Service
Rotary Club Co-Hosts the Cottage Kitchen, Friday March 5, 2010
On March 5, 2010 The San Marcos Rotary Club and Los Cucos Mexican Café co-hosted the Cottage Kitchen. Located at the corner of CM Allen Parkway and Hopkins in the 1860’s rock house, the event was open to the public and was a fund raiser for the Heritage Association of San Marcos to help support the preservation of San Marcos’ heritage and specifically, the care of the Charles S. Cock House Museum and the Eli Merriman Log Cabin Museum.
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= SERVICE Above Self
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First Knight Program / Early Act
The Rotary Club of San Marcos is in its second year of a character and ethics building program aimed at first through fifth graders in San Marcos.
EarlyAct is a school-wide service club for elementary students from ages 5 to 13 sponsored by Rotary Clubs and chartered by the district. The mission of EarlyAct is to promote goodwill, understanding, and peace through active participation of student members so that with committed citizenship and effective leadership they improve the quality of life for their school, local and global communities.
Early Act is based upon the Rotary 4 Way Test and further EarlyAct teaches…Caring, Respect, Empathy, Responsibility, Tolerance, Citizenship, Compassion, Friendship and Leadership. EarlyAct engages student members in character-building activities and prepares them for leadership roles to identify and carry out projects which benefit their school, local and global communities. Through its association with Rotary, EarlyActors gain increased awareness and knowledge of their community and the world and understanding of the dignityand worth of each individual which builds respect for others. EarlyAct provides the foundation and natural succession into Interact.
“All kids everywhere are in desperate need of ethics training and learning right from wrong. That’s just based on the things you see in the news. This program was developed specifically to counter that and try to provide some character and ethics training: Teaching kids to do the right thing no matter what the consequences.” -Past Club President, David Bandy
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Rotary Club of San Marcos helps local Habitat for Humanity build a new house on Mill Street
Recently, members of the Rotary Club of San Marcos offered a helping hand to Habitat for Humanity volunteers. Rotarian Kevin Carswell donated coffee from his shop "Mochas and Javas"; Rotarian April Colesmith made breakfast tacos; and Rotarian Allyn Gill donated chicken for lunch from his restaurant "Gill's Fried Chicken". Other Rotarians in the Club donated money for water, sodas, ice and supplies.
According to board vice president and construction supervisor Larry Brotzman, the new home was the first Habitat home in San Marcos that will use environmentally friendly green building techniques including: foam insulation, vinyl windows, a high efficiency air conditioning system, stained concrete floor, hardy plank siding and roof shingles guaranteed for 30 years.
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= Goodwill & Better Friendships
The late Past District Governor Floyd Harriman established the Youth Exchange Program in our district in 1969. The Rotary Club of Pleasanton exchanged a student, Floyd's daughter, Patty, with Denmark. That year, the Pleasanton Club hosted a student, Alette Kolstrop, and the Alamo Heights Club hosted a student, Bente Ingvarson, also from Denmark. Since those first three students, our district has sponsored more than 1,200 inbound and outbound students.
At the Rotary International Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1974, the Convention recognized the program as an integral part of Rotary International and since that time has endorsed the program wholeheartedly. The program is a means of advancing international understanding and goodwill. The program each year now involves more than 8,000 students from 82 countries, making it one of Rotary's largest, most popular and most successful programs. The Youth Exchange Program involves more dollars being spent than any other program in Rotary International except for PolioPlus. Recent RI studies estimate that more than $42 million annually is spent on the Youth Exchange Program by parents, clubs and districts, with very little funding flowing through RI. Last year, our district sponsored 30 outbound students to 16 foreign countries and hosted 18 inbound students from 17 foreign countries.
The program is open to young men and women ages 15 to 181/2, who may be children or grandchildren of Rotarians or non-Rotarians. The students' parents, local Rotary clubs, and the district finance the program. Selection is based on a written application as well as personal interviews at the club and district levels with the applicant and the applicant's parents.
The two types of exchanges are:
- A long-term exchange for an academic year, during which the student lives with more than one host family and attends school in the host country.
- A short-term summer exchange, for three to four weeks. It does not include an academic program.
