Home Page | Rotary Club of West U (Houston)

Holiday Party A Hit!

The halls and people were decked out on Tuesday night for the annual club holiday party. Thanks to Suzanne Diecks and Leslie Cauffman for organizing this wonderful party. Thanks to the Brevards for manning the check-in table. The musician and the entertainment put everyone in the mood for the holidays. See the photo album for more photos.

The Twelve Days of Christmas performed by the WURC choir!

Serena, Irene, Essi, and Martina and Peter Dorn share glad tidings.

Eight maids a milking, kinda.

UH Service Scholarship Winner Named

Every year our club selects a college student who performs an almost unbelievable amount of service even as they pursue their degree. This year's winner from the University of Houston is Lida Hedayatpour. She received a check for $3000 from our foundation to continue her studies. She models our own Rotary motto, "Service above self". Congratulations, Lida!

Thank you, Honey Leveen, for leading this effort after Clarence Miller resigned after years leading this project. And thank you to Dr. Jan Durrani, who will take over from Honey who is moving to sunny Florida next year.

L-R; Dr. Jan Durrani, Hannah Barker (UH honors college development officer), Amy Leggio, Exec Dir Development, Lida Hedayatpour (scholarship recipient), and Honey Leveen.

New Role for Terry Ziegler

Our club's Terry Ziegler is a rock star in our club and in the wider Rotary world too. Per RI Board Member and our own PDG Suzie Howe, Terry has been selected as an Endowment/Major Gift Advisor for Rotary Region 26 (basically Texas) starting July 2019. This will be the FIRST time a non-past district governor has held that position. Terry will be fantastic in the job. (And can you believe he was never a district governor??) Congratulations, Terry!

Human Trafficking Help For Victims

One of the ways to help victims of human trafficking is providing emergency items immediately after rescuing. Rotarians from across the district came out to A Second Cup to create "Go Bags" containing essential items for police to give to victims. Partners included Freedom Alliance Church, United Against Human Trafficking, and E.S.S.I. (Empower, Stand, Serve, Inspire). Consider joining in future projects addressing this gigantic problem located right in our home town.

Hearing the horrible facts about Houston's part in this.

Loading bags with items and encouragement.

Consider getting involved in our club's efforts by contacting Essi Kwabi.

Feeding Over 200 Families for Thanksgiving

We continue to collaborate with The Fulfillment Project of The Word Church in NW Houston. For the second year in a row, we helped provide over 200 turkeys and bags of food for families in the area. Thanks to all who came out to help.

And thanks to Nate Simon, Christine and Celestine Kwabi for their help, too!

Future Rotarians for sure!

Club Earns Top Awards

The club was recently recognized at the District Seminar for being a leader in generosity. Our club received the following awards for our 2017-2018 giving:

#1 in Total Giving to the Annual Fund of The Rotary Foundation

#1 in Per Capita Giving to the Annual Fund

#3 in Total Giving to Polio Plus

Thanks to everyone for making this possible.

L-R: President Clyde Hays, PE Stacy Brevard, Vice Pres. Gerard Simon

Flags Go Out This Week!

Veterans Day is November 11 and that means a flag launch. Please contact your team NOW to arrange your launch for either Wednesday, Thursday or Friday as November 11th is on SUNDAY. Customers who get a flag very late in the launch call and email us creating additional work for a team that is already doing much more than most people realize. Forget an address? The flag team covers you. Last minute order? The flag team brings them one. So please launch on Wed, Thur, Friday in support of your club AND the flag team. Thanks!

And a BIG thank you to all those who have been coming out to recent flag repairs. The flags are ready to go!

L-R: Prez Clyde Hays, Liz Wilder, Suzanne Diecks, Serena Sneeringer, Terry LeFebvre, AJ Karian, Bentley Sanford,

kneeling: Cecile Schutter, Flag CEO Essi Kwabi. Not pictured: Russ, Carol L

Welcome New Members Liz & Irene

We are pleased to welcome Liz Wilder and Irene Sadkowski to the club this week! Thanks, too, to sponsors and mentors who promote Rotary and mentor new members. Invite your friends and people you meet to one of our meetings. We can do more when we are more.

L-R: President Clyde Hays, sponsor Wendy Hiester, Liz Wilder, mentor Carol Lester, Irene Sadkowski, membership chair Stacy Brevard.

20,736 Meals in 4 Hours

Along with Rotarians from all over D5890, members helped package 20,736 meals for shipping to Colombia for Venezuelan refugees. Thanks to everyone who came out to our Rise Against Hunger event on Saturday, Oct. 27th. Thank you, Jack Wallace and Paul Ralph, for coordinating this event.

