Thanks to our Club from Webb Elementary
January 26th, 2010McKinney Sunrise Rotary Partner Appreciation
November 16th, 2009The McKinney Sunrise Rotary Partner Appreciation breakfast at Eldorado Country Club will be this Wednesday, November 18 at 7:30 AM. Awards and checks will be presented to three Scout troops and the McKinney Area Home School Association for delivering and picking up flags for the five flag holidays in 2009, and two other organizations for their outstanding community service.
Vice Presidents for Fundraising, Chuck Koehler and Jeff Caserotti will present the awards and checks totaling $8,800. Three Scout troops and the McKinney Area Home School Association will each receive a check for $450 per route. The organizations will also receive certificates of appreciation for their Scout helpers to be distributed at a future Scout meeting. Those organizations receiving awards and checks include:
· McKinney Home School Assoc.– Dr. Tom and Julie Marshall: $450.00 (delivery and pick up of 1 route)
· BSA 531 – David Sutten: $1,800.00 (delivery and pick up of 4 routes)
· BSA 303 – Theresa Mills & Cameron Chandler: $2,700.00 (delivery and pick up of 6 routes)
· BSA 496 – Lisa Zavala & Charles Meachum: $3,600.00 (delivery and pick up of 8 routes)
Two organizations will receive donations for providing other community services in 2009. They are:
· BSA 2150 – Bill Fisher & Sarah Ammons: $150.00 (disposing of torn and soiled flags)
· Collin County Sheriff’s Office SCORE Program– Deputy Ella Even, Lt. Amy Lanier, and Sheriff Terry Box: $100.00 (cleaning and repairing flags)
The Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise and their Scout partners have provided over 1,200 flag leases to subscribers in Stonebridge and Eldorado neighborhoods for Memorial Day, Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day and Veterans Day for the past twelve years. For those who live in our service area, the 2010 flag lease information and applications are posted on the club web site at www.mckineysunriserotary.org. The “early bird” cost of the flag lease if paid before April 30, 2010, is $40.00. After May 1, 2010 the cost of the flag lease will be $45.00.
The proceeds of the flag lease program are used to provide ongoing support of local and global projects that advance the goals of education, eliminate hunger, provide clean water, collection of books and materials for literacy, immunization through Polio Plus, purchase of wheelchairs, and affordable housing. Recent local projects include the creation of a $20,000 endowment for the Classroom Teacher Grants program through the McKinney Education Foundation, and donations to the Make-A-Wish Foundation and Santa’s Rotary Helpers for shoes and clothing for needy school children.
Judge Nathan White is the current president of the Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise. The club meets each Wednesday morning at Eldorado Country Club at 7:30 AM for breakfast and a program. Although membership is by invitation, interested persons who are in managerial or executive positions are invited to visit the club, contact a Rotarian, or go to www.mckinneysunriserotary.org for more information.
Veterans Day Events and Rotary Partners Appreciation
November 4th, 2009
The Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise will host a joint meeting with the members of the Rotary Club of McKinney, known as the “downtown club,” on Wednesday, November 11, at the Eldorado Country Club for breakfast at 7:30 AM. In honor of Veterans Day, the program event will feature Calvin J. Spann, one of the famed Tuskegee Airmen who provided exemplary military service in World War II. Mr. Spann will speak about his experiences in the military as an African-American at a time when the military and many of our nation’s institutions were still segregated. The program speaker is sponsored by Judge Nathan White, President of the Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise. The President of the “downtown Rotary Club” is Jim Orr.
Veterans Day is the last of five flag holidays in 2009 where the Rotary Club of McKinney Sunrise has leased over 1,233 flags to subscribers in west McKinney this past season. The Flag Lease program which has existed for 12 years is the major fundraiser for the club. Proceeds from the fundraiser are distributed annually to fund local needs and Rotary projects internationally. Recent projects included a partnership with the Payless Shoe Store in McKinney to provide shoes for McKinney ISD school children in need, a send-off party for a terminally ill child and his family through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and support for the Children’s Health Clinic in McKinney. A future project will provide gift cards to the parents of economically-disadvantaged students in the MISD for the purchase of Christmas gifts.
For the past two years, McKinney Sunrise Rotary Club has met the challenge of creating an endowment in the McKinney Education Foundation for the Classroom Grants program. Melanie Perkins, Executive Director, and Patti Churner, Immediate Past President of the McKinney Education Foundation will accept a check for $7,000 as the last payment of a $20,000 endowment for this purpose. The McKinney Education Foundation is now 18 years old and is the major source of scholarships for the graduates of McKinney high school students. The Classroom Grants program provides funds on a competitive basis for McKinney ISD staff members who write a grant for an innovative project in their classroom or school. In addition to Classroom Grants, teachers may also apply for a Professional Development Grant to enhance their knowledge of subject matter and skills.
