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Rotary District 5240 consists of over 2900 members in 71 Rotary Clubs, nine Rotaract Clubs, and 58 Interact (high school) clubs. The District spans four counties in Central California - San Luis Obispo County, Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, and Kern County – as well as a Chapter Club based in Guatemala and a Young Professionals Satellite Club in Westlake Village. Our clubs are active in all aspects of Rotary, including community and international service, youth programs, and fellowship activities.

Dictionaries for Santa Barbara Third Graders

Sunrisers worked from their homes to prepare dictionaries that will be delivered to 600 third grade students at Santa Barbara schools. Club members would normally gather in one location for the assembly part of the project and teams would deliver the dictionaries in person to each of the class4rooms. With health restrictions the assembly was done by each club member at home and the dictionaries were dropped off for teachers to distribute to their students.

Each Student Dictionary includes the Rotary emblem sticker on the front and a book plate inside honoring the name of one of our speakers from the previous year.

Camarillo Rotary's Earth Day Project

For Earth Day, and to advocate for Rotary’s new area of interest in Protecting the Environment, project kits were distributed to 950 Second-Graders in Camarillo and Somis. The kits consisted of a bucket, shovel, packet of 100 carrot seeds, and a card with planting instructions and a QR code for more information. Each class was also given a bag of potting soil donated by B&B Hardware.

Mary Lingua and five Interactors prepared 1000 seed packets. New Rotarian Megan Cooper wrote a brochure about Rotary’s interest in the environment. To avoid waste, the brochure was not printed on paper, but was linked with a QR code (see below). A packet of 100 carrot seeds was attached to a card showing the QR code and planting instructions.

May Message from DG Deb Linden

Happy May Day Fellow Rotary Members! May Day (usually celebrated on May 1) is a celebration of Spring. It symbolizes a time of rebirth and unity as the flowers begin to bloom, the weather gets warmer, and we begin to emerge from our COVID isolation.

Youth Service Month:
May also marks Youth Service Month in Rotary when we turn our focus to the many programs and projects organized by our clubs and District to serve youth in our communities. We just concluded two of these programs – RYLA and the annual Four-Way Test Essay Contest. Our District organized its first ever Virtual RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) for over 130 high school students and it was a huge success! Congratulations to our RYLA Director Darin Arrasmith and his RYLA team for their willingness to adapt and for creating an amazing event. And Steve Geil once again led our District Four-Way Test Contest where nine outstanding students will be recognized and receive cash awards from their sponsoring clubs. Thank you Steve!

I would also like to welcome our newest Interact Club: The Vista Real High School Interact Club sponsored by the Rotary Club of Santa Paula. Forming a new Interact Club can be a challenge at best and even more so in the middle of a pandemic. I can’t wait to see what amazing things this club does for their school and community.

Because of the continued threat of COVID in many parts of the world, Rotary International has suspended in-person Rotary Youth Exchanges for 2021-2022. But that does not mean we are giving up on RYE! Many Districts are engaging in different types of virtual exchanges and this is something our District Rotary Youth Exchange Chair Barry VanderKelen is exploring for the upcoming Rotary year.

Rotary Foundation Donor Recognition:
Registration is now open for the 2021 District 5240 Rotary Foundation Donor Recognition & Celebration, which is virtual this year on Friday, May 7, 2021, at 6:00 pm. The event is free, but you need to register in advance by clicking HERE. We will be recognizing YOU – our members who have achieved various donation levels to The Rotary Foundation – and we will have a special presentation by the CFO from Feeding America about the dramatic increase in food insecurity during COVID and how organizations like Rotary helped address the crisis. A flyer for the event is below.

Registration is Open for the 2021 Rotary International Convention:
Registration is now open for the 2021 Virtual RI Convention June 12-16, 2021! This is your chance to experience an RI Convention for only $49 (promotional rate good until May 7, then $65 after that). You can also register for pre-convention events focusing on Rotaract and Inter-Country Committees. For more information and registration information, click HERE.

Save the Date for the District Awards and End of Year Celebration:
On Friday evening, June 25, 2021, we will be coming together to honor very deserving Rotary members and clubs and celebrating their successes at our Virtual District Awards and End of Year Celebration. Despite the challenges this past year presented, our clubs and members have done amazing work deserving of recognition and celebration. We will also be remembering the members we lost this year and keeping them in our hearts. And we’ll be looking to the future as I turn over the virtual District gavel to our incoming District Governor Dana Moldovan! Please save the date and look for more details and registration information coming soon.

Bakersfield Clubs Come Together for District Cleanup

Rotary Club of Bakersfield Twilight (“Twilight Rotary Club”) joined members of Bakersfield East Rotary Club (“BERC”) and students from Centennial High Interact Club (“Interact”) for the District 5240 Rotary Work Day on Saturday, April 24th. The volunteers met at the Rotary Wheel area of Panorama Park, also known as Rotary Park, where they cleaned up the Rotary Wheel area and areas surrounding the pathway along the Bluffs. The volunteers enjoyed perfect weather as they fanned out in groups of three and four to pick up an eclectic mix of trash and debris that littered the pathway along the bluffs and pruned overgrown and dead shrubs around the Rotary Wheel area. When the volunteers were done, there was a large pile of dead shrubbery removed from plants and numerous large bags of trash collected by the Rotary and Interact members.

