Eric magazine Fall 2015

Rotaract - Actions - Leadership - Events - Friendship - International - Service - Europe

FRIENDSHIP WAS THE FOUNDATION ROCK ON WHICH ROTARY WAS BUILT AND TOLERANCE IS THE ELEMENT WHICH HOLDS IT TOGETHER — My Road to Rotary

ERIC NEWS

event agenda October 8 12.00 - 23.00 Arrival and check in Novotel Poznan Center pl. Andersa 1 21.00 Welcome Party Browar Pub Słodownia Old Brewery Shopping Mall Półwiejska 42 Dress code: smart casual

October 9 8 -10.30 Breakfast Novotel Poznan Center 10 -12 Activities City tour/Fiats 12 - 14 Activities II city tour / Fiats / workshops/ Brewerish Poznan 14 - 16 Activities III City tour / Fiats / Brewerish Poznan Extra activity - wine & cider tasting 18 - 19 Country Booths Apollo cinema Ratajczaka 18 Street 19 - 21 Opening Ceremony Apollo Cinema Official REM opening and Polish cuisine tasting Bring your flag!

22 Opening Party

October 11 Breakfast Novotel Poznan Center 9:00 Bus departure I (Berlin, Warsaw)

October 10

11:00 Bus departure II (Berlin, Warsaw)

Breakfast Novotel Poznan Center

Check out

9.30 - 15.30 E.R.I.C. Meeting & Workshop Conference room in the hotel 10.00 - 12.00 Activities IV City tour/Fiats/Canoeing 12.00 - 14.00 Activities V City tour/Fiats/Brewerish Poznan/Canoeing 14:00 - 16.00 Activities VI City tour/Fiats/Canoeing 19.00 - 2.00 Poker Gala Dinner Earth Hall Poznan Congress Centre Departure at 7.00 pm Dress code: black tie

HOW TO...

organize a REM in 12 months! (or less) What is REM? The Rotaract Europe Meeting (REM) is a bi-annual conference hosted by a country within the Europe Region. To aid international exchange E.R.I.C. holds 2 weekend meetings, known as REMs, and 1 annual conference, known as EUCO. The meetings and events allow all Rotaractors from all over Europe to come together to exchange ideas and learn about other cultures. Rotaract European Meeting is an opportunity to have a great fun with people from the whole Europe and a chance to make friends from many different countries. The general format of a REM includes E.R.I.C. meeting, sightseeing, workshops, an Opening Ceremony and a great Gala Dinner, this time you will be enjoying it in POZNAN!

It is an occasion to try new things and discover passions, because of the large por tfolio of side events. They can also get a view of other nation culture in a nutshell.

What made you want to organize it in Poznan?

We just took our chance. It was the best moment to apply, as we had more experience than when we did it last time and gained some new members. The energy in our people and their desire to do something bigger than usually was the flywheel for our candidature.

What skills do you develop / can you develop during What problems did you encounter during the organization / REM (in general and you personally) ? during the event ?

REM is an excellent occasion to develop your skills. While working in HOC Team we learned a lot on various aspects of event planning and about us. Time management - how to do all your regular duties, like studies and work and meanwhile attend meetings, research, draft contracts. Event planning - always having a leader, but sharing duties and responsibility, doing as much as you can in advance and being calm when everything seems to go wrong. Marketing rules - the vague balance between keeping everyone informed and overflowing your Facebook profiles and e-mail boxes.

We became more aware of our strengths.

Participants of REM can get a lot of valuable experience during workshops organized by E.R.I.C. and develop their social skills while attending parties, Gala and various activities.

The main problem was the Poznan Ĺ awica Airport closure, announced a few weeks after we won the election. It forced us to think about alternative ways of bringing the participants to Poznan, but we managed it well by hiring a few busses to transport them from Berlin and Warsaw. It was also a big marketing challenge - how not to scare away people by this communication issue. We had also to manage with the doubts - not everyone believed, that a small group of young people is able to host such a big event.

Name a few things that made it worth going through those problems to pull off this event Although organizing REM cost us a lot of time, energy and stress - it was worth all the trouble. We gained a lot of experience, learned much about ourselves, developed skills and discovered new. We met a lot of enthusiastic people, who helped us and these contacts for sure will profit in the future. We proved that it does not matter, how big is your Rotaract Club or how many sponsors you have - if you want to do something and work hard, it will be as perfect as our REM!

What was your favorite moment in the lead up to the event?

Can you describe it and tell us why it was your favorite ?

It is hard to pick the best moment. Was it the minute we got the info about winning the election? The one when after so many months we had everything backed up? Or welcoming first arriving guests? There were a lot of perfect moments in the lead up to the event.

Lucyna Giese & Hanna Przezwicka HOC Team REM Poznan 2015

IN THIS NUMBER..

“BEHIND THE SCENES” In the first number of the magazine for the Rotaract year 2015/16, I want to thank for their help and support, my beloved Tanguy Chassé (Rotary Club Lyon Ampère - d.1710) - day and night at work with me, and my friend Roberta Sericola (Rotaract Club Treviso - d.2060) for sharing with me some of her layouts and ideas!

Also to thank all the writers who shared their Rotaract moments.

Thank you all for making it possible Veronica Bradaschia

Dear friends, after a magic journey that so far lasted two years in “international waters” here I am - they say third’s a charm - serving through my passion and my motivation, european rotaractors as ERIC President.

What I have learned so far is that when it’s about human relationship maths does not work.

That “one on one” when is about people opens to an infinite range of opportunities, and that is enchanting.

Two minds meeting each other can give birth to a storm of brilliant ideas.

And we have the chance to be 20.000 (wonderful) people, working every day with our peaceful goals and ideals; and with our belief - that still today part us from the non (yet) rotaractors - that our efforts can change the world.

As European information centre, we will work all together to deliver and spread any information which can lead to huge brain-storming and ideas sharing, but also to travels, to new frienships, to touch and fall in love with new cultures...

I will be there, every moment of every day to serve you all on every step of your journey, living it through our beloved Rotaract spirit.

I wish you all a new wonderful year, with the aim to be a gift to the world.

Yours in Rotaract, Veronica Bradaschia

“Every one of us has something to give — whoever we are, whatever our place in life. We can give our talent, our knowledge, our abilities, and our effort; we can give our dedication and our devotion.

Through Rotary, we can take these gifts and make a genuine difference in the lives of others and in our world.

Our time is now. It will never come again.

Be a Gift to the World.”

K.R. Ravindran President, 2015-16

5 October 2015

T +1-847-866-3235 F +1-847-866-3390 KR.Ravindran@rotary.org

Dear Rotaractors: It is my pleasure to send greetings to the Rotaractors of the European Rotaract Information Centre (E.R.I.C.) MDIO. Last month, after confirming a full year without a single case of wild poliovirus, Nigeria was removed from the list of the world's polio-endemic countries. And yet, our success is as fragile as it is monumental. We know how quickly our decades of progress could be lost. And this is why the months ahead are so tremendously important. We need your voice – to raise awareness, to raise funds, and to keep the momentum going. We need your strength to help fight this war until we have won.

