Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
Introducing "Rotary Community Heroes of Hope" - a podcast dedicated to showcasing the profound impact of Rotary in District 5330 and beyond. Join us as we explore the remarkable stories of rotary heroes and initiatives that are transforming communities and creating hope around the world.
Rotary Community Heroes of Hope
How A Mountain Rotary Club Turns Simple Ideas Into Community Change
What if the most powerful community work wasn’t a gala or a grant, but a cake mix, a can of Sprite, and a room full of volunteers with sleeves rolled up? We shine a light on the Rotary Club of Lake Arrowhead and the way Jeri Simpson and Teri Ostlie turned modest ideas into durable systems that serve real people, spark member joy, and invite the wider community to participate.
We start with Little Blessings, a monthly micro‑giving engine designed to touch “little lives” with precision: care packages for Blue Star Moms, supplies for Mountain Pregnancy Center, and a crowd‑favorite birthday box packed with a pan, mix, icing, candles, plates, balloons, and Sprite to make a cake without eggs or oil. The twist is the format—projects happen during regular meetings—so even busy members can contribute, connect, and see their impact in an hour. That same practical compassion fuels holiday gift bags for homeless and at‑risk high school students, each item individually wrapped to restore the joy of opening a present. It’s a dignity-first service that resonates far beyond the room.
We also get tactical about growth. By posting stories on local Facebook groups—not just Rotary pages—the club reached thousands of neighbors and converted awareness into visitors and new members. Then we dive into two scalable funding pillars: the Polar Rotary Bear Plunge, an early‑February spectacle that splits proceeds between the club foundation and each team’s chosen charity, and a high‑end community thrift shop that shares revenue based on volunteer hours. Together, these models bring in reliable funds without heavy logistics, while deepening ties with partner nonprofits, Interact, and nearby clubs.
Looking to energize your club, attract new volunteers, and raise money without burning out your team? Steal these playbook pages: make service the meeting, tell your story where your neighbors are, run a shared‑revenue event that others want to champion, and collaborate through volunteer‑powered retail. If this sparked ideas, subscribe, share with your board, and leave a review with the one small project you’ll start this month.
Well, Governor Judy, I'm excited to um uh for our next uh session here because one of the things, and I know you know this because you've traveled around, but I've found that the smaller clubs are really punching way above their weight and doing the majority of the work uh in Rotary. They are amazing.
SPEAKER_03:They definitely can get some stuff done.
SPEAKER_00:And Lake Arrowhead is definitely one of those clubs. And uh in talking with Terry and talking with Jerry, I wanted them to come on and really share some of the exciting things that they're doing with the hopes of giving some ideas to some of the other clubs who might want to be ch shaking things up in uh in their community or try something new in their community.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:So I'd like to take the time and and have the president, uh Jerry Simpson, introduce herself and then Terry Osley. And uh then we can get into all the wonderful things that they're doing up on the mountain.
SPEAKER_03:Sounds good. I look forward to it.
SPEAKER_00:So, Jerry, why don't you start?
SPEAKER_02:I'm Jerry Simpson, president of Rotary Club of Lake Arrowhead. Is there something else you want to know about?
SPEAKER_03:That's good. How about you, Terry? And and Jerry, how long have you been in your club?
SPEAKER_02:Uh I started December 2019, quit after COVID started, came back July 1st, 2021, and have been rocking and rolling ever since.
SPEAKER_03:That is for sure. How about you, Terry?
SPEAKER_01:I joined my club in 2018 and got really involved right away. I was uh president two years ago, and that was a wonderful experience. And I've been community chair for oh, I think five or six years.
SPEAKER_03:Very nice. That's the key to rotary, right? Getting involved and getting engaged, and then you really you feel the joy. We say it all the time, but you really get more out of giving than than the giving itself, which is amazing. And it that shows here with the two of you.
SPEAKER_00:And and Terry, I I met Terry because um, you know, during her year, and I think it might have been prior to her year, and we had Snow McGeddon. Oh, that's right. Terry's house uh was during her presidency.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_01:During my presidency, that my roof broke, and I had to have my entire first floor of my house rebuilt. Oh, if I was juggling all of that and being homeless and being president at the same time. It was it was an interesting year.
