The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, , District 7020

February – World Understanding and Public Relations Month. This Report is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements of the District 7020 Club of the Month Competition for February 2011.

Prepared by Christy Almeida, Public Relations Director, The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains

2/28/2011

The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains decided to focus on Public Relations during February – World Understanding and Public Relations Month. We decided that during this month we wanted to promote:

1. Rotary International and the End Polio Now goal. 2. What the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains (RCLP) is truly all about.

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES

To truly highlight Rotary International, here is what RCLP did in February:

1. RCLP initiated contact with the Jamaica Stock Exchange and invited partnership with the Rotary Club of Kingston East & and the Rotary Club of Downtown Kingston to organize the Historic Bell Ringing Ceremony at the Exchange on Rotary’s Birthday, February 23. 2. RCLP organized the placement of the End Polio Now logo on Digicel’s electronic board on the main street, Knutsford Blvd., in New Kingston. 3. RCLP went on Smile Jamaica, the local morning TV show, to promote both the historic bell ringing ceremony and RCLP’s major fundraiser. 4. RCLP organized a 30 minute spot on Independent Talk on Power 106FM. RCLP then partnered with the Rotary Clubs of Trafalgar New Heights and Sunrise as well as invited our Rotaract Club, the Rotaract Club of Liguanea Plains, to join RCLP on air to talk about the many Rotary projects in Jamaica and to talk about being a Rotarian.

To highlight the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, here are the rest of the activities RCLP planned and executed for the month of February:

1. RCLP not only invited all the clubs in Jamaica to attend the Bell Ringing Ceremony, but we also partnered with varying clubs in Jamaica to help build our relationship with other clubs and to give them a chance to learn more about RCLP. 2. Since 2005, RCLP has been organizing Mobile Health Clinics throughout Kingston. This month, we took the Mobile Health Clinic to Our Lady of Angles Church for two days. Doctors were able to see the children of Our Lady of Angles School as well as parishioners and those in the community. 3. In 2005, RCLP adopted the New Providence School. Since September, Rotarians from RCLP have been going bi‐monthly to read to the 5th graders in the remedial reading class. During February the bi‐weekly readings continued, but as an added bonus, our Assistant Director of New Generations organized a Literacy Outing with some of the children as a reward for their improved reading skills.

2 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

4. RCLP also invited two very prominent Guest Speakers to our weekly meetings during the month of February. Local Media came out to cover the speakers once again putting RCLP in the spotlight. 5. Finally, while RCLP takes pride in the fact that our Club Runner Website and E‐bulletin is updated every week, RCLP decided that it was time to engage in social media to better reach other potential Rotarians and show the world more about RCLP. RCLP launched its Facebook page to help achieve those goals.

3 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Description of Activities to Promote Rotary

Please allow us to expand on each of these activities to give you a better understanding of how the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains truly worked hard on our Public Relations Campaign to put Rotary in the forefront in Jamaica, in the District, RI and to the rest of the world.

1. Historic Bell Ringing Ceremony‐ The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, after hearing that RI was planning to have the bell rung at 5 different stock exchanges on Rotary’s Birthday, decided that this was something Jamaica should take part in. Recognizing that this was truly a historic event for Rotary as it is the first time the bell would be rung in so many different Stock Exchanges for the same cause: End Polio Now, RCLP decided to initiate contact with the Jamaica Stock Exchange and to invited the Rotary Clubs of Kingston East & Port Royal and Downtown Kingston to partner with us ensure that we work in unison to promote Rotary and the Rotary Clubs of Jamaica. Since DG Diana was not going to be here for the event, we invited the Past District Governor, PDG Errol Alberga, to ring the bell at the exchange. To promote the event: i. We also got in contact with the PR team at Rotary International. We sent them our press releases (one from before the event and one immediately following the event) invites and pictures. They included us in their international press release. ii. We sent the invitation to the media and to every Rotarian in the district. iii. Following the event, President of RCLP also posted online at RI’s website about our activities. iv. We paid for a videographer to film the event. We are working on getting the ceremony aired in its entirety on Flow’s public access tv. We’ve also been promised that there will be a special coverage on the Ray of Hope program shortly. So the media coverage of this event will continue. v. The event was streamed live on www.jamstockex.com. vi. Over 50 Rotarians representing 11 Rotary Clubs and one Rotaract Club were present for this celebrating showing that unity of the clubs really was achieved. vii. RCLP also invited two special guests from the Jamaica Council for Persons with Disabilities to the bell ringing. Not only were they honored to attend, but after learning more about the END Polio Now Campaign and Rotary, they’ve both asked to attend RCLP weekly Rotary meeting as they are now interested in learning more about being a Rotarian.

It was such an honor for Jamaica to take part in this historic event and RCLP is extremely proud that we were instrumental in once again putting Rotary and the Rotary Clubs of Jamaica in the forefront.

4 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Here are a few photographs:

The Invitation

Rotary Leaders in Jamaica Ringing the Jamaica Stock Exchange Bell

5 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Lyden Heaven, District Polio Chair, PDG Errol Alberga, Past President of Rotary Club of St. Andrew, Anthony Hogarth, and AG Ruth Palmer

President Trevor Riley, Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains and President Marcia Barned, Rotary Club of Kingston East & Port Royal

6 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

2. End Polio Now Logo Prominently Displayed – For Rotary’s Birthday, RCLP wanted to ensure that the End Polio Now initiative got as much attention as possible. We decided that the most prominent place to place the logo was on Digicel’s large electronic board on Knutsford Blvd in New Kingston. It’s the center of our business area right now and most people drive through there every day. What was especially great about this project was not only could the logo be seen from afar, but also the pride Rotarians took in seeing the display on the day. On numerous bb profiles you see the picture of the logo. It was posted on many Facebook pages and sent out to several Rotary bb groups. Rotarians sent RCLP messages saying they left their office to just stare at the logo and encouraged their colleagues to do the same. It was prominent!

