Representatives from CASA and Birth To Three came to the Aug. 23 meeting. Both agencies are recipients of the Duck Race this year. CASA stands for Court Appointed Special Advocates. CASA volunteers stay with a child/family for several years to provide stability to the child/family and extensive knowledge in court. Birth To Three provides parenting classes for the entire community. The Duck Race funds will go to support classes for teen parents. Birth To Three provides the fragile group of teen parents with additional help and resources that the teens may not receive at home. For more information...

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K0auJsr5rU] Thanks, Leona for sharing info about the Celebration at our Rotary meeting.

Congrats to everyone on the success of the 2007 Scandi Fest beer garden. It looks like, from preliminary numbers, that this year is a record setting year! One of the most exciting statistics from this year’s festival is that 78% of Eugene Airport Rotary Club members participated in the beer garden. Whether you worked a couple of hours or were there rockin’ the kegs into the wee hours, we couldn’t have done it without you! Thanks! For more photos, visit our Flickr page.

Greg Krauska, who writes the Innovate Rotary! blog, poses this question. Without passion, there is no magic. Without passion, what we do in Rotary is an accounting task of dollars raised and donated, rather than how much was added to human and community capacity. Without feeling, what we do is like many corporate press releases announcing new technology. They do a great job of listing the features and specifications. But they lack the emotional impact that happens when we listen to customers in the field who tell their personal stories. Want to get membership efforts in gear? Don’t start...

    Tom Hirtz, executive director of Heavy Athletics, talked about the great work that he and his volunteers are doing at the Serbu Juvenile Justice Center in Eugene, Oregon. A little about his program: Heavy Athletics helps at-risk youth fulfill their potential, both physically and mentally, through the sport of Olympic weightlifting. Heavy Athletics is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Olympic Weightlifting training program at the John Serbu Juvenile Justice Center in Eugene, Oregon. The program was founded in 2001 by two-time National Olympic Weightlifting Champion and American Record Holder,...