Misinformation has been plentiful during the Ukraine war. This presentation will discuss how we as media consumers can better inform ourselves about this conflict.
Steven Youngblood is the founding director of the Center for Global Peace Journalism at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, USA, where he is a communications and peace studies professor. He has organized and taught peace journalism seminars and workshops in 40 countries/territories (27 in person; 13 via Zoom). Youngblood is a two-time J. William Fulbright Scholar (Moldova 2001, Azerbaijan 2007). He also served as a U.S. State Department Senior Subject Specialist in Ethiopia in 2018. He has been recognized for his contributions to world peace by the U.S. State Department and the World Forum for Peace, which named him a Luxembourg Peace Prize laureate for 2020-21.
Scott Walterbach arranged this program.
Parkville Rotary Helping Ukrainians through Partnership with Rotary Club Chisinau
PROJECT UPDATE: We've raised $10,703.96 as of this evening.
Thank you to all of those who have donated. If you haven't donated we urge you to donate!
Tell your friends, neighbors, and family as we are working to make this as big as we can! Donate a second time if you are able.
We need your help! I am a Rotarian in the Parkville Rotary Club and we are looking to help Ukrainian refugees. Can you help us?
As you know, the situation for Ukrainian refugees is dire. 350,000 refugees have made their way to the tiny neighboring country of Moldova, where a per capital annual income of just $4,547 means that Moldovans have only a limited capacity to assist their new guests.
Seeing this need, the Parkville Rotary Club is partnering with the Chisinau, Moldova Rotary Club on a fundraiser to assist Ukrainian refugees. Contributions collected here in the U.S. will be used by the Chisinau Rotary to buy food, supplies, and other necessities for the refugees.
Donations are being accepted through PayPal. You can pay with a credit card, debit card, or through a PayPal account. Please use the 'Donate Here' button below.
Donations can also be made by check, payable to Parkville Rotary Club, and mailed to PO Box 12064, Parkville, MO 64152.
If you are able to make a donation, of course that would be great. If you don’t have funds available, we understand. Whether your club donates or not, we would be most grateful if you pass this request around to your members, and anyone else in your community who you feel might be receptive.
Thank you for your generosity.
Service above self,
Scott Walterbach, President, Parkville, Missouri Rotary Club
Dmitri Popa, President, Chisinau, Moldova Rotary Club
Steven Youngblood, District 6040 Peacebuilding Ambassador
Good news from Chisinau. They’ve used our money to give 1000 lei vouchers (worth $52) to refugees to make clothing purchases. I love the way they’ve done this. I know that $52 doesn’t sound like a lot, but this goes a long way in a second hand store in Moldova. They have posted photos on their facebook page, click the blue box link below. I have also downloaded and attached a few of these photos. I wrote them back and thanked them.
To All Shoes Cheerleaders in Rotary District 6040 Rotary Clubs – Good Monday morning to each of you. I hope this finds each of you safe and healthy.
It was simply great to see our Rotarians at each of our 42 stops over the past two weekends for the 2022 Shoes Caravan. Tremendous Rotary spirit throughout Northwest Missouri, Northeast Missouri, North Central Missouri, West Central Missouri and the Kansas City area. I’m told the two weekends totaled 1,600 miles of driving. I believe it.
Twenty-one thoughts for our post-caravan update in our 21st year -
It was truly outstanding to travel to EVERY ROTARY COMMUNITY over a 6-day period. Everyone loved this, and we were pleased to repeat the caravan schedule we had done the year before. Amazingly, we dodged nearly all the rain drops over the past two weekends.
Thank you for greeting us so warmly at every stop. Of course, when the temps were over 90 degrees, in some cases this was not hard to do!!!
Very nice to see how you continue to involve the community at large – Girl Scouts. Interact Clubs. Middle Schools. Elementary Schools. Churches. Workplaces.