SPEAKER_03:A test of resiliency from the top to the bottom.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. I am woman hear me roar. I think that was uh written about you.
SPEAKER_01:So you know, it it was a testament to Rotary, though, because someone said to me, Oh, we wouldn't blame you if you quit. And I said, This president Rotary was what was keeping me going because of all the love and support and a it was it was those people that kept me going. That's amazing. They're my family.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the Rotary family. That's the way it should be. So awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, why don't you um tell us about um all the wonderful things you're doing up on the mountain, but you have some really special programs that are smaller that are really having an impact. And so we'd like to start off with those.
SPEAKER_02:Let me just intro let me intro Terry. Okay, so um one of the reasons why I thought this would be a good idea to be on your podcast is that many times your podcast highlights big things that the clubs do. Um, you know, the bike rides and and all those different things that not every club can do. But I wanted to come, I wanted Terry to come on because we do things that any club could do. You could be a club of six people, you can be a club of 200 people. And so these are just small things that mean a great deal to our community. So that's my intro. And and Terry is the star of the show, I have to tell you.
SPEAKER_03:Oh great intro. Thank you, Terry.
SPEAKER_01:All right, so about six years ago, in discussions, I realized everything we did was big and splashy, and it was wonderful, but it was all big. And we had didn't we weren't touching little lives, and so I developed a program and I named it Little Blessings. And it is separate from our our community budget. Members support either with money or items, uh, a different charity every month that I choose, and we make a little blessing in their lives or their organization. And it's just it ends up just being like$500 worth of stuff. We've we supported Blue Star Moms with uh gift package, uh, you know, things that they're gonna send their kids gift packages, Mountain Pregnancy Center supplies for babies and car seats. We supported Ronald McDonald House with all kinds of supplies. Uh we've done Easter baskets for the food pantries to pass out to children. But the one of the things that caught Nyron's eye was we just did something called birthday boxes. And I realized that there are children on our mountain and really all over whose families can't afford to have a birthday party for them. And so we assembled 40 boxes of uh 9 by 13 aluminum pans with the domed lids. And we put in a fun fetty cake mix and a fun fetty icing and a can of Sprite, because you can make a cake mix without eggs and oil if you just add a can of Sprite. That's the old Weight Watcher secret.
SPEAKER_03:Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01:And then we learn every day. You know, because if if you're really struggling, eggs and oil are at a premium and may not be available. Then in that box were candles and birthday plates and napkins and balloons and a birthday card and a recipe card. And we packed those up and I delivered them to the food pantries. And they were so over-the-top excited. And our members loved assembling them. It was just something simple, got everybody involved, and it's going to make a small difference, a little blessing in a lot of families' lives.
SPEAKER_02:And we did this at a club meeting. So there was no speaker that day. The club meeting was this service project.
SPEAKER_03:I love that. I love that idea of having a service project as part of the club meeting because then it's not another thing you got to come to. It is something you really enjoy. You're already going to club meeting anyway.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Exactly. So everybody, even people who normally can't join us at service projects outside of meetings, they were able to join in. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_01:What we just finished last week was the for the past four or five years, we have done holiday gift bags for our homeless or at-risk high school kids. And homeless kids are qualified if they don't live in their primary family home with immediate family. So they could be couch surfing, they could be living in a tent in the forest, which happens up here. They could be cold in the movie.
SPEAKER_03:I know.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's it's not a good thing. They could be living with a friend. Uh lots of different choices. But we asked the counselors to come up with 20 kids, 10 boys and 10 girls. And so I collect money and I buy stuff. And this year our gift bags were gosh, they're like oh 10 by 18 inches. Yeah, they were big.
