Rotary Club of Wooster, Ohio

The "Manse on College Avenue" was the winning project and work will begin on Saturday, January 23, 2010 as members of Rotary, Kiwanis and Noon Lions come together to make the dream a reality. If you would like to participate in this very worthwhile community project, please contact Chris Pycraft (pycraft@ccj.com) for additional details.

Wooster/Smithville Area Parade of Flags

Help create a community of red, white, and blue! Be one of the first to participate… make a neighborhood statement and join with others on your street to create a corridor of flags.

Your Wooster Rotary Club, assisted by local youth groups, will place a 3’x 5’ flag in your front yard for 5 holidays per year, and pick it up again after the holiday. A plastic pipe will be buried in your front lawn permanently, flush with the ground, to hold the flagstaff. A cap will cover the pipe when not in use. The City of Wooster has approved the flag to be placed on “tree lawns” where available. The flag and staff will remain the property of the Wooster Rotary Club.

All profits will support community, national, and international Rotary projects and the local youth groups will receive $5.00 of each $25.00 fee. For $25.00 per calendar year, Rotary will provide and install the pipe and cap, provide the flag, store it properly when not in use, and deliver and pick up the flag for the following holidays:

Thank You From Uganda

The 2009 Al Van Wie Basketball Tournament and Clinic Activities
November 8, 20-21, 2009

Youth Clinic-  Sunday, November 8: College of Wooster Timken Gym
School Food Drive/collection- week of November 9-13: local schools
Tournament Games-  Friday and Saturday, November 20-21. Wooster hosts Carnegie Mellon (PA), Heidelberg, St. Thomas (MN)

Summary:
Wooster Rotary sponsors and coordinates a basketball fundamental skills clinic for all boys and girls grade 3-6 and all youth coaches. The event was held at the C.O.W. Timken Gym on Sunday November 8 from 2:00-4:00 pm. College of Wooster Scots players and coaches worked with youth to practice and improve their basketball skills. Rotary also distributed door prizes including College of Wooster T-shirts, basketballs, and season tickets. Head coach, Steve Moore, conducted the coaching seminar. Admission to these events was $2 cash or a canned/box food donation for People to People.

Prior to the tournament, Rotary volunteers went to area schools to collect food donations. Rotary encouraged the schools to participate in the food donation campaign by establishing contests and incentives for the schools collecting/donating the most food items.

The School Food Drive was a tremendous success this year with a significant increase in food collection delivered to People to People: 2008 school totals- 11,391: 2009 total items collected: 18,349. Top schools with over 3,000 items each: Franklin Twp., Shreve Elementary, Wooster Twp Elementary. These three top schools will receive a free skating party compliments of Acres of Fun, an ice cream party hosted by our Rotary committee members, and Fighting Scot basketballs for recess.

This year, Buehlers also participated with collection centers and added 2331 food items to the total

Food collection totals from schools, Buehlers, Youth Clinic, and Tournament games= 22,421 vs 13,514 last year.

Cash collection through Rotary member contributions and game raffle sales was up $900 over 2008.

The committee reviewed forty-five applications for the ten scholarships, and members were genuinely impressed by the talents and accomplishments of all of the students. This
year’s recipients were:

• Cierra Norris, Sam Shapiro Scholarship
• Sonia Masih, LeRoy and Helen Adams Scholarship
• Tracy Clyde, Bill Patterson Scholarship
• Caitlin Martin, W. Lee Culp Scholarship
• Gina Pattison, Rotary Scholarship
• Elizabeth Ann Ferguson, Rotary Scholarship
• Logan Carstensen, Rotary Scholarship
• Catherine Shaw, Rotary Scholarship
• Danielle R. Morris, Rotary General and Art Scholarships

Drew Baker, Argentina; John Graham, Belguim; Braden Rucinski, Argentina; Carly Wharton, Argentina; Jake Hamblin, Brazil; Matt Morgan, France

Wooster Arts Jazz Fest 2009
Date: Sunday September 20
11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Historic Downtown Wooster

In its sixth year, this daylong festival features fine art and craft, jazz, quality food, a traditional New Orleans-style parade, and free children’s arts activities. The purpose of this festival is to celebrate and support arts and education in our community, and to promote economic development in downtown Wooster.

Presented through a partnership between Main Street Wooster Foundation, Inc., the Rotary Club of Wooster, and the Wooster City Schools, the Wooster Arts Jazz Fest is organized by volunteers and funded through donations.

The 2009 Wooster Arts Jazz Fest will be the third year the Wooster Rotary Club is a partner in the event. Rotary has representation on the committee organizing the event and will be providing volunteers to help make the event a success.

More information about the WAJF 2009 can be found at: www.woosterartsjazzfest.org

35th ANNUAL WOOSTER ROTARY
ANTIQUE AND COLLECTABLE AUCTION
Coming: Friday April 9 and Saturday April 10, 2010

34th Rotary Auction Summary

The 34th Rotary Auction was a resounding success. Despite the economic downturn, over 750 bidders turned out to bid on over 2160 items. The highlights of the auction were the sales of an MG TD, 3 pinball machines, jukeboxes, and over 50 lots of Freedlander Department Store items.

The Wooster Rotary Auction is among the premier auctions in this region and is an absolute auction, no minimum, no buybacks, no reserves. In 33 years the proceeds have contributed nearly $850,000 to the community, the major share going to college scholarships.

Preliminary pricing results are posted here.

Each year since 2005, Wooster Rotary has presented a student dictionary to every third grader in the Wooster School System. Our goal is to empower the students with words, to help them better understand the English language and to encourage them to read. The club included a sticker with the Rotary Four-Way test on the inside cover of each volume.

The dictionaries are well received and we hope that the students will use them to their advantage throughout their elementary years.

The 43nd Annual Senior Holiday
December 8, 2008

The Annual Senior Holiday party was held at the High School on December 8, 2009. Entertainment was provided by the Wooster High School Chorus, the Wooster High School Orchestra, The Borderline Dancers and inspirational singer David Greer.

Hundreds of area seniors then enjoyed a dinner served by the Wooster Rotarians. Tickets to the Rotary Senior Holiday Party are highly sought after and are reserved quickly.

A special thank you to all who helped to make this great event possible.