Without question, the spirit of Rotary in District 6040 is as strong as ever. It was easy to see how much this District Service Project continues to resonate in your Rotary Club. It was very nice that our District Governor, David McCaughey (Kansas City 13) could join us for a couple of caravan stops. Our Governor next year in 2022-23, Kent Shelman (Lee’s Summit) enjoyed the final two days of the caravan and we were pleased to have his help. It is also great to know that we have the support of the Governor 2023-24 Randy Steinman (KC Plaza); Governor 2024-25 Erik McGuire (St. Joseph East); and Governor 2025-2026 Jodi Sundaram (Liberty). I have been personally grateful for the support of 21 consecutive District Governors over 21 years…and with the support from Kent, Randy, Erik and Jodi….we look ahead to these next few years, and to our 25th anniversary in 2026!
I am personally so thankful for the core caravan team that includes John Gill (Richmond); Cassy Venters (KC Plaza); Kenny Harris (Blue Springs); and Phyllis Dieckmann (Higginsville). I know you are thankful to them as well. You should consider joining the caravan, for a day, for a few days, or for the entirety. We’d love to have you join us, and can always use the help. You will love the fellowship.
To accomplish a six-day caravan to reach every Rotary community, we again utilized Shoes Storage Hubs in Chillicothe and Liberty. Fantastic idea. Such great hospitality in those two Rotary communities, as well as in Maryville, Independence and in Kirksville to organize meals for us at lunch caravan stops. My personal thanks to the Blue Springs club for the proclamation they had arranged.
So many of our Rotary Clubs had their newspaper representatives there to cover caravan stops. Excellent.
Each of us owe a great amount of thanks to our partners at Buckner International in Dallas, Texas. My friend Scott Collins and my friend Shawn Spurrier at Buckner combined to join us for the entire caravan. This displays the real commitment to our combined partnership. Buckner stewards our donations in an exemplary manner.
Each of us owe a great debt of gratitude to UPS, who assists us every year with the transport of the shoes to Dallas. At this moment, our UPS trailer is at the Lenexa, KS Distribution Center, awaiting the move to Dallas. By the way, if you ever wondered how long it takes to move our collections from our trailer to the UPS trailer – well, this year it was 29 minutes – probably 600 boxes were unloaded!
I was amazed at the results to date this year. Throughout the caravan, we heard your clubs saying it was a bit more difficult this year to find shoes to purchase, yet our clubs were resilient to find all the best shoes deals throughout north Missouri (and into Iowa and Kansas)!
To date, we have collected right at 13,500 pairs of shoes. To date, we have collected just over 3,000 pairs of socks. To date, we have collected over 150 pairs of shoelaces. To date, we have collected over $32,000 in checks and cash donations. This is so significant, more cash than ever. Uncommon generosity. It is also indicative of clubs continuing to look for sources for shoes.
I hope you are proud to continue to be a part of such a great District Service Project. And are proud that you are in a District that has such a ready-made, strong, District-wide, service project, that is international in focus, that all of us can do together. That was the goal, 21 years ago. You do it so well.
Attached to this post-caravan report (click blue link below) is a template press release for your use in your local community. Let the community know of your good works, and encourage them to join your efforst.
Over the next few weeks, we will work to take all the photos and video shoes roll call reports that were made at the 42 caravan stops, to produce something for your clubs to receive and show at a club meeting. It should be helpful and could certainly serve as a club program. Stay tuned, and I’ll keep you informed.
In our 21st anniversary year, I’m so pleased that every club – all 55 Rotary Clubs – participated in the project. 100% participation. Awesome. Kudos to all clubs, and particular kudos to the three clubs who set all-time highs with their shoes collection efforts this year --- Brookfield, Unionville, and Princeton.
Over the past 21 years, you have now collected nearly 385,000 pairs of shoes; over 45,000 pairs of socks; nearly 27,000 pairs of shoe laces; some shoe horns; some shoe spoons; and oh by the way, over $232,000 in cash.
We are helping so many children with something new, children we may never meet, just because.
