I am a Palmetto,Florida rotarian named Nick Manukas. I admit that I originally started reading this forum to see if I should cancel or postpone my family trip & 3rd Anniversary to Ramon's village over Thanksgiving week. After reading ALL of your heartfelt stories
(uplifting & tragic), I feel like i already know some of you and how tightknit your community is. The pictures are ammazing and my heart goes out to all. I especially want to say kudos to Marty, Sandshaker, Nellie, et all.
I was never much of a volunteer type until recently and being that I grew up on a barrier island until 2 years ago , I know what damage hurricanes can have on our lives.Unfortunately AC is not blessed with a Home Depot. I wish I could be there now doing whatever I could,but I can not.
What I can do however is try and organize the west coast Florida rotary clubs and try and raise as much relief money as possible for you all. I am going to propose this to my rotary club asap. I hope we will succeed and that at the very least raise enough money for your coconut trees. with everyone's help it should go very well.
what i need to know is if there are any rotary contacts on AC? If so, can they contact me via e-mail @ Bigshot457@cs.com?
If any other Floridians read this,your help is greatly appreciated as well($$$).
I will stay tuned and hope to here from anyone soon.

GODSPEED!!!!


[This message has been edited by BigshotFL (edited 10-12-2000).]

Just sent an email to the Rapid Disaster Relief chairperson at Rotary. I have not heard or seen if Rotary has started to be involved or not.

Concerned,
Yes, the local Rotary Chapters have been helping from the first days with shelter assistance in the form of food distribution.
Also our clubs are underway with fund raising plans that will benefit the hurricane
victims and the more recent flood victims in the Belize Rural and north areas. Our club is small and our resouces within our communities are equally small but our endeavor to help in whatever way is strong!!
Rod Allen (Rotary Club of San Ignacio)

Rod, does your club or the other clubs issue tax receipts? I don't think Rotary International accepts these kind of donations anymore; at least that is what I recall.

I'm from Pensacola....that is as far west as you can go without being in Alabama....'cept maybe Bulah....LOL
Try them....
Thanks Guys!

Concerned,
Our club is quite new, we were chartered about three years ago and there are many things we learn as we move forward. I have never heard of this tax thing, but I could ask some of the members that have years of experience. Our club area is in western Belize near the Guatemalan border, very rural and populated with about 10,000 or so in San Ignacio.
Rod

Please forgive if this posts twice, first try did not post.
Rod,
Cindy Little PCV Belize 1980-83 here (Cindy Cruz now). I believe the above posters are referring to the US tax code for 501(c)3 organizations..donations to these organizations are tax deductible in the US.
I don't think we realized you are a Belize chapter. Glad to see you are still in Belize..we don't get back to San Ignacio as often as we'd like.

Rod, and other Rotary folks:
I just spent a week dealing with all of the 501C(3) crap with our local Lions Club. I expect you will encounter the same problems with Rotary.Bottom line: If you don't have a 501C(3) corp, nobody in the US will contribute.If you are unable to resolve this issue locally, please contact me.We can probably work something out for your group to work with our local Lions Club Boy Scout Troup 501C(3).

Cindy,
When you are back in Cayo please stop by and give us a shout. I still live in Cenral Farm, but have moved the business to Santa Elena.
Rod