BULLETIN #16
May 4, 2026
 


2025-2026 Rotary Year:

Club President Ron Auxier
"Stop waiting. Start that dream. Take that trip. Hug a person. Life doesn't pause." 

District 6040 Governor Jodi Sundaram
Zones 30/31 Director Brian Hall
Rotary International President Francesco Arezzo
Happy birthday today (5/4) to Rotarians and Past Club Presidents Nick Gertsema and Dana Matt. 
 
The Rotary Club of Saint Joseph gathered with a nice crowd of around 34 last Wednesday, April 29 at the beautiful Albrecht Kemper Museum of Art. 

It was great to see Rotarian Mark Sundet in attendance, along with prospective member Greg Smith (sponsored by Louie DeLeon). The club's board has approved Greg's application for membership, and this is the 1st of 2 times that his name will be run in the bulletin prior to an induction. Greg is with Missouri American Water and has attended several of our club's meetings.

Please keep Rotarian Tyler Compton in your thoughts and prayers as he is experiencing some health issues. Randy Marshall has also resigned from the club.
 
Club President-elect Bill McCammon thanked Kirby, Ralph, Heather, Dana, and Jim for their assistance with building the gazebo at Life Unlimited recently. The project involves adding an accessible outdoor space for the new Day Program at Life Unlimited.

There is a bit more work to finish for this year's district grant, which will happen at a workday this Saturday, 5/9 beginning at 9 a.m. 

We need to finish the gazebo roof and do some landscaping. 
 



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 Doug Schmitz for driving down to Platte City to pick up our Purple Pinkie donuts for polio eradication.

The club ended up with 15 boxes of donuts and raised around $750 or so for PolioPlus (before any matches), making our 2025-2026 total just shy of $5,000 towards this important cause. District-wide (51 clubs), there were over 400 boxes of donuts and the PolioPlus contributions are around $70,000 or so this Rotary year. Internationally, Rotary's goal is to contribute $50 million towards PolioPlus this Rotary year. We are close to eradicating polio worldwide, but not quite there. Another 2 cases were recently detected in Pakistan. 

The staff at Life Unlimited enjoyed their donuts:
 
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Meals on Wheels delivery assignments: 

May 7 will be Mike Schumacher with ___ (Amy Spaeth needed a trade?) and Alan Van Zandt (solo)
 
Our club's website is stjosephrotary.org ... https://stjosephrotary.org/... saintjosephrotary.org also takes you to the same page. 
 
We have made and are working on continued content updates.  

The club's Facebook page is: https://www.facebook.com/rotaryclubstjosephmo
 
 
Upcoming Key Rotary Dates:
 
  • 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)

The Annual Fund-SHARE exists to empower Rotary clubs and districts with implementing impactful district grants, global grants, and scholarships. 

Or if you prefer to send a check, we can assist with the details of this. Please talk to Don or Erik if you have any questions. 
Articles
25th Anniversary Shoes for Orphan Souls Campaign Sets Records
If you haven't seen it yet, please check out the article about this year's shoes drive in the News Press:  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
Read more...
Malawi Global Grant

From St. Joseph to Malawi, Rotary backs women’s recovery

 
 
Read more...
The following Rotarians shared Happy Bucks at last week's meeting:
 
  • Ron Auxier was happy to be at Rotary  
     
  • Erik McGuire for Skye's awesome News Press article about the Shoes for Orphan Souls project
     
  • Bill McCammon for Luke getting an e-sports offer in South Korea 
     
  • Diane Dewey for 5 fun days in Washington, D.C. with her family
     
  • Kirby Brooner for getting to help with the District Grant work project involving building a gazebo a couple weeks ago at Life Unlimited
     
  • Louie DeLeon for a chance to win $$$$ with the Rotary Foundation board
     
  • Don Gladhart for knowing Mark Sundet since they were on the same floor as Washburn Ichabods way back in like 1968 
     
  • Mark Sundet for his 13-year old granddaughter completing a marathon
     
  • Dana Matt for her birthday and for Ryan Dowell's District 6040 Youth Services Award that was presented at the District Conference 
     
  • Micah Carter for his little's brother in Big Brothers, Big Sisters finding a Big 
The program at last week's meeting was presented Kristi Bailey, who is with the Saint Joseph Chamber of Commerce:

May be an image of text that says 'Kristi Bailey Director of Communications fCommunications&Marketing & Marketing'

Kristi is a former member of the club and plans to come back at some point. 

She shared updates about what is going on with St. Joseph, to include some expansions at Van Am Tool and Triumph Foods. 

The Launch Pad is a co-working space for entrepreneurs and is now open at 8th/Felix. 

Parties on the Parkway, a concert series, begins for the season on 5/14. 

There will be a Sloppy Joe Festival downtown, near the United Building, on July 16. This will help supplement regional World Cup tourism and feature a sloppy joe eating contest, wild west re-enactments, and country music bands. 

To learn more, please visit the Chamber's website at https://saintjoseph.com/

The Rotary Foundation Board has officially launched. As of this morning, 68 of the 200 available squares have been purchased, with $2,250 total in the pot. 

1/2 of all proceeds go to the lucky winner of a square that will be drawn at our club's 6/18 Anniversary Party and 1/2 of the proceeds go to the Annual Fund of the Rotary Foundation in the names of the purchasers. 

1 Square= $50
3 Squares= $100
7 Squares= $200

Payment can be made for the squares at Rotary or by telling Erik to have Brendon bill you for them for club members. Purchasers can include anyone able to pay by 6/18, Rotarian or club member, or not.