RC Arroyo Grande Water Project in Uganda

The Arroyo Grande Rotary Club has been staying busy throughout 2020-2021. We partnered with St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church of Monterey Park, CA to fund a clean water project for the Village of Wakiso,, Mukono District, Uganda. A well was dug to access clean water, underground piping was laid and an 8 foot high structure was built for three water storage tanks to provide water pressure and protect from the unwanted animals. Additionally solar panels were installed to power the well pump ensuring continual operations. Now the over 350 families of Wakiso Village have clean water and the children can spend their time in school rather than traveling daily to carry containers of water gathered from ponds they find.

Cambria Rotary’s High School Peace Essay Contest

In an effort to empower youth as informed peacebuilders, we reached out to Sarah Johnston, CUHS English teacher, to ask whether she was interested in coordinating a Peace Essay contest for her students. As the daughter of Rotarians, she embraced the idea immediately but needed to figure out how to work it into the year’s course work. A few ideas were sourced from Rotary’s website for Sarah’s consideration.

RC of Thousand Oaks Helps James Storehouse

The Rotary Club of Thousand Oaks created a grant to benefit James Storehouse that helps out young men and women transition from a foster program to being successfully independent. The club recently provided approximately $600 worth of cookware, containers, utensils, bathroom items, and more to get a young woman started in her apartment. Thank you to Deborah Kniss for organizing this. The club plans to set up 8 more apartments and provide 50 kitchen kits and 20 bathroom kits for these young adults. They are glad to be partnering with James Storehouse.

RC of Thousand Oaks Cleans Up Hometowns

Members and Friends of the Rotary Club of Thousand Oaks participated in this year’s Coastal Cleanup. Because of COVID, instead of being at the beach, Coastal Cleanup encouraged the volunteers to clean up their hometowns. They cleaned up in Thousand Oaks. 18 individuals picked up approximately 800 pounds of trash from two locations. 15 volunteers cleaned up the wash that runs along the 23 Freeway between Janss Road and Paige Lane, which includes a homeless encampment and 3 volunteers cleaned up at Wildwood Park. Thank you to everyone who helped out.

2021 4-Way Test Essay Contest Winners

Mexico Hearing Aid III Global Grant Project

Thousand Oaks (and Sister Tijuana Club) Rotarians Partner to Help Hearing-Impaired Children and Elderly

The Thousand Oaks Rotary Club is the International Sponsor of a Global Grant providing hearing aid devices, fittings and speech therapy to underprivileged children and elderly individuals in Tijuana, Mexico. The Tijuana Rotary Club (which has been the “Sister Club” of the Thousand Oaks Rotary Club for over 15 years) was the local Host Club, and the grant project also involved the assistance of two medical services charities located in Tijuana.

Given the COVID-19 pandemic public gathering restrictions, fitting sessions were spread out over four months (from November 2020 through March 2021), with each session involving a small number of recipients, instead of two large fitting ceremonies as was initially planned.

Read Previous Stories...

Rotary District 5240 encourages clubs within the District to submit short articles, "Club Stories," to be published on the District Website and in the District Newsletter. Take advantage of this FREE opportunity to showcase your club's accomplishments. Here are the guidelines and the "how-to" for submitting your stories.

WHAT qualifies as a Club Story?

Club Stories are highlights of District 5240 Club-specific activities. The following examples illustrate activities that qualify as District 5240 Club Stories (upcoming or after the fact):

Community Service Projects
Youth Service Projects
Vocational Service Projects
International Service Projects
Club Service Projects
New Membership Highlights
Club Fundraising Events
Member Award Recognitions

HOW do I submit my Club Story?

After you make sure the story qualifies as a "Club Story," you may submit it by emailing ALL of the following items to stories@district5240.org:

A short summary of the activity, minimum 50 words and maximum 250 words. Please submit as a Word doc and proofread prior to sending. If the content is copywrited/re-used from another source, permission must be granted and please reference the source.
Include 2-3 of the best photographs taken from the activity. If there are individuals included in the photo, please include names and Club titles of each Rotarian. (If there is a YouTube video link taken from the event, please include as well).
Include the contact information of the most appropriate Rotarian that others may reach out to regarding the featured story.

WHERE will my Club Story be posted?

The three most recently published Club Stories will be highlighted on the homepage of www.rotarydistrict5240.org, while an archive of previous Club Stories will be included and available to view under the menu tab, District -> Archived District Stories.

Your story may also be selected for the District Newsletter which goes out to our nearly 3300 active members.

WHEN will my Club Story be posted after I submit?

Depending on the amount of Club Stories in the cue, your article could take as short as 24 hours or up to 2 weeks to be published after all necessary information is received.