As we begin to think about international travel a bit more these days, we know there is much interest in another Rotary District 6040 Shoes Delivery Trip to a country served by Buckner. Cassy Venters will be assisting me with gathering interest, and gathering information, so that you just might meet some of these children on a delivery trip. Stay tuned. Let me know if you, or others in your club, have interest in traveling on a shoes delivery trip as early as 2023.
Share all this great news with your clubs this week. Amazing. Please accept my heartfelt “thank you”, and please thank the Rotarians in your clubs for me personally. I am proud to be your shoes cheerleader. As long as you are in, I am in. (Yes, I added a 22nd thought, looking ahead to our 22nd year).
Thanks for showing what Service Above Self looks like.
(L to R): Bob Stone, Joe Carroll, Larry Lunsford, Robert Kersey, and Cassy Venters
Save the Date! Fourth of July Parade
Parkville Rotary will be participating in the Parkville 4th of July Parade again this year. If you want to participate please contact Bob Stone, rd_stone@me.com. Parade Line Up begins at 9am and the parade starts at 10am at 63rd Street and Hwy 9. The Parade ends in downtown Parkville and our group is usually towards the front of the parade. This year's theme is “Land of the Free, Home of the Brave.”
It's that time of year again when Joe Carroll, Treasurer, and Dalyn Novak, Foundation Chair, reach out to all members and ask if you've donated your $100 for Every Rotarian Every Year. This program, also known as EREY, asks every Rotarian to support The Rotary Foundation every year.
Even if you can't donate $100 that's okay! We just ask each member to donate what they are able to, be it $10 or $1,000 (or more)! We can dream, can't we? :)
These donations are used to directly help Rotary's 7 Areas of Focus:
Promoting Peace
Fighting Disease
Providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene
Saving Mothers & Children
Supporting Education
Growing Local Economies
Protecting the Environment
These are all areas that we can get behind as Rotarians! All donations for this calendar year need to be in by June 1st to Joe Carroll. Bring a check to the next meeting you attend or have Joe include it on your next invoice. Please email him at: JCarroll@wells-bank.com.
We have had 100% participation by our members in past years. Need even more information behind why? Click on the blue box below...
Parkville Rotary Partnering on a NEW Global Grant!
The Parkville Rotary Board has approved the use of $2,200 to be put towards Smithville Rotary Club's Global Grant with the Rotary Club of Rudramati Kathmandu in Nepal to provide much needed medical equipment and supplies in the rural area outside of Kathmandu. We have drafted a Global Grant application, number GG 2235567, called Nepal Healthy Communities.
The area of RI focus is maternal and child health. Two health centers will receive medical equipment, supplies, and training. Both health centers provide obstetric and gynecological services to socially and economically marginalized women.
The total value of the grant project is $31,001. The project currently has financial support from the Rotary Clubs of Smithville, North Kansas City, Gladstone, Parkville, and Rudramati Kathmandu; and from District 6040. We anticipate the contributions from the World Fund (RI) will be $12,000.
The grant application will be submitted mid-May. If the Grant request is approved, the funds will be needed mid-June. We are excited to be helping fund this wonderful grant.
Our own Steve Youngblood will be in Kathmandu this summer and is intending to travel for the project as well. He will be working directly with the Smithville Club to determine where he will go and hopefully he will be able to take a gift for the Rotary Club of Rudramati Kathmandu with him on the trip!
Flag Renewal Time!!
If you know of anyone who is wanting to sign up for our flag subscription give them this link: https://app.helpingwithflags/parkvillerotary and have them click on NEW SUBSCRIBERS. This link works for members as well and saves our club members time if you use it.
The Membership Committee has been hard at work putting together new membership forms! All members can access the forms by clicking on the blue box below which will take members to a dropbox link with the forms. Give these to potential members! The new spouse forms can be found here as well.
The following forms can be found in the link:
Standard Rotarian Membership Packet
Corporate Membership Packet
Spouse Membership Packet
Please submit the forms filled out to Dalyn Novak (dnovak@wskfarch.com) so she can get new member information added to ClubRunner after the board's approval!
