Post Project Message from Yolanda Hoffman

Thank you all so much for a fantastic Super Bowl weekend! The local charities scored big because of your leadership and participation in the Rotary Super Bowl Food Drive!

We had great media coverage both print and broadcast. Thank you to Roxy Orr for a wonderful job!

We will be doing a Project Documentary provided, pro bono, by Complete Music & Video. Some of you were interviewed last Saturday. Thank you! We are gathering materials from WOWT 6, Action 3 and from all participating clubs to be included in the Project Documentary. We will have good project documentation. We will also submit the video to the RI YouTube channel, which is being accessed daily by thousands of Rotarians, Rotaractors, and Interactors worldwide.

We are looking to turn over the cash to the charities next week when DG Rich gets back from Dallas. I'll send you an email later for the date, time, and location. Let me know if you have suggestions for the cash turnover. The turnover should last approximately 10 minutes. Thank you to Ginger Hiscock for contacting all the charities.

For your club's food drive cash donation, please write a check to Rotary District 5650 and send the check if possible within this week, to our Dist. Treasurer James Mastera, 6515 Saltgrass Rd., Lincoln, NE 68521. The Treasurer will then equally divide the total cash raised to the 5 charities.

Once again thank you very much for a successful Super Bowl Food Drive!

Yolanda Hoffman
District Chair, Committee on Health & Hunger
Phone: 1-402-577-0091
Skype: HoffmanInOmaha

Follow up Message from Dist. Chair Yolanda Hoffman

For Metro Omaha Rotary Clubs:

As earlier suggested, our last shift on Saturday, Feb 6, ends at 4:00PM. We have advised the charities to come to the central location to pick up our food donations at 5:00PM. This way, we give everyone an hour to get to the central location.

Our central location to drop off groceries will be at Westroads JC Penney. The exact location is listed below:

- Westroads at JC Penney's upper level parking garage on the east side. Please park on the north side of the ramp.

In the event of extreme weather conditions on Feb 6, Sat at 4:00PM, our plan B for drop off will be at the following location:

- Terrace Plaza located at 11414 West Center Road. We will be using the back door. Tony Stiles at SW Rotary, whose family owns the building, have facilitated this location for us.

OTHER ITEMS:

CASH DONATION

- Each club is responsible for counting the money raised during the food drive and it is requested that your club writes a check to Rotary District 5650. The District will then equally donate the money raised to all participating charities.

MEDIA

- Just a heads up, Complete Music & Video will be sending their crew to the central location on Saturday, Feb. 6, to interview some of you. Some local TV stations may be sending their crews also to cover our turn over of food to the charities.

- Roxy Orr is coordinating our media efforts for this project and has already sent out our press releases to the Metro media and to cities where the rest of our 46 clubs are located.

I'm glad to share with you that on my last round of follow up with some clubs outside Omaha, everybody is ready and looking forward to a successful Super Bowl Food Drive!

Thank you very much!

Yolanda Hoffman

District Chair, Committee on Health & Hunger

Project Planning for the Rotary Super Bowl Food Drive

Taken during our planning session for the Rotary Super Bowl Food Drive. From left: Roxy Orr, District PR Chair; Club Pres. Rick Stone, Food Drive Co-Chair; Dist. Gov. Rich Rowland; Dist. Health & Hunger Chair Yolanda Hoffman. Not in picture is DGE Bob Perrin.

Food Drive Co-Chair & Club Pres. Rick Stone with Dist. Health & Hunger Chair Yolanda Hoffman.

Picture taken in front of food drive signholder provided by JC Penney.

Rotary Super Bowl Food Drive Pointers

POINTERS FOR WORKING THE 2010 SUPER BOWL FOOD DRIVE

• Wear your Rotary name tag

• Before you start, introduce yourself to the manager in charge

• Pick up the flyers to pass out to their customers at the courtesy desk or from the team you replace if you are the second shift.

Each store has a specific location where they want you to pass out flyers. Hopefully this is where the customer enters the store at the main entrance.

When passing out the flyers:

• Remember the food collected is for the food pantry only.
• Strongly encourage all to contribute $5 to help fill a bag of groceries.
• You will have a container for the money that you need to watch and be responsible for. It is attached to the sign.
• All groceries will be collected in grocery carts. At the end of your shift we ask you to bag (hopefully paper) the groceries filling the bags about 2/3 full. Leave the bags of food in grocery cart.
• Please do not leave your shift until the replacement shows up.
• If you have the last shift, in addition to bagging the groceries, you need to ask the store to secure the money collected.

Thanks for your help in making this project a success!

Notes for Food Drive Project Chairs

Notes for 2010 Food Drive

Friday, February 5 & Saturday February 6

Contact store managers in October to get event on their calendar.

District will make initial contact with the pantries (for the Omaha market) that are participating and arrange a central dropping point for all clubs to deliver their collected food on Saturday after the event is completed. Omaha market only

Dates for the drive will be Friday, February 5, and Saturday, February 6th.

