More of the Beginning

Good Morning!

I think I am at a point now where I can use some material we have developed in pursuit of this grant. The following article, "Keep Smilin'" was written by Don Alhart and myself for the Rotary District 7120 Newsletter. It does a good job of introducing people to what the grant is about and its current status:





Keep Smilin’

It’s all in the smile!

And if you met Stella Dongo, you would find her brilliant smile quite contagious.

Stella first came to District 7120 as the Team Leader for a Group Study Exchange from District 9210 (Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Zimbabwe) in Africa, in the spring of 2007.




Stella Dongo and Carolyn Schrader


During her stay with the Cal- Mum club, Stella was reacquainted with Carolyn Schrader, from the Denver Mile High Rotary Club. They had worked on Matching Grants in the past and became close friends. That led to a new friendship between Carolyn and the Cal-Mum club.


The D9210 GSE Team and Tom Coene at the caledonia-Mumford Rotary Club

Carolyn’s smile is contagious too- as is her personality. That’s why it was easy for Cal-Mum Rotarian Tom Coene to be convinced to join Carolyn in applying for a 3H Grant (Health, Hunger, and Humanity) for Africa.

Aspects of the grant include:

Training and monitoring to create 128 women’s self-help economic groups and micro-finance, mentored by Rotarians in Harare


The Creation of 64 Youth Groups to allow Rotarians to mentor in leadership and economic skills

The Creation of 20 Youth Resource Centers, with computer and internet availability. Close to 500 youths would be trained in economic and management skills to run these centers.


Training of volunteers, who are HIV positive, to lead 72 “Living Well” support groups, comprised of other HIV positive members of the community.

When Tom shared this project with District foundation Chair PDG Don Alhart, and Community Service Co-Chair PDG Mahendra Shah, there was unanimous agreement to become a full partner- to “share the smiles”—and meet the needs this grant would address.

And now- the challenge.

District 7120 will match the $15,000 being given by the Denver Mile High Club. With matching funds from Rotary International, about $330,000 will be made available. There is every indication Rotary will approve this grant by May 1, 2009, which would allow a “Project Launch”—in September, in Zimbabwe. Tom Coene will be on the Board of Directors of this project- providing District 7120 with a direct link to its progress.

Says Tom, “ There is a significant amount of work to do –managing, soliciting, giving, monitoring, guiding, measuring, reporting, and publicizing this project. The district has given wonderful support and advice to me with this project, which is a new endeavor in scope and scale for all of us. There are some specific talents we’ll be seeking from individuals in our district. This is also a beautiful reason for Rotarians to give to the Rotary Foundation’s Annual Giving Program. Our ability to make a significant contribution has been enhanced by increased giving the APF in recent years.” And Tom adds, “The connection of this project to Stella sure adds meaning!”

It does add meaning. It is the beauty of Rotary. We accomplish great things through the friendships Rotary allows us to develop- the contagious smiles that help to improve lives through the world. Stella’s smile, Carolyn’s smile, Tom’s smile, too! Now, all we need—is YOURS!


So that's the story - so far so good. I should mention that the 3H Grants are big in detail! The original application was 85 single spaced pages. Since then, there have been about 20 pages of follow-up answers that Carolyn has had to submit. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to help her with this but she deserves our credit and appreciation for a job well done!



We think there is an excellent chance that this grant will be approved on May 1. The Rotary Foundation has gone to the expense of making a site visit to Zimbabwe and we know they think the grant looks great!


Here is a link to a Microsoft Power Point presentation I developed with a lot of input from Carolyn Schrader: Zimbabwe PowerPoint

Closing Thought for Today

I want to thank the following District 7120 Rotarians for their phenomonal support in pursuit of this grant:

• PDG Don Alhart - D7120 Foundation Chair
• DG Mike Leone
• PDG Mahendra Shah
• PDG Harry Blaeser
• AG Rich de Asis
• Mary Fuller
• Hank Ralston
• PDG Glenn Balch
• Caledonia - Mumford Rotary Club

The blog is now almost up to date! The next post I will talk about Zimbabwe.