SPEAKER_03:I saw them when I was up there at your meeting.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Very full of good stuff. Were personal supplies like razors and tampons and toothbrush and toothpaste and deodorant and shampoo and conditioner, but there were also gifts. And so the boys got really nice heavy beanies and good warm gloves and warm socks. And then they got a Yahtzee game and an Uno card game. And the girls, the girls got those things, and instead of caps, they got knit headbands and warm gloves. And instead of a Yahtzee, they got journals and marking pens. And anyway, we packed those up. We had a worked party at my house, people came and packed wrapped and packed, and we delivered those. The counselor came and picked them up on Tuesday.
SPEAKER_02:Well, what was fun too is that when you said we wrapped, we even they got this huge bag of gifts, but inside we individually wrapped every single gift so that they had an opportunity to open presents. I think that's beautiful.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, not just a bag of stuff, but it's fun.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. Exactly. It was gifts. And you know, half the fun of getting some opening a package is is so fun.
SPEAKER_03:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And and on for several of these kids, this is the only holiday gift they'll get. So it makes a big difference. We also included um a holiday card and some cash in the in the card. So it it was a really good project, and I know it's appreciated. And again, our members were so supportive, and we look forward to that. So we've we've helped with uh the homeless count. Uh our homeless coalition does a count day, it's a national county. And so we've made gift bags for that that they give to all the people that that they register and find. We've um oh, one year the rose the rose parade court came up, and we planted daffodils. Oh fun. And the girls were so excited, they all got bags of daffodils, and I bought um hand spades and uh gloves, and they got to plant daffodils on our mountain. So that's a big thing up here is having daffodils blooming all over the place. People just go out and plant them in open spaces, and it's beautiful. So Rose Court got to come do that.
SPEAKER_03:Um I love the simplicity of these projects. You know, again, like Jerry was saying, it doesn't have to be big, does not have to be complicated. It just, you know, to fill a need, you don't want to just do stuff for the sake of doing it, but to fill a need to create some joy, to touch some lives, and I think that that brings a tremendous amount of joy to our members and also our community.
SPEAKER_00:And when they to told me about I I don't know what it was, but thinking about homeless kids living in a tent on the mountain in the wintertime. That's just shocking to me.
SPEAKER_03:It's it's unbelievable how many actual homeless uh children that we have, you know, moms mostly moms and and dads living in their cars um both on the hill and down all throughout our district. It's it's really sad.
SPEAKER_00:So I thought it was really, really beautiful the impact that they had with the simple little little blessings. Yeah, getting their getting the club involved on a day. So you like you said, it's not another meeting, but it is something to shake it up and have a difference and really come in and have an impact.
SPEAKER_03:I have a a club down here that does something kind of similar in that all the club members come together during a meeting and they create little bags that club members can keep in their car. Similar, it has, you know, um soap and just some personal hygiene items and a gift card to a local McDonald's or something like that. So a fast foods uh shop that they keep in their cars. And then when they come across somebody that's standing on the side of the street begging for money, they'll hand them that bag instead of just the money the money.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we we did that. We did that several years ago. Yeah. And we we assembled those bags at a meeting. And matter of fact, it was a meeting we had at the resort, Jerry, before you. Um and yeah, people carried them in their car. Yep. Um, it was it was a great thing. We had water bottles and uh granola bars and some money, and yeah, they were great.
SPEAKER_03:Because you don't want to enable the uh individuals to continue to be homeless, which is what happens when a lot of people just give them money, but they do still need help and they need something. And and I think these these gifts are and these bags that have useful items in them are a really great way to go. And it gives an opportunity for all of the Rotarians to be able to feel that and feel that need when they're literally out and about in their daily activities.
SPEAKER_01:I think engaging our members at a meeting was really powerful for them to to take ownership and to see to see what they're donating for and what their what their club is supporting. It was just powerful for them. And Jerry, you were going to mention about how many people we reached with our posts.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, so one of the things that I do is I post a lot on Facebook, a lot. And um I just posted a couple of things this morning, which we can talk about as well. And um I put I post on our club Facebook page, I post on the District 5330 Facebook page, and I also post to our local page. Our biggest page up here locally is called Lake Arrowhead 365. And I know that each community also usually has their own Facebook page. So my feeling is it's important to not just post on rotary pages, but to post where people in the community can see it. And we get so much reaction. We got a thousand people who viewed and said, you know, gave us a whatever they do on Facebook. They like us up. Yeah, yeah, on the birthday boxes as well as the Christmas gifts. I mean, a thousand people in our community. That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:And and Jerry, you bring up a hugely good point that I think all of our clubs need to realize is that we need to stop just talking to ourselves.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:And posting on those community pages is very simple. And everybody's got one, either on Instagram or or more importantly, on on uh Facebook. So good good job and great job in getting that community.
