Stories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The 2nd place winner, in the middle, is Maverick McKown. The 3rd place winner, on the left, is Natalie Perez.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our picnic last Friday (11/29/2021) was with the permanent party of the 364^th at SAFB.  It was a great Halloween costume party, even for those of us without costumes!  

  

 

 

 

 

Rotarian Mike Crocker shown delivering wash tubs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ross Roberts was a charter member of the Wichita Falls North Rotary Club. He and his wife Colleen were both believers in the value of education. Ross was a civilian instructor at Sheppard Air Force Base. The $2000 scholarship established is funded 50/50 by the Ross family and the Wichita Falls North Rotary Club. The selection criteria was established by the MSU Fine Arts Department. Awardees are selected from one of the following departments on an annual basis: Drama Department, Art Department, Mass Communication Department and Music Department. This years selection, Kristen Longo is an Arts Department student. WFNRC has had a variety of majors receiving the award over the years including drama, vocational and instrumental arts.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joe was with the Wichita Falls ISD for 13 years prior to retirement. He spent the last 6 years as the At-Risk Coordinator at Scotland Park Elementary School. His career also includes a 30 year stint with the Texas Department of Public Safety for 30 years. He is veteran of the Air Force for 4 years.

He has been married to Laura for 30 years.  They have four sons and 5 granddaughters and 1 grandson.

 

 

 

 

 

President Clint Wood and Treasurer Ann Lucas attended. Because of Covid19. Only allowed 2 club members were permitted to attend. 

 

President Clint Wood (in white shirt) is in the photo behind the girls.

 

 

Clint Wood Presiding prior to our tour

 

Jeani was in charge of the program and made arrangements for Deputy Melvin Joyner to give us a tour of the new facility. 

 

 

 

Member Mike purchased the snacks and Tom S., Mike and Gary met at SPES and delivered the snacks. Afterwards we had a very nice visit with Joe in his office. Joe is retiring in less than a month. He is a great candidate as a new member! He has the heart of a true Rotarian

 

 

 

 

 

This annual project provides dictionaries to 3rd graders at our adopted school, Scotland Park Elementary School. The dictionary's are the students to keep. We at Wichita Falls North RC recognize that learning to read is paramount to academic success. Prior to 3rd grade students are learning how to read. In 3rd grade and for the remainder of their academic career, students are reading to learn. A dictionary is a wonderful tool for learning. Even with todays digital tools, teachers tell us that using a dictionary is much more effective in helping the students learn. Some students may come from families that can't afford books at home. Club members are making sure all 3rd graders can enhance their learning opportunities by providing dictionaries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bandits pictured with their mask on are (L to R) Phil Waggoner, Clint Wood, Joe Clements Tom Sheriff, Ann Lucas and Mike Crocker. I don't think Mike was smiling! There are two push carts in the picture. Rotary North filled up the carts two times with food! On behalf of the Scotland Park Elementary School, and the local area, Joe really expressed his thanks. He was told that when he ran out, to let us know

This years 2020 Covid edition of Squadron Christmas party will be much different than years past.  The check for $750 was given to Anthony Lankin, president of the booster club on November 12 along with over $300 in gift cards, 25 gift baskets and various other gift items that I collected from local merchants.  Each subdivision (E& E, Communications, Hydraulics,  POL, etc) will be having their only small Christmas Party rather than one big party. 

Anthony was very thankful for everything we did since they couldn't do any real fundraising this year for the Christmas party.

Rotarians have a deep history of service to youth, and we are honored to participate in underwriting music education programs with the Wichita Falls Youth Symphony Orchestra.

 

KHIRSTIA SHEFFIELD is a Mass Communication  Major with focus in Broadcasting at MSU. Currently carrying a 4.0 average, she plans to graduate in May of 2021. She is the feature editor for Midwestern State's The Wichitan with many stories to her credit.

 

Vocational chair, Gary Southard will be making the award and introducing our recipient.

 

About the Scholarship.

Ross Roberts was a charter member of the club way back in the 1980's.  He passed away a few years ago.  His wife, Colleen passed away in January of 2020.  After Ross passed away, the family funded 50% of the scholarship at MSU and Wichita Falls North RC funded the remaining.  They were both huge supporters of education.

 

As with the rest of the community, we will be observing local and state mask-up and social distancing guidelines and doing our our best to keep everyone safe. Members are encouraged to invite guests. Guests are welcome when meeting at Work Services Offices or if preferred, by joining us online.

 

Of course providing these leaning experiences for children comes at a cost. Our members want to assure these wonderful programs continue regardless of cost. The Wichita Falls North Rotary Club has made a donation of $2000 that will be matched by "Texoma Gives" providing $4000 that River Bend Nature Center can use to assure no child is turned away due to lack of funds for teaching programs"

 

Hungry children don't learn. That is why local schools provide breakfast and lunch to qualifying children. However, many of the kids do not have food when the get home. The Rotary Club of Wichita Falls North is providing food to stock a school pantry so that teachers and counselors can give these children food to take with them. We love our children at our adopted school and seek to support their needs. 

 

This is just one of several community service projects our members do. To find out more, be our guest 7 am Friday mornings at the Vantage Point Condo Meeting Room, 2100 Sante Fe in Wichita Falls, TX.

 

We put up and took down 665 flags at residential homes in the subdivisions areas of Fountain Park, Edgemere, Quail Creek, Willow Bend  and Sikes Estates.  Each of members and partners devoted 2 hours putting up the flags in the morning to 2 hours in the evening taking them down.

