2019-2020

Jacqueline Thornhill served as the 97th President of the Rotary Club of Las Vegas during the 2019-2020 Rotary Year. The International theme was “Rotary Connects the World”. President Jackie continued with the four person head table, sharing Fellowship with the speaker and Club Members. There were two specific goals for the year: 1.) To start a new Rotaract Club, 2.) To be a part of the New Rotary International Project, Together, We Read and Spread the Word Nevada as a Pilot Program Club to bring literacy to 0-5 year-olds in our community. Our club members rose to the occasion and completed the first half of the Together, We Read project virtually training during the Covig – 19 pandemic. Second half of the project, working with parents and their children due to complete by 10/15. The Rotaract Club goal will be moved to next year.

Other notable and unique accomplishments that occurred during the 2019-20 year include:

• Brenda Cressey, the Rotary International Foundation Chair, was the guest speaker at our first meeting, July 11, 2019.

• $4,940 sent to District 6990 for relief efforts after Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas

• Was a speaker at the Interact Conference on September 28, 2019 in Las Vegas

• Had 10 Interactors with their faculty advisor, 20 Club members attend the District 5300 30th Annual Peace Conference held at the Treasure Island November 16, 2019 Michael Williams Chair

• Awarded honorary membership to longtime member Steve Parikh

• Continued Facebook live stream of our weekly meetings Kirk Holmes Chair
• 45 Videos
• 27,430 Lifetime Post Total Impressions (Lifetime: The number of impressions of your Page post. (Total Count))
• 22,320 Lifetime Post Total Reach (Lifetime: The total number of people your Page post was served to. (Unique Users))
• 10,912 Lifetime Total Video Views
• Total Minutes viewed: 9,985

• Continued podcast of our weekly speakers Kirk Holmes Chair

• Revised our club bylaws and updated our club constitution PP Tom Krob Chair

• Added 15 new members Rosalee Hedrick, Janet Linder, Toni Kern Co-Chairs
• Added three babies twins, (Gamero) and one grandbaby (Pinkerton)

• Under the directives regarding the COVIG-19 pandemic, for the first time in our club’s history, virtual meetings were held via Facebook Live and Zoom for the 3/19, 3/26 , 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30 5/7, 5/14, 5/21. 5/28, 6/4 and 6/11 meetings.
We finally resumed one last live meeting for the year on 6/18.

• Achieved RI Presidential Citation

In an effort to answer the question: “What does Rotary do?” the board summarized all the club activities in the Wheel of June 18, 2020. These include:

Social Events:
• Alpine Picnic at Tom Thomas’ (7/27) 25 Club
• Tailgate party at UNLV football (10/19) Anil Melnick Chair
• Halloween party at Russ Swain’s House (10/19) 25 Club
• Holiday party at Dragon Ridge Country Club (12/5) Janice Lencke Chair
• Volunteering at Magical Forest, Opportunity Village (12/12) Michael WilliamsChair
• Family of Rotary luncheons 11/11 Pam Samoulis Chair
• 25 Club socials on 9/24; 1/19 & 2/25
• Three New Member Orientations (10/8; 2/11; 6/16) Rosalee Hedrick, Janet Linder, Toni Kern Chairs

Fundraising Activities:
• 1 cigar social 10/25; – Raised $881.56 for the Foundation Jim Hunt Chair
• 2 Virtual Cigar Socials 3/26 raised $150 for Destiny’s Rescue and 4/2 PP Jim Hunt Kim Nyoni Co-Chairs
• Canned food drive – Raised $9485.13 25 Club
• Beat the Kiwanis clubs for the 14th straight year
• Two Wine-to-Water events 8/15; 11/14; – Raised $2808.22 for Community First and Aquaponics in Cambodia Kim Nyoni Chair
• Holiday Party Auction 12/5 Raised $1760 Janice Lencke Deb Granda Co-Chairs
• Halloween Party Auction 10/19 Raised $672 25 Club
• Thomas Family literacy grant – $12,500 for Beckley E.S. PP Tom Thomas
• Lefler literacy grant – $1,000 for Long Elementary gave books to every student for summer reading. Postponed due to pandemic. Due to complete in 9/2020 Kirk Alexander Brian Rosenberg Co-Chairs
• Superbowl board – Raised $2,500 for LVRF PP Jim Tucker Chair
• Together, We Read literacy grant $1500 STWN and Northern Nevada Literacy
Council completion by 10/15 Toni Kern Tina Bishop Co-Chairs