SPEAKER_02:I have uh I was contacted on our Facebook page, but from by two people who saw those posts and said, I want to do that. How do I get involved with your rotary club? And they're coming to our rotary meeting on Tuesday. Awesome. And you're not gonna get that if you only post on the road on your rotary Facebook page.
SPEAKER_03:Right, because you're just we're just talking to ourselves at that point.
SPEAKER_02:Exactly, exactly, exactly. So yeah, I'm big on on getting the message out there to everybody I possibly can. I'm um I'm pre people probably see me coming and run away because I'm not just talking about that's what happens when you become president.
SPEAKER_03:I'd like to actually uh transition to another thing that you involve the community, all the communities and all the rotary clubs can get involved. Can you talk a bit about the polar plunge?
SPEAKER_02:It's called the Polar Rotary Bear Plunge. And we do it, it's the first Saturday in February, every single year. Rain, shine, snow. We put it on. And it's held at the Lake Arrowhead Resort and Spa. And what we do is it's kind of like a walk-a-thon, except for instead of walking, you are jumping in the freezing cold lake. And Judy did it this year.
SPEAKER_03:It is, it literally takes your breath away, but it's only a few seconds, and you get to jump in the hot water after. So it's all good.
SPEAKER_02:Our only rules are no wetsuits. You can't do it in the nude. Sorry, Nyron, when you do it this year, you can't do it in the nude and save the world. And you and you have to fully submerge, and you don't have to stay in there for more than one second as long as you fully submerge and you come out. And then there's a hot tub nearby that you can get into, and we also they've got a spa there that you can go into. Um, but what we do is um the way that we our foundation, we have a separate foundation from our club, and the way that we make money for our foundation, one this is one of our this is our biggest fundraiser. And what we do is we go out into the community, first of all, and we get sponsors from our community. So we go to all the businesses, usually get about$12,000 worth of sponsors that come directly to that money comes directly to the foundation, and then we also go out and we start. Uh we use us, we use a system called Rally Up, which people can go online, uh build a team. So, like Mountains Community Hospital has a team, um uh Mountain Homeless Coalition has a team, all of these different local places charities have a team, but for some reason the it's gotten out there, and we have charities from Arizona. We had like snouts for something or other one day. We get charities from Northern California, they all come down that weekend to jump in the lake, and what we do is for every um when they they they have to donate at least$50. And when they donate$50, half of that money, the one$25 goes to our Rotary Lake Era Rotary Foundation, the other$25 goes to their charity of choice. So they're not only jumping for our foundation, they're jumping for their charity. And um many of these teams, uh, whether they're big or small, collect a lot of money from friends, relatives, and we do have one Rotary Club other than ourselves who participate in this, and that's our Mountain Sunrise Club. And they bring in a good, they usually bring in about$3,000. Now, when our rules are for the first thousand dollars that your that your charity brings in, half of that money,$500, goes to our foundation, and the other half goes to your charity. And there are some organizations that collect$3,000,$4,000. We even have Ronald McDonald House who collects five five thousand dollars every year, and so we keep$500 and they keep$4,500. So it's an incentive, and so any rotary club in 5330 or beyond can have their foundation be one of the charities of choice. And um, you can make money through our event. So I really um invite other rotary clubs to come up and do it.
SPEAKER_03:It's a fun weekend, and you don't even have to to you don't have to plunge. You can just donate, right?
SPEAKER_02:Well, uh we say, yeah, you can.
SPEAKER_03:I mean if you but it's so much more fun to to to challenge a president. Yeah. Challenge your president to plunge.
