Our service project this week will again be at Tyson's home. We'll be decorating lunch sacks for the families staying at the Ronald McDonald House. Bring colored pencils, crayons, and sparkly things.

Our newest member, David Wong, is probably the first guy to be awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship BEFORE he was  a member! If you will recall, he was awarded a PH via Zoom a couple of months ago! David has officially joined our club this week. He was born in West Chester, PA, but has lived in Idaho for 38 years. He is currently an independent business consultant with expertise in strategy, process improvement and customer experience. He's worked for HP, Simplot and Blue Shield. He and Cindy have two children. His career has taken him all over the world - 35 countries on six continents. They are looking forward to a vacation EVERY month for the next 18 months! David's hobbies are tennis, golf, swimming and ATV riding. He has supported many non-profits, including Garden City Community Clinic, Special Olympics, Allumbaugh House, WIC and others. He's looking forward to opportunities that Rotary might present. Welcome aboard, David!!

Can you believe its been five years since our clubs provided a Global Grant to Gorongosa National Park for a new 4x4 Toyota truck? Steve Merrill from Sunrise Rotary joined us last week to let us know its time for a new truck - the roads there are murder on a vehicle and this rig, used for rural health care workers and an ambulance, has 200,000 miles on it. A new grant effort is underway to raise $47,000 for a new truck and additional training for health care workers. One hundred percent of the proceeds from The Rotary at the Zoo event on May 4th will go toward this fund.

Don’t miss out on one of the great times of 2022 - Rotary Night at Zoo Boise.  On May 4th the Zoo’s gates will close to the public at 5:00 PM and reopen to Rotarians and their guests at 5:30.  This is a terrific Zoo Boise - Rotary partnership to benefit Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique.  Zoo Boise provides the Zoo free to Rotary which charges a nominal admission, 100% of which goes to the second Global Grant providing health care to the Gorongosa Park buffer Zone communities. 

Every year the District sells Raffle Tickets, the winner to be drawn at District Conference. This is the District's major fund raiser for the year. Each club will get a share, too! And look at those prizes!! Every member is given a book of ten tickets and is expected to sell them all! They have to be turned in no later than May 15th ish. You can send funds to the club via Venmo or write a check payable to Boise Metro, and get it to Scott Swan.

 

Plans are nearly complete for this year's District Conference in beautiful Sun Valley, May 20-21. District leadership promises a great event, including the Saturday evening banquet (featuring Brian Shul, a fighter pilot with a fascinating story)  and a variety of service projects on Saturday afternoon. The best advice is to stay at the Sun Valley Hotel so you don't miss any of the action! We have a block of rooms reserved  - $179/ night. For more details check the District 5400 website. Early registration ends March 31. Every Rotarian should attend a District Conference. Our club will reimburse attendees $100, toward your bar bill. Cornelia will be creating a "giving tree" of gift cards for the silent auction.

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events:

 

We survived last week's technology issues......our speaker Cynthia Gibson took it in stride!........Tyson is looking for service ideas for June/July/August....he won't be around much.....Roger enjoyed a week in Kuai....Biggses are in Portugal this week....Shiloh makes a great Vanna......Laurie Apel, our District Assistant Governor joined us last week - she reported that next Rotary year she'll become the District Trainer.....