"Kids Our Kids" Respite program for Special Needs Families Announced

The Melissa Rotary has planned it's yearly service calander for 2011. One of the new programs that will be implemented this year is the Rotary Club's respite program for special needs families to be called "Kids Our Kids".

This program is to be modeled after the Highland Park United Methodist Church Night Owls Program.

http://www.hpumc.org/pages/Night_Owls

The dates for this program are 3/12, 6/11, 9/10, 12/10 from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Bascially this program is an opportunity to give parents with special needs kids a night out. Special needs families can't just call up regular sitters. It takes one-on-one attention. However, the families also bring their typical children to the program as well and they also get one-on-one attention.

Special needs families have divorce rates of between 85-90 percent. Much of this can be attributed to the fact that the parents can not focus any time on each other with a high focus needing to be on one child. The effects even trickle down to siblings who are also pushed aside to deal with the issues of the disabled child.

http://www.disaboom.com/children-with-disabilities/for-better-or-worse-and-kids-with-disabilities

The Melissa Rotary Club is looking for families who will benefit from this type of service. If you know someone that could benefit from this service, please have them call J.J. Chapa at 972-254-2011.

Additionally, the Rotary Club is looking for business partners to help offset any costs through our business partership program. The service projects that the Melissa Rotary will be putting together will have some costs (ie. food expenses for participants) but will be powered by the volunteer efforts of the Melissa Rotary Club. For more information on how to be a Melissa Rotary Business Partner visit www.MelissaRotaryBusiness Partner.INFO.

For more information regarding the Kids our Kids Program visit: www.KidsOurKids.INFO

Rotary District 5810 Governor Visits Melissa Rotary

The Melissa Rotary Chapter hosted the Rotary District 5810 District Governor Linda Elliot, and other Rotary dignataries, at the latest chapter meeting on 10/14/2010.

District Governor Elliot presented a state of the district presenation to the Melissa Rotary and highlighted several service projects that the district as a whole is participating in.

One project in particular is the World Polio Day that is coming up on Sunday October 24, 2010. The Rotary Foundation is looking for contributions during the days of October 18-24th to support World Polio Day and to continue the quest to eradicate polio worldwide. http://www.rotary5810.org/ (for more information on Rotary District 5810)

The Melissa Rotary Chapter is in Rotary District 5810 which runs from the Oklahoma border to Ellis County and the East boundary of Texas to back to the West just outisde of Tarrant and Denton Counties.

Locally, the Melissa Rotary Chapter has only been in existence for less than a year but has made a huge positive impact in several families lives through donations for families that are struggling through fires or military deployments.

The Melissa Rotary has also contributed more than $1600 to the Boy Scouts through their Flag Lease Program which met with tremendous success by running out of flags to sell. Most recently, the Melissa Rotary furninshed an apartment for the Samaritain Inn in McKinney.

Join the Melissa Rotary this next Thursday (details on the right side of this website) To learn more about the great service opportunities that the Melissa Rotary is working on.

The Melissa Rotary is also seeking donations to continue their "Service Above Self" mission in Melissa. See the dontate button on the right side of this website to give a gift of cash that will be passed forward back into our local community.

Photos from First Melissa Flag Lease Program

Rotarians to celebrate with Charter Banquet

Members of Melissa Rotary are invited to attend the Charter Banquet to celebrate our official recogintion of April 22, 2010 as an officially Chartered Rotary Chapter. The banquet will be June 17 at 8 Shadywood Circle, Melissa, Texas 75454.

The Charter Banquet begins at 7 p.m. and will cost $30 per person if paid at the meeting. $32 per person if paid via pay pal (below). To pay by paypal, simply click the donate button below.

Rotary Decorates City for Holiday

The Memorial Day weekend ushered in a new era for Melissa residents anxious to display their patriotism. Over 100 new American flags were placed throughout the Liberty subdivision and other local sites as a show of patriotic unity.

The Melissa Rotary canvassed Melissa and sold the flags to Melissa Residents as part of the 1st Annual Melissa Flag Lease program. For a $30 donation, a resident or business owner leases a flag that will be placed at their home or business on five holidays in 2010.

The Rotarians have partnered with Boy Scout Troop 413 as a fundraiser for both local non-profit agencies. The program is administered and managed by the Melissa Rotary.

“The Flag Lease program is a Rotarian tradition,” said J.J. Chapa, Melissa Rotary Member. “Chapters all over the country implement this unique program as a way to raise funds and display a sense of community and national pride.”

The Melissa Rotary received its charter in April 2010 and is in its infancy as a chapter. To date, the chapter has given out over $1,700 in cash gifts to families and groups that have requested or needed donations. The group plans to do much more and the Flag Lease Fundraiser will serve as the springboard.

“We had discussions early on if this Flag Lease Program was too ambitious for our first major fundraiser,” said Don Nicolini, Melissa Rotary member. “However, our group took the bull by the horns and made it happen.”

The Flag Lease program’s first year was limited to mostly Liberty Subdivision participation. Over the next couple of years, the program will expand to the rest of Melissa.

“We needed to start out with a small first step,” said Don Nicloini, Melissa Rotary Member.

Randy Kaiser, Don Nicolini and J.J. Chapa served as Flag Lease chairs for 2010. Albert Cervantes, Randy Kaiser, Danielle Aldridge and Julie Anderson paved the way for soliciting for the most donations. All Rotarians committed to sell two flags. The Boy Scouts went door to door to round out the sales.

“Our first attempt at sponsorships for our program lead to over 100 flags being installed for Memorial Day Weekend,” Nicolini said. “We actually ran out of flags.”
To find out more information about Melissa’s Flag Lease program, call J.J. Chapa at 972-254-2011 or visit www.MelissaRotary.com.

Melissa Rotary Chapter Officially Chartered

Dear Governor Dave and Rotarian Don,

Greetings from Evanston! I am writing to inform you that your Rotary Club of Melissa, Texas, USA was chartered on 22 April and the certificate and congratulatory letters are in the mail.

If I can further assist you in any way, please do not hesitate to contact me directly by phone or email.

Best wishes to you and your new Rotary club!

All the best,
Jennifer Sewell
Coordinator, Club and District Support
Central Pan America

Melissa Rotary in the news!

Anna Melissa Rotary Press Release