I joined Rotary for the fellowship. Even now, my best Rotary moments have been spending time with Rotary friends from diverse cultures and different countries, laughing, talking, and enjoying our time together.

However it was Rotary’s ability to leverage my own individual resources together with the talents of others that kept me in Rotary. And it is the power of this organization to allow me, as one person, to make a difference in the lives of thousands, even millions, of others that inspired my lifelong commitment to Rotary.

We each have a choice—to keep our gifts to ourselves, or to use them with kindness and compassion in service to others. I implore you to share your gifts. Use them thoughtfully, use them wisely, and use them generously.

Give your resources, but more importantly, give of yourselves. Because there is such a difference between a handout and an outstretched hand, especially when that hand is warmed by a caring heart.

Through Rotary, we aspire to great deeds. We admire the towering figures of history who gave such great gifts to humanity—Abraham Lincoln, Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Gandhi, among so many others. All of them dedicated their lives to others–and, through living lives of service, they became gifts to our world. And through Rotary each of us can, in our own unique way, Be a Gift to the World.

Sincerely,

K.R. Ravindran President, Rotary International 2015-16

ONE ROTARY CENTER 1560 SHERMAN AVENUE EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 60201 -3698 USA • T +1-847-866-3000 F +1-847-328-8554 • WWW.ROTARY.ORG

R.I. PRESIDENT’S BIO K.R. RAVINDRAN PRESIDENT 2015-16 ROTARY CLUB OF COLOMBO SRI LANKA K.R. Ravindran is CEO and founder of Printcare PLC, a publicly listed printing, packaging, and digital media solutions company. It is arguably the world’s largest supplier of tea bag packaging, catering to nearly every major tea brand, with manufacturing facilities in Sri Lanka and India. Printcare is the winner of national and international awards of excellence. Ravindran has been a featured speaker at several international print and packaging forums.

Ravindran also serves on the board of several other companies in Sri Lanka and India and charitable trusts, including the MJF (Dilmah) Charitable Foundation. He is the founding president of the Rotary-sponsored Sri Lanka Anti Narcotics Association, the largest such agency in Sri Lanka. During the country’s civil war, Ravindran was involved in the business community efforts to find peaceful solutions to the conflict and was a featured speaker at the United Nations-sponsored peace conference in New York for the Sri Lankan diaspora in 2002.

A third generation Rotarian and a member himself since the age of 21, Ravindran has served on the Rotary International Board of Directors and The Rotary Foundation Board of Trustees and as RI treasurer.

As his country’s national PolioPlus chair, Ravindran headed a joint task force of the Sri Lankan government, UNICEF, and Rotary and worked closely with UNICEF to successfully negotiate a ceasefire with the northern militants during National Immuization Days.

Aided by Rotary’s efforts, Sri Lanka reported its last case of polio in 1994.

He also chaired the Schools Reawakening project, in which Rotary District 3220 raised more than $12 million to rebuild over 20 tsunami-devastated schools to benefit 14,000 children. He continues to play a role in his club’s project to build a cancer prevention and early detection center in Sri Lanka. Once completed, it will be the only dedicated national facility to offer comprehensive screening and early detection services.

Ravindran is a recipient of The Rotary Foundation’s Citation for Meritorious Service, Distinguished Service Award, and Service Award for a Polio-Free World.

He and Vanathy have been married since 1975, and they have two children and a recently born grandchild.

BELGIUM Rotaract Launch While only recently introduced in Belgium, the new Rotaract year of District 1620 received its official start by the ‘Rotaract Launch’ on september 26th. This year the topic of ‘prevention’ was used as the ‘Rotarct Launch’ Theme, but will carry on as a constant relevant issue during the entire year.

More than 80 active participants could enjoy an afternoon filled with both active and passive workshops. These tutorials didn’t only inform the public about the purpose, working and future of Rotaract ‘life’, but also focused on the theme of prevention. Workshops like ‘communication’, ‘insurances’, ‘international’, ‘extinguishing fire’, ‘First Aid’ and ‘self-defence’, combined some usefull information to practical tips.

Next to this, all Rotaract Clubs of the District 1620 were asked to design a poster in line with the theme of prevention. The winner would eventually see his design on every party during the year. After a small show, Rotaract Oudenaarde-Ronse Vlaamse Ardennen got to take the award home. Congratulations!

As a final speaker, the District was honored to receive Dave Noiron, a medic, fireman and teacher. With very explicit images and strong language, he informed everybody on the dangers of drinking, texting and reading while driving.

Not to end on a depressing note, all guests could still enjoy french fries and a nice afterparty. As the committee of the District 1620, we can already look back to a memorable edition.

But don’t forget: Drive safely.

District 1620 Eline De Meester Arthur Vanderplaetsen

SOMETHING FROM...

CYPRUS Fellowship weekend – PETS Another successful RY has come to an end. Rotaractors from all over Cyprus met in Paphos during a fellowship weekend in July to celebrate their club’s achievements and welcome the new RY 2015-2016.

The DRR of D2452 Emil Moawad was invited to Cyprus to give the incoming board members the Presidents Elect Training Seminar (PETS).

DRR Emil talked about the District goals and vision and the District theme and scope of work. He also talked about the new Rotaract visual identity, how communication and reporting should be done within Rotaract, and how Rotaractors should “lead by example”. Finally, during an open discussion we talked about past Rotaract experiences, and our duties and responsibilities.

Vice DRR (VDRR) Antigoni Karakoulli talked about her vision and mission for Cyprus, and set the goals for the new RY. The past VDRR Charis Michael had the chance to sum up the past year, thank Rotaractors for contributing to a successful RY and give awards to clubs for outstanding projects and their valuable contribution to the society.

The weekend also included ice-breaking and team building activities. It was a great opportunity for the Rotaractors to exchange ideas about projects, while having fun and relaxing by the pool.

Charter Celebration Rotaract Club Zagreb

CROATIA

Dear friends, at the very beginning there are some wonderful news to be said. The kind of news that we only get a chance to treat you with now, only after 20 years of joyous work, on the day our Rotaract Club, which is the oldest one in Croatia, celebrates 20 years of its existence. We have done our best to make you all proud and in this tone, we are beyond excited to invite you all to our 20th charter celebration. It will without a doubt be a glorious occasion for us all to enjoy, so save the date, December the 12th.

Let us show you a great time, be sure to come, plenty of surprises await!

we had fun every step of the way, with great results in the end when we helped a lot of families in need in the area of Zagreb.

REM Istanbul was our next destination, a trip that we all enjoyed. A new project this year was also helping an elderly home in Trešnjevka by bringing them clothes and TV sets. Also, we didn’t forget about our furry friends, so we organised a “Give me a Paw” project and collected a lot of food and supplies for local kennels. Next was the District Conference in Varaždin, a city full of historical legacy. The most recent projecst were Twinning with RAC Torino Nord Looking back to our previous Rotaract year from to- Ovest regarding the International Rotaract Week and the day’s perspective, we can say that it was a turbulent one Lošinj Rotary Conference. and we have a lot to be proud of.

