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Welcome Home! Rotary After Hours has a new home for our club meetings.
Rotary After Hours has a new home for our club meetings - The Main, An Event Space (422 Main Street, La Crosse). Our club has held our bi-monthly club meetings at the Radisson Hotel in downtown La Crosse since our club's chartering in 2011. Over the past decade, the facility has served our needs well, but due to rising costs, the price has risen significantly.
A venue committee was formed to explore options. After discussion with members and through survey feedback, important attributes were outlined. Various venues were trialed. After much consideration, a lengthy discussion and applying the 5-Way Test, the venue committee proposed to the Board of Directors that Rotary After Hours finds our new home for our bi-monthly club meetings at The Main through September 1, 2022. We can re-evaluate in the new Rotary year. The Board of Directors accepted the recommendation and believe it is best for Rotary After Hours, the majority of our members and growing our club in the future.
You are always welcome to come at 5:30pm for check-in and social time. Food will be served closer to 6pm. State Bank (thanks Justin Reineking!) has graciously agreed to let us park in their lot, or you may park on the surrounding streets or in nearby ramps. We will continue to offer the option to join virtually by Zoom.
We hope you find this news exciting and look forward to seeing you at a future meeting!
Your help is needed to make RAH SHARK TANK a success again this year!
Thanks to the hard work of our club at the Ugly Sweater 5k and other fundraising events, we can provide a grant up to $10,000 for a really cool project in our community! There are many needs locally that with the help of Rotarians can be filled, so keep reading to learn how YOU can pick the next Rotary After Hours project!
On April 26th, Rotarians will pitch projects designed with fellow club members and community leaders that focus on a community need. The RAH Sharks will be able to cast their “Shark Bucks” to choose which dream will be fulfilled with dollars fundraised by Rotary After Hours and a district grant. This is a meeting YOU DON'T WANT TO MISS! Your input and participation is valued and needed.
There's still time to partner with your fellow club members to find AMAZING projects in our community. In four simple steps, you will be ready to sell us your solution:
Partner with RAH club members to learn from community organizations what their needs are and how Rotarians can help!
Together develop goals, roles, and a budget for your project.
Submit an overview of your plan to Liz Evans to ensure your goals meet the criteria for a grant and to secure your team a time to pitch.
Get ready to blow the socks off your fellow Rotarians with how INCREDIBLE your project will be for our community.
Please reach out to the Foundation committee for more information if you are interested in helping find the next Rotary After Hours project. We hope to see you at our next meeting! Get ready for some great project pitches!
What do you get when you invite a Taiwanese, an Italian and a Pole to join 30 Rotarians in a Zoom Room? A Rotary Youth Exchange Reunion!
Since 2016, After Hours has had the privilege of hosting four Rotary Youth Exchange students. We had the VERY special opportunity to connect with our former YE students, Eugene (from Taiwan), Clara (from Italy) and Miki (from Poland) to hear updates on their lives since returning to their home countries. It was 4 AM for Eugene and 1 AM for Clara and Miki, but that early morning hours didn't stop their personalities from shining through.
Eugene has been busy taking photos and is seriously considering a career path in photography, although he is currently going to school for IT. When his parents think he's busy doing coding in his room, he's actually busy learning photo editing like Photoshop and Lightroom. Check out his Instagram page (eugenener) and give him some likes! "I appreciate you" is commonly heard in the US and is not in Taiwan. Eugene misses that and tries to incorporate telling others that into his daily life.
Clara is in her final year of school and will graduate in July in Diplomatic and International Sciences. She would like to do something in the human rights area. Outside of school she hangs out with her friends and plays Ultimate Frisbee which may bring her back to the US to compete in the World Championships in Ohio. Cross your fingers we get a visit from Clara in 2022!
Miki is the "happiest person on the planet right now!" After he got back to Poland and graduated from school, he became a Sauna Master and "it's the best job on the planet." He has a lot of fun throwing towels around and making decent money. "I'm a really happy guy right now." He is also taking a soccer referee course to ref games in the future. Of course he most misses his host family - Dani and Erich.
These three hold special places in our hearts and we are proud of the young adults they are becoming.
If you missed the opportunity to join, you can watch the full meeting recording on our YouTube channel.
On a cold January night, we gathered in the coziness of Christos Taverna and toasted the arrival of 2022 with all the Greek flavors. From "what's your love language?" to "what's your favorite Disney movie?" to scheming up new entrepreneurial ideas as Brandon headed off to his 8:30pm haircut, it was a night full of good times and a lot of laughter.
Many thanks to Greg Saliaras for the round of Ouza and to our Social Committee for planning and hosting the evening. Stay tuned for Mediterranean night 2.0. Opahh!
Rotary After Hours helped prepare and hand out meals for the Northside Community Meal program
Rotary After Hours helped prepare and hand out meals for the Northside Community Meal program at Trinity Lutheran Church on a Monday night in January. The Monday Meals program began in the fall of 2002 when several churches started working together to provide a free hot dinner for the north side community of La Crosse. Trinity always hosts Monday nights so individuals know where to go to receive their meal.
Guests received shredded chicken sandwiches, apples, chips, milk, muffins and cake. Some of the food items are provided by Hunger Task Force but for some of the various side dishes, members showed off their culinary skills by preparing cheesy potatoes, pasta salad, macaroni and cheese, beans and sweet potatoes!
77 meals were given out and an additional 22 meals were delivered to the Econolodge to feed the homeless. Prior to COVID, up to 200 individuals would come and eat in the church basements but currently the meals are picked up and eaten in their homes.
Thank you Pastor Phil for the opportunity to serve our community and provide for others.
When it gets warmer, we snowshoe, eat cookies around the bonfire and celebrate birthdays with a traditional Polish birthday song! Brianna led the RAH crew in an evening of snowshoeing out on the back slews of French Island.
Thanks to Island Outdoors for hosting RAH at our 2nd annual snow shoeing event.
If you are interested in leading a social activity, reach out to Stef Kline and the social committee to get it on the calendar!
With funds from our new member grant received in 2021, new members have decided to sponsor a Family Night meal at the Boys & Girls Club, Erickson Club (near Logan High School).
Some kids rely on the Boys & Girls Club's meal services to eat a warm meal for dinner every night. The La Crosse School District provides a snack and the Hunger Task Force provides the majority of food served at the Club. With our support, the kids will get a special meal (most likely boneless wings, a side and dessert!)
During the Family Night, After Hours members will help serve dinner and host activities in which families can participate. Family Nights at the club are important because they provide a meal and activities for families to participate in together. Most of the families they serve do not have regular meals together around the table. Family Nights are a great way for the local community to come together and interact with one another.
Please come out to help serve and socialize with kids and families. Everyone is invited to volunteer, and with this being a part of the new member grant we strongly encourage new members to help with the meal.
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