Debbie Bailey, December 2023 Rotarian of the Month
Rotary Club Names Debbie Bailey Rotarian of the Month
Dr. Honora Norton, Public Image Chair
Debbie Bailey, Rotary Club of Sun Lakes Board Membership Director, was named December 2023 Rotarian of the Month. She led the club and Sun Lakes community’s annual electronics recycle project in which over two truckloads of equipment was collected. She coordinates new member applications/blue badge transition and has started recruitment of volunteers for the upcoming 2024 RCSL Golf Tournament.
RCSL Supports Children with Cancer with Its Bottle Cap Collection
RCSL Rotarians Marge Wright, Stephen Phair, and Ed Anderson drove to Menos Place at 1720 W. Southern Avenue in Mesa to drop off close to 200 pounds of bottle caps collected by the club and completely filled up the heart. The club is seeking a place for a similar heart in the Chandler/Sun Lakes area. If you can recommend a location, contact Stephen Phair at 480-895-5179.
Dr. Honora Norton, RCSL Public Image Director
The MeHug organization, through its Destapitas Program, collects donated plastic caps and transports them to Mexico. Each plastic cap gets recycled and transformed into toys, furniture, and many other items. These items are then sold, where 100% of the proceeds are used to fight childhood cancer. To learn more about this program, see www.mehug.org.
Dolly’s Book Gifting Program
At a recent meeting, the CUSD Galveston Elementary’s principal and social worker spoke to RCSL members and guests about the DPIL program, which RCSL has initiated at the school. Pictured (left to right) are RCSL President Victoria Flatley, CUSD Executive Director for Elementary Education Leo Schlueter, CUSD Galveston Elementary Principal Tony Alcala, school social worker Kristian Shanline, Rotarians/RCSL DPIL leads Bill and Val Crump, and RCSL DPIL Committee member Janet McDonald.
Dr. Honora Norton, RCSL Public Image Director
Per Rotary Club of Sun Lakes (RCSL) Rotarian Val Crump, one of the service goals of Rotary Club of Sun Lakes is to support education in our local community. She states that the club does that in several ways: volunteer with 5th and 6th grader STEM programs, provide 3rd graders with dictionaries, hold high school speech contests, provide scholarships, lead Teacher of the Month programs, provide leadership training opportunities for high school and college students, and partner with the Dolly Parton Imagination Library (DPIL).
The DPIL program has been around since 1995 and is the premier early childhood book gifting program in the world. Parents of children from birth until age five sign their child up to receive a free book in the mail every month for five years. The impact of the program has been widely researched. It removes any barriers to children having books in their home and helps to develop oral language skills and a lifetime love of reading. RCSL was one of the first organizations in Arizona to implement the program, and since 2019, RCSL has provided over 1,500 children in the cities of Guadalupe and Chandler with a monthly book at no cost to their family.
RCSL’s annual DPIL fundraiser for this year will be a Reverse Raffle drawing. The club will be selling 400 raffle tickets at $100 each. How does a reverse raffle work? In a standard raffle, the “first” one to be drawn is the winner. In a reverse raffle, the “last” one to be drawn is the winner. The grand prize in our raffle is $10,000! Not only can you make a difference in a child’s life, but you also have a 1 in 400 chance of winning the $10,000. Raffle tickets can be purchased online or by sending a check. Go to www.sunlakesrotary.com, scroll down, and click the Imagination Library link on the right side of the page for the raffle rules. The raffle drawing will be held on Jan. 20 from 4:30 to 7 p.m. at the Sunset Grill in Sun Lakes. You do not need to be present to win the raffle, but you are required by state law to be in Arizona when you purchase the ticket. If fewer than 200 tickets are sold, the raffle will transition to a 50/50 raffle.
For more information about RCSL programs and membership, see sunlakesrotary.com.