The season started with the REM Bremen in SeptemWe are looking forward to a new Rotaract year togethber of 2014. After that, we participated in the District Con- er, overcoming new obstacles as a team, meeting up and ference in the beautiful city of Dubrovnik. Later on came the taking steps towards our goals, which are always plentiful.

International breakfast project with Rotaract Club Niš. Also, our fellow club - Rotaract Club Zagreb Centar celebrated their fifth anniversary and we were very glad to attend.

“Honey Party” was a project for our little ones in need and it was even more successful than we expected.

In the spirit of humanitarian parties came the big “Christmas party” where we collected toys, board games and such for our joint project with RAC Rijeka - “Helping our youngest”, meant to help a children’s home in Sisak.

Our most recognisable project - “Christmas basket” took place in the weeks to come. It was a lot of work but

AUSTRIA

Rotaract Club Salzkammergut is back The Rotaract Club Salzkammergut is pleased to announce that our Club is fully active again.

Since our new president Simon Schrüfer took office, we have already accepted 5 new members and are now 10 ambitious young men and women. We are even looking forward to welcoming many more motivated people in the months to come.

Even though the club has only been active again for a short while now, we are already working on new projects. For example, we will set up a punch stall at the Christmas market in Gmunden, Upper Austria, in December. The profits from this initiative will be donated to “MINI12” – a charity that organizes sailing trips for disabled people on the lake Traunsee.

Further, in the course of the Rotarian year we will develop a new homepage as well as a new logo.

Our members are rooted in the Salzkammergut, Upper Austria, but live and study all across the country. This is why we are very keen on connecting with other Rotaract Clubs in Austria and Europe.

You are welcome to check our Facebook page for further details: facebook.com/RotaractSalzkammergut

DENMARK Dear friends, dear Rotaractors, I have the great pleasure and honour to tell you briefly about my experience of the first International Ø/Ö Rotaract Weekend in Copenhagen and Malmö.

It was not my first time in Denmark nor in Sweden and that is one of the reasons I definitely wanted to participate in this weekend. The weekend was sunny and fresh and I was in lovely Scandinavia. What can I say about this wonderful weekend? The welcome I got was so warm and reassuring that it makes you feel home within 5 minutes. I was a very lucky man as I could stay with 2 great friends during the weekend.

Friday started great with a traditional dinner in a local Danish tavern where we ate some of the most exquisit dishes this lovely country has to offer; salmon, sour-sweet herring, lovely liver paste, sour cream, ryebread sandwishes...yummie! Afterwards we went to the ZEN club where the organization managed to get us an open bar for over 2 hours. Once again congratulations to the Danes for their part of the weekend. Next morning there was a lovely boat trip in Copenhagen...so they told me :-) I unfortunately missed it as I didn’t come home until around 5 AM. What a great first day!

Crayfish – lots of crayfish

Ø/Ö International Weekend in Copenhagen and Malmö Crayfish – lots of crayfish Saturday I was going to my second famous “Cray Fish Party” in only a couple of weeks. The Malmö team chartered a vintage boat in the docks which was beautifully decorated. A Cray Fish Party is a lot of work, but also a lot of fun! The lobsters take some time to prepare, to cook, to crack them open and to eat it but at the same time you sing some funny Swedish songs and you poor everything down with a genuine Aquavit. A very strong liquor which you feel flowing from your pinky to your little toe.

And let’s not forget the dress code! A funny little birthday hat and a bib.

After dinner we had a quiz evening where we learned that we were no less than 14 different nationalities present at the weekend, and that the highest building in whole Scandinavia is located in Malmö. My team, the “Dancing Queens” came in 2nd after a fierce contest.

The evening ended in the hull of the ship where we danced all night long on the sounds of ABBA, Mumford and Sons, Juan Luis Guerra and many others.

I discovered this song during the weekend and it will give you the feeling of the weekend; Happiness :-) => https://www.youtube.com/

So what should you do next year? Come over and join me of course for the next edition of this great gathering organized by some of the nicest and most talented rotaractors in Scandinavia. Plunge into this great culture and come and meet and greet people from all over Europe.

Positive vandalism? That’s right!

You take a group of dedicated rotaractors, put them in a school or a kindergarten for the day and supply them with paint, brushes, a broom and maybe a hammer and some nails.

What do you get? Rotaract’s own charity version of Home Improvement. That is the basic idea behind the project ‘Positive Vandalism’, a humanitarian project started by the Danish club of Kronjylland Rotaract.

The aim of the project is to help public institutions like schools or kindergartens – which are often low on resources – with getting simple, but time-consuming tasks done. For instance cleaning, painting or renovating.

The participating rotaractors simply spend half a day or a day at the institution after hours and get the work done. At one particular institution, 8 members from Kronjylland Rotaract spent 5,5 hours painting, changing light bulbs and cleaning the playground for tree stumps. In total it amounted to 44 man hours – hours that the institution who have had a tough time finding the time – and the money – for in a tight budget.

‘Positive Vandalism’ has since spread to other clubs as well, even making it as far as to Copenhagen in the other end of the country.

“ONE

OF ROTARACT DENMARK’S

MOST SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

IN 2015 HAS BEEN A PROJECT

CALLED ‘POSITIVE VANDALISM’,

WHERE A GROUP OF ROTARACTS

JOIN FORCES TO OFFER CLEANING AND RENOVATION SERVICES TO LOCAL, PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.”

ROTARACT UNITED FOR NEPAL

I

t all starts with a small idea… an idea that reaches hundreds and makes a difference in thousands peoples lives.

After the April earthquake in Nepal Rotaract’s and Rotary’s response was incredible with immediately helping the children of Nepal. Although immediate help of food, clothes and water was necessary, many houses and schools have been destroyed leaving many families out on the street and children not being able to go back to school. This situation is putting the children in danger of child trafficking. Many NGOs are working on helping rebuilding local communities and one of the urgent needs is rebuilding the schools. All children should have access to food, water, house and education.

Rotary and Rotaract in Nepal set up fundraisers to rebuild their local schools, giving the children the chance to go back to their studies.

Having met a local Nepalese Rotaractor in May in London, the Rotaract Club Westminster decided to host a little fundraiser to help this great project.

The news about the fundraiser spread quickly and there were a few more clubs in Europe fundraising for Nepal, so we have decided to join forces. This is when this project took a whole new shape:

Being members from three different clubs in three different countries, we set up the “Rotaractors Unite for Nepal” Call to Action urging clubs to get involved with any amount. Our aim was for all clubs to join forces and show support to the people in Nepal.

Yours in Rotaract, Zsofi Kulcsar ( RAC Westminster); Bernhard Pribyl ( RAC Gratz); Kristin Gaydarov (RAC Sofia-Serdika);

We didn’t think, not even for a second, that this small idea will reach thousands of Rotaractors around the world and mobilize them into acting quickly with a wide range of fundraising activities. We were amazed by the creativity of the clubs getting involved in this project: from oil tasting, yoga classes to cycling 100 kilometers, fundraising at RYLA. Two of the biggest MDIOS ERIC and MED have endorsed the efforts alongside European Rotary clubs and 4 business partners.

Currently we have over 60 clubs involved from roughly 30 countries, which is absolutely amazing. This is what Rotaract is really about Service above Self and working together to help communities without borders. In 2 month we now fundraised EUR 20.000.