Rotarian of the Month winners:
July 2019 – Dr Andy Kuniyuki
August 2019 – PP Jim Kohl
September 2017 – Jaime Goldsmith
October 2017 – PP Karen Whisenhunt
November 2017 – Marie Walsh
December 2017 – PP Jim Hunt
January 2018 – Carey Grohs
February 2018 – Deb Granda
March 2018 – Virtual Meetings
April 2018 – Virtual Meetings
May 2018 – Virtual Meetings
June 2018 – Virtual Meetings 6/4 and 6/11. Captain Kirk Holmes and Stu Lipoff

Local Service Projects:
• $1,350 for the “Share What You Can” award to the USO of So Nevada
• Honored First Responders at annual SOAR event (9/16) Jaime Goldsmith Chair
• Served on District Governor Designate Committee 10/19
• Secured 100 Wheelchairs for local distribution PP Jim Hunt PP Michael Gordon Chairs
• 2 Wetzel award presentations – 9/26 & 1/9 PP David Thorson Chair
• 3 highway cleanups – 9/7; 12/14;& 6/20 David Squier Jerry Sennes Chairs
• 7 Monthly Breakfast w Books at Beckley ES partnered with Spread the Word Nevada Marie Walsh Chair
• 1,870 Reading Logs turned in
• Total Books read by the kids 2,440
• Total attendance
• 1,015 Children
• 527 Adults
• Project 150 aka Drop Your Drawers 8/2019 for local high school in need kids raised $7,502.95 PP Jim Kohl Chair
• Red Cross Blood Drive 2/28 21 Donors and 7 Volunteers held at Lawry’s Prime Rib Deb Granda Chair
• Flatten the Curve raised $2100 for the Salvation Army to purchase medical supplies to help the homeless. Anil Melnick PP Michael Gordon Chair assisted by Kiwanis Clubs
• Donated $2500 from unused budget money to the USO project “Nature is Neat” for children of Creech AFB service members. PP Dave Thorson Keri Serrano
Chairs
• First responder project. A generous donation from Joan Murdock of $1000 was used to purchase 200 N95 masks. These were donated to Metro PD. President Jackie Thornhill Chair
• Purchased 250 Masks made from the t-shirts printed for the International Convention which was cancelled for gift to our club members and the remaining donated to Share Village and Sunrise Hospital during the Covig – 19 pandemic. President Jackie Thornhill Chair

International Service:
• Superbuild – contributed $2,500 to build one house 11/2 Kirk Alexander Chair
• Sponsored Savannah Dryden – outbound student to France Kimberly Brodeur Chair
• Sponsored Reaf Bruce– the incoming exchange student from New Zealand
• Sponsored Chantay BenShimon as our Global Grants Scholar to Israel PP Karen Whisenhunt Chair
• Hosted Open World delegation from Ukraine for Medical Education (10/11-19)  PP Karen Whisenhunt Melanie Muldowney Co-Chairs
• Celebrated World Polio Day Polio Pig raised $292 Peppa Pig raised $200 (10/24) LVRC
• Destiny Rescue – rescue children from sex-trafficking in Thailand raised $2005 25 Club

Rotary International Contributions:
• Total TRF contributions this year: $31,579
• Total PolioPlus contributions this year: $6,063
• Total lifetime TRF contributions by our club: $1,702,229
• Total Major Donors Level 1 in LVRC: 10
• Total Major Donors Level 2 in LVRC 3
• Total Benefactors Level 1 in LVRC: 6
• Total Benefactors Level 2 in LVRC 1

• New Paul Harris Fellows (2019-20):
• Jeni Houghton • Barbara Billitzer
• Brian Rosenberg • Jerry Sennes
• James Frazey • Connor Rodenfels
• Leslie Mujica • Lea Beaman
• Shannon Brown • Yoko Barnard
• Lawrence Barnard • Kori Barnard
• Dr Andy Kuniyuki • Janelle Lozano
• Doug Grant • Cynthia Louise Cubberly
• Ruth Martin • Matthew Scrivenor
• Claudia Wilson

