Report from Boise Downtown Club
Despite canceled meetings & events, our club may be more connected & active than ever! We resumed weekly meetings on April 2nd via Zoom. We are still a singing club thanks to longtime Rotarian Jerry Schroeder & his wife Connie. Each week Jerry & Connie perform original songs about current events. As they sing, I scroll through the Zoom gallery & see nothing but smiling faces. President-Elect Beth Markley started a call list where members check in with other members, which has connected us to people we hadn’t heard from in some time. Jeff Leedy, our resident humor artist, creates hilarious comics that we share in newsletters & social media. We also enjoy evening social hours via Zoom. Past DG Ken Howell is hosting one on April 14th.
Our club is committed to being of service during the pandemic. We allocated $3,300 to the Idaho Community Foundation’s COVID-19 response fund for southwestern Idaho. Immediate Past President Dirk Manley was overseas & brought back 2,000 masks that we’re distributing to members & medical facilities. We continue to pay our caterers to prepare a lunch buffet for 60-70 people each week, which we deliver to Interfaith Sanctuary for homeless citizens.
As mentioned in a story on our website www.rotaryclubofboise.org, this isn’t our club’s first experience with a pandemic. We were founded just before the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918. In January 1919, the club resolved to pledge its support to help those suffering from influenza and to prevent the spread of disease. Over 100 years later, we're still working to those ends. Of course we’re so glad to have technology to keep us connected until we’re able to meet again in person. Stay well!