St. Croix Day and back to St. Thomas

Pictures won't load just now so I will add them later!

Just a short update with a few pictures. We are in St. Thomas on the way home but had a great visit to st. Croix. Super job done by all the Presidents and especially the ADG and DGE Rupert. We also had the great opportunity to have lunch with Rita Powell. What a wonderful Lady and she is coming to the conference on Nassau next year.

The day was to the Lighthouse Mission at 8:00 AM to feed the homeless. After that we met with the Rotaract Board and had a great time discussing the great things they are doing.

A short press conference and back to the hotel to check out. From there to lunch with DGE Ruperta and Rita. Off to the airport with a stop on the way for homemade Crusian Ice Cream "Dietary version " with David and to the airport.

St. Croix Day 2

We had another full day beginning with Breakfast with the Rotary Mid Isle Club at Gertrude's Another very dynamic clubs with a strong board doing a lot of great things.

When we finished the meeting we went on to visit one of their projects, the Boys and Girls Club where they have helped clean up, repair and paint the facility. They are now in the process of Air Conditioning it and purchasing computers for the Computer lab and looking for books for the library.

From the site visit we went west to have our board meeting and lunch with the Rotary Club of St. Croix West. We made one sampling stop on the way. Guess where?

Samples Ohh Yah !!!!!

We had those meetings in their Community Center. It is a very purpose built facility where they hold BINGO at least twice a week. It is a very consistent and strong funding program for the club.

After the meeting with DGE Rupert as navigator in a circumnavigated route we visited two of the clubs major projects.

The Boys and Girls Club of Fredricksted and the My Brothers Table.

At the Boys and Girls Club they have completed a the computer lab and study area and were looking at redoing the kitchen area and some other work.

At My Brothers table the Club is going to install a Deck in the back of the property where they can serve the meals in a less congested outdoor area when required. As you can see from the picture they have been working with the group for some time and have supplied things such as cooking equipent and fridges etc.

Last night was a meeting with the boards of all 4 Interact Clubs prior to the final joint Assembly. We gave out a Paul Harris Society recognition, a Benefactor Recognition and inducted 3 new members. I won both cash raffles. The first was $120, which I offered to the foundation and asked for the group to match which they did plus. the second I returned to the pot for a redraw and the next winner, a gentleman we just inducted gave $100 of his back as his 1st step towards being a sustaining member. It was a great night. The St. Croix Team did an outstanding job for our visit and a special thanks goes to ADG David Beck for his organization and the Presidents for their support. thank you for the magnificent gift. See one of the Interact Clubs and Ralphs Rotaract Club below.

St. Thomas and to St. Croix

Just a quick update for everyone. We got up Wednesday morning and Don took us off to meet the St. Thomas II board and a visit to the Lockhart Elementary school where we donated Dictionaries. Great Board meeting and a strong club.

What an amazing expression of gratitude by the students. They looked up Sharing and we touched on Rotary shares a bit. They also looked up the Bahamas.

We went to the St. Anns retreat Seniors center where they had made up a welcome jingle which they sang to us. From 3rd graders to the seniors and Rotary doesn’t miss a beat. A picture of a real and very special Thank You from the wonderful administrator of the facility.

We had a joint lunch at the Marriott that was well attended and a lot of fun. The Sergeant raised a small fortune with the Happy Moments. I had the pleasure to pin the Spouse of the Governor of The USVI. She became an honorary Rotarian with the St. Thomas II club. the clubs also donated $1,750 towards the recovery effort in Haiti. Thank You St. Thomas and St. John






Don dashed us off to the airport and off to St. Croix. We had a great flight over in a small plane and were greeted by the St. Croix contingent once we all found the same gate. DGN Rupert was there as well.

We were taken to our hotel, the Buccaneer and unpacked and enjoyed a few minutes relaxation. We joined the presidents for a Welcome Dinner which was very good.

Today we began by meeting with the Rotary Club of St. Croix Harbor side. Awesome small club doing great things.

Carla got a few minutes downtown Christiansted to look around. It is very quiet there and business looks slow. It is the off season here.

We went to the Catholic Charities center where in honor of World Food day the Rotary club of St. Croix was feeding the homeless. I got to serve the people as they came in. There were quite a few of them. A humbling experience.

We met with the Rotary Club of St. Croix board for lunch followed by a visit to the Lt. Governors house to meet with him. He is a very friendly and entertaining gentleman. After a tour of the building by President Sonia ADG David brought us back to the Hotel to get ready for the Karaoke tonight., I need some good luck on this.

The leadership of the District may be at risk. Seen here is the District Governor Elect in his home town wearing what I assume is the normal attire!!!!

