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Dallas Cup Soccer and a Paul Harris Award

August 9, 2018

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Today’s club luncheon was full of excitement, energy and wonderful presentations! We presented a Paul Harris Award, welcomed a visiting Rotarian from Japan and heard an interesting program from the Director of the Dallas Cup!

Top photo: Club President Durane Castleberry and Foundation Director Randy Watkins present PE Keith Mankin with his Paul Harris award.

Middle photo: Program Director Vince Lajoie, Director of Dallas Cup Gordon Jago, and President Durane Castleberry

Bottom photo: John Haley and Charles Mohrle greet a Rotarian visitor from Tokyo

Inspiring Humanity

August 2, 2018

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Today, Uptowners’ guest speaker was Nairobi author and musician Kululu Atsiaya. He is a motivational speaker whose message is how we can inspire humanity to reach their best selves. His autobiography, “Finding the Lotus Within: From The Slum To The World Stage,” chronicles his journey. For more information on his book, go here.

Member Millicent Boykin brought Jazzie Bryant and Jorge Servin to our meeting today!

Top Photo: Kululu Atsiaya

Middle Photo: “Finding the Lotus Within: From The Slum To The World Stage” book cover

Bottom Photo: (L to R) Jorge Servin, Jazzie Bryant, Millicent Boykin, Leslie Clay

Challenge Air and Some Very Interesting Guests!

July 19, 2018

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April Culver, Executive Director and CEO of Challenge Air visited Dallas-Uptown with information about this unique organization. Challenge Air was created to change the perception of children with special needs through the gift flight. Since 1993, the organization has been committed to making a difference in the lives of children with special needs through events called Fly Days. By eliminating the belief that they are limited, the children can grow to their full potential. They are given the opportunity to find courage within themselves and build in areas where they lack self-esteem. Challenge Air provides an unforgettable growing experience that opens the door to possibilities while allowing the children to see if they can fly a plane they can do anything. For more information, click here.

Also, we had two Rotarian guests hailing from international clubs. Cliff Ayozie from the Rotary Club of Wuse - Central Abuja, Nigeria, and Stacy Guillen from the Rotary Club of Jakarta Menteng.

Left photo: April Culver, Challenge Air

Top Right Photo: Club President Durane Castleberry and Cliff Ayozie

Bottom Right Photo: Club President Durance Castleberry and Stacey Guillen

July District 5810 Roundtable

July 14, 2018

Our club was well represented at this month’s Round Table! Thanks to Durane Castleberry, Randy Watkins, Dave Helfer, Owen Devlin, Jason Fletcher, and Lori Crider for attending. There is always wonderful information shared and it’s a great networking event. Join us in August! Click HERE for more information.

Welcome to a New Member!

June 28, 2018

Today, Sarah Jackson joined the Dallas-Uptown Rotary Club. Welcome, Sarah! We are so happy that you have joined our Rotary Club!

Photo: President Teresa Kitchens, PP Dave Helfer, new member Sarah Jackson, members Carol Short and John Haley.

Several Batons Passed

June 15, 2018

This evening, the Dallas-Uptown Rotary Club celebrated the our very successful 2017-2018 year under the leadership of President Teresa Kitchens, and the beginning of the 2018-2019 year under the leadership of President-Elect Durane Castleberry. A special thank you to Welltower, Inc. and Christina Cone for providing the venue for our induction party!

This past year, Dallas-Uptown participated in many interesting projects, including the Dictionary Project, RYLA, Interact at Booker T. Washington School, Nicaragua Heart of Service, Trinity of Hope Haitian Meal Project, Polio Plus Bonton Farms, and our adopted Dallas Fire Station #1. Plus, our successful 4th Annual Men Who Cook fundraiser. We look forward to an equally exciting and productive 2018-2019!!!

Also, this evening we awarded our "Rotarian of the Year" award, the RRIMC Pete Snider Membership Award to Vincent Lajoie. Vincent has served with distinction as Dallas-Uptown's Program Director for the past three years. Vincent is always available to help in so many situations, and usually has a resource or solution to assist in almost every project or event for our club. Congratulations, Vincent!!

Top photo: President Teresa Kitchens and President-Elect Durane Castleberry

Lower photo: 2016-2017 Pete Snider Award winner Rebecca Bailey, 2017-2018 Pete Snider Award winner Vincent Lajoie, and PE and 2015-2016 Pete Snider Award winner Durane Castleberry

Happy Birthday and a New Member!

June 7, 2018

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The Rotary Club of Dallas-Uptown celebrated its 9th Birthday today!! The club, established on May 26, 2009, calls itself the Exclusively Inclusive Rotary Club. It is a concept that we take to heart!

Dallas-Uptown's Past Presidents are Tony Gauthier, Leslie Clay, Alicia Slay, Sissy Littlefield, Lori Crider, PDG Sandy Forster, PDG ZZ Kamruddin, Randy Watkins, and David Helfer. Our current President is Teresa Kitchens, and Durane Castleberry will take up the reins for the 2018-2019 year.

As we travel into the end of our first decade, we look forward to more fellowship and more amazing moments as we work to provide positive, lasting change in our Dallas community.

Also, today we welcomed a new member to Dallas-Uptown. HELLO Anna Urban!! Welcome to our club!!

Top photo: President Teresa Kitchens and President-Elect Durane Castleberry

Lower photo: Treasurer Will Carlton, President Teresa Kitchens, new member Anna Urban, member Judy Winkler, PE Durane Castleberry

Birds and Red Noses

May 24, 2018

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Our club supports the Red Nose Day Project to end child proverty! Go here for more information. Thank you Keith Mankin for bringing the red noses!

A Very Rotary Day

May 17, 2018

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At today's meeting, we welcomed a new member and celebrated a Paul Harris Fellow. Clayton Johnson joined Dallas-Uptown Rotary today, and we gav him a hardy welcome! Also, member Owen Devlin received his 2nd Paul Harris pin. Along with those two important events, Uptowners welcomed 5 guests to our meeting. A very happy Rotary day!

Top photo: Club President Teresa Kitchens and new member Clay Johnson

Bottom photo: Vince Lajoie, PP Dave Helfer, new member Clay Johnson, Suzy Collie, PE Durane Castleberry, Club President Teresa Kitchens, and PP Randy Watkins

A Celebration of Commitment

May 10, 2018

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Dallas-Uptown Past President Alicia Slay presents elephants to her fellow past presidents in a tradition adopted from her beloved Texas Aggies. Pictured here are: PE Durane Castleberry, PP Krista Hartman, PP Sissy Littlefield, PP Lori Crider, PP Alicia Slay, PP Randy Watkins, and PP David Helfer. (Not shown: Current Uptown President Teresa Kitchens) Club President is not an easy job. Thank you for all the time and energy you all have put into keeping our club one of the best!

SAVE THE DATE: 5th Annual Men Who Cook

The Rotary Club of Dallas-Uptown Announces the 5th Annual Men Who Cook fundraiser!

November 3, 2018

Delicious and tempting food prepared by our "celebrity chefs," exciting live and silent auctions, wine pull featuring excellent labels and varietals, live music and MORE!

The event will be held at

Honor Courage Commitment
4801 Spring Valley Road, Suite 20,
Farmers Branch, TX 75244

4:00pm to 7:00pm

Multiple levels of sponsorship are available this year.

For more information, click HERE for the event brochure!
Individual tickets are $35 each.

DPD's VISTA Volunteer Program

May 3, 2018

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Sergeant Wanda West, 26 year veteran of the Dallas Police Department, spoke to the Dallas-Uptown Rotary Club today. Along with introducing Uptowners to the DPD VISTA volunteer programs, she also brought 3 of the VISTA program volunteers with her.

DART Paves the Way for Dallas Transportation

April 26, 2018

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Today, Dallas Area Rapid Transit President and Executive Director Gary Thomas gave an excellent overview of our wonderful transit system. DART serves DFW area including Dallas, Collin, Denton, Ellis, Kaufman, Rockwall, and Tarrant (TRE) counties, in a 700 square mile area. Over 65 million systemwide passenger trips were taken in 2017. For more information on the Dallas Area Rapid Transit system, go here.

Photo: Gary Thomas, DART President and Executive Director

Dallas Symphony Orchestra and Its Education Programs

April 5, 2018

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Today’s presentation was made by Jamie Allen, Education Director for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. We are lucky to have the DSO in Dallas and today we are learning about some of the education activities that are taking place in DFW. Along with building community awareness, working in the area schools on initiatives, the DSO promotes music therapy. Did you know that music is the only non-pharmaceutical proven therapy for Alzheimer’s? There is a lot going on at the DSO! Check out dsokids.com to learn more.

Photo: Jamie Allen

What Is Your Purpose? Founder of Stand 4 Sisterhood Asks

March 29, 2018

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Today’s program featured the very enthusiastic and positive Maguritte Johnson, founder of Stand 4 Sisterhood. From the organization’s website: “Stand 4 Sisterhood is a community coalition committed to empower girls and women to collaborate vs compete. Our primary objective is to link sisters globally as a united front and defy the stigma that we cannot co-exist drama free.” For more information about this forward thinking organization, click here.