Rotary International President-Elect Mark Maloney has revealed the 2019-2020 theme "Rotary Connects The World". In his address at International Assembly, he explained his vision for building a stronger Rotary, calling on leaders to expand connections to their communities and to embrace innovative membership models. Read the story.

The Marble Falls Rotary Club, along with generous donations from additional rotary clubs, recently awarded $17,427 to the Burnet County Flood Victim Relief Fund to assist with long-term relief efforts created in response to the October 2018 flooding in Burnet and Llano counties. Pictured from left to right are: (back row) Burnet Rotary Club Vice President, Paul Farmer, Marble Falls Rotary Club President, Stan Smith, Marble Falls Daybreak Rotary Club President, Neal Kennedy, and Marble Falls Rotary Club Youth Services Chair, Rev. Ellen Ely.

On Saturday, January 26^th, 30 members and friends of the Rotary Club of Killeen Heights came together to build a wheelchair ramp for a very special little boy, Edward.

Edward lives with cerebral palsy and spinal scoliosis, which results in him spending most of his time in a wheelchair. Edward’s stepfather, Chaz Dumas, has to carry him up and down a set of stairs to get into their house. Chaz heard about the club’s efforts in serving the community, so he approached several members of the about the potential for getting a ramp built. The family had exhausted every traditional resource for getting assistance for a special-needs child; governmental organizations would not help, and the family’s insurance companies denied every request on the grounds that Edward might “get better” one day and walk on his own.

The Rotary Club of Austin celebrated its 37^th Camp Enterprise the last weekend of January.  Sponsoring 87 area high school 11^th grade students, these aspiring business men and women were given an intensive  crash course in becoming an entrepreneur and starting one’s own business.

PDG Gene Neal was a tremendously dedicated Rotarian.  A 50+ year member of the Rotary Club of Fairfield, Gene served as Governor of District 587 in 1975-76 (not a typo – we didn’t have the last digit in 1975).  At Carlos Conseco’s request, Gene agreed to serve as one of the founding members of Rotary’s initiative to end Polio.  He and Past RI Director Jack Forrest, a member of the Rotary Club of Mexia, share the distinction of being the only two Rotarians in the history of our District to have earned both the Service Above Self Award, and the Rotary Foundation Distinguished Service Award.

The Rotary Club of Waco, the YMCA of Central Texas and the Junior League of Waco have started passing out personalized books to all first and second graders in the Waco Independent School District. The My Very Own Adventure Book program promotes reading that provides a personalized book to each student.

Military families have very little time together with all the long deployments and it must be a real struggle handling daily routines when they get home. Families face a big sacrifice. So the Rotary Clubs of Austin and Killeen decided to figure out a way to honor our soldiers and give them quality time together in a fun place like Austin.

Westlake Rotary presents the newly formed St. Stephens Interact Club with their charter. Receiving the charter are President Lillian Sims and Jae Clark (to the right). Westlake Rotarians are David Jessich (presenting) with Lance Hay and Club President, Paul Keith (behind).

The East Austin Rotary Club has a new home! East Austin has seen many changes, including the closing of restaurants that had served as our meeting places for years. In 2019, however, the East Austin Rotary Club found a new home at the perfect location: Huston Tillotson University.

On Janaury 26, the Lakeway/Lake Travis Rotary Club held a food drive at the Lakeway H-E-B to help restock the local food pantry which has been greatly depleted after the holidays. All the donations made will stay in the Lake Travis community.