SPEAKER_00:I just want to know how much it's gonna cost me to sit in the hot tub. That's what I want to know.
SPEAKER_03:A thousand dollars. All right, done. Just so you know.
SPEAKER_00:With champagne.
SPEAKER_03:He's gonna sit in the hot tub with champagne. But I uh it's a great jump for interact.
SPEAKER_02:Oh sorry, Judy, you jumped for interact last year.
SPEAKER_03:Uh yeah, I jumped for Interact. I jumped for the Interact conference. And I don't remember how much we raised, but we did a good job. I had people from my classmates from Pepperdine that are all over the country donated. You know, once you put it, it's super easy to put it out on Facebook. And people can just donate to that rally up. So it's not hard to promote. It's a great, great fundraiser for clubs that, you know, hey, we need a little extra dollars in the spring. It's it's uh and not a lot of fundraisers are happening in the spring. It's a it's fabulous. I think it benefits everybody concerned, follows one of our four-way test um uh things because you know it's it really does benefit all the concerned that participate.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it does. I wanted to also have you touch on because one of the things we're trying to to do is to get clubs to think more entrepreneurial. Um and uh I know Hemet Club does some really great things uh from a business perspective, and your club also does that because I know that you have your thrift store up there. And uh everybody talking about that. I'd love you both to talk about the thrift store and its origins, how you operate it, and then what that means for your foundation and the funds that it generates.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I have to tell you that it's not a rotary thrift store. This thrift store was started, Terry, how many years ago? I don't know, many, many years ago. Many, many, many years. Many, many years ago. There are 10 charities. There are 10 charities that participate. This this the mountain is called the Mountain Thrift Shop. It's in Blue Jay, which is just around the corner from Lake Arrowhead, and they have 10 charities who work there. So we are volunteers there, and each charity has their own day. Saturday is uh is the rotary day, and so we have eight members kind of rotating through Saturdays working. Um, I do cashiering, uh, Terry does linens, she's called Terry Linens. And what she what we do is we you know, we price the items that come in, we collect them at the door, we and and so what happens is two times a year, the treasurer of the mountain thrift shop divides up all the money that that the thrift shop has earned over that six-month period, divides it among the 10 charities based upon the number of hours that we put in. When when we first started, we didn't have very many Rotarians doing it. And so we were usually of the 10 charities, we were usually at the bottom of the list of how many, but we have promoted this thing like you wouldn't believe, and we now have a full staff every Saturday because we want to be we're competitive, we want to be the top charity that's getting money, and we pull in about so so the polar rotary bear plunge, we usually get between$35,000 and$40,000 a year just for the foundation, our foundation. That's not including what we've given out to the communities of all these charities, and then the thrift shop, we usually bring in between$20,000,$25,000 a year from what we do as volunteers at the thrift shop.
SPEAKER_01:And it's so much fun. You get to hang out with your friends and find bargains, and it's just fun.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's a great uh interesting new, different way to work collaboratively with another charity and still make more uh fundraiser for rotary. And doesn't require putting up a tent or hiring a hotel or having any food. It just is what we like to do best, which is volunteer.
SPEAKER_00:And they they get some great scores up there. I hear them talking about uh yadros and different kinds of uh artifact that they they pick up at bargain bases. So people go there for the the score of steel and they get them.
SPEAKER_03:So you get the first look at the the yeah, the bags and the shoes and all the good stuff.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we're a high-end thrift store, so people come in and they they find some really nice things there. Yeah, we don't put out it's not goodwill. It's it's it's high end. So anybody who's watching this, come up to the mountain and shop.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, next time I go up there, I'm going. Definitely, definitely. Well, thank you, ladies, for coming on and giving us some really great ideas. I hope that all of our clubs and our presidents listen to this vodcast and take from it some new ideas and some some things that they can do in their clubs that will engage their their members and uh be great fundraisers for their clubs.
SPEAKER_00:And impact the community.
SPEAKER_03:And impact the community, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thank you for having us. It was a pleasure. Thank you.