The 25th Anniversary Shoes for Orphan Souls caravan stopped in many cities throughout our district last week, including Kirksville, Bethany, Macon, Chillicothe, Liberty, Lee's Summit, Kansas City, Gladstone, and of course, St. Joseph.
 

 

The day before the caravan and Past District Governor John Gill's trailer was set to hit our fair city, they had a stop in Liberty that Larry Lunsford indicated to us rendered the trailer too full to handle the shoes contribution from the 5 clubs that were set to converge at the St. Joseph caravan stop. We didn't want to spoil the fun for Larry by telling him the numbers to expect from these 5 clubs, but it was said that "it's a lot of shoes". 

So, our club's shoes logistical team (Amy and Conrad Spaeth) prepared themselves mentally and as physically as they could to assist with transporting a portion of the shoes from St. Joseph down to Liberty. 

Sure enough, when the caravan arrived, there was room for some of the shoes donated by Tarkio, Maryville, Andrew County, and South Side St. Joseph, but certainly not all of those. And we hadn't even unloaded the Spaeth's trailer of most of the shoes from our club yet. 

When the dust settled, and the numbers were presented at the 25th Anniversary Roll Call of Shoes at the Rotary Youth Camp, the totals were beyond amazing. 

Liberty Rotary had contributed 2,679 pairs of shoes and 623 pairs of socks. 

St. Joseph South Side Rotary had contributed 2,651 pairs of shoes. 

The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph had contributed 2,566 pairs of shoes, 1,393 pairs of socks, and $17 in cash. That's an all-time high record for the combined totals of St. Joseph #32 and St. Joseph East, and then some. 

Kansas City-Plaza Rotary had contributed 2,254 pairs of shoes, 83 pairs of socks, and $25,34. 

Marceline Rotary had contributed 2,025 pairs of shoes. 

And all together, with reports from 50 different clubs and another district in Utah, contributions for the this year's Shoes for Orphan Souls campaign reached an amazing total of:

On top of all of that, the surprise ending included the unveiling of the Larry and Jill Lunsford Donor Advised Fund, for the purpose of endowing this shoes project in perpetuity, with a balance of $111,922 with contributions from 80+ donors. Several of these were from members of the Rotary Club of Saint Joseph. And the best part is, that was somehow kept a secret from Larry until Saturday. 

If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the article about this year's shoes drive in the News Press (note the counts in the article were NOT the final counts):  https://www.newspressnow.com/news/local_news/soles-with-a-story-rotary-effort-steps-toward-500-000-pairs/article_cfaedbbd-feee-4c91-9db9-b1cd9904e9e4.html
 

While all of that was going on, Club President-elect Bill McCammon led a team of volunteers to construct the outdoor shelter at Life Unlimited as part of our district grant project for this year. It looks great! There will be some additional volunteer opportunities coming up to finish the project:

 

The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph met last Wednesday at the beautiful Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art.

We had a bit of a light crowd of 27 (including prospective member Greg Smith- Louie DeLeon's guest) at the meeting, and the spread included wet barbecued or perhaps roasted chicken, mixed vegetables, garden salad, rolls, and boiled and oiled new potatoes. 

Jeanne Chavez is doing better. We hope to share further updates soon. 

Club Treasurer Brendon Clark shared that invoices for the past quarter (period 1/1/26 though 3/31/26) were just sent out. Please contact Brendon with any questions or if you didn't get yours.  

Black Bowls donations for this quarter (4/1 to 6/30) go to Camp Geiger Scout camperships. These support Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA Scouts to attend summer camp, with campership awards reviewed by a committee based on financial need. Members can contribute on our Square site online or bring the cash to meetings. 

 

Thank you to the members who purchased Purple Pinkie donuts and made contributions to PolioPlus. The donuts will be delivered this Wednesday, 4/29. As of today, we have raised $725 for the World Immunization Week PolioPlus fundraiser. This puts our current Rotary year total for PolioPlus as a club at about $4,700. 

 

Ryan Dowell reports that we think we have 3 students committed to attend Missouri RYLA this summer, but at least 2 for sure. 

Meals on Wheels delivery assignments: 

April 30 will be Josh Middendorf with Jean Warren and Amy Ryan with Bill McCammon. 
 

 

• Wednesday, April 29: Rotary club meeting at the AKMA... speaker is Kristi Bailey with the Saint Joseph Chamber of Commerce 
   
• Wednesday, April 29, immediately following the club meeting... the club's board of directors will hold our April meeting 
   
• Wednesday, 5/6:  Rotary scholarship luncheon for our 5 high school scholarship recipients at Noon at the AKMA... you won't want to miss this special meeting... District Governor Jodi Sundaram will also be on hand for a special presentation 
   
• Wednesday, 5/13:  Rotary club meeting at the AKMA... speaker is Lute Atieh with The Launch Pad
   
• Wednesday, 5/20:  Rotary club meeting at the AKMA... speaker is Melissa from Family Guidance for Mental Health Awareness Month
   
• Thursday, June 18:  Rotary Club of Saint Joseph's 114th Anniversary Party (details TBA)