Suggest your club only staff each day during the peak shopping times. Our suggestion is Friday, 2 p.m.-7 p.m. and Saturday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m.

Must have a minimum of 2 Rotarians per store. Rotarians will be passing out flyers inside the main entrance. Grocery carts with flyers attached to the front of the carts will be placed where the customers will have access to the carts after they check out with their groceries.

Two weeks before the event, announce to the club that you will be collecting cash donations from the club at your meeting the week of the food drive. We are asking the public to donate $5 or more, so hopefully your club will demonstrate their generosity with your collection.

Give a copy of the Friday/Saturday schedule to the manager of the store. Get the managers o.k. to use grocery carts to collect the can goods. Also ask the store to allow us to store the carts Friday night and secure the money in their safe Friday night.

Use 22 by 28 signs explaining the event. If approved by the manager, locate the sign after the check-out area, right before the customer exits the store. Grocery cart collecting can goods will be located adjacent to the sign. Try to set up the displays by Tuesday for the drive that will be starting Friday and Saturday. Attached to each sign is a plastic container with a slot for the money donated. At the beginning of the collection on Friday and Saturday, $5 bills are placed in the container to indicate what the containers are for. For the Omaha market, district will provide the signs and try to help locate sign holders. For the Omaha market, district will also print out flyers for Rotarians to distribute to customers as they come into the store. The flyer gives some excellent talking points for the Rotarians to approach the customer. Quantity of flyers for each store is still being discussed.

Need to have strong participation from the club. Each store needs to be staffed with a minimum of two Rotarians per shift. Two- hour shifts is recommended for staffing the event.

Saturday afternoon, each club needs to make arrangements to pick up all groceries and collected money at the stores and deliver to one central site (to be determined). The food will be distributed to the charities from that central site.

Each club is responsible for counting the money collected during the food drive. It is requested that the money be deposited to the club’s bank account and then write a check to Rotary District 5650. The District will then equally divide the money to all participating charities.

For the Omaha market, the district coordinator will work closely with the newspaper, radio, and television to assure great press coverage.

Have a person check the stores before the shifts start to make sure volunteers showed up, signs and carts are in place, adequate flyers are available, and Rotarians are aggressive in their approach.

Successful Dental Mission

Rotarians from Dist 5650 participated in the recently concluded Dental Mission organized by the Nebraska Mission of Mercy. The mission took place at the La Vista-Papillon High School, Nebraska, on July 10-11, 2009. It served more than 1500 patients. Rotary clubs made monetary donations to support the mission and several Rotarians volunteered serving in different capacities, i.e. registering the patients, assisting Dentists, managing the parking lot, managing the patients in long lines, and assisting child care whose parents are getting dental services. Health & Hunger Dist. Chair Yolanda Hoffman was at the event and was able to document some hours of the mission. Below are the pictures and video clips:

After triage, patients are waiting here for their turn to see a dentist.

Dr. Hanck, assisted by Rotarian John Meng-Frecker, doing Triage.

Health & Hunger Chair Yolanda Hoffman with Dr. Hanck taken during the first shift on July 11, 2009

Rotarian John Meng-Frecker of Southwest Omaha Rotary Club w/ Dr. Hanck during the morning shift on July 11, 2009

Below are video clips of Dr. Hanck, a volunteer dentist from Colorado, talks about his experience as part of the Dental Team, and Rotarian Rick Braasch shares his experience as non-dental volunteer.

Dr. Hanck, volunteer dentist from Colorado

Rotarian Rick Braasch, Southwest Omaha Rotary Club

NOTE: This blog post will be updated with more information, pictures, and video clips as they come.

DG Rich Rowland's Message to the Clubs as He Begins His Term as Governor

What a year! This past Rotary year is one we should all look on with a great deal of pride! Rotary continues to make giant strides with the efforts to eradicate Polio from this earth. With the new Gates Foundation matching gift and several Government Grants we have nearly $850,000,000 available to fight the last throws of this terrible disease. Polio Eradication continues to be our first priority and we will beat it!

Sharon Wherry and her entire 5650 team finished with a sprint across the Rotary 2008-09 year. With Sharon's dedication, and the help of all 2500 Rotarians in District 5650, we added new a new club, raised monies for countless great causes in our communities, and made Dreams Real for many children across the Heartland and around the world.

It is with a great deal of pride that I look forward to helping our clubs in District 5650 continue to grow and have fun offering the hand of help and compassion to those that are not as blessed as each one of us. I look forward to visiting each club in the District and hearing about the wonderful projects that have been continued, or chosen, for 2009-10.

John Kenny, our RI President for 2009-10, reminds us that "Rotary is about helping others. We are the fortunate ones. And to those that much is given, much is expected." Truly, The Future of Rotary is in Your Hands!