Seen here is the current District Governor after one day in St. Croix and a reasonably generouse portion of Cruzan Rum!

This was us singing YMCA to raise some funds for the Foundation. I understand we probably could have rasied more if we had asked them to pay us NOT to sing.

A great night of Karaoke

St. Thomas and St. John Club and project visits

Here is a web site from ADG Don with more pictures!

http://picasaweb.google.com/rotaryvi

We had a Bruncheon as I mentioned on Sunday. A great event attended equally by Rotarians and Interactors. Barry told the story about how he joined Rotary, and it was inspiring to all. In his presentation he shared examples about how Rotary gets things done and the benefit it can be to an individual. I was then asked to say a few words. I thought the fewer the better given Barry’s fantastic presentation

I thought it would be appropriate to speak to the Interact members and did that. My message was that we should leave the world a little better than we found it. Although success was clearly the priority of all the young people it was natural was we get older to begin to try to think about our legacy and in so doing it was more about how significant we had been in the world moreso than how successful. I used a concept I learned at Zone that states that a few will remember what you have earned in your life but many will remember what you have given.

We spent a couple of hours thereafter having a few beers at Coral World and enjoying Rotary Fellowship.

Sunday evening we had dinner at Diana and Rogers place. It was a great night of fellowship. PDG JV and his wife Susan, were still in town along with Barry so they were there along with ADG Don and Susan who took us there and P Jannette. Thanks Roger and Diana!

Monday morning at 6:30 AM ADG Don picked us up to go to our meeting in St. John. We arrived there for a 7:30 Board meeting. President Joan and team met us and after a very enjoyable and interesting meeting we were off to the site visit. We went to VEIRS, and environmental research facility and had a tour of the site and saw the Solar Panel power supply provided by the Rotary club.

The trip was exciting! We got to see the beauty of St. John and experience the narrow and VERY hilly roads coupled with a small mechanical issue or two with the vehicle. We had to get out and walk for a short stretch. It was a very enjoyable and memorable trip. We did get to the beach as well. We were running a little late for the return Water Taxi, so Joan drove us to a piece of property beside the Hotel and we walked along the beach to the Water taxi which saved us time. Don considers that our Beach Recreation for the trip!

Back in St. Thomas we went to work in a serious way. We met with the Charlotte Amalie board over lunch and then went on to visit a few projects. PDG Mulo was at the Board meeting. That was very nice.

The first project was the Schulterbrand Home, which is a home for the senior mentally handicapped. The Club helps feed them on weekends and provides visits and special event parties etc.

The second visit was to the main Hospital. The Rotary Clubs of St. Thomas and St. Thomas II along with the Inner Wheel have projects there. The inner wheel does the gift shop where all profits go to the hospital pediatric ward. St. Thomas did a the healing garden and it was beautiful. The Rotary Club of St. Thomas II fitted out the Lobby in the cancer wing. It was beautifully done.

We followed that up with a dinner reception at the Crystal Palace B&B, hosted by Ronnie who is a member of the St. John Club. A great night was had by all. The food was provided by a Rotarian from St. John as well.

We began Tuesday with a 7:15 AM Board meeting with the Rotary Club of St. Thomas Sunrise. A very informed and fun group.

We left the board meeting to visit the family Resource Center where we stocked some new Sunrise Rotary supplier shelves with donated books. The Club is also installing a deck in the back area. The Resource Center deals with women and children abuse counseling and placement. They also provide work at the Safe House. We followed that with a visit to their Montessori School Interact opportunity where we spoke to a potential new Interact group. Very informed, responsible and community minded young people, which in part is a function of the Montessori learning system.

We visited the Nana Baby Home Orphanage. Truly a moving experience meeting the young ones that live there and hearing how and why they are there. What a very special and important project being made possible by the St. Thomas Club.
Carla and Scarlett
We had lunch board meeting with the Rotary Club of St. Thomas at the Grand Cru in the new Port development. After the meeting we went off to the Charlotte Amalier High School where the club has just completed a matching grant to supply the Mechanical Shop with much needed diagnostic tools for the mechanical trade course. The club also fitted out the resource center, which we got to observe on action.

The Rotary Club of St. Thomas East has done some renovation work at the Arboretum, where they planted trees and did some landscaping. The Principle was unable to do the planned visit as there had been a shooting by a student off property at that very time and she was very busy dealing with that. Real Life set in very quickly.

We met with the St. Thomas East board at the Mahogany Run Golf Club. We had a good meeting and after finishing there we rushed off to meet with the Rotaract Club at Rotarian Solomons home. We met with them for an hour and a bit and then returned to the hotel for around 7:30 PM. Don had offered dinner at the Golden Arches, but we declined to get organized for our trip to St. Croix today.