Rotaract Club of Downtown San Diego Weekly Announcements December 06, 2005

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Next Meeting: Check Handover to JDRF Our next general meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 06, 2005 at 6:30 pm at Kansas City BBQ, 610 W. Market Street, Downtown San Diego. Our Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes event last week was a huge success. We'll be giving a big check to the beneficiary, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of San Diego. You'll have to attend our meeting tonight to find out how much we raised! Will it be the biggest check we've ever presented to the JDRF? We are still collecting items for the Culture Box we're going to send to our sister club in Turkey, so please bring a small item that is both personal and reflective of San Diego to tonight's meeting. More information below. We're looking forward to seeing you there!

Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes Hits Its Highest Note How do you do better than the Best Service Project in North America? You need only ask anyone who attended our 4th Annual Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes last Thursday night! With a new venue and new event chairs, Jazz took on a fresh look and managed to maintain the traditional "great time for a great cause" feel that makes it our signature event of the year and made last year's concert the Rotary International Best Service Project for USA, Canada, and Caribbean. Over 175 guests flooded the venue, relaxed to the beautiful rhythms, met new and fabulous people, and all this for such a great cause. Danielle Esposito and Aaron Aadragna co-chaired this year's Jazz, which was moved downstairs to the Onyx room from our original location, Thin. The venue change made for a more open atmosphere where people could meet and mingle at the bar and then move into the music room to dance and soak up every note of Cabellero Verde's latin beats. Early returns are indicating that we'll be giving the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation of San Diego their biggest check ever (you'll have to attend our meeting tonight to find out how much we raised!!). Our deepest thanks to Danielle and Aaron for their tireless efforts in organizing everything, to Felix for another year of smooth operations, to Parker for a great job keeping the web site functional and current, and to everyone else who volunteered to make this such a perfect night. See you tonight for the check presentation to JDRF and if you missed the event but still want to donate to the cause visit our website at Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes 2005. It looks ... ... like everybody ... ... had a great time!

Finishing out Strong – Rotaract at a Glance Check out the great events that we still have this year. Mark your calendars and let's finish out strong. Let's work hard and play hard! December 6 Tuesday Final General Rotaract Meeting of the year. Check presentation to JDRF. Please note: We'll be back at our usual location, KC BBQ! December 17 Saturday 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm Making Gingerbread Houses with the San Diego Center for Children 8:00 pm Rotaract Holiday Party & White Elephant Gift Exchange @ Felix Tinkov's house December 20 & 27 Tuesday Dark for the Holidays January 03, 2006 Tuesday First General Rotaract Meeting of 2006!

Cultural Exchange Committee We are very excited to participate in a cultural exchange this year with the Rotaract Club of Kavaklidere, Turkey. We have received a very cool package from our sister club (86-minute DVD, CD with pop music, coffee, brochures about their country, etc.) and are even more excited about sharing our city with them. We hope to send off our package before the New Year. As part of our package, we will be filming short messages from our members to theirs. We would also like each member to fill out a short questionnaire to include in our package. So please make sure to be at the meeting on December 6th to participate. Or you can e-mail your answers to Stacey. Here are the questions: Name. Occupation. Where are you from? What do you enjoy most about San Diego? How did you hear about Rotaract / why did you join? What's your favorite Rotaract activity/event so far? We will also be collecting items for the Culture Box, so please bring a small item that is both personal and reflective of San Diego to one of the meetings. Please contact Stacey for additional information.

Gingerbread House Making Event December 17 (Saturday) 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm San Diego Center for Children, 3002 Armstrong Street On December 17th from 12:30 pm to 3:30 pm Rotaract will be collaborating with the San Diego Center for Children. Volunteers will have an opportunity to build gingerbread houses with the kids and participate in an outdoor obstacle course. For more information please contact Miguel Moron or Carl Tiu. The Center for Children is located at 3002 Armstrong Street, San Diego, CA 92111. As the community's oldest accredited non-profit organization for children, the San Diego Center for Children seeks to offer therapaeutic and education in the least restrictive environments possible, to at-risk children and youth who have emotional, behavioral and learning problems.

