyffler from Des Moines University and there will be a panel represented by a first responder, educator, parent, and individual living with mental illness. Heavy hor d'oeuvres and networking will follow the program. The $20 registration fee will be paid by the club. Contact Rich Job if you have questions and/or to register.

Vision 2020

District 6000's second annual Vision 2020 Membership Seminar is a 3-hour event focused solely on membership. This is an opportunity to share ideas and learn how to build a larger, healthier and more vibrant club. Here are the details:

What – Vision 2020 Membership seminar to help strengthen your club
When – Wednesday, May 2 – 5:45 – 8:45 p.m.
Where – Shive-Hattery, 4125 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines
Who – Every single Rotarian who wants to learn how to build and strengthen club membership
Special Guest – Rotary International Foundation Trustee Mary Beth Growney-Selene
Cost – FREE!
Food – yes! A light supper will be served
Registration – www.rotary6000.org Go to first item in right column – this is necessary for leadership to plan for meals, handouts, seating, etc.

May Rotary Board Meeting

The May board meeting for the Rotary Club of Ankeny will be:

When: Thursday, May 10th
Time: 12:00 PM
Where: Wig N Pen, 2005 South Ankeny Blvd.

All members are welcome and it counts as a make-up!

May Rotarian Birthdays

The following Ankeny Rotarians will celebrate birthdays in May:

12th - Damon Miller

26th - Jon Lowman

Welcome New Member Jessica Reynolds

Jessica Reynolds became the newest member of the Rotary Club of Ankeny when she was inducted on April 24th. Jessica is a Project Manager with GTG Construction in Johnston. She was proposed for membership by Renee Murphy.

Ryan Bach Named March Rotarian of the Month

It was a couple weeks late in coming but, Sally Schroeder announced that she had selected Ryan Bach to be the "Rotarian of the Month" for March for the work he did acting as the Chairman of the 2018 fundraising committee. His leadership helped make the Rotary Olympics a success. Congratulations and thank you Ryan!!

Renee Murphy Named April Rotarian of the Month

In recognition of all the work she has done in getting the Rotary Club of Ankeny on Facebook, President Sally Schroeder named Renee Murphy "Rotarian of the Month" for April. Congratulations and thank you Renee!!

Robotics Teams Present their Robots to Rotary

On April 13th the two robotics teams in Ankeny, Team DICE from Ankeny High School and Team Kaizen from Centennial High School, brought their robots to the noon Rotary meeting and demonstrated how they work. The students also talked about their experiences in building the robots and participating in competitions.

Rotary Club of Ankeny

Links

Welcome to the Rotary Club of Ankeny!

Service Above Self