Program - Rick Branek, Fort Bend Seniors Meals on Wheels Lunch Menu April Rotarian of the Month – Bill Griffin Personal Request for Shrimp & Spice Event
Rick has been part of the Fort Bend Seniors Management Team for the past 7 years. He serves as Field Operations Manager, the point person for field operations, volunteer coordination and route deliveries.
He graduated from Azusa Pacific University, Azusa CA., in 1984 with a degree in Education and later graduated from Southwestern Seminary, Fort Worth, in 1995, earning his master’s degree in education.
Rick has a vast knowledge of working with organizations that utilize volunteers. He is highly recommended by many in the community for his friendly character and his recognition of volunteers for their contributions to various organizations.
He also has extensive training in Guest Service Operations with MGM Grand Hotel & Casino – Las Vegas and the San Diego Padres Major League Baseball Club.
During the pandemic, Rick, and his team, reorganized delivery operations to keep clients, volunteers, and staff safe from Covid – 19. In his spare time, he enjoys refurbishing mid-century gumball machines and shopping for vintage casino ashtrays.
Salad - Southwest Caesar Salad with Roasted Corn, Black Beans, Cotija Cheese, Crispy Tortilla Strips with a Spicy Caesar Dressing Entrée - Green Chili Chicken Enchiladas Spanish Rice Refried Beans Topped with Queso Fresco Dessert - Tres Leches
The Rotarian of the Month for April 2024 joined Rotary 45 years ago, in 1979. We all owe a great deal of appreciation to this Rotarian for being one of the founders of the club in 1986, and for being our 2nd President after Steve Harris. We as a club are also very proud that he represents our club as Assistant Governor to District 5890 - which has 62 clubs and over 3000 Rotarians. This Rotarian is a mentor to many of us, and truly shows what servant-leadership is and how wonderful it is to have people like this in our community and club.
He graduated from Texas A&M and began his career with IBM, and then joined BMC Software, a major player in IT Service Management Tools, where has been working for over 40 years. In addition to being one of the most passionate and committed Rotarians in the club, this Rotarian is a renowned leader of Boy Scouts of America. He has passionately served this vital organization for our youth most of his life, and continues to be a respected leader, mentor and presenter in the region. He heads up the Scouting Program for District 5890. In true Rotarian form to Build Goodwill and Better Friendships, he successfully protected the long-practiced tradition of scouts to go door to door selling services to earn merit badges or cookies. You can read more in this article by the Fort Bend Independent newspaper: https://fbindependent.com/sugar-land-waives-permit-fee-for-solicitation-by-youth-groups-like-scouts-p15507-91.htm#google_vignette.
He is married to his wonderful wife, Linda, who he has been married with for 45 years - the same amount of time he has been a Rotarian! (Actually he's been a Rotarian 2 months longer!) The Rotarian of the Month is: Bill Griffin!
As you now may know, our Sugar Land Rotary Shrimp and Spice (and Everything Nice) festival will be on Sunday, May 19th, from 2-6 pm at Constellation Field. This is event means next year's ability to financially give back to the community and to local nonprofits. It is about saving and improving lives. Will your company please consider a sponsorship to help make this festival something spectacular? If you are not able, will you provide us with a strong sponsor referral? We will be reaching back out to follow up on this ask in the days coming if we do not hear back from you.
Attached you will find info. on sponsor opportunities, ways to submit auction and raffle items, and ways to get your brand promoted.
To attend, tickets can be found on shrimpandspice.com.
For a full packet on sponsor levels, use this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HHYGIlpiYahgIKXbRRPQDGs0ge6k8GMB/view?usp=drive_web
(The form to sign up is attached.)
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Here is a quick blurb you can share with others about the event:
Join us for Shrimp and Spice (and Everything Nice) - Sugar Land Rotary Club’s GLOBAL. FUSION. FEST! It’s a family friendly affair with lots of flair where you can eat, drink, play, and more!
In addition to great shrimp, there will be something for everyone—with food from all of the world found in Food Truck Alley! Live music, vendors, a kid zone, and four ways to try your luck at being a winner through a large item raffle, live auction, bid board, and a bucket raffle!
All funds raised help us give back to our community as Sugar Land Rotary has a focus on: promoting peace, preventing disease, providing clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, saving mothers and children, supporting education, and protecting the environment.
Your fun at Shrimp and Spice means improving the life on someone else! Reserve your tickets today!
I need your HELP - I need as many DIAPERS as possible so I can pack my car full of them, and bring them to the Rotary District 5890 conference on April 25. Governor Nancy has challenged our club to bring as many as possible!!
We need all sizes, but primarily Size 4. Please buy some and send either bring them to a meeting before 4/24, or ship them (best option) to my address below. This benefits the B.E.A.R. program which helps foster kids in the Houston area: https://bearesourcehouston.org/.
As some of you may heard I am the District 5890 Peace Committee Chair. With the Peace Committee there are sub committees in Positive Mental Health, Anti Human Trafficking, Girls and Women Empowerment, and next Rotary year we will be adding Refugee Services.