For more photos, go to Photo Albums on this site.

Focus on Human Trafficking

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem, but also a BIG problem in Houston. Our member Essi Kwabi has decided to focus on this problem by joining with United Against Human Trafficking (UAHT) and host her own event in January in support of them. On Thursday, October 25, we made a donation to Nathanial Arneson, Community Liaison with UAHT, of $1500 towards those efforts. For more info on how you can get involved email Essi at essi.kwabi@freiheitsolutions.com

L-R: President Clyde Hays, Nathaniel Arneson, Margarita Hernandez, Kimberly Phipps-Nichol, Essi Kwabi

Visiting Have Shears Will Travel

Posted by Cecile Schutter on Oct 26, 2018

After our club meeting, six members visited the Have Shears Will Travel RV at Sobriety Matters. Pictured are Matt, the RV driver & barber for HSWT, Margarita, Oneida, stylist, AJ (Ara), Lisa and Serena. George taking the picture and I am seated pretending to get a cut. We talked with Matt and Oneida on what they do everyday, visiting 25 different venues each month and giving haircuts and shaves to about 500 men, women and children who cannot afford them. This is an amazing charity and the work and drive of Barbara Goodson (founder) and Matt and Oneida comes deep from the heart in Enhancing the Dignity of Every Client, because a salon is not an option for everyone.

Please learn more at www.haveshearswilltravel.org and while you are there, please consider a contribution to keep this wonderful charity going.

Helping Those Who Help Others

Sometimes our help is with our hands, sometimes with our funds. We have recently given financial support to several organizations who do the actual work of helping their constituencies. Our help has included:

$2144 to Challlenger for scholarships for players. Thank you, Judy Faulkner, for leading the event that earned the funds.

$6000 to Have Shear Will Travel (our District grant) to help her grow her grooming business for the homeless. Thank you, Cecile, for coordinating the grant process with Barbara Goodson.

$4000 to Caring Friends, Inc. for inner city schools who are always in need of funding. Thank you, John Collier, for being our conduit to help.

And thanks to ALL members whose generous contributions make these donations possible.

Meet Our Newest Members

In the last several weeks we have added three new members and one application is in the queue now. Our newest Red Badge members are Jack Hardin (spouse of Janice Stooksberry), a transfer from the Galleria club, and Christine MacMillan and Dr. Ahmad Jan Durrani. We look forward to getting to know them better and serving alongside them. Liz Wilder is back from summer travel and will be inducted soon. Thanks to all who recruit new members, serve as sponsors and serve as mentors.

Hello Enea & Eva, Ciao Trinity

Lots happens in the fall as school approaches. Among those things are the arrivals of our inbound exchange students and the send-off of our outbounds. This year we welcome Enea from Italy, who is currently hosted by the Lesters, and Eva from Taiwan, currently hosted by the Reillys. Thanks to all who came out to IAH to welcome them, esp. Eva's group, as she arrived around midnight! Eva is attending St. Agnes Academy and Enea is attending St. Thomas Episcopal School. Please help make them feel welcome.

Eva, third from left.

Enea, right behind his name on poster

And going out, we have Trinity Reilly, who is heading off to Northern Italy on exchange. We wish her the best and look forward to reports from her and Brennan about her experience. RYE is a great leap of faith for these youth. Kudos to them!

Trinity says her "Ciao" and gets banners for exchanging in Italy.

Backpacks Project Help Hundreds More

Our annual Backpacks Project changed a little this year with Chad Spencer obtaining fully loaded backpacks, eliminating our need to fill them ourselves. Plus he was able to grow it by an additional 360 packs! Disbursing so many took lots of volunteers. Thanks to all who came out to the various locations to help us sort and deliver and disburse the hundreds of backpacks at locations around town. They include: Jane Richardson, Potu Rao, Brennan Reilly, Kimberly Phipps-Nichol, Janice Stooksberry, Jack Hardin, Joe Rivers, Margarita Hernandez, Frank Parrilla and Chad Spencer.

Below see our collaboration with Houston Area Urban League's back-to-school event.

Margarita and Frank assist Spanish speaking clients at Emergency Aid Coalition event, while Cecile, Serena and AJ help distribute.

Thanks to ALL who came out to help students arrive to school prepared.

Visitors From Around the World

We are fortunate to be located near downtown and the medical center. As such, we get a good amount of international visitors. Recently we met Flossie from Ghana and Victor from Bangalore.