So what’s next?

We are working with the Rotaract Club in Nepal, who are hands on rebuilding schools in their local communities.

The funds raised can help rebuild 5 semi-permanent schools, giving the opportunity to hundreds of children to go back to school.

The first 2 schools will be started in the next few weeks, so stay tuned for the updates. As so much work and enthusiasm has been put into this project by 1000s of Rotaractors around the world, we have decided to organize a 2 weeks working camp early next year, where we can go and hands on help build the schools, and connect with the children.

We would like to thank you once again for your tireless work and efforts. We are truly amazed by the power of Rotaract and this is what it really means to me being part of this organization: #serviceAboveSelf #ServiceAboveSleep #TogetherWeAreStronger #RotaLove

We didn’t think, not even for a second, that this small idea will reach thousands of Rotaractors around the world and mobilize them into acting quickly with a wide range of fundraising activities. We were amazed by the creativity of the clubs getting involved in this project...

Rotaract Deuchland Kommitee The MDIO of Rotaract Germany is called Rotaract Deutschland Komitee (RDK) and serves about 3.500 Rotaractors in 185 Clubs with 15 districts with information, infrastructure for IT, national service projects, a national conference and much more. The RDK consist of : - 15 District Rotaract Representatives and their boards, - Staff units for service projects, international, internal communication, IT infrastructure, public relations, editorial office and finance, - Delegates for Interact, organizational development, data protection and a secretary, - The Rotarian delegate for Rotaract and Interact of the German Governor Board, - The chairperson There are 5 meetings every year. The training seminar in May prepares the new officers for their tasks and ensures that the experiences from predecessors are handed over. The 3 RDK meetings through the year are used to share the progresses made, find solutions to difficulties and exchange and implement new ideas. The year concludes with the national conference called DeuKo. At the DeuKo about 800-1.000 Rotaractors and members of the Family of Rotary come together to exchange ideas, share experiences, meet friends, and to celebrate.

This year the work of RDK focuses on its internal structures, for

GERM

example the intranet and the bi-monthly magazine. Sharing information in our intranet has been based on a wiki-page created and maintained by RDK. But this is not state of the art – it could be so much more. With a cloud-based solution, for example, the teamwork of the mainly virtual teams could be supported and enhanced much better.

The German national service project organized by the RDK this year is to pack schoolbags for kids in Malawi. These bags contain everything a student needs to make a good use of school education. In addition to that Rotaractors in Germany are aware of the many refugees seeking shelter and help in Germany. Many clubs have already organized local projects to help where they are needed – and many more projects will follow.

MANY

. d e

n

e

Expedition Germany

Three years ago, a few motivated Rotaractors had the vision of creating a round trip through Germany for Rotaracters from all over the world, known today as “Rotaract GermanTrip”, in order to teach them about Germany and its culture to increase intercultural understanding and promote world peace.

In 2015, the initiative celebrated its third birthday. The organization team consisted of five members of the Rotaract Club Frankfurt/Main-International and Weimar. From drafting the first ideas in September 2014 to packing the two cars in the beginning of May 2015 eight months of thorough planning and countless hours of hard work passed by in a second. The trip concept was based on three storylines and aimed on creating a visual experience for the participants. In the end, ten participants were chosen out of 53 applications submitted, covering all continents and all major cultures.

Taking the word “expedition” literally, the participants were left unclear about the route and learned about the program of the next day only the evening in advance. Starting point of the trip was Frankfurt am Main in the centre of Germany. The highlights included visits of production facilities of Siemens, Mercedes Benz and Walter Knoll, very exclusive tours through the newly build European Central Bank in Frankfurt (ECB) and the Federal Chancellery in Berlin as well as an invitation to the official election party of the federal state Bremen. Probably the most remarkable stop was the visit of the memorial site of the concentration camp in Dachau.

Although being a tough experience for everybody, learning about the crimes of World War II created something powerful: the collective

agreement to never let something like this happen again!

In a nutshell, this highlights the importance and the goal of the GermanTrip: providing a setting in which the participants can learn about the cultural differences and create worldwide friendship based on mutual understanding and respect.

If you would love to participate in this great event, make sure to like our Facebook page and always get the latest news about the upcoming trip in 2016.

Christopher Scherer, head of organization, Expedition Germany 2015

ROTARACT IN EVANSTON: The Rotaract and Interact Committee

In the world of Rotaract and Rotary, every club is autonomous and can – as long as it’s in line with the motto “Service above Self” – do whatever the members feel right.

Other than the club life, there are some responsibilities at th e district level, which ensure that there is some exchange between clubs and that successful practices are being shared.

In the world of Rotaract, we also have Multi-District-Information-Organizations (MDIOs), such as ERIC in Europe, which serve this purpose on a multi-national level.

In order to bring all those different ways of living Rotaract (and Rotary and Interact) together and to see if the general policy is still serving its members, there are some worldwide committees. One of them is the Rotaract and Interact Committee, which I’m excited to be chairing this year together with Yen-Shen Hsieh, a Rotarian from Taiwan. This Committee is made up of six Rotarians and at least three Rotaractors.

This year we’re four of us from Ethiopia, India, the US and Germany.

The committee has two main duties: (1) Preparing and leading (together with RI staff members) the program part of the Rotaract Pre-Convention which is held every year on the two days prior to the Rotary International Convention. The next one will be on May 28th-29th in Seoul.

(2) Preparing recommendations for the Board of Directors and the President of Rotary International. Within the committee, we discuss all kinds of possible changes to the code of policies or the Rotary bylaws concerning Rotaract and Interact. We can include ideas, critique or propositions from our regions and prepare them with our viewpoints for the directors. The final decision is taken either by the Board of Directors in one of the four meetings per year or by the Council on Legislation (“CoL”) which is held every three years.

Rotaract is based on participation.

If you have comments, idea or critique, please share it with me and I’m happy to take those into the committee. You can reach me at florian.wackermann@rotaract.de

S.I.R.D.E. (Seminary for Instruction of Elected RRD) District 2050 is glad to invite you to S.I.R.D.E. 2015 : the annual national meeting/event for the training of our RRD and IRRD. This year it will take place from 23rd to 25th October in Franciacorta: a section of Lombardy, that extends from Brescia to the shores of Lake Iseo.

During these days they’ll take part in some leadership development workshops, that will give them the essential knowledge to lead and represent our districts in the best way possible.

All Rotaractors from all over Italy have not only the opportunity to take part in some formative workshops and to the second district meeting, but also S.I.R.D.E. includes some sightseeings around the landscape of Lake Iseo- the fourth largest lake in Lombardy- and the wine cellars of Franciacorta, an Opening Dinner in the one of most important cellar in Italy, the Berlucchi one, and a great Gala Dinner in a polish Renaissance Villa.

It will a good chance to meet old and new friends sharing the most essential rotarian values as Fellowship, Partnership, Leadership and Service in a formative but also playful atmosphere.

For more infos and booking: http://www.sirde2050.it/ The event’s video: https://youtu.be/2MqgM_jNOyU

IL LIBRO PARLATO Italian Rotaractors, in collaboration with Centro Internazionale del Libro Parlato ONLUS, will cooperate to produce audio-books that will be distributed to blind and visually impaired free.