 

 

President Clint Woods announced at the Friday July 10th virtual meeting that the club BOD voted to seek district designated funded matching funds for an educational exhibit at the center.

 

 

 

 

 

Our annual installation banquet was held on June 19, 2020 at the River Bend Nature Center.  Clint was installed as our new President. 

 

Showing our pride in the American flag is what this holiday is all about. It was a wonderful week-end as our teams put the flags out Saturday June 13th and will be picking flags up early this week and returning to storage as we get ready for our next launch on Independence Day.

 

 

PDG Troy gave the club an update about the capabilities of Microsoft Teams. MS Teams is the program that PDG Troy has been using to host the club’s virtual e-meetings. The guest speaker for the meeting was PDG Conrad Heede. PDG Conrad informed us about Rotary Fellowships in general, as well as a somewhat in depth discussion over the Rotary Wine Fellowship. Since the meeting was a virtual e-meeting, no raffle tickets were sold and there was no drawing. Next week, Mayor Stephen Santellana is joining our virtual meeting for an update on our city.

 

On Monday 2/10/2020 several members of our club met at Scotland Park Elementary School to deliver the goods that our club had gathered for their pantry.  It was a large donation and it makes us proud to be a members of OUR club! 

 

 Steve Martin, Eddie Carlton and Elijah (no last name) as our program Friday. Eddie (shown below) is a very well trained “Comfort Dog” that happens to be a golden retriever.  All true “Comfort Dogs” are golden retrievers. 

 

Check our the great story in the Times Record News about one of our club service project.

 

 

 

President Jeani presented a $400.00 donation to Mr. B.C. Gilbert, welding instructor for the Career Education Center at WFISD. The students recently finished our “Buddy Bench” for Scotland Park Elementary School. The bench is now being powder coated bright yellow in Burkburnett. After the first of the year, a formal dedication will be held at SPES.

 

 

As Veterans Day activities drew to a close, one of our members received a call at work to retrieve one of our flags. So, how does one transport a flag mounted on a 9' staff? Well, through the sunroof of course. Rotarians and our flag partners do have fun.

 

Here are some photo's of the fun event.

California Rotarian Edwin Valarde

takes unusual route to

2019 Rotary Convention in Hamburg

 

On his way from his home in California to the Rotary International Convention in Hamburg, Germany, Edwin Velarde took an unusual detour. 

 Former RC of Wichita Falls North

 

 

Rotary connections form world wide Friendships that result in wedding invitations.  Pictured are Linda and I, and Cahir and Kristin McCrossan. Congratulations Kristin and Cahir.

 

Through her work with the animal shelter, Blankets of Love has been able to collect over 1000 blankets for pets in shelters. Thank you Mary Lynn for your wonderful community service.

 

There is a lot of "behind the scenes" hard work that goes into making our meetings successful and Misty makes it happen for us at Work Services Corporation.

 

The Dr. Ross Roberts Memorial Scholarship, named for one of our founding members, Dr. Ross Roberts.  The scholarship is jointly funded by the Rotary Club, the Dr. Ross Roberts Family and MSU.

 

Our club has a passion for children and making sure they grow up healthy and well educated. Unfortunately, some students are faced with challenges to their nutritional well being. The solution is to work with the school to help fill a pantry with non perishable food that these students can access.

 

The picture attached is Joe Clements.  He’s the Risk Management Officer our Adopted School, Scotland Park Elementary.  He came to the club today explaining the need he has for their Food Pantry because they started the school year with more than 100 more kids than normal and in a major need for non-perishable items.  

 

 

State Representative James Frank was our program this morning.  He talked about what goes on and how the sessions work in the State of Texas.

 

 

Mason and Gabbie gave a presentation about their RYLA experience and their plans to start an Interact Club at City View High School. 

Facilities Director JD Smith presented

the ways WSC serves the disabled community in Wichita Falls

at July 5th Wichita Falls North Rotary Club Meeting

 

Mr Smith provided a very enlightening presentation. WSC has numerous contracts with corporations and government. In particular they can boast of their contract with Sheppard and Dyess AFB in working their award winning service in the Dining Facilities. 

 

 

Vocation really means “a calling,” a strong desire to spend your life doing a certain kind of work or occupation. Vocations cause us to be driven by a passion that fills your life with fulfillment and satisfaction. And it’s that kind of passion that drives Rotary members to celebrate serving through their vocation. As Rotary members we also enjoy recognizing community members whose passion to serve our community makes our lives better and safer. Kyle exemplifies that passion for service that we all want to emulate. 

 

The 364th squadron is the Wichita Falls North Rotary Clubs adopted squadron. Our members recognize the women and men serving there many different ways through out the year.

What is it like taking a large team to Africa?  It has probably been one of the most rewarding experiences in my life. In mid February, I began leading Rotary members from all over the East Coast of the United States through Ghana. I’ve tried to give the team a warm Ghanaian welcome like I’ve received on my earlier trips. A large trip is a real blessing because each person sees Ghana and our work in a different way.

For years, Angalia Bianca had slept in abandoned buildings throughout Chicago. She stole. She did drugs. She spent time in and out of jail for forgery, theft, trespassing, and possession of narcotics. But after she landed in prison for the seventh time, something changed -- Bianca knew she wanted a better life. She just didn’t know how to make it happen.

Throughout India and around the world, Rotary clubs are celebrating a major milestone: India has gone three years without a new case of polio. The last reported case was a two-year-old girl in West Bengal on 13 January 2011. To mark this historic triumph, Rotary clubs illuminated landmarks and iconic structures throughout the country with four simple but powerful words, "India is polio free."