Whenever you travel, consider visiting the local Rotary club and exchange banners with them. We have many available. Thanks to all who warmly welcomed our visitors!

Our First Rainy July 4th Event

Despite torrential rain, the parade and the fundraiser went on. Judy Faulkner's team of dedicated volunteers ran the checkout while Jamie's served the food. The city hired face painters, balloon artists and caricature artists so the few stranded customers had something to do. The rain was a first in our history; we hope the last!

All proceeds will go to Challenger baseball for scholarships.

Flag Launch, Parade, & Concessions

The new Rotary year kicks off with a trifecta of service! Everyone puts out flags, some march in the Kazoo Band (world renown!), and some work the concessions at the pool fundraiser that benefits Challenger Baseball. We need everyone who can to help out! Wear your red, white and blue or Rotary t-shirt and come out for a fun morning of service and fellowship.

Rotarian & Rookie of the Year Announced

It's never easy to pick the winners of these awards; so many are deserving. This year George selected Margarita Hernandez as the Rookie Rotarian of the Year, and John Collier as the Rotarian of the Year.

Congratulations to them both, and thank you for your above-and-beyond service this past year.

New Board and Prez Installed

Congratulations to the incoming Board of Directors installed at a lovely event put on by the Social Committee at Maggiano's.

George Adams was a phenomenal leader; Clyde will no doubt be one as well. Thanks to all who served last year and to those who agreed to serve this year.

The incoming board is the following:

President: Clyde Hays

VP/Pres. Elect: Stacy Brevard

Pres Elect Nominee: Gerard Simon

Treasurer: Jim Waters/John Barnes

Secretary: Wendy Heister
Directors: Terry LeFebvre / Joe Rivers / Margarita Hernandez / Jane Richardson / A J Karian / Bob Owen / Lisa Bunse / Suzanne Diecks / Sachin Chowdhry

Past Pres: George Adams

Pancakes Make Seniors Feel Loved

Diners at the semi-annual pancake breakfast for West U seniors lavished appreciation on us for serving them tasty food, but also for the warm fellowship we shared. Thank you, Judy Faulkner, for creating this event and leading it for the third year. Thanks to all the cooks, servers, decorators, and cleaners for your selfless service at this event.

Care Package Give Seniors a Chance to Serve

Sheltering Arms seniors assisted our club in creating approximately 100 toiletry bags to be disbursed to veterans living on the streets. In addition to giving us a place to do the project, SA seniors helped by loading the items into the sturdy insulated bags and staff will take to the homeless veterans around town. Thanks to all who came out to help us help two often-overlooked groups.

Special thanks to Chad and Rebecca Spencer for coordinating all the pieces.

New President & First Lady Honored at Conference

Every year at District Conference Saturday night honors various Rotarians. Foremost it honors the incoming presidents and their spouses or significant other. Our own Clyde and Katy Hays marched down the aisle to hoots and hollers from our members around the room. We look forward to another great year under Clyde's leadership and appreciate Katy sharing him with us. Pictured with incoming District Governor Carmen Cuneo.

Golf Tournament a Big Success

For the 22nd year in a row, Geoff Lanceley and Bob Geary orchestrated a successful golf event benefitting our selected charity. This year we repeated PEP (Prison Entrepreneurship Program) as the beneficiary but the funds are dedicated to a new initiative of PEP -- PEP in a woman's prison in Lockhart, TX. Thank you, Geoff, Bob, Dee, and Kandy Glover and the numerous volunteers who helped that day, for a lovely time of fellowship on the best day of the year.

The colorful Vaughan/Spencer team, which came in 1st place. Chad was also the winner of the putting contest.

The foursome of Bert Smith's (grey t-shirt), outgoing CEO of PEP.

Other winners were Kerry Bloom for longest drive, closest to the pin was Muddy McDaniel, and straightest drive was Bob McEniry.
A number of PEP graduates volunteered and also golfed. We hope you had a chance to visit with them.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful day!

Harvey Victims Get Furniture

Our club, with the assistance of The Starfish Project of Adore Ministries, was connected with families who still need help after Harvey. Five families who needed new furnishings were granted $1500 each to select new and gently used furniture from The Furniture Bank. Thanks to John Collier who connected us to the organizations who work at street level with those in need.

George shown with members of two families who got furniture using our funds.

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Bulletin Subscribe

Celebrating 24 Years of Service to the Community and World.

2017-18 Rotary Foundation donations: #1 Total Giving, #1 Per Member Giving, #3 Giving - PolioPlus

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