The Chiang Mai International Rotary Club was busy delivering your generous children’s winter clothing donations in January. We distributed warm clothes, blankets, shoes, and toys in 9 hard-to-access villages in Chiang Mai and Mae Hong Son Provinces with the help of the Classic Car Club of Lanna and the Unity Concord International School Interact Club.
Wat Sisuphan and Wat Dok Ngern Municipal School students graduated from the CMIRC Children's Water Safety & Drowning Prevention Program. They received 15 hours of survival swimming skills and water safety training taught by Krupayu Swim at the Bronco Kids Sport Club.
The Burma Children Medical Fund B.K. Kee House saw a steady increase in patients and caregivers in January. Project Champion Gary Herman reported that the last two visits were some of the most successful visits of the Rotary Year.
We welcomed a new member, Patrick Desloge, to our club. Patrick is a seasoned writer of several global grants and a recipient of the 2021 Outstanding Teaching Award. He is a former Senior Lecturer, Global Leaders Programme Director, Language Instructor, and Senior Research Assistant at the Centre for Applied English Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Patrick will be a Secondary Contact in the Water & Sanitation Global Grant Project. Also, he will be assisting Founder Avis Rideout of Nikki’s Place Agape Home to put together a construction project proposal pending financing of 100,000 USD to be disbursed by The ONE International Humanitarian Awards.
Chairman Roger Lindley relocated the office of the Chiang Mai International Rotary Club Foundation to the ground floor of Nakornping Condominium with the help of newly inducted Rotarian Patrick Desloge and former CMIRC member Alan Dick. The new office will provide the Foundation with better visibility and exposure.
In January, we lived up to our “Will it be fun?” motto. We had a lot of visitors from Rotary Clubs in the United States and Croatia. We exchanged banners with PDG Mike Andritch of the Fig Garden Rotary Club in Fresno, CA. PDG Mike is the driving force behind the Water & Sanitation Global Grant application. What's more, Rotarians from South Dakota; Colorado and Croatia visited our meetings too!
CMIRC Past President John Schorr, Honorary Member Phijitra Schorr, Youth Programs Director Raphael Djemal, Membership Chair Myrna Muyana and I met a group of 15 visiting Rotarians, led by District 5230 Governor Becky Moser. District 5230 provides significant financial support in the pending Water & Sanitation Global Grant Project in partnership with the Integrated Tribal Development Foundation (ITDF). Our application is currently under first-level review by Rotary International. Once approved, the project will supply clean water and toilets to 21 poor villages in Chiang Mai, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Rai Provinces.
We exchanged banners with the Californian Rotary Club of Clovis and the Visalia County Center Rotary. Then we had dinner together at the Khao Mao Khao Fang Thai restaurant. The enthusiastic group were heading up to a remote village in the Omkoi area where ITDF is currently working on providing safe water and toilets.
Oops, we did it again! CMIRC members did the Cha Cha as a team-building exercise this month, taught by Membership Chair Myrna Muyana.
Would you like to learn more about our projects or get involved? Come and see us! Contact secretary@cmirotary.org for an invitation.