7 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

3. RCLP on Smile Jamaica morning show, TVJ – Nadia Mitchell, President Elect of RCLP, and Christy Almeida, Director, Public Relations of RCLP, went on the popular morning talk show, Smile Jamaica, to promote the upcoming events of Rotary’s Birthday and RCLP on Tuesday Feb 22nd.

4. RCLP on Independent Talk Power 106FM ‐ The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains along with the Rotary Clubs of Trafalgar, New Heights, and Montego Bay Sunrise and the Rotaract Club of Liguanea Plains, started off Rotary’s 106th Birthday with a bang by being on the Independent Talk, one of Jamaica’s most popular morning radio talk shows from 7:30‐8:00AM. The show went extremely well as topics included: Being a Rotarian, Joining Rotary, Major Projects of all the clubs, the 4 WAY Test & Service Above Self Motto and all the activities planned for Rotary’s Birthday. By having several different clubs represented during this radio talk, we were able to highlight how each club in Jamaica really offers something different to the community while holding strong to our values as a Rotarian.

Director Public Relations of RCLP, Christy Almeida, Charter President of the Rotary Club of Trafalgar, New Heights, Tayana Henry, Radio Announcer Ronnie Thwaites, President of Rotaract Club of Liguanea Plains, Yahneake Sterling, and President Elect of RCLP, Nadia Mitchell

8 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Description of Activities to Promote the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains

Now for the RCLP activities to highlight the work and dynamics of RCLP:

1. Partnership – The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains is still a relatively young club in Jamaica and we’re small. When discussing what we wanted to highlight in February, our club was unanimous in wanting to show the Rotary Clubs of Jamaica as well as the rest of Jamaica what we were truly all about. This is one of the main reasons why we partnered with other clubs on our projects this month. We wanted to help foster stronger relationships with these clubs allowing them a chance to really get to know RCLP. We figured we could build bigger, better, bolder relationships with our own Rotary Family.

2. Wellness Tour‐ Since RCLP’s Charter in 2005, we have stayed true to two of our main projects: the mobile health clinic and RCLP’s adopted New Providence Primary School. So it would not be a month of highlighting RCLP, if we didn’t plan activities relating to these two projects. On February 18th and 19th, our Mobile Clinic visited Our Lady of Angles school and church in order to provide free health care to over 70 patients. Once again, RCLP was proud to partner with our Rotaract Club of Liguanea Plains to work together to make this project a great success.

Children from Our Lady of Angels’ Primary School waiting to be seen by a doctor

9 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Rotaract Club of Liguanea Plains President, Yahneake Sterling volunteering at the Mobile Health Clinic

3. Literacy Outing‐ New Providence Primary is RCLP’s adopted school and each year we do numerous projects with them. This year we wanted to get more involved with the children on hands‐on projects so our literacy program was born. Rotarians, under the guidance of the Literacy Teacher at the school, have been working with the remedial reading fifth grade class. Bi‐monthly Rotarians read to the children, give little quizzes and spelling tests. We do our best to foster a love of reading. While this program continued during February, RCLP wanted a way to reward some of the most‐improved children. So on Friday Feb. 4th, the Assistant Director of New Generations along with the Literacy Teacher took a small group of children on a Literacy Outing. The Literary Outing is another way to get students exposed and excited about world of books and reading. The students were taken to a bookstore in close proximity, accompanied by the Literacy Teacher at the school. At the bookstore they were introduced to types of books and how books are categorized according to subject matter. Students were excited with taking books from shelves and reading to each other. At the end of the visit they were given gifts of books.

10 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

Children of New Providence & the Literacy Teacher at the Bookstore

4. Guest Speaker – What better way to promote RCLP than by having exciting speakers and getting their presentations covered by the media? During February, RCLP made a special effort to make this happen. On February 10th, Ms. Sonia Jackson from the Statistical Institute of Jamaica spoke about the upcoming Jamaica Census. The Sunday Observer did a great article about her presentation to RCLP. Then on February 24th, we had the President of the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Milton Samuda, who not only did a great presentation, but also had a great time getting involved in our club’s normal festivities. TVJ covered Mr. Samuda’s presentation with a special feature on the Saturday night news broadcast. These speakers not only got us media coverage, but during these meetings our attendance increased with many guests and visiting Rotarians.

5. RCLP on Facebook‐ RCLP takes great pride in our Clubrunner website that we update WEEKLY and our weekly Ebulletin that we email out to representatives from other clubs and to prospective Rotarians. However, we thought it was time to get involved in the social network movement to try to reach more people and promote RCLP. So this month we launched our Facebook Page: Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Kingston Jamaica.

11 The Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains, Club 70214 Kingston, Jamaica, District 7020

RCLP on Facebook

Conclusion

Public Relations can be defined as a promotion to create goodwill for a person and/or an institution. As you can see from our numerous activities and events during February, the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains has truly promoted Rotary International, its programs, Rotary’s ideals and our own club, the Rotary Club of Liguanea Plains. It’s been a very busy month for RCLP. We remained high profile and made sure that Rotary and our ideals stayed in the forefront. We are proud of all our accomplishments to promote Rotary this month and hope that our activities help us to win Club of the Month for February 2011.

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