The Cooper River Room at the Mt. Pleasant Waterfront Park
99 Harry M. Hallman Jr. Blvd.
Mount Pleasant, SC 29464
First 3 Tuesdays of the month at 7:30 – 8:30 a.m.
Rotarians and Friends of Rotary, Service Above Self is our motto, and right now, our community needs our help more than ever for the Rotary Ready COVID Mission!
Our “mission” is to provide both medical and non-medical volunteers for the numerous Covid-19 vaccination clinics being offered in the Charleston area.
Two pilot clinics have already been held in the East Cooper area over the past 2 months, and now that the supply of vaccines has arrived, more clinics are being planned so as to ensure that everyone in our community who wants to be vaccinated can get shots in the arm.
Bonus! All volunteers can receive the vaccine the day of their service. Please consider registering and being a part of this huge and impactful endeavor.
Share this post with your friends and family asking them to register as well. Share it with church groups, sports groups, book groups, school clubs that need service hours, etc.
Just please share it.
For more information, please email volunteer@rotaryready.com.
Thank you,
Michelle Whitbeck
East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club President 2020-2021
Thanks to the matching grant from Rotary International and funds raised at our Flags for Heroes event, the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club was able to provide 66 bicycles to Toys for Tots in Charleston this year. Tripp Hoover and David Schwartz coordinated the pickup from Wal-Mart at Oakland Shopping Center in Mt. Pleasant. It was a miracle that the store had just enough bikes for our $5000 budget. Due to COVID-19 the store manager said that they were running low on bikes. Families were buying them up all year with children being home schooled and needing more exercise. In addition to the Wal-mart stock, Dimi Matouchev added in a great bike that he and his wife purchased for the cause. Dimi, Mike Bloser, Craig Johnson, and Bratton Fennell helped load the bikes into David’s landscaping company truck. The next morning, Michelle and Steve Whitbeck met Tripp and David at the Toys for Tots warehouse in Summerville to unload bikes of all sizes and colors. Alison Dailey arrived just in time to help as well and to donate toys that she brought. This year Toys for Tots has about 20,000 toy requests, 6,000 more than last year. It’s a challenging year for many families so we’re hoping our club’s contribution puts some smiles on children’s faces this Christmas.
The 2020 Flags for Heroes fundraiser held in November enabled the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club to raise almost $12,000!
With the funds raised we have donated $5000 to Friends of Fisher House Charleston which provides free lodging for families of veterans receiving treatment at the Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center. We also purchased and donated 66 bicycles for Toys for Tots Charleston. And we have more service projects in the works like assembling hygiene kits to donate to East Cooper Community Outreach.
Planning is underway for this year’s Flags for Heroes fundraiser which will take place over Veteran’s Day week. The location will still be at Patriot’s Point but at the Cold War Memorial which is just outside of the entrance gate. Visit the website to choose your sponsorship level that will save flags in honor of your favorite service men and women. When you sponsor a flag, send us a photo of the person you are honoring and we’ll be sure and post it on our Facebook page! Send photos to ecbrotaryclub@gmail.com
Join us Friday, August 28th for our East Cooper Breakfast Club Rotary Social Distancing Shindig from 6:00 to 8:00 PM at Ghost Monkey Brewing in Mt. Pleasant.
Join us Tuesday, July 21st to hear a Coronavirus Update by our local representatives at the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC continues to work with federal, state and local partners as it investigates COVID-19 cases in South Carolina. DHEC’s top priority remains protecting the public during this national and state emergency.
Thanks to WakeUp Carolina, 17 rotarians from the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club are now trained in administering Narcan (naloxone), an opioid antagonist used for the complete or partial reversal of opioid overdose. Nate Lyles, Program Director at WakeUp Carolina, led the on-line training session during a recent Zoom meeting that the club has been holding on a weekly basis during the COVID pandemic.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, South Carolina had 835 drug overdose deaths involving opioids (a rate of 17.1) in 2018—an increase compared to the 628 (a rate of 13.1) deaths reported in 2016.
Rotary Club President-Elect Michelle Whitbeck says, “In the unfortunate event that one of our members who received the training does encounter an opioid overdose victim, they are now educated on what signs to look for and how to administer Narcan safely before paramedics arrive. It’s an important issue that is happening here in our own community. If we can help educate others on how to prevent drug abuse, we may be able to save a life.”
Another way to help prevent drug overdose is by disposing of any prescription drugs that are not being used or are expired. The Town of Mount Pleasant has a CVS Take-Back box located at the entrance of the police station at Town Hall, 100 Ann Edwards Lane.
East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club members will have an exclusive opportunity to receive online Narcan Training Tuesday, June 2nd at 8 a.m. This overdose prevention training is recommended for anyone at risk of an opioid overdose, friends, and family of someone at risk, healthcare providers, social services providers, law enforcement, and emergency response providers. You will learn how to recognize the signs of an overdose, the steps to administrating Narcan nasal spray, and how to save a life. Participants who complete the training may receive a free overdose prevention kit containing 2 Narcan nasal sprays. We encourage all members to attend this Zoom meeting, and if you have family or friends who would like to join, please forward their email addresses to Ted Chestnut ted@hillcon.com. The more knowledge we have as a group, the better we can serve our community in preventing opioid overdose and abuse.
Mark your calendar and set your alarm! We’ll resume in-person breakfast meetings at The Cooper River Room starting May 18th! Meetings will begin at 7:30 a.m. For those who can not attend in-person yet, we will provide a Zoom link starting at 7:45 a.m. If you would like an invitation to a meeting, please email us ecbrotaryclub@gmail.com.
