March 9, 2004

We will not meet next week on March 15.
This is our Spring Break Holiday.

NEXT MEETING, MARCH 22…our speaker will be Claiborne Barksdale with the Barksdale Reading Institute.

LAST MEETING, MARCH 8… Mayor Yvonne Brown of Tchula gave us a rousing challenge. She recounted how she came to Mississippi with her pastor husband, and how she fell into politics by simply trying to make a difference in Tchula. Her efforts are succeeding. We MUST get families back together, she said, and we MUST educate our young people. Faith-based organizations can play a pivotal role, but we must all accept responsibility for making it work. Mayor Brown received a rare standing ovation from our club. Thanks to Stuart Kellogg for arranging and introducing this program.

THE ROTARY SPOTLIGHT… swung around to shine on Leroy Walker at the March 8 meeting. Larry Johnson did the honors. Congrats, Leroy.

ROTARY AMBASSADORAL SCHOLARSHIPS…are awarded each year from our District for graduate study abroad. Qualified applicants (and they can’t be directly related to a Rotarian) are needed for interviews in May and June. If you know of one, put him/her in touch with Chairman Ward Van Skiver. This is, literally, the opportunity of a lifetime.

MENTOR SCHOLARSHIP RAFFLE TICKETS… are still on sale – and we really need more participation. Come on, folks – this is our ONLY money raiser, it’s for an outstanding cause, and we need your help. Please call or fax the Rotary office. Deadline is March 22.

WELCOME TO NEW MEMBER… number 16 of this Rotary year. Introduced to the club on March 8 was…
•Ray Anderson, Manager of Lee Michaels Fine Jewelry. Ray was introduced by his proposer, Bill Dawson.

WE’LL MOVE IN MORE TABLES… for our Sweetheart Banquet, if we need to. With a stated capacity of 200, we now have 208 reservations. But we can cope with more, if you let us know soon. It’s on March 23.

PRESIDENT’S CORNER… While the banquet is a sellout and we are scrambling for additional seating, we need everyone to do their part (2 tickets @ $100 each) for the Mentor Scholarship Raffle. There is a total of $6,000 in cash prizes. Also there is an additional $500 drawing for those members purchasing 5 or more tickets. Please contact Bill Dawson asap to get into the raffle. We need to hit $70,000 by the time we meet on March 22. Have a great Spring Break next week. - Haden