International scholars visit Sunrise Rotary
Six Rotary Ambassadorial Scholars attended the Glendale Sunrise Rotary Club’s weekly meeting on Oct. 22, at the Hilton Glendale. The Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship program is one of the world’s largest privately funded international scholarship programs.
The featured speaker was Steve Solomon who came from Chicago to share his experiences with the scholarship programs. Solomon is a former high school Rotary Interact Club member and was a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholar in 2001 at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa. During the scholarship and beyond, he worked with Roots & Shoots, the global youth service learning program of the Jane Goodall Institute in South Africa, Tanzania, Taiwan and the United States.
Five other Ambassadorial Scholars also attended the meeting and shared their stories. One of the scholars from Japan studied in Freiburg, Germany. Another scholar studied in Ireland. A scholar from Bangladesh, attended Washington State University. A scholar from the United States studied in the Republic of South Africa. And currently a scholar from Iserlohn, Germany is enrolled in the masters in business administration program at Woodbury University.
Ambassadorial Scholarships, the Rotary Foundation’s oldest program, was founded in 1947. Since then, more than 40,000 men and women from about 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. The program sponsors academic-year scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for qualified professionals pursuing vocational studies.
Nearly 700 scholarships were awarded for study in 2009-10 totaling about $16.2 million, and recipients from about 70 countries studied in more than 80 nations.
Glendale Sunrise Rotary Club meets at 7 a.m. every Friday at the Hilton Glendale,
100 W. Glenoaks Blvd., Glendale. For information, call Scott Pafford at (818) 344-9538.
Huge crowd at the bowling tournament
The first Kiwanis inter-club bowling tournament sponsored by the Montrose-La Crescenta Kiwanis Club was launched on Oct. 11 at the Montrose Bowling Alley with 10 of the 12 Kiwanis clubs in the Kiwanis district participating. A huge crowd came to cheer on their teams from the clubs in Glendale, Highland Park, La Cañada AM club, La Cañada Noon club and of course the sponsoring Montrose-La Crescenta club.
The La Cañada Noon Kiwanis Club won the championship “Marco Swan Trophy.” The trophy was named after the new Kiwanis District Lt. Gov. Marco Swan, a member of the Glendale Noon Club.
The bowling tournament was the idea of Lynn McGinnis, the new president of the Montrose-La Crescenta Kiwanis Club, as a way to start his year. The club has just had some other significant changes. They are now meeting in La Crescenta at the St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church in the Fellowship Hall. They were a luncheon club, but now have started dinner meetings twice a month.
McGinnis is organizing an entry in the Montrose Christmas Parade with other clubs in the district and their youth clubs, the Key and Builders clubs, for the arch down Honolulu Avenue.
The Kiwanis Club members worked on a community service project on Oct. 30 with the Key Club and Builders Club members cleaning the yard of a disabled senior citizen. They cleared away fallen trees, weeds and other debris. McGinnis recently retired from a middle school and has worked with children for several years. He has some great new ideas for the club to help the children in our area also.
Montrose-La Crescenta Kiwanis Club meets at 6:15 p.m. every second and fourth Thursday at the St. Luke’s of the Mountains Episcopal Church, Fellowship Hall, 2563 Foothill Blvd., La Crescenta. For information, call Juanita Pearson at (818) 248-9335.
BRUCE CAMPBELL can be reached at (626) 403-1010, cell phone (626) 664-2223, or Bruce4results@verizon.net.