Rotary Social has been cancelled. Check back for next month’s schedule.
The East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club will meet Tuesday, March 10th, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. in The Cooper River Room at the Mount Pleasant Waterfront Park. We are pleased to have Sara Perry, with Respite Care Charleston, as our guest speaker. Breakfast catered by Dish and Design Catering and Events.
Sara Perry is Executive Director of Respite Care Charleston, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization which provides support and services to those living with Alzheimer’s and related forms of dementia. A graduate of Winthrop University (Marketing Communications) and the College of Charleston (Master of Public Administration), Sara has more than 18 years of experience in the non-profit/public sector. She has completed the Charleston Metro Chamber’s Leadership Charleston program and was named one of one of the Charleston Regional Business Journal’s “Forty Under 40” in 2016. A proud mother of two active teenagers, Sara mentors several older youth in foster care and is an avid sailor.
The East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club will meet Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 at 7:30 a.m. in The Cooper River Room at the Mount Pleasant Waterfront Park. We are pleased to have Nanci Shipman,Wake Up Carolina, as our guest speaker. Breakfast catered by Dish and Design Catering and Events.
Nanci holds a Bachelor of Science degree in elementary education from the College of Charleston. She is the founder and executive director of WakeUp Carolina. WakeUp Carolina empowers young people, individuals and families by uniting our community to meet those who are suffering “where they are” with authenticity and unwavering support. They are a 501c3 organization founded to raise awareness, promote education and provide hope and improve the quality of life for those in recovery in the greater Charleston area.
All WakeUp Carolina services, including Creighton’s House, are 100% funded by generous donations and grants from citizens, corporations and government entities.
Her previous experience includes teaching elementary school and preschool, healthcare marketing and sales, hospice administrator and nonprofit regional director for senior outreach. Nanci is also active in business and healthcare associations, not-for-profit fundraising events and community boards. Nanci is the mother to five children. She grew up and resides in Mt. Pleasant with her four children.
East Cooper Breakfast Club – February 4, 2020
Thanks to all who came out last Saturday to volunteer at East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO). Wearing masks and gloves, we were able to take in donated bags of groceries, clean them, and arrange them on the shelves for easy access. This was the first Saturday that ECCO had reopened for accepting donations since the stay-at-home ordinance became in effect.
We are not only pleased that we were able to help at the ECCO warehouse, but we’re happy to announce that the ECBR Foundation has voted to immediately donate $4,000 to ECCO and $2,000 to Charleston Promise Neighborhood. The donations will help these local agencies provide basic needs to folks who desperately need them. As we heard from Stephanie at ECCO, the need is great. We intend to do what we can. In addition to the immediate donations, the ECBR foundation is matching donations provided by club members up to an additional $20,000! There are a couple of ways for this to work: 1. Donate to the ECBR Foundation (tax deductible) and note where you’d like the money to go. 2. Donate directly to ECCO or CPN and let myself or Gwin know the amount so we can tally the appropriate match. Right now, we don’t have a way to set up a donation to the ECBR Foundation via a “click here” link, so we have to go the old-fashioned way with checks. However, if you send Gwin an email at postongwin@comcast.net letting her know how much you would like to donate, she can send you an invoice where you can pay online.
Do you know an interesting speaker? Submit the information to ecbrotaryclub@gmail.com.
If anyone cannot attend on your scheduled day, please find an alternate below your name to fill in.
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Upcoming Speakers & Sergeant at Arms |
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|
Date |
Speaker |
Topic |
Speaker Intro |
S @ A alphabetical order based on active member list on DACdb |
| 2/4/20 | Diane Perillo & Sonia Gass | Save the Children | Ted Chestnut | Muldrow, Charles |
| 2/11/20 | Nanci Shipman | Wake Up Carolina | Tripp Hoover | Ben Newton |
| 2/18/20 | Bill Martin | Ted Chestnut | O’Connor, Sean | |
| 2/25/20 | NO MEETING-4TH TUESDAY | |||
| 2/27/20 | Social | Basil Mt. Pleasant | ||
Need A Meeting Makeup?
[Schedule of Local Rotary Chapters (updated October 2018)]
Mondays:
Tuesdays:
Wednesdays:
Thursdays:
Fridays:
Craig Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at Beacon Bank, receiving his “Red Badge” of membership to the East Cooper Breakfast Rotary Club.
Our club will be sponsoring a student from Wando High School to go abroad next year! She is currently a sophomore and lives on Isle of Palms.
Her family has agreed to host and she is actively looking for two more families. If anyone is interested in hosting a student next year please let Grace Lacey know. Requirements are only 3-4 months out of the school year and the student will be attending school in Mount Pleasant.
On the flip side, our current exchange student, Ester, plans to attend the Western Tour this summer. This trip is an opportunity that Exchange Students in the US get the choice of taking. This is a very educational and once in a life time trip for these students where they’ll get to visit places such as the Grand Canyon, the Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood, etc.
If any club member has any jobs that Ester can do to earn money for the trip please let her or Grace know. She can pet sit, babysit, plant sit, do gardening, etc. Also if anyone has any ideas of a small fundraising event for Ester to raise the money, we are all ears!
Lowcountry Food Bank Service Project
Flags for Heroes
Walk for Water Charleston
Mount Pleasant Happy Feet
Toys for Tots Bike Drive
East Cooper Habitat for Humanity
Speakeasy: Prohibition for a Cause
East Cooper Meals on Wheels
East Cooper Community Outreach
Charleston Area Rotary Charity Duck Race
Saint James Santee Elementary Middle School Beautification Project
Westover Community Garden