Rotaractors will become “voice donors” for the realization of audio-books.The Service wants to help anyone suffering from reading difficulties.We just have to record huors voice.

Testimonial of the Service is the italian singer and paralympic athlete Annalisa Minetti.Annalisa Minetti won the Festival di San Remo 1998 with the song “Senza te o con te”. In 2012 Annalisa won the bronze medal in the 1500 meters at London paralympics.

“In Piccoli Tocchi” is a song of the young artist Gabriele Sansone, aka Enhos. In Piccoli Tocchi lyrics describes how a blind person becomes aware of the world around himself without the gift of sight.The song has been published on the major digital stores (iTunes, Google Play Music and Amazon) and on some streaming services (Spotify).

Any commercial gain, resulting from the sale of the song, will be direceted to the Service.

In Piccoli Tocchi videoclip will be uploaded to YouTube and social networks to promote the Service.

Neuromed Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo (INM) Neuromed is a Scientific Institute for Hospitalization, Treatment and Research (IRCCS), a Center for Neuroscience with high specialization in Neurology, Neurovascular Diseases, Neurosurgery, Neuro-rehabilitation and Neuroradiology. It is an excellence center for Neurological Diseases on degenerative, vascular and oncologic basis. It is part of the Regional and National Health System; it is equated to public structures to ensure the essential Levels of assistance (LEA), as recognized by the Italian Ministry of Health.

About NEUROMED FOUNDATION - Mission and Activities • Promote initiatives to encourage the research development • Support health care activities in neurosciences • Encourage the development of biomedical research and health care implementing training programs It carries out an intensive research work at the Technology Center.

The translational approach allows continuous information exchange between research and clinical activities, enabling progress in patient care.

LITHUANIA SOAP BUBBLES OF HAPPINESS Soap bubbles – colorful, playful and never alike. So many people around the world enjoy seeing

atmosphere around us immediately was filled with excitement and happy gasps. Soon the whole

them or even make them by themselves. It seems such a simple and beautiful thing, but for whom

field was filled with soap bubbles and children, happily running after them, wanting to catch at least

does it bring the most happiness? Of course – the little ones. Because of this reason we, members of

one. Big smiles on their faces and curiosity in their eyes made us sure that this event was more than

Kaunas Rotaract club, decided to bring this little miracle to Kaunas babies home “Lopšelis“.

successful: we all had a wonderful time together, as always, we learned something new from each

We have been friends with “Lopšelis“children for a few years now. We have done a lot of fun

other, but must importantly, the air was filled with true happiness. There is a saying “you will never

activities together as well as visited new and beautiful places. All children there are very young,

regret time blowing bubbles”. Now we all know that it is one hundred per cent true.

almost everything they see is new and exciting. So this time we decided to make the first week of autumn more colorful and happy for them. After we let the first few bubbles flow in the air the

ROTARIANS WILL SHARE THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH STUDENTS 8th year in a row running mentoring project, which is dedicated to high school students this year will be held in five biggest cities of Lithuania. The main goal of “Rotary Academy” is to facilitate the transfer of professional knowledge and experience from established professionals to ambitious students.

“This is an annual mentorship program with the goal to grow young leaders by giving the chance to learn from the professionals. Here you can hear real success stories that you will not be able to read in any textbook.”, - says “Rotary Academy” organizers.

The “Rotary Academy” is a very popular project, annually receiving approximately 1,000 applications from students from all over Lithuania. Nevertheless, usually only 60 students are chosen.

“We can see the trend that young people are looking for opportunities to grow professionally and also as a personalities. Also we see the trend that younger students are also starting to think about their future and looking for possibilities”, - says project organizers.

The “Rotary Academy” is being run in Lithuania’s 5 biggest cities, attracting the most active and dedicated students seeking to gain knowledge and experience from beyond the University campus.

During the project, selected students participate in a range of events and attend lectures on creativity, entrepreneurship. Furthermore, assigned “Rotary Academy” mentors work individually with participants to help them achieve their targeted goals.

Dear Friends in Rotaract, I would like to ask you to inform all your clubs and District governors for an event which will be held in Skopje Macedonia Rotaract club of Skopje is organizing RYLA between November 26-29, 2015.

For all the details about this event please visit our website www.ryla2015skopje.com You are more than welcome to come and visit our beautiful country, meet amazing new friends, learn more about leadership and ethics... and see one of the most beautiful country on the Balkans waiting for you!

Regards Nikola Marinovski

MACEDONIA

POLAND

Holidays for kids On 10th of July ten children from the village of Buk and the surrounding area went on the long-awaited summer holidays to Wisełka - by the coast of the Baltic Sea. We worked hard all year to help realise the biggest dreams of the children from the poorest parts of our region. We managed to gather the necessary funds by virtue of: the Carnival Ball (organised by RC Szczecin) and Easter Bazaar (organised by RC Szczecin International), for which we had prepared lottery prizes, and thanks to support from sponsors who helped us reach the goal. We are proud to announce that the kids (with smiling faces and wanting for an adventure, went camping by the sea. Having all that in mind, we would especially like to thank the following entities for supporting our campaign: 1. Travel Office TRAPER. 2.

Father Grzegorz Gierek. 3. RC Szczecin Center. 4. RC Szczecin International. 5. RC Szczecin, who gave us full support from beginning to the end. We would not have completed our goal without the much-needed financial and organisational support from the Rotarians! autor: Piotr Wisniewski, Rotaract Club Szczecin. POLAND

On day 21 October 2015, Rotaract Club Madrid Joven carried out a global project for World Day of Peace.

We wanted to do something special and spread love trough giving people hugs. Something as simple and cheap as that.

It was a great experience, it is amazing to give love and get love back!

We would recommended to everybody to try this, we felt so happy, released and proud of ourselves.

To share this, pictures of members of other clubs giving hugs to people at the street were collected.

Once we had all the pictures, we made a video with all of them You can find the video on youtube writing world peace day rotaract https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysyM48I25hY

NEWS FROM

SPAIN Roraract Gaudi Handover Last July, meant a fresh beginning for our Rotaract Club, with the President’s Change Over, Marc Medina passed over his leadership to Marina Filella. Instead of doing a strict ceremonial dinner, we decided to have an evening with a relaxed and warm environment, in an intimate restaurant with selected Catalan meals, Rotary members, family and friends. It was also a solidary dinner since every attendant donated all kinds of foods such as milk, rice, pasta.. for those in need.

The night concluded with the inauguration of a new phase for our Club full of innovational ideas and great motivation.

Back to School’s Rotaract Proyect We’d invest so much time in this new proyect, creating homemade collecting points with paperboard boxes and sticking our logo on them, in the most important Murcia’s schools and other type of places like stationeries and tobacco shops.

We’ve been spread around attending the people who were interested in the proyect, and also who wanted to help and support the cause by giving us all type of school supplies.

At the end, we raised more materials tan what we expected so now we feel very proud of our hard work and grateful with everybody who contributed with this Project.

