Our meeting on Tuesday, November 11th was filled with acknowledgement for our nation's veterans. Many members donated Happy Dollars in an expression of gratitude for the sacrifices their parents and/or grandparents made in service to our country. In addition, there were many mentions of thanks for the volunteers who worked on our Peace Garden at North Park on Saturday, November 8th, in particular for the leadership of Steve Siders. Joy Manbeck was so moved by the Veteran's Day program at Rotary Club of Marietta Metro that she was compelled to take our Happy Dollars up to $200 and requested that the funds go to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation, supporting first responders and veterans.

Jeff Esterkes mentioned that he and Regina have now been members of our club for one year. It sure seems like longer because they both immediately jumped right into volunteering!

District Foundation Chair, Bob Hagan was in attendance to give our 2024-25 Foundation Giving recognitions. Our club was recognized for our contributions to Polio Plus, Every Rotarian Every Year, and for attaining per capita giving of at least $100. Bob shared some statistics on the giving for District 6900 for the 2024-2025 Rotary Year:

• Our District members contributed over $1 million to The Rotary Foundation in the 2024-25 Rotary year
• $750,000 of this was given to the Annual Fund, which means that approximately $365,000 will come back to our District in the 2027-2028 Rotary year for District Grants
• $250,000 was given to Polio Plus

Moving on to Club Business, President Elect Dan Jenkins presented the 2026-2027 Board Nominees. Members will vote on these nominees at our next meeting on December 9th. Please reach out to Dan if you are interested in serving on a committee for one of the following areas: Fundraising, Community Service, Membership, Public Image, Foundation. If you have any questions about the nominees below, please reach out to Dan as well.

• President, Dan Jenkins
• President Elect, Jonathan Stelling
• Treasurer, Erik Bykat
• Secretary, Steve Siders
• Community Service - Amie Blanton
• Membership - Jeff Esterkes
• Foundation - Doug Higgins
• Fundraising - Rick Clark
• Public Image - Lisa Gelber
• Interact Club - Joy Manbeck

Since it is Foundation Month, our program for today's meeting was all about The Rotary Foundation, presented by our Foundation Chair, Doug Higgins and District Grants Chair, Mike Mudd. Doug and Mike gave us an in-depth explanation of how The Rotary Foundation works and why it's important to contribute so that Rotary can continue to issue grants to "do good in the world". Although our club is modest in size, we have a rich history of contributing to The Rotary Foundation. Since our club was chartered in January 2000, we have contributed over $900,000 to The Rotary Foundation. Mike shared a few fun facts about our giving:

• Our 2024-2025 giving was $18,637 or $478 per Rotarian - we were #5 in the District for per capita giving.
• For at least 20 years, our club has been in the top 10 for the District in per capita giving AND 10 of those years we were in the top 3.
• Our Polio Plus giving average for the last 4 years was $1300, which is then matched 2 to 1 by The Gates Foundation ($3900).
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Many thanks to Doug and Mike - we are lucky to have such knowledgeable members in our club!