Where to begin?

First, I am blogging this experience for several of reasons. Its a vehicle to get the word out, create some interest, and hopefully reduce the need to send out many many emails. Its also a learning experience so please bear with me.

I should start this blog at the beginning or reasonably close to the beginning. It involves talking about myself which makes me a bit uncomfortable. Anyways, here we go!

I am 61 years old and have live and worked in Rotary District 7120 basically all of my life. I studied Economics, Finance, and Business Management at Hillsdale College in Michigan. Upon graduation I was drafted into the US Army, got married to my wife, Mary Lou, and was rather rudely shipped off to war in Viet Nam. That experience was perhaps my first experience at service as, in off duty, we worked with orphanages. After a year and a day, I returned to the US, to home. We started a family (3 children) – my wife is a nurse and I began work at Eastman Kodak in Rochester.

I worked many years as a quality engineer and as a manager. My expertise was process and quality in running a business. I was known as a change agent, where I would go into a troubled business, analyze it, then lead that segment back to success by working closely with people. I helped to transfer our wiring harness manufacturing to Mexico, where I lived with my family for 3-4 months. I became one of Kodak’s first Six Sigma Black Belts (experts recognize for bringing about change through Team building, quality tools and statistics). I have taught classes to management and developers alike. Toward the end of my career, I was the quality manager for the Kodak Electronics R&D design organization, working on strategic planning and resource management improvement initiatives.

My service career started in Viet Nam. On return I tried community associations, church groups, specific charities. I finally found a “home” in Rotary – an organization with a broader canvas to serve on. I have been president of our Caledonia - Mumford Rotary Club four times. I was also the Rotary District 7120 Youth Exchange country officer for Australia, the District Youth Exchange vice chair and chairperson for six years, Group Study Exchange (GSE) District Coordinator for 4-5 years, Chair of the District 7120 Governor Nominating committee, and a bunch of other offices along the way. Our first exchange student (of many) to live with us in 1989 was Wendy Perry (Hardy) from South Africa. She came to visit us with her daughter, sister, brother & his wife in 2003. Mary Lou and I visited her in SA for a month in 2004. Stella and the Group Study Exchange Team from D9210 visited in 2005 and now we are working on this wonderful grant with D9210. This progression is no accident…its Rotary!
My other interests are genealogy, babysitting my 8 grand kids (two of them everyday), gardening, music, nature, and I am an avid golfer.

The Grant

As I inferred, this grant is linked to the Group Study Exchange team in 2005. We sent a team to Africa. The team leader of the from African was Stella Dongo from the Harare Highlands Rotary Club. We all loved Stella - a woman with charm and heart and a wonderful smile and laugh. A friend of hers from the Denver Mile High Rotary Club called me (because I was the District GSE Coordinator) and asked if she could please visit her friend Stella. This person is Carolyn Schrader. She had worked on a few small projects (grants) through Rotary in Zimbabwe. I of course said yes, come visit. Through Stella, Carolyn and I became friends.

In August of 2008, Carolyn emailed me and asked if the Caledonia-Mumford Rotary Club would like to make a small contribution to a 3H Grant (Health, Hunger, Humanity). These are the largest and most expansive grants in Rotary. She emailed and explained the grant to a degree. It sounded perfect! I asked for more information, which Carolyn sent. I forwarded this to Mahendra Shah (who has experience with grants and is a key member of the Grants committee for our Rotary district) and Don Alhart who chairs our District 7120 Rotary Foundation Committee. I asked if they wanted to participant. Basically, they asked if we could become full partners. WOW!

I called Carolyn and we had an on-phone celebration! This partnership on the grant meant that our district would pay half of the upfront sponsor funds and would surely share the work load. The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International then takes this upfront sponsor funding and matches it 10 X IF THEY APPROVE THE GRANT (A big "if" at that point in time, around mid-September).

Next blog will be "More of the Beginning"