Rotaract Club Barcelona

members from Boston, Kaitlyn Winegardner, visited in August. We have invited them to come to Barcelona

Our club has had a wonderful kick-off this year!

We have had two very productive meetings during which were able to know more about each other’s backgrounds and to start putting our minds together thinking about this year’s projects. We participated in various activities organized by other clubs in and near the city of Barcelona, and we visited Cottolengo, an institution for disable children, women and men, to which we donated more materials.

and we hope to see them soon.

As for the activities, we took part in the beach volleyball tournament organized by Rotary Club Millenium and the Food&Gol football and paddle tournament run by Rotaract Club Vallés. We plan on doing a Walk for Solidarity November 7th, so stay tuned!

Since we wish for our members to feel comfortable working together, we went to watch the horse jumping tourIn our meetings we had the pleasure of learning about nament in the Real Polo Club in Barcelona. We had an the Rotaract club Karsiyaka in Turkey because one of our amazing time!

“HIKING IN THE MOUNTAINS, JUMPING INTO LAKES AND RIVERS, SLEEPING IN HAY, VISITING BEAUTIFUL CITIES AND CASTLES, MAKING AMAZING FRIENDS, ALL THESE THINGS WERE EXPERIENCED BY THE PARTICIPANTS OF THE SWISS ROUNDTRIP 2015. ”

SWITZERLAND Swiss Roundtrip After the great success of the first Swiss Roundtrip two years ago, a new organisation team was formed that planned another Swiss Roundtrip from the 18th to the 26th July 2015. Five Rotaractors from all over the world (Australia, Kosovo, Cyprus, Canada and Turkey) have found their way to Switzerland and were warmly welcomed by local Rotaractors. The trip started in Zurich where we had a BBQ on the house mountain Uetliberg and then cooled down in the river Limmat. In Lucerne we were lucky enough to visit the Blue Balls Festival before a special traditional night in a Swiss farm where we slept in hay. The next day, we took a scenic train ride to Zermatt, where we could gaze at the Matterhorn aka Toblerone Mountain, after an exhausting hike up to the Fluealp. We explored Chateau Chillon and

went salsa dancing with the Rotaract Club Lausanne and enjoyed a pedalo ride on the lake in Neuchâtel. After a jump into the Aare in Berne, the capital of Switzerland, the roundtrippers experienced a highlight of the trip in Solothurn, a sightseeing flight with Rotarian Rolf Stuber from the Rotary Club Grenchen. The trip ended in Basel after a visit to the Zoo and a nice BBQ with guitar playing and singing at the Rhine. The roundtrippers were thrilled by Switzerland and thankful for an amazing time with a lot of new formed international friendships.

Further information of the Swiss Roundtrip 2015 and exciting blogposts can be found here: http://roundtrip.rotaract.ch/

Rotaract Club Limmattal 5-year charter-weekend

We would like to thank our three sponsoring Rotary Clubs Zürich-Limmattal, Zürich-Dietikon and Üetliberg for their continuous support. To show our gratitude we invited them for a brunch on Sunday morning. It was a pleasure to be able to be the hosts for once and welcome them in our little boy-scout hut.

We, the members of the Rotaract Club Limmattal, 3 Rotaractors from Lau- All in all it was a fantastic weekend of fun activities and great conversations. sanne, 1 Rotaractor from Basel and even one Rotaractor from the Nether- Thanks to everyone who joined and to the next 5 years! lands met on top of Uetliberg (house mountain of Zurich) in a somewhat of innovational ideas and great motivation. rustic boy-scout hut on Friday 19th of June. Packed with food, drinks and other essential items like loudspeakers, board games and more we were ready for a weekend away from the busy city of Zurich. Cars were forbidden up there and it was approximately a 20 minute walk to the next public transport station.

We cooked together and enjoyed each other’s company on a lazy Friday night. 9 AM on Saturday morning we were up and ready to start the social part of the weekend. Together with a few employees from the community of Stallikon we went to pick up a whole lot of already cut grass so that it could be collected and processed to bio-gas afterwards. Sounds pretty easy but due to the fact that the meadow was super steep, it was actually quite exhausting.

With blisters on our hands, aching backs and sore muscles we made our way back up to our boy-scout hut where we enjoyed the afternoon at the campfire barbequing some sausages and lots of vegetables as well as having a delicious salad buffet. It continued with a fun evening of board games.

We would like to thank our three sponsoring Rotary Clubs Zürich-Limmattal, Zürich-Dietikon and Üetliberg for their continuous support. To show

Ski week in March 2016 After being a shorter, fairly local event for several years, this unique skiing event was organized in 2015 for the first time jointly with the Rotarian Ski Week in SaasFee (Switzerland) taking the opportunity to offer special discounts on lift tickets or accommodation. Rotaractors from all over Europe met in the Swiss Alps to hit the slopes and enjoy probably the sunniest week of the European Winter 2015, basically combining the chances of skiing and partying among friends with some semi-formal networking parts with the Rotarians. Whereas the older Rotarians were interested to get in touch with students and young-professional representing the (by Rotary) so-called “new generation”, Rotaractors appreciated the contacts to experienced business-people from different continents around the globe.

New edition, new place, same country As with St. Moritz another great place in the Swiss Alps was elected to be host of the Rotarian Ski Week 2016, the Organizing Committee of the Rotaract International Ski Week seeked to be part of the event again. Together with the local Rotary Club, a partnership was agreed and the Swiss Rotaractors are happy to announce the Rotaract International Ski Week 2016 from March 5th to March 12th 2016. As in the 2015 edition, special basic accommodations will be offered for a reasonable price for the Rotaract participants. Other interesting discounts and Rotaract-Rotarian events are planned as well. Thus, the only thing you need to do is saving the date and join the community on www.facebook.com/rotaractski.

Registration opens mid-December with different packages and the exact time is announced on Facebook early!

“POWDER,

APRÈS-SKI AND GREAT

NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES, ALL

THESE ATTRIBUTES PARAPHRASE THE ROTARACT INTERNATIONAL SKI WEEK.

IN 2016, FROM MARCH 5TH TO MARCH 12TH, SKI-OBSESSED ROTARACTORS

WILL GATHER IN CLASSY ST. MORITZ (SWITZERLAND). BE PART OF IT AS WELL!”

UKRAINE

Talented children is our future In summer, from 3rd to 11th of August the project for children with creative abilities „Art Camp“ took place in a beautiful town Esslingen, Germany. The team of the Rotaract club Kyiv-City worked hard to carry out the contest among talented children and choose exactly those who went to the summer art camp. In March, the 28th 2015 in theater „Splash“, Kyiv, Ukraine, we found four lucky children. With one member of our club they visited a beautiful country, got only unforgettable experience, found new friends and tried all the art workshops in childrens’ center „Agapedia„.

The „Art Camp” was created by Jürgen Klinsmann-Stiftung Agapedia - Kinderhaus Agapedia and supported by Stiftung Kinderland Baden-Württemberg. The Rotaract club Kyiv-City took all the effort to give young talents an opportunity to enjoy all the activities such as drawing, dancing and almost all types of the arts. Every day in Art camp children visited workshops in singing, dancing, modern drawing. They also liked music, theater and circus workshops, sport games and excursions. It was really nice to see how they smiled, laughed and played there.

