Letter From Our President

July 4, 2008

Welcome to 2008’s Star Spangled Spectacular presented by the Overland Park Rotary Club in partnership with the City of Overland Park and Corporate Woods. We thank you, for joining us in celebrating the founding of our nation and hope you and your friends and family have a wonderful time.

Rotary International is the largest and oldest service organization in the world. Nearly every one of our 170 members has worked hard to put on this event. We go to this effort so that we can give back to the community that has so richly supported us. It is our major fund raising activity for the year. All proceeds from our corporate and community sponsors and the purchases you make today will benefit the following charities:

• The Community Center of Shawnee offers a hand up to help those in the community who have nowhere else to turn. They provide assistance to over 30,000 individuals and families in Johnson County.

The organization was founded in 1990 as Shawnee Community Services, who is now a thriving thrift store. Proceeds from the store are only part of the financial services they provide to the community.

• Gift of Life Gift of Life supports the 93,000 Americans waiting for life-saving transplants, 5,000 of them in Kansas and Missouri. They offer local education and awareness of the critical need for organ and tissue donations.

Their flagship program, Life Savers, is an educational presentation offered to high school students across the area. The objective is to encourage students, their peers, and especially their family about the concept of donation. 80% of families who decline to donate organs of a loved one make that choice because they did not know their loved one’s wishes. Gift of Life is dedicated to improving this statistic through the youth in Johnson County.

• KVC Behavioral HealthCare Inc. provides healthcare, social services and education to more than 3,000 children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse, neglect or abandonment. They commit to finding families for every child in their care.

KVC also provides emergency shelter, outpatient medical and behavioral care, case management, parent training, and in-home family therapy, among other services. Their mission is to enrich and enhance the lives of both children and families.

• Youth Leadership Institute is a summer program sponsored by the Overland Park Rotary Club. The curriculum promotes leadership skills, civic awareness and exposure to the Rotary values. It is designed for high school students entering their junior and senior years across the Kansas City area. YLI develops “Tomorrow’s Leaders Today” in an innovative, challenging and fun-filled week-long course agenda. Many of our graduates are still in contact with our Rotary club, and some have taken advantage of International Rotary scholarships. Now in its 14th year, YLI boasts over 280 alumni from more than 22 area high schools.

• The Overland Park Rotary Club Foundation Rotarians are dedicated to humanitarian service, high ethical standards in their business and personal life, and the promotion of understanding and harmony in the communities in which they live. The Overland Park Rotary club foundation fosters and supports charitable and educational programs in fulfillment of the purpose of Rotary. The funds are distributed either as specified by a donor, through their grant-making program, or at the discretion of its Board of Trustees. Foundations funds recipients have included Polio Plus, Southeast Asia Tsunami Relief, Greensburg Tornado relief, and The Deanna Rose Farmstead.

Today’s festivities cap off a full year of planning and preparation by a team of Overland Park Rotarians, the City of Overland Park and Corporate Woods. The Steering Committee was led by Rotarian Greg Musil. It’s because of people like Greg and many dedicated Rotarians that this event comes together. We hope that our efforts bring to you and your family an exciting and fun-filled day for the seventeenth year in a row.

As we celebrate Independence Day and our freedom, we would like to thank both our veterans and active members of our armed forces for your commitment to serving our country. You exhibit the same “Service Above Self” that Rotary promotes every day.

Thank you again for being here today and for supporting this event and our charities. We wish for each of you a safe, happy and fun-filled 4th of July.

Jeff Goodman
President, Overland Park Rotary