Rotaract Holiday Party & White Elephant Gift Exchange December 17 (Saturday) 8:00 pm Felix Tinkov's House, 4752 Lotus Street, 92107, 619-887-6471 'Tis the season, so clear your party calendars! It's time again for Rotaract's annual White Elephant Party. Don't know what a White Elephant Party is? This means you missed last year's party, so you better ask somebody! It's one of the more fun events we do every year. The idea is this: Bring a funny (read: crappy) gift to the party all wrapped up with no identifying marks or tags. Drop your gift off and party. Come 10:00 pm, we'll figure out how many gifts we have and prepare a series of numbers for each gift giver. Your number represents when you get to choose a gift. The first person takes a random gift and is generally crushed/amused. The second person then takes another random gift, but is able to exchange their gift with the first one picked – if they want. The next person takes a new gift from the pile and has a choice of the prior two and so on. The first person gets to go for one last exchange after the last gift is picked and/or exchanged. So mark your calendar. Trust us, this is one you don't want to miss. BTW, our host Felix won't be disappointed if you bring a fine libation or spirit. If you have any questions or if you haven't received the evite yet, please contact Felix.

Rotaract's Website... New & Improved Everyone knows that the Rotaract Club of Downtown San Diego has style, but check out our new and improved Rotaract website to see the sense of style we wear proudly! Thanks to Parker Seybold, our very own Rotaract website chair, we have a cleaner and easier-to-navigate site. We are still working on our online photo album but don't fret... your beautiful face will be up there soon! Thanks, Parker, for all of you hard work, we love it! To check out the website visit www.sdrotaract.org.

Senior Center 2nd Saturday of each month Volunteers (2-3) are needed the 2nd Saturday of each month from 11:00 am - 1:00 pm to help serve lunch at the Senior Center Downtown. Please contact Miguel for details and availability.

Downtown San Diego Breakfast Rotary Meeting The Downtown San Diego Breakfast Rotary Club is meeting every Wednesday at 7:00 am at the Symphony Towers University Club, 750 B Street, Suite 3400. Next scheduled speakers / events: December 07 Warren Ogden The Aja Project December 14 Ron Popham Senior Director Maritime Division San Diego Port District December 21 Dark for Christmas December 28 Dark for New Year's For last minute changes, please check http://www.sdrotary.org!

Members' Bulletin Board Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk for Arthritis December 10 (Saturday) 8:00 am Balboa Park Join us in Balboa Park on Saturday, December 10th at 8 a.m. for our Annual Jingle Bell 5K Run/Walk! Whether you choose the competitive race or a leisurley stroll, there's no finer way to ring in the season. It will be a timed run, with prizes awarded to the top finishers and top in each category. Dogs are welcome to join you! All registrants receive a t-shirt, goody bag, food, sports massages, and much more! Volunteers are also needed. Register online today or call 858-492-1090! Discounted Golf Tickets & Raffle Prize Donation Opportunity January 24-29, 2006 Like Golf? Want to walk along with Tiger Woods? The North County Rotaract is selling discounted tickets for the Buick Invitational, which is held at Torrey Pines Golf Course January 24-29, 2006. This is a fundraiser with 100% of ticket sales going to the BRIGHT Families Mentor Project, which works to prevent teenage pregnancy in San Diego. Tickets to the Buick Invitational would make great holiday gifts as the Buick Invitational is a world-renowned PGA tournament. Whether you buy them for you or friends & family, you will be supporting a wonderful cause and helping teens all around San Diego. Tickets are only $15.00 (normally $18-28.) For more information, contact the BRIGHT Families Program: 858-514-7549. If you would like to purchase tickets for the Buick Invitational, please contact Valerie Orrison from the North County Rotaract Club. Post your own message here! Do you need a roommate? Trying to sell your car? Let Rotaract work for you! Post your message here in the newsletter and have it be seen by over 100 like-minded people. Just send an e-mail to newsletter@sdrotaract.org with "Bulletin Board" in the subject line. Please remember to also include a general time frame for your message, e.g. 3 weeks, 2 newsletters, or until November 1st.

Rotaract & Rotary Trivia Ambassadorial Scholarships The Rotary Foundation's oldest and best-known program is Ambassadorial Scholarships. Since 1947 nearly 37,000 men and women from 100 nations have studied abroad under its auspices. Today it is the world's largest privately funded international scholarships program. More than 1,000 scholarships were awarded for study in 2003-04. Through grants totaling approximately US$428 million, recipients from some 70 countries studied in more than 70 nations. The purpose of the Ambassadorial Scholarships program is to further international understanding and friendly relations among people of different countries. The program sponsors several types of scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students as well as for qualified professionals pursuing vocational studies. While abroad, scholars serve as ambassadors of goodwill to the people of the host country and give presentations about their homelands to Rotary clubs and other groups. Upon returning home, scholars share with Rotarians and others the experiences that led to greater understanding of their host countries. Generous contributions from Rotarians worldwide represent continued faith that the students who are Ambassadorial Scholars today will be tomorrow's community and world leaders.

A special THANK YOU to the supporters and contributors of the 4th Annual Jazz for Juvenile Diabetes!