The World Academy for the Future of Women (WAFW) https://wafw.org/ is an active leadership program focused on developing young women for leadership roles that will accelerate women’s leadership worldwide.They have programs this year in China, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, and Mexico and has started the process to expand to Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Vietnam, and Columbia.
Girls and Women Empowerment Committee will be hosting facilitator training in Houston this April 12, 13 & 14. For more information like schedule and locations for the training contact the Girls and Women Empowerment Chair Karen Blakeman 713.775.1235 KarenB4Rotary@gmail.com.
We are excited about our upcoming major fundraiser for 2024, Shrimp & Spice! It is on May 19th at Constellation field. We have online forms this year so people can buy entry tickets and also a raffle ticket online!
Fact Sheet about the event: Fact Sheet (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SBG094FqlfGRB9XEZzKzaLuo0_7O29KAkFRedLwkfg4/edit)
Read this first! Good overview of what the event is and why we are doing it
Printable pdf: Sponsorship Form (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ffmueIOLvYYr0xve2R72ncLUcjCw6g0q/edit)
Online Sponsorship Form (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdQPgrJctOwqNxMUIpfbZtW6I_5Y0SivTLqQG_SXSnQM2aqBg/viewform)
Entry ticket and Raffle ticket form:
Online Tickets Form to share with as many people as you can! (Pay for tickets and the raffle item online) (https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/0f4a1785-6546-4ba0-8455-4ac4a78f3f2b)
Raffle Items for $100 ticket (pick one of two options):
Raffle Option 1: Full home Generac generator installed by Rotarian Mitch Rahim’s business, Hartford Services (http://hartfordservices.com/) ($12,000 value)
A small group of us has been meeting since Oct of 2023 to start planning for the event. We have already selected the Constellation Field as our venue and developed a baseline plan. I have sent each of you an email and attached the current plan of activities and the identified subcommittees required to execute it.
This is a very labor intensive work and we all chip-in to make it happen and we hope we can get all hands on deck to make it a great success. We have a prime venue that will hopefully bring large crowd.
This is what I am asking you to do:
Review the list of subcommittees in the committee tab of the spreadsheet. Your name is on it
If your name is not there, select the committee you want to be part of
If your name is there please confirm if that committee is the one you want to be in or prefer another one
- if there is no ?? after your name, that means we felt confident about the placement, still we like to get confirmation
- you don’t know what needs to be done? Check the activity column, or the Project plan tab
Subcommittee Chair is the person who will make sure that all work for that committee is under control and being done
Doesn’t mean they are doing everything
We expect them to find the right people that can help
It is important that we identify a chair for each subcommittee, please see if you can chose one
I color coded some subcommittees
Red – have activities that need to be completed in the next 30days
Yellow – have activities that need to be done in the next 60 days
We have time-sensitive work and we need your help
Please review and let me know where you can help. Feel free to email me or call me with any questions.
Who is sponsoring? The Sugar Land Rotary Club, founded in 1986, has been serving the Fort Bend community through seven main areas of focus:
We promote peace.
We fight disease.
We provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene.
We save mothers and children.
We support education.
We grow local economies.
We protect the environment.
Who is coming?
The entire community
Families are welcome
Title Sponsor:
What:
Delicious food is being cooked on-site from all around the world!
Playground is open for kids to have fun and play
Venders with artisan goods
Auction: live and silent auction
Raffle for an amazing prize!
Entertainment
VIP area for sponsors
Where:
Constellation Field
Why? This is our largest fundraiser that allows us to support our community. We have been known in Fort Bend for our Shrimp Fest, and this is a continuation of that tradition, just with a new twist, adding international food variety to represent the great diversity of our county.
Why sponsor? This is an opportunity for your business to boost its marketing efforts, while taking pride in supporting a valuable community event.
Okay, this isn't the card game we played as kids. BUT, we have a great opportunity in 2024 to support "Go Fish" Day with Youth Parks Ranch. We did this event last year, and would like to show our Rotary Sugar Land support again this year.
I need volunteers for this event. PLEASE go on Club Runner to sign-up for the event.
Thank you so much for those that committed to this program. Saturday, the weather looks great and participation is wonderful.
For those attending, please register on the Go Fish link below. Sign-up for the time slot that works best for you.
Don't miss out on your chance for a discount on your registration for the Cheeseburger in Paradise Conference to be held on April 25th-28th close to home. See the promotional video here: https://youtu.be/bXXy81pKwa0?si=zXLEw2VCvh439HQa
Registration for the conference and hotel can be found at https://rotaryd5890.org/page/cheeseburger-in-paradise-2024-district-conference-2
Our conference committee is busy at work and can use your help - reach out to me if you are interested!
Lisa Pauls District Conference 2024 Co-Chair District 5890
developed a baseline plan. I have sent each of you an email and attached the current plan of activities and the identified subcommittees required to execute it.
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