We would like to thank Jürgen Klinsmann-Stiftung Agape-

dia - Kinderhaus Agapedia for this idea and his enthusiasm. You let us be involved into such a creativity. We are also thankful to all workmates and volunteers in Agapedia for a great job and good team work. The Rotaract club Kyiv-City is grateful to Rotary club Kyiv-City for its support and help with lots of advice.

For more information about projects and organizations visit the following links: https://www.facebook.com/agapedia https://walls.io/connectinghearts http://www.connectinghearts.de/

SAN MARINO http://www.rotaractsanmarino.org/

Our Pins In the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of the club we decided to create our own commemorative pin with the Reverse Rotaract logo and the emblem of our Republic.

Anyone interested in buying the pin can contact the club Dinner (info@rotaractsanmarino.org)and make arrangements for shipping or to receive it directly to the upcoming interna- We had to use all our imaginations to organize a dinner tional events. that could be anything but boring and we decided to have a dinner on the contrary , starting from the desserts and ending with the appetizers . the fundraising will be donated Rotaract Quiz to the service Rotaractors United for Nepal Rotaract Club San Marino is organizing a game, in teams of 4 people, similar to a television quiz designed to test the Halloween Murder Night knowledge of rotaractors and friends on general knowledge questions and of course Rotary an Rotaract topics.

On October 31st a night dedicated to horror game : a story Winners will win a trip for 7 days in some of the most be- , 50 characters , a crime to be solved , a murderer to unautiful places in Italy. Runners-up will gain a series of local mask . Guests of the evening will be involved in the search products of San Marino. for many clues that will lead to the killer... And someone who was expecting a quiet evening will be involved in a murder . The income will go to charity.

Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/www. rotaractsanmarino.org

RUSSIA

Krasnoyarsk smiles to the Universiade by letters

Rotaract Club “Krasnoyarsk-Yenisei” realized an art festival “Krasnoyarsk smiles to the Universiade by letters”, dedicated to the Day of the City celebrations under the project “Smiling city” on June, 12th 2015. Rotaract Club organized graffiti and murals workshops with the support of the Krasnoyarsk volunteer center “Good deal”, as well as a competition in this area for young artists in the promenade area.

Prior to the competition teams have sent sketches of their “smiling letter”, each letter of the word Krasnoyarsk was depicting a certain kind of sport of the winter Universiade, which will take place in Krasnoyarsk in 2019. This project was organized in order to popularize Krasnoyarsk as both the most smiling and cultural city in Siberia, which is looking forward to meeting the guests of Universiade 2019. At the end of the festival, the jury assessed the parti-

cipants’ drawings. The winners and participants were awarded with certificates and gifts from sponsors and organizers of the project.

“Smiling letters” were given to the volunteer center “Good deal” for further showing at the art events in the city.

Rotaract Club has received a lot of positive feedback about the project from participants, which only strengthened the desire to develop it in the future!

Back to Hogwarts!

Have you ever dreamed to get into the world of Witchcraft and Wizardry? It turned out. in Omsk they have, their own platform 9 ¾!

Rotaract helped the fans of Harry Potter to become students of Gryffindor or Slytherin, make a magic wand and take part in faculties’ competition. The marks of “He-WhoMust-Not-Be-Named”, Deathly Hallows or famous lightning bolt were bestowed on everyone by a magician of body art. And also, fans could make a photo with Hedwig or a cute witch.

But don’t forget: you cannot use magic outside of Hogwarts!

Charity Project “Rainbow of learning!” for blind and partially sighted children in the school #14.

The project had several stages. First stage was collecting money for gifts. Five institutions in Omsk joined to the project: the Oncologic hospital, the Mental hospital, the union ”Omsk libraries”, the company “Siberian devices and systems” and the company-provider of heat power “TGK-11”. In total, we collected 20 000 rubles. Second stage was making a party for the children. We played the performance “Around the world” and after that, we organized a horse riding for the children.

For the money we collected we were able to buy sport equipment for the school (two hula hoops, 14 balls), stationery materials (pads for modelings of plasticine and sets of plasticine), learning games, 5 sets of chess, 6 sets of checks, 1 set of chess for blinding people, 1 set of checks for blinding people, 2 books “Decoration patterns” in Braille alphabet, 2 sets puzzles, sets of Cuisenaire rods, books “Road traffic regulations for kids”, 2 maps of the world in Braille alphabet and slate pencils for writing by blind people.

(Dostoevsky approves!)”

Rotaract is a club of young people united by common aims, values and hobbies. “That’s it - Hobbies!”- this thought came up in minds of RAC Omsk Dostoyevsky members a year ago and they have started a long term project - Club of Readers “Dostoevsky odobriaet! (Dostoevsky approves!)”.

What do they do there? It is easy as any genius thing!

A lot of people like reading, but it is also such fun to discuss it! So now, they have a meeting every month in a cozy cafe and talk about a book. The book, which has been chosen by voting on their page in the social network “Vk.com” and the book that they have all read, of course.

Every time the book is different - it can be of any genre or language, readers can also be different - some people leave, other join. People at the meeting share their feelings about the book and play a quiz about the book where the winners could get new books :) A photo is made in the end of evening which shows if majority liked the book or not.

P.S. Using social networks page for this project turned out really useful, not only people joined the readers club through it, but also many came to Rotaract after!

Club of Readers “Dostoevsky odobriaet!

“Healthy Children - Healthy Nation” Laughter resounded in the walls of the kindergarten 24, where the project “Healthy Children - Healthy Nation” was held.

RAC Krasnodar members went to kindergarten in order to educate children about the importance of brushing teeth and personal hygiene. They were not alone, but with dentists, and brought small presents (toothbrushes and toothpaste and soap). Dentists in game form showed children how to brush their teeth, and each child tried to do it with big model of teeth and a huge toothbrush, and then they all watched educational cartoon “Dr. Rabbit and Dr. Smile”.

After all, children got gifts that were purchased with the money raised from the lottery at Rotary Ball.

Director of the kindergarten said that this is the best event held for children. So now RAC Krasnodar is thinking about a new project with them.

Good oral health is important for overall health, so it is important to educate children and talk about it.

TURKEY As being Rotaract Club Güzelyalı, we tried to do our best in order to introduce Turkish and Ottoman culture to our fellow Rotaractors from RAC Warsaw Castle who visited Izmir/Turkey in July.

We prepared a culture box including traditional souvenirs of Ottoman heritage, Turkish delight, city guide. We also prepared a newsletter giving information about our country, our district and projects of our club. Our fellow rotaractors also prepared a culture box for Poland culture. We exchanged it and we showed them all the historical monuments and places in Izmir.

We have a ‘traditional delivering clothes Project’ of RAC Güzelyali and in 8 years we realized it in 8th times. Our goal of this Project is to Satisfy a need of poor people. We gathered clothes from our members, candidate members and our friends.

We delivered these clothes and equipments to the Solidarity house of poor people in Balçova/İzmir. This Solidarity House of Municipality is helping more than 1500 families.

