| We have grown in membership from 29 to 53 members, an increase of 24 net new members for a 83% Growth which led District 6110 this year. |
We recognized 14 recipients of Sow the Seeds of Love Certificates:- Buddy Stone - Co-Founder of Stand in the Gap
- Rev. Jessica Moffatt - Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Bixby and Past President of Rotary Club of Bixby
- David Rickner - Principal of Bixby High School
- Jerry Kite - President of Bixby Telephone Company and Past President of Rotary Club of Bixby
- Francine Halter - Former member of RC of Bixby and Marketing Mgr. of Bixby Telephone Company
- Tony Young - CEO SouthCrest Hospital
- Homer Paul - CEO Citizens Security Bank
- Sean Kouplen - COO Citizens Security Bank & Pres. Bixby Chamber of Commerce
- Casey Gann - Sacker at Doc's Country Mart
- DeWayne Donaldson - President of Daily Family YMCA
- Beverly Savage - Moyers, Martin et el
- Ervin Wilson - Director of Operations of Daily family YMCA
- Mary Jane Bias - Supt. of Bixby Public Schools.
- Kim Hood - Bixby Telephone Company
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| We have given 54 books to the Bixby Public Schools Library in recognition of each of our Speakers. |
| We started a Cell Phone Collection program to raise money for charities. We collected 40 phones, combined them with collections from Spirit Bank and Citizens Security Bank and sent a total of 102 phones to CellFund. Proceeds went to the Bixby Area United Way drive for 2003. We made around $400 in this collection. |
| In total, we have received over $800 in funds from Cell Phone collections. |
| We started collecting pocket change at the greeting table to help in our effort toward the Rotary International Polio-Plus program. Over $250 has been collected so far. |
| Our club participated in 3 Medical Supply Network workdays. This was approximately 72 hours of work. |
| We sponsored Khaled Habib as a Rotary University Teacher Grant recipient to teach Java computer courses during the summer of 2003 at University of Cairo in Egypt. |
| We participated in the Bixby Family FunFest by selling pop and beer and raised $344 toward the Tulsa Area United Way Drive. |
| We participated in the Rotary Club of Tulsa After Hours Tournament, which was their major fund-raiser. Thanks to Rotarians Martin, Wheeler, Wilhelm, and VerHoef, our team won First Place. |
| We participated in the dedication of the Twin Towers Memorial, with Rev. Jessica Moffatt giving the main address, and several of our members making contributions. |
| We sponsored the Bixby Christmas Parade for the first time. Mayor Joe Williams remarked that it was the largest (over 50 entries) and best parade he could recall. |
| The Bixby Public School Marquee was erected and made functional in December of this year. This sign was made possible with over $29,500 in profit from last year's Bixby BBQ'n Blues Festival. This year's BBQ Festival added another $6,500 to finish paying off the cost of the $36,000 sign. |
| Members of our club rang bells for the Salvation Army and raised $203.09. |
| The Cajun Christmas House, (Bobette Downing's idea) provided publicity for the Rotary Club of Bixby. Donations at the door to view the home raised $350 for Salvation Army. ReMax Realtors donated over 50 toys to Salvation Army during their Christmas party held at the Cajun Christmas House. The toys were in lieu of Christmas gift exchanges with each other. |
| We participated in a Job Shadow Program with the Bixby Public schools. |
| We initiated the Dictionary Project with the Bixby Public Schools and our club members passed out over 300 Dictionaries to all of the 3rd grade students and their teachers. Each had the name of the student in the front of the Book. |
To raise money for the Polio Plus Drive, worldwide, we were able to award 6 new Paul Harris Fellowships this year. They were given to:- Karin Loudermilk
- Dennis Loudermilk
- Monika Smith
- Jerry Look
- Jerry Kite
- Jim Ferris
This represents $3,000 new money to the Rotary Foundation. |
| We partnered with the Chamber of Commerce to help man a booth at the Tulsa Lawn and Garden Show. |
| We also partnered with the Chamber by bringing their Chamber Expo to the Bixby BBQ'n Blues Festival. |
| We sponsored 2 Bixby High School Juniors to attend the RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) camp. |
| Our club was involved in making Camp Enterprise available to more Bixby Students and several other juniors attended that Leadership training camp put on by the Rotary Club of Tulsa. |
| We participated in the Bixby Health Clinic and helped sign in persons needing inoculations. |
| We ended the year with the Second Annual Bixby BBQ'n Blues Festival held in the Washington Irving Memorial Park. Attendance was up and sales were about 20% higher than last year. The number of teams was about the same at 44 competitors. |
| The profit was between $30 to $35,000 this year, and besides finishing the payment on the Bixby school sign, we wee able to bank $20 to $25,000 in a new Rotary Club of Bixby Foundation. That money will be used with the proceeds from the next two years festivals and make payment on our Centennial project, the building of a Rotary Club of Bixby Amphitheater in the Washington Irving Memorial Park. |
| In addition, we decided to take 10% of the Profit of the BBQ Festival (about $3,500) and put it back into the club for next years gifts back to the community, rather than all of our money going towards bricks and mortar building projects. |
| All of the 24 items listed are great examples of Sowing the Seeds of Love. It's been an honor to serve as your President this past year. I am looking forward to working with Tony Young next year as Past President and a member of his Board of Directors. It should be a blast! |