• Paul Harris Fellow level increases (2019-20):
• Kim Nyoni • James Stewart
• John Steward • Michael Ryan
• Luanne Wagner • Scott Frost
• Howie Hopkinson • Dan Anderson
• Marie Walsh • Stu Lipoff
• Bill Stieren • Mercedes Hildbrecht
• Jaime Goldsmith • Val Hatley
• Anil Melnick • Pete Samoulis
• Jim Hunt • Ruth Jagodzinski
• Susan Zioboro • Jacqueline Thornhill
• Toni Kern • Mike Ballard
• Walt Parrish • Lloyd Sauter
• Steve Dixon • Ed Lepere
• Sharon McNair • Russ Swain
• Caty Crockett • Ginger Anderson
• Jim Kohl

Major Donor Level 1
• Rose Falocco

Major Donor Level 2
• Tom Krob

Bequest Level 1
• Jacqueline Thornhill

Grants Distributed:
• Tiberti scholarship
• Awarded $2,500 to Savanna Vacek
• $2,750 to The Public Education Foundation Leadership Academy
• $5,000 from Santa Clothes fund to Project 150
• $4,000 to Junior Achievement of So Nevada
• $5,000 to After School All Stars ASAS
• $1000 to Salvation Army
• $2500 to USO of So Nevada
• $3000 Global Grant with Club Rotario de Villa de Leyva, Colombia for Covig-19 relief PDG Rampur Visawanth Chair
• $100 Global Grant with Rotary Club of Bangalore Downtown, India for Covig-19 relief PDG Rampur Visawanth Chair
• $1000 International project Bathroom build in Kalavan, Armenia Ted McAdam Chair Shared grants via Howard & Howard:
• $5,000 – Southern Nevada Junior Golf Association
• $5,000 – USO of Southern Nevada
• $12,500 – YMCA
• $5,500 – Foundation for Independent Tomorrow
• $2,500 – Boy Scouts of America
• $6,500 – Leukemia and Lymphoma Society
• $5,000 – USO

Youth:
• Supported Beckley Harvest Festival (10/18) Marie Walsh Chair
• Sent 15 students to RYLA October 2020 Cancelled due to Covig-19 Bill Houghton Chair
• Certified Interact club at Clark H.S. Luanne Wagner School Advisor
• Sent 15 students to TLC 12/6-8 Bill Houghton Chair
• Supported Beckley Polar Express 12/19 Marie Walsh Chair
• Supported Beckley Career Day 2/7 Marie Walsh Chair
• Hosted German team for Mayors Cup soccer tournament 2/14-16 PP Karen Whisenhunt Chair
• Sponsored 2 contestants in the annual Four-Way Speech Contest Rose Falocco Chair
• Sponsored 5 contestants in the annual Dan Stover music contest Judith Pinkerton Chair
• Nevada Reading Week Beckley – 3/2-3/6 Marie Walsh Chair
• 9 monthly Breakfast with Books events at Beckley Marie Walsh Chair
• 9,201 books distributed to 1,236
• Honored 52 valedictorians at virtual meeting with Dr Jesus Jara (4/23) Marie Walsh Chair
• NV Centennial Medallion recipient delayed due to Covig-19 Fall Presentation

District Awards–District Conference scheduled for May was cancelled.

District Awards will have to wait until October when a District Dinner will be held.
District awards along with the Governor’s Bell will be named. As a testament to the hard work of the club members, the club qualified for the 2019-20 RI Presidential Citation award. PP Michael Gordon completed his first term as Group 14 Assistant District Governor. The debunking party was held at the home
of Rose Falocco. PP Jim Kohl led the committee and sent President Jackie to the “kiddie pool” in shame for notarizing her own Rotary year accomplishments.
PP Randy Campanale was recognized for his continued support and advice toPresident Jackie as her Past President Representative. Executive Director Shawn
Noorda was appreciated for her endless dedication to the club. Toni Kern was presented with the Rotarian of the Year Award for her dedication to all things
Rotary. Thus, ended the year of the President who ended each meeting with: “ A quote from my most admired Woman Hero: Amelia Earhart. “No kind action ever stops with itself. One kind action leads to another.”