As being Rotaract Club Güzelyalı /District 2440, we decided to realize a project for abandoned, homeless and street children. Abandoned children association also contributed to our project. Our ambition with our project is to focus on six areas of Rotary ‘Service project: Basic Education and Literacy’ Children is our Future. With this aim, we made workshops and trainings to raise the quality of education for children. We wanted to provide their personal development for ‘traffic rules, potential dangers that they can face in traffic and riding a bicycle safely in traffic’ The police officers with bicycles made workshops and gave trainings to the children.

They went to traffic simulation area and they showed ‘using the road, the things we have to be careful in traffic and traffic lights. They also showed the traffic signs and practiced it. When children made traffic infringement, police officers corrected them and they all spend very productive time together. 30 children joined the Project. We saw the happiness of the eyes of children. we are happy that we manage to touch that children’s lives.

We understood that we explained them our project so good and we managed to affect them. it will be a sustainable project and continue in the future for long periods.

Maybe in the future we can add more steps to our project as well.

J

anuary 2015. The beautiful city of Istanbul, Turkey hosts winter REM’15.

During one of its official meetings a small group of Rotaractors from Russia experienced a weird mix of emotions ranging from excitement and elation to slight panic and occasional burst of hysteria. Those were the to-be HOC members of winter REM’16 when the city of Saint-Petersburg, Russia, was announced to be the location for the next REM. This is where the story has begun.

Today, roughly nine months later (which some might find quite symbolic) REM’16 is standing at the threshold of the first stage of its commencement, the online registration, ready to distribute 450+ happy tickets among the fastest early-birds.

The upcoming semiannual event sends a message or rather issues a daring challenge to all the coming participants: MELT THE WINTER. BREAK THE ICE. Highlighting one of the most solid Rotaract pillars, Friendship, winter REM’16 Saint-Petersburg encourages the guests to test the power of Rotaract friendship i.e. break the ice, connect, and eventually MELT DOWN THE WINTER. In line with its hot’n’cold melting-the-winter concept the event packages are broken down and named after the warmest and the most popular winter accessories: Socks, Shapka (or winter hat), Scarf and Mittens.

BOOK NOW, JAN 7-10 WWW.REM2016.COM

Besides, for those willing to bring a keepsake from Russia back home, there will be the original real life Russian shapkas, scarves, socks, mittens and warm sets available for purchase at the event’s online store.

Winter Rem’16 will be hosted in Saint-Petersburg a.k.a the Northern Capital a.k.a the Russian Venice a.k.a Cultural Capital or simply Piter. Proudly holding an entry to the UNESCO World Heritage list Saint-Petersburg is a perfect urban blend of classicism. It accommodates the tastes of people from different generations and backgrounds offering wide range of must sees and must dos.

One of the REM’16’s people in charge claimed that “the event is going to be many things, for sure, splendid, crazy, busy, crowded, loud, fun, solemn etc…but one thing it is not going to be is boring”. No wonder, considering the saturated and wonderfully packed agenda of the event. In addition to the formal procedures and meetings, parties and celebrations there are additional activities prepared for the guests: breathtaking world-class ballet at Mariinsky Theater vs. a very educating sampling ceremony at the Vodka Theater; meditating or nerve-testing experience at the decoupage master classes vs. blini baking for the Russian “five-o-clock”. Cherry on the top, Russian Banya (or steam room) is rumored to have major anti-age effect aside from being the perfect place to devise planet rescues plans and talk stock prices.

The whole bunch of Rotaract friends will be staying at the Azimut Hotel, which offers high-level service, comfortable accommodation with 4-to-5 star set of amenities.

Abiding by another of Rotaract principles – friendship through service - REM 2016 has also incorporated a serThe first large get-together will happen during the Welco- vice project into its Agenda where the limelight is given to me Snowy Party with its white dress code. Coincidentally the children fighting with serious illnesses. Based on the Rotaract Saint-Petersburg 5-year anniversary matches the belief that positive emotions have strong curing effect, the dates of REM’16, therefore the club has decided on spen- project’s idea is to make a small New-Year or Christmas miding the night with the (quote) “the coolest crew around racle for the kids by buying them presents they wished for. i.e. all the Rotaractors out there”. Ergo, birthday cake, can- All those coming to REM’16 will have a chance to donate dles, superb music, dancing, all comes in package with the any amount of money to the cause.

Welcome Snowy Bday Party.

Meanwhile, for those who have VISA concerns HOC memThe official OPENING CEREMONY will be followed by the bers have a simple answer: “don’t you worry ‘bout a thing”.

Russian Fair Party where the guests will get to sing and They do, however, stress the importance of minding the dabeatbox along with the rhythms of Russian folk music and tes for sending the invitation requests and following the learn the odds of hitting the jackpot at the Fortune Teller’s VISA guidelines listed on the event’s webpage. Normally, booth. Right after, they will get to test their stamina at the it takes up to 10 working days to issue a visa. However, drinking master classes, dance with gypsies and watch a practice shows that it does not even take as long as that. bear performing stunts on a bicycle.

Absolute record is 45 minutes!

The ULTIMATE ICE BREAKER of REM’16 Saint-Petersburg is scheduled to happen at the GALA dinner. The event will be held under the NEW YEAR theme which will extend the concept of Gala beyond a traditional black-tie event. The REM’16 HOC qualify it as a full blast Russian New Year celebration with high profile entertainment with dancing, good music, singing and some traditional stage performance. Then there comes champaign, president’s speech, New Year resolutions, fireworks and presents!

For those who prefer to travel in style there will be an option of taking a limo drive to the Gala venue.

The organizing committee even took care of those who won’t manage to get their red-carpet look ready in time for the Gala Dinner. There will be a prepaid “portable beauty parlor” option available for ladies and gents and offering services of hair-styling, make-up or beard and moustache trimming right down to arranging bow-tie for the gents.

For those willing to prolong the pleasure of the whole winter REM’16 fairytale there will be an option available for taking the Pre-Rem and Post-Rem trips. PRE REM trip will take place in the dynamic capital of Finland, Helsinki from the 05th to 7th of January, while the capital of Russia, Moscow, will become a perfect REM’16 wrap-up hosting PostREM from the 11th to 13th of January.

Contacts

//SAVE THE DATE April 20th - 24th

ORGANIZED

BY ROTARACT FRANCE

29-31 DECEMBER 2015

Rotary Club Partner

//SAVE THE DATE: UPCOMING EVENTS share your event on our website http://rotaracteurope.eu/upcoming-events/

MEXICO 2nd Spanish Language Trip Mexico City - JUL 29, 2016

Cycling 4 Charity @ Col du Grand Ballon JUN 18, 2016

Portuguese Rotaract & Interact National Congress @ Las Vedras - OCT 30, 2015

5TH

PILIPINAS ROTARACT CONVENTION @ L’fisher Hotel Bacolod FEB 19, 2016

CONARC – Brazilian Rotaract Club National Conference @ Mardunas Hotel - JAN 20, 2016

Fashion Against Cancer Part III ( Athens Greece ) @ Da Vinci OCT 17, 2015

Become a #journalist! Share your #experience, your rotary moment, write your own story and share it with Europe! write us at magazine@rotaracteurope.eu