President's Message

Faith, Hope and Gratitude.

As I sat listening to this week’s duo of speakers, Jonathan Crooks and John Albers, looking out at our great club, there was not a dry eye in the audience. With Thanksgiving fast approaching these two Rotarians gave us plenty to be grateful for and know that there is a higher power looking down on all of us. His hand touched these two members in dramatic ways over the last 6 months and I am grateful they both shared their testimonial of faith, hope and gratitude.  A true inspiration to us all and a solid reason to participate in the upcoming Roswell Rotary Blood Drive on November 3rd.

This was a fun filled week with lots of opportunities for fellowship with other Roswell Rotarians as we celebrated the life of Past President Gary Waddell at Houck’s Grill for the benefit of the Roswell Rotary Foundation, participated in the last Alive in Roswell for the season and sipped some wine at Deep Roots, raising money for World Polio Day. This next Halloween weekend join us at “Dia De Los Muertos” at City hall on the 30th to help volunteer for crafts at this Latin community celebration hosted by the city of Roswell. Thanks for all who helped organize and participated in the fun.

Speaking of fun, the “Godmother of Fun” Debbie Cwalina and “Mr. BTV”, Michael Schoppenhorst will be presenting this week with some exciting news about Be The Voice. You won’t want to miss it!  Come dressed in your favorite Halloween costume!  

10-28 Speaker- Be the Voice
Debbie Cwalina Roswell Rotarian and Be The Voice Co-Founder and Executive Director

ROSWELL ROTARIAN OF THE YEAR, 2016 Debbie Baker Cwalina

is the owner and founder of Creative Corporate Ideas Inc., a certified Woman Owned Business (WBE). She started her company in 1993 and has received recognition as a Top Woman Owned Small Business every year since 2005 (by DiversityBusiness.com). In the Fall of 2014, looking for a place to make a difference, Debbie joined the Roswell Rotary Club. Inspired by the many programs that Roswell Rotary supports throughout the community, Debbie created and launched, along with co-founder Mike Schoppenhorst, the Be THE Voice® Campaign.

Making a Difference

Just a year after the idea was born from their own personal childhood experiences, Debbie and Mike implemented the program in 8 area schools. With the success of the program and her strong desire to get involved in the community, Debbie was honored to be awarded Roswell Rotary’s prestigious “Rookie of the Year” award in 2015. Since then, the reviews the program has received from Principals, Teachers and Students have been overwhelmingly positive, allowing Be THE Voice® to spread its message of kindness, compassion and inclusion to Schools across the state.

The Power of Kindness

Sometimes, all it takes is one kind word or act of compassion and things can change! Debbie and her husband Pete, have two daughters, Nikki and Kasey. The whole family has participated and helped with the Be THE Voice® campaign.

Dia De Los Muertos Celebration in Roswell -- VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Dia de los Muertos - Day of the dead celebration

When/ Date and Time: Saturday, October 30th - starting at 2:00 PM - 6:00 PM

Location: Roswell City Hall Park: 38 Hill Street, Roswell, Ga

The Ask: 2 adult volunteers (Bring your little ones if you like!) needed in each of three timeslots (1:30-3; 3-4:30; 4:30-6) to help kiddos at craft tables with coloring skulls and coloring sheets. Should be a fun and easy way to engage in the celebration. Contact Leslie Bassett 678-595-8509 or leslie@pridgenbassett.com to step up for a spot.

Coat Drive - Lets Share the Warmth!

Search the dark recesses of your closets and purge those old coats that the kids have outgrown! 

June Brown is leading our effort to collect gently used coats and asks that everyone bring them to this months meetings so that she can donate them by November 1. 

LAST OPPORTUNITY TO DONATE COATS BRING THEM IN THIS WEEK!!

There is a strong need for children's coats this fall.  Thank you in advance!  Contact June with any questions:  junebarberbrown@gmail.com  M: 770.826.2283 B: 770.642.9000

Interact Club Emphasizes Suicide Awareness Month

For the month of September, The Interact Club at Elkins Pointe Middle School put positive messages on lockers throughout the school for Suicide Awareness Month. We put up lots of positive notes in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade halls. We filled almost all the lockers with our messages! As we were taping up the messages many students requested that we put a note on their locker. Many others were appreciative to see the messages we put up on their lockers. We believe spreading positivity is important for the mental health of middle schoolers. We tried our best to spread the most positivity as possible at Elkins Pointe.

Thank You for Showing Up for Polio!
Great Event at Deep Roots

Thank you to everyone who came out on Sunday to raise money for End Polio Now and to sample some excellent wines. We don’t know how much money we raised but we do know over 30 Rotarians came out to do their part to help End Polio Now at Deep Roots on Canton St in Roswell. The weather was spectacular and this small but mighty group did their best to sample their share of wines! 

Thank you to all but especially to Matt Millard for organizing .