The following Wednesday, November 18, 7:30 A.M., at Eldorado Country Club, Chuck Koehler and Jeff Caserotti, Vice Presidents for Fundraising, will honor the Rotary Partners for their service to the Flag Lease Program. Those receiving checks and certificates of appreciation will include Lisa Zavala, Flag Coordinator of Boy Scout Troop 496, David Sutten, Flag Coordinator of Boy Scout Troop 531, Theresa Mills, Flag Coordinator of Boy Scout Troop 303, and Dr. Tom and Julie Marshall, Flag Coordinators of the McKinney Area Home School Association. These Rotary Partners are responsible for the delivery and pick up the flags from the residences for each flag holiday. Also, Deputy Ella Even, Collin County Sheriff’s Office SCORE program will be honored with a certificate. The SCORE program helps with the annual cleaning, construction and maintenance of the flags. The local VFW provides a ceremony to retire worn and soiled flags that are no longer useable.
Members of area Rotary Clubs and their spouses are invited to both events; however, the courtesy of a reply would be appreciated by contacting Sandi Froese, Flag Corresponding Secretary at 972-569-8843 or e-mail her at swfroese@sbcglobal.net, or phone Juli Smith, Club Secretary at 972-562-1866. The cost of the breakfast is $10.00 for visiting Rotarians and their guests.
Dr. Tom Parker Named Paul Harris Fellow
October 10th, 2009
Dr. Tom Parker Awarded Paul Harris Fellow
Our club’s most recent Paul Harris Fellow is Dr. Tom Parker. His PHF certificate, medallion and lapel pin was awarded by Club President and PDG Nathan White on October 7, 2009. Donors of $1,000 or more to the Rotary Annual Programs Fund, PolioPlus, or the Humanitarian Grants Program, or people who have that amount contributed in their name, can be recognized as Paul Harris Fellows. Contributions to The Rotary Foundation support our goal of advancing international understanding, goodwill, and peace. A contribution of $ 1,000 can help provide:
- · A well for clean water to a community in India
- · Equipment for a children’s library in Ecuador
- · Polio vaccine for numerous children
- · Playground equipment, musical instruments,
- · Therapeutic toys for rehabilitation of children in the Czech Republic
- · Eyeglasses for needy adults in the Philippines
- · Funding for a portion of a Group Study Exchange
- · And many more opportunities for people throughout the world
These programs can only be sustained with the ongoing support of dedicated Rotarians. Thanks to Dr. Tom Parker and his wife Karen for making The Rotary Foundation a charity of choice.
Flag Building Party Update
October 4th, 2009If it is raining at 4:00 PM on Wednesday, October 7th, we will postpone the activity until Thursday, October 8th at 5:00 PM. Thanks!
Flag Building Party
September 28th, 2009Due to the overwhelming success of our flag program this year, we are running short on flags for the last flag holiday of the season. On Wednesday, October 7th at 5:00 PM the club is looking for volunteers to come to our storage shed to build 50+ flags. If we have enough volunteers we should be able to finish in about an hour to an hour and a half. Please mark your calendars.
Thanks,
Chuck
McKinney veteran finally receives Distinguished Flying Cross medal
August 11th, 2009
10:40 PM CDT on Thursday, August 27, 2009
By MATTHEW HAAG / The Dallas Morning News
Yeager, who flew 50 fighter missions in New Guinea in 1943, received the Distinguished Flying Cross, which is awarded to those who show heroism or great achievement while flying.
“It’s an honor to have people recognize what you’ve done in the past,” said the 88-year-old retired Air Force colonel, with the blue and red medal pinned to his sport-coat pocket.
Yeager received more than 10 decorations for his Air Force service, but the Distinguished Flying Cross award eluded him. He filed the paperwork for the award in 1943, months after he bailed out of a bullet-riddled P-38 Lightning and parachuted into the New Guinea jungle. But the paperwork got lost and the award never came.
So two years ago, Paul’s wife, Connie, contacted U.S. Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Plano, and asked him to help. Even then, Connie Yeager said, she thought the award would never come.
But two weeks ago, a letter arrived from Johnson stating the military had verified Yeager’s Air Force service during World War II. He served in the 9th Fighter Squadron, 49th Fighter Group, between March and November 1943.
Johnson, who flew during the Vietnam War and was a prisoner of war for seven years, stood next to Yeager on Thursday morning and presented him the award. “I just wish you didn’t have to wait 66 years for this,” he told Yeager. “Fighting in war is hard, but I can only imagine that waiting 66 years is even harder.”
Yeager’s wife then pinned the medal on his jacket, next to his bright blue tie of a P-38.
Yeager said that one day he wants his medals and military records to be displayed somehow.
“When I die, I want it in an historical place,” Yeager said. “It’s important.”