Last week we welcomed several notable guests, most prestigious being Ed and Ann Howard who were presented with a certificate for their generous donation of $5000!  Carol Horner, District Governor presented them with the certificate, but also in attendance was Assistant Governor, Clay Ehlers, and Crete community member Echo Easton.  

 

Carol gave an update on our efforts and teamwork throughout the district.  She was inspired initially to help when Lincoln 14 had a guest speaker from the Ukraine right after the war started.  She decided to use the remaining unused funds from the district grants to match Rotarian and non-Rotarian giving to the disaster relief fund.  As of right now, there has been $115,000 donated!

 

In addition, she was approached by a District Governor in Illinois who had the opportunity to donate medical supplies through an organization called UMANA in Chicago.  Clubs in our district rallied together to donate 1,000 pounds of supplies to Chicago, but an additional item to note is a contact of PDG Mick McKinley goes to Chicago often in his line of work and offered to take it for free!  It is flown from Chicago to Poland, where it is then transported secretly to hospitals in Ukraine.  

 

Barb Bartle went to Ukraine to help coordinate refugees staying at a Best Western.  Steve Glenn, owner of Executive Travel in Lincoln, funded rooms through July at the beginning of the war so the families would have somewhere to go.  At the time Barb went, there were 150 refugees staying there not counting children.  The refugees are staying there for 3-4 weeks.  They are going to nearby countries (500,000 going to Warsaw which was devastated in WWII) and it's estimated 60% of them will stay in those countries.

 

Thank you all for attending and for your giving towards our District's effort in Ukraine.

 

Please join us on June 8th when we will hear from our Scholarship and RYLA participants!