Club News

Mary Takes The Helm
July 1st we welcome a new leader to the Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary Club: Mary Winters grew up in Seattle and attended The Evergreen State College.  "During my junior year of college I lived and worked in London while completing an independent project that compared elderly care under a single payer health system vs elderly care in an insurance based health system.  I have been working in senior care for 19 years.  I have a wonderful and supportive family including my husband Russ, my son Julian who lives in New York City and my mother Dicksy.  I joined Rotary because of the great local and international work they do and I was looking for an opportunity to contribute to my community."
 
We are excited for the new year, the new direction and the possibility of in person meetings again. Mary will be working closely with past president Lois Sherwood, who is now taking on the challenge of bringing powerful programs to our meetings each week. Let's give Mary and her board all the support they need!
 
WELCOME MARY!
The 2021 Running of the Balls is in the Record Book
Posted on May 16, 2021

Saturday, May 15th, 2021 was a beautiful sunny day in Port Townsend, perfect for a race. Rotarians and community volunteers started gathering on Monroe Street about 10:30 AM to prepare for the 9th annual Running.

 
Rotarians set up early at the uptown Farmers Market to sell the last-minute tickets. Sponsorship banners were placed along Monroe street, the Bull Gate was pre-assembled, and the very ingenious ball tumbler was wheeled into place.
 
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Interact and Key Club Students Join Forces Again
Posted by Lois Sherwood on Mar 30, 2021
Interact and Key Club members met for a joint service project on Wednesday, March 30th. Together they cleaned the Larry Scott Trail and beach at the Port of Port Townsend trailhead. They filled one bag with trash and collected another bag of recyclables. They were surprised to see little blue ribbons of plastics everywhere. They learned that the blue tarps that protect our water from contaminants during boat work, shred and cause another environmental hazard, small bits of plastic are eaten by marine animals as it breaks down into smaller and smaller bits.
Sunrise Launches 9th Annual Running of the Balls
Posted on Feb 28, 2021

No Bull! The Balls Will Run This May in Port Townsend, Washington 

By Jayne Neu

No Parade? No Problem! On to Plan B… Just a minor “bump” on the road!

Many of you have been there, waiting for the Rhododendron Festival Grand Parade to start and you make your way down to Monroe street to watch the golf balls take over the street for the Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary’s “Running of the Balls,” just before the Grand Parade. But this year will be a little different because there will be NO grand parade to follow us. 

The 9th annual event, which involves releasing a few thousand numbered golf balls on the Rhody Festival parade route on a steep portion of Monroe Street where they bump and bounce their way to the bottom and get captured in the final shoot, will have a different look this year with the Rhododendron Festival Grand Parade cancelled for a second year in a row. 

 

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Winners Are...
Posted by Jayne Neu on Feb 09, 2021
A very successful fundraising event for the Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary Club. We had three winners as the 3rd and 4th quarter score didn't change!
 
First Quarter Winners: Consuelo and Marshall Brennen; 2nd quarter winner: Claudia Coppola; 3rd and 4th quarter winners: Lee and Lisa Hoffman. Congratulations to all our winners. Even if your score didn't win you any big bucks, the community wins because of your generous donations. 100% of the funds after the pay outs goes directly to our projects. You can check them all out by visiting our "Who We Support" page.
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Sock Drive Huge Success
Posted by Jayne Neu on Jan 31, 2021
Our first ever Community Sock Drive during the month of January was a HUGE Success! The community donated nearly 200 pairs of New "WARM" socks that we, in partnership with OlyCAP were able to distribute to all those in need in Port Townsend and East Jefferson County. The socks were collected at Henery's Hardware, Ground to Perfection, and the PT Leader office, all in Port Townsend. OlyCAP, having a connection in the community to all those in need, homeless and less fortunate it was a natural conclusion to partner with them in our effort to distribute the warm socks. In addition some of the socks also went to some of our Police Officers and Deputy Sheriffs so they might be able to help out a few in need that they encounter
 
We look forward to doing this again next year, it gives those that can an opportunity to support those who are in need in a positive way. We not only received socks, but we also received some generous cash donations that allowed us to purchase even more socks. THANK YOU!
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Sunrise Rotary Receives Bronze Award
Posted on Jan 11, 2021
Every minute, families lose everything in the chaos of conflict and natural disasters. Their homes, their livelihoods, and even family members are suddenly lost. We provide the tools that enable people to rebuild homes and transform their lives.
 
We are proud to announce that Port Townsend Sunrise Rotary received the Bronze Award from Shelter Box Disaster Relief USA for the donation of $1000 in the 2020 year. This amount will cover the cost of one complete box that will support a family until they are able to rebuild and get back on their feet. The kits are tailored to fit each community because one size does NOT fit all.
 
 
 

 

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A Rwanda Graduate
Posted on Nov 19, 2019
Graduation!
 
We feel like Proud Parents! For many years now, our Rotary club; Port  Townsend Sunrise Rotary, along with many of us personally like Kathy Raab, Marianne Walters, and Charlie and Jayne Neu have supported a small Rotary project in Rwanda led by a fellow Rotarian, John Jordan from Victoria, Canada. He came to our Rotary club as a program and we fell in love with not only his project, but him as well. John introduced us to a small grassroots team of dedicated Rotarians that help youth and families lift themselves out of Extreme Poverty in Rwanda through education, job training and sustainable living.
 
It started out as a simple idea, give Grandmothers that were raising their orphaned Grandchildren a roof over their heads and a few necessities, like clean drinking water, a small kitchen garden, a couple of rabbits or the like. This simple idea grew to so much more. Moving into safe stoves to reduce the indoor smoke and burns, to community gardens that the women could work to feed not only themselves but the community while earning a small wage, to educating the forgotten youth.

This is just one of those youths, meet Dr. Emmanuel Mashyaka,
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Rwanda Project and John Jordan
Posted on Aug 30, 2017

A Four dollar stove is life changing

Nearly anyone can have children. It is usually pretty easy. Some, if they can’t do it the easy way or if they just love kids so much, they open their homes to children who will become theirs.  Those are special people!  Then there are those that go even farther to adopt children from places and cultures far away.  Those, one might argue are even more special and there will be a special place awaiting them in heaven.  But what superlatives can be used to describe folks who adopt grandmothers and their charges from a slowly healing, war torn nation filled with orphaned children being raised by the “Grandmothers”? That describes John and Toni Jordan, Rotarians from Victoria, Canada.  John has visited our club on at least two occasions to tell of his work in Rwanda and the desperate... 
 
 
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