 Jim Redmond President Akron Rotary Foundation |  Doug Kohl President-Elect Akron Rotary Foundation |
Jim Redmond and Doug Kohl presented to the club an update on our Akron Rotary Foundation, the third leg of our stool – the others being the Rotary Club and the Camp. Jim began by thanking the club for allowing him to serve the last 9 years as the President of the Foundation. Jim will be rolling off due to term limits, but he looks forward to staying involved. He announced that at a recent election of the Foundation Board, Doug Kohl was voted in as the new president. Jim also announced that Dan Riemenschneider will be the 2021-2022 Ambassador of Service awardee and will be honored at the Chili Open in February. Dan intends to stay involved with the Foundation, staying involved with our finances. Jim is very proud that the assets of the Foundation are now $2.2 million. He also shared that the Foundation’s money is invested in 2 locations, roughly $1.6 million Huntington Bank and the balance of $600,000 with Akron Community Foundation.
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Jim was also pleased to announce that the Camp and the Foundation have entered into a new collaborative arrangement where $400,000 of Camp’s cash on hand will be invested with the Rotary Foundation until needed by the Camp for future needs. This allows the Camp to earn more on their money than parking it in low interest savings. This new relationship was met with applause by the club members present and online.
Jim introduced Doug who thanked the group for the responsibility of leading the Foundation and opened his comments by noting the occasional confusion that club members have between the Rotary International Foundation and the Akron Rotary Foundation. Doug thanked Thane Billow and Bill Manby, Jr. for their leadership in promoting the RI Foundation. RI is an incredible, world-wide organization with an awesome mission. Rotary is a global community – a network of 1.2 million neighbors, friends, leaders, and problem-solvers who see a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change – across the globe, in our communities, and in ourselves. Rotary International’s mission supports 6 over arching causes: promote peace; fight disease; provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene; save mothers and children; support education; grow local economies.
Doug shared that The Akron Rotary Club was founded in 1914 as the 107th club in the world. Our own local Akron Rotary Foundation was founded in 1992 to fund the endless impact of the Rotary Club of Akron in our community and beyond. Since 1994, the Akron Rotary Foundation has contributed over $3.0 million to the causes that make our community a great place to live and work. Our local Akron Rotary Foundation has 4 areas of focus – Community Development, Youth Empowerment, International Understanding, and a unique priority – The Rotary Camp For Children with Special Needs. This camp enjoys favored status with The Akron Rotary Foundation for the work it does to serve the community.
Jim and Doug thanked all Rotarians and encouraged everyone to consider Rotary in their year-end giving. Additional information can be found on the Akron Rotary website, www.akronrotary.org.
