The founders of SusanSnaps - Susan and mom Laura (who is a Rotary Foundation alumnus because of her participation in Rotary Youth Exchange)

Sean Minton is a Global Grant Scholar studying in London this year (and thus a future Rotary Foundation alumnus). From his most recent update: At the beginning of December, Sean attended NATO Engages, an official NATO outreach event held in London. The full-day program was comprised of multiple sessions with central themes of Digital and Societal Resilience, NATO's record of security for the past 70 years, and how NATO maintains and innovates through changing technology. A full spectrum of attendees took part in the sessions including the media, students, civil servants, government leaders, and many other influential people. Sean and Amy hosted another Global Grant Rotary scholar from Manchester in their guest room for a few days.

The Rotary Foundation has more than 394,000 alumni, however, less than 15,000 are registered as Rotary alumni they can be located everywhere. You never know where you will find an alumnus.

Take a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Sandy Springs. The guest speakers - Laura Stachler and her daughter Susan are the co-founders of Susansnaps, a nationally recognized cookie company. They spoke of unlikely adversity and their unique “cancer to cookies” story as chronicled in their book entitled “The Cookie Cure.” Susansnaps has been nationally recognized and most notably featured on The Today Show, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, CNN and in publications like Redbook, O Magazine, and Family Circle. In addition to learning about their company, the audience also learned that Laura is an alumnus of our Rotary Youth Exchange program.

Who is a Rotary Foundation alumnus? You are an alumnus if you participated in any of the following programs: Interact, Rotaract, Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), Rotary Piece Fellowships, Global Grant Scholarships (funded by global grants or district grants,) vocational training teams (members and leaders,) Ambassadorial Scholarships (later replaced by Global Grant Scholarships), Grants for University Teachers, Group Study Exchange (members and leaders) and Rotary Volunteers. If you have participated in one of these programs and you are not registered, we encourage you to register on the Alumni Database located on the My Rotary website.

Clubs in our district should determine who qualifies as alumni in their club and then help them register on the Alumni database - being mindful of privacy regulated issues for alumni under the age of 18.

Better yet, think about individuals who might be able to take advantage of these Rotary Foundation programs and get them involved in their qualifying opportunity.