STUDENTS TAKING RENEWED INTEREST in the VALUE OF EDUCATION.

CHEBOYGAN ROTARY STRIVE PROGRAM

In 2000 – 2001 Rotary year the Cheboygan Rotary Club President brought before the board a program that dealt with at risk high school seniors. Kay Bohls, president that year, learned about the Strive Program at the Presidential Training in Lansing, Michigan. The program never started until 2001-2002 year but the club took that year to find the necessary leadership and funding. Through the help of the current superintendent, Paul Ellinger who was also a Rotarian and Rotarian David Darnell started our first “STRIVE” year.

Through Dave Darnell’s encouragement to his brother Bud Darnell our club had the good fortune to acquire a wonderful asset to the program.

Bud Darnell’s leadership in the program has been fantastic. Bud’s enthusiasm caught on with the students immediately. Men and woman mentors do not have to be Rotarians, but it is helpful to the program’s success.

The Commitment to become a Strive Scholar means devoting yourself to the three “A” Academics, Attendance and Attitude. Without attendance, you cannot achieve the necessary academics. If there is an attitude issue, both the attendance and academics suffer.   Recognizing this, the mentors are able to give significant aid to each student in the program.

Even students that fail come back to mentors years later and say thank you.   Rewards are given to the students each marking period who increase their grade point average.

The program continues with their job performance when the school year ends.

For example, a student has a summer job and qualifies for the Strive Incentive Program of $1.00 per hour up to 400 hours with the satisfactory completion for their employers. Upon the employer’s letter, the incentive is paid from the Strive Program. This part of Strive helps young men and woman become reliable hard workers in their community. The student having the most grade point improvement will receive a $1000.00 scholarship to NCMC.

Early on in the program Probate Judge Robert Butts heard of the results of Rotary’s Strive Program. The Probate Court and Judge Butts have donated $42,650.00 to the Strive Program since 2002, which has helped keep Rotarians working with the students. There are many success stories from the young men and woman over the years, who may have given up without this mentorship.

This year, Bud Darnell and Randy Mikula are co-chairing the Strive Program.

Should you be interested please contact any club officer or member.

As one of our international projects, we partner with Thirsting to Serve, which was formed by our own Rotary District 6290 to help the district clubs in their efforts to provide clean drinking water to people around the world.

One of the ways our club has been involved is in purchasing BioSand filters.  You can learn more about these at hydraid.org.  And when you visit the Hydraid website, check out the special section for Rotary District 6290 which talks about how a club could provide water for an entire village.

You can watch the videos below showing some of the projects completed between Rotary District 6290 and the Rotary Club of Santa Rosa de Copan.

Rotary’s popularity spread, and within a decade, clubs were chartered from San Francisco to New York to Winnipeg, Canada. By 1921, Rotary clubs had been formed on six continents. The organization adopted the Rotary International name a year later.

As Rotary grew, its mission expanded beyond serving club members’ professional and social interests. Rotarians began pooling their resources and contributing their talents to help serve communities in need. The organization’s dedication to this ideal is best expressed in its motto: Service Above Self.

By 1925, Rotary had grown to 200 clubs with more than 20,000 members. The organization’s distinguished reputation attracted presidents, prime ministers, and a host of other luminaries to its ranks — among them author Thomas Mann, diplomat Carlos P. Romulo, humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, and composer Jean Sibelius.

The Four-Way Test

In 1932, Rotarian Herbert J. Taylor created The Four-Way Test, a code of ethics adopted by Rotary 11 years later. The test, which has been translated into more than 100 languages, asks the following questions:

Of the things we think, say or do

1. Is it the TRUTH?
2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

Rotary and World War II

During World War II, many clubs were forced to disband, while others stepped up their service efforts to provide emergency relief to victims of the war. In 1942, looking ahead to the postwar era, Rotarians called for a conference to promote international educational and cultural exchanges. This event inspired the founding of UNESCO.

In 1945, 49 Rotary club members served in 29 delegations to the UN Charter Conference. Rotary still actively participates in UN conferences by sending observers to major meetings and covering the United Nations in its publications.

“Few there are who do not recognize the good work which is done by Rotary clubs throughout the free world,” former Prime Minister Winston Churchill of Great Britain once declared.

Dawn of a new century

As it approached the 21st century, Rotary worked to meet society’s changing needs, expanding its service efforts to address such pressing issues as environmental degradation, illiteracy, world hunger, and children at risk.

In 1989, the organization voted to admit women into clubs worldwide and now claims more than 145,000 female members in its ranks.

After the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Rotary clubs were formed or re-established throughout Central and Eastern Europe. The first Russian Rotary club was chartered in 1990, and the organization underwent a growth spurt for the next several years.

More than a century after Paul Harris and his colleagues chartered the club that eventually led to Rotary International, Rotarians continue to take pride in their history. In honor of that first club, Rotarians have preserved its original meeting place, Room 711 in Chicago’s Unity Building, by re-creating the office as it existed in 1905. For several years, the Paul Harris 711 Club maintained the room as a shrine for visiting Rotarians. In 1989, when the building was scheduled to be demolished, the club carefully dismantled the office and salvaged the interior, including doors and radiators. In 1993, the RI Board of Directors set aside a permanent home for the restored Room 711 on the 16th floor of RI World Headquarters in nearby Evanston.

Today, 1.2 million Rotarians belong to over 32,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas.