Recap of last week

Program Recap
Our speaker last week was Wayne Naugle, Founder and Executive Director of Families 4 Families, a faith-based, nonprofit foster care agency with eight offices across the state. Wayne shared about the foster care system in Georgia and the process and challenges that both families and children face, with the unique perspective of having personally served as a foster care turned adoptive parent to two young girls. There are currently over 11,000 children in Georgia’s foster care system. While Families 4 Families, established in 2017, is now the largest not-for-profit foster care agency in Georgia, Wayne and his team had to deny 2,423 kids last year because of a lack of homes. Wayne pointed to several examples of statistics that foster care children are up against in their path to a stable and loving life, including that 70% of the girls in sex trafficking come through foster care, and that five of seven girls who age out of foster care each week at 18 will become pregnant within a year. Additionally, while 8.6 children go missing from DFCS each week in Georgia, Families 4 Families model of placing children with families with whom they are actively engaged with has resulted in no children having gone missing from the 985 children they have place since 2017. We appreciate Wayne sharing such a well-informed, insightful and impassioned glimpse into the challenges of foster care children, families and agencies here in Georgia.




District 6910 District Conference Recap
Fifteen members of our club attended the District 6910 Conference at Lake Lanier Islands last weekend. Key leaders, participation and awards recognition include:

  • Brandy Swanson, District Governor
  • Jennifer Hendrickson and Mark Willis were the conference co-chairs
  • Melanie Conner was the conference chaplain
  • Paige Havens was the service project co-chair, was one of the keynote speakers for the Foundation luncheon, and served as a breakout session facilitator
  • Laura Ballance worked registration
  • Joie Hain was one of the breakout session facilitators
  • Laura Ballance (aka Julie) and Marlon Allen (aka Isaac) were co-emcees for the Saturday night General Session – took us through a journey on The Love boat, with serenades!
  • Joe Godfrey, Brad Beisbier, Jennifer Hibbard, and Wanda Weegar led the hosting of the hospitality suite with Jimmy Buffet Margaritaville theme
  • Jennifer Hibbard helped with our Competitive Edge session with Lapdog
  • Susan Bacon, GRSP Host Family and Bill McCargo GRSP Trustee participated with our student Alice Lofving
  • Jennifer Hendrickson and Jennifer Hibbard serve as Assistant Governors in the District and Joie Hain serves as a District Training co-chair
Individual Recognition
  • Brandy was honored as District Governor and the passing of the pin to next year's District Governor
  • Jennifer Hibbard was awarded the Assistant Governor of the Year
  • Joe Godfrey was awarded the Rich L. Panyik Leadership Award for the X-Large Clubs
  • Jennifer Hendrickson and Mark Willis were given the Adventurer Award
  • Marlon Allen and Joie Hain were given the Creating Hope Award
  • Bruce Carter won the Grand Prize drawing, a week in a cabin in Ellijay
Club Recognition
  • Runner up for the X-Large Club of the Year and Governor Citation Recognition
  • Public Image Platinum Level Club and District Public Image Citation
  • Hospitality Signature Drink "The Brandy" Award

You will not want to miss out on the Conference next year, so mark your calendars now!

Rotary IGNITE Mobile App
During our meeting, members were introduced to an innovative tool that our club will use: the IGNITE Mobile App. The IGNITE Mobile App connects to DACdb and serves as a powerful platform designed to facilitate interaction, collaboration, and impact within our club. Developed with the principles of Rotary's service at its core, IGNITE empowers us to connect with community members, organize events, and mobilize resources more efficiently than ever before. In addition, we are working on setting up the ability to pay club invoices through the app!

As members of the Rotary Club of Gwinnett, you now have access to this app. You are encouraged to download the IGNITE Mobile App and explore its features firsthand. Log-in with your DACdb username and password. Keep in mind, if you have not logged into DACdb within the last 12 months, you will not be able to access IGNITE and will need to get a new password.  

If you have any questions, reach out to Jennifer Hibbard - [email protected]. 



6th Annual Derby Down South - 
While we are still tallying the figures, 133 attendees showed up to support our local charities on Saturday! Thank you to everyone who supported our event - from purchasing a sponsorship or tickets, contributing items for the silent/live auction, bidding in the auctions and more. This was by far an amazing collective effort and would not have been successful without you!!  






Your Rotary "Why"
Be on the lookout for Joe and/or Marlon to contact you about sharing your "Rotary Why" and/or "Why Rotary" story. To learn more, feel free to reach out to either Marlon or Joe.

The Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship
Elliott Brack, in talking with Adele Steele, the widow of our former member Jim Steele, reported that so far people have contributed $15,000 to the Community Foundation of Northeast Georgia to the Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship.  If you have not remembered Jim in this way, consider such a contribution to further such scholarship. The donation link: Jim Steele Environmental Education Scholarship