Sunrise Rotary Club of Gainesville

06/09/2026

Sunrise welcomed Dwaine Bush into the club last week. Dwaine is a UF alumnus and a commercial banking manager with Seacoast Bank. He is married to Laura and enjoys fishing and golfing. Congrats and welcome, Dwaine, and thanks to Darlene Morgan for bringing him into the fold!

06/03/2026

On Sunday, May 31, Sunrise Members, Chelsea Patrick and Dan Rodkin, attended the District 6970 Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) year-end event where the 2025-26 Inbound RYE students had their final gathering before returning home. We also celebrated the 2026-27 Outbound RYE students’ “graduation” from training and moved from RYE candidates to RYE students. During this event, the Sunrise Rotary Club’s 2025-26 Inbound RYE student (Maxim) presented his sponsor’s club’s flag to Chelsea and Dan. They will bring the flag to this week’s Club meeting.

06/02/2026

Congratulations and a warm Sunrise welcome to Patrick “PJ” Minzie, who was officially inducted as a new member last week. After spending the past eight years in Hillsborough County, PJ has returned to Gainesville to serve as President and CEO of CDS Family & Behavioral Health Services.

PJ was sponsored by fellow members Phil Kabler and Darlene Morgan.

06/02/2026

We had the honor of hosting two Rotarians from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India last week. Devi represents the Chennai Mambalam club and Krishna, the Chennai Spotlight club. Tamil Nadu is a very large state covering two thirds of the southern tip of India and Channai is on the south-east coast. Channai is in Rotary District 3234. Both are shown with President Bobbie Robinson while accepting flags from their clubs.

04/19/2026

Sunrise Rotary held its annual Lois and Jim Hensel Firefighter Appreciation Picnic on Saturday, April 18, at Santa Fe College. Firefighters came in a steady stream from 11-1 to enjoy a barbecue lunch provided by David’s BBQ.

Alexander Cowart was the Firefighter of the year for the Gainesville Fire Department. Alexander was presented with his award by Deputy Chief Adam Hinton of the GFD and is shown with President Bobbie Robinson and Dave Ferro, Event Chairman, of Sunrise Rotary.

Jacob Giese was the Firefighter of the Year for Alachua County Fire Rescue and was presented with his award by Battalion Chief Sullivan of ACFR, Bobbie Robinson and Dave Ferro.

03/10/2026

Over $150,000 was raised last night to provide the majority of the funding to create an Elevated Treehouse System and Learning Center at the Teaching Zoo located within Santa Fe College. WOW.

Thank you to our attendees, our sponsors, and our volunteers. YOU made this possible.

Our hearts are bursting right now with gratitude.

03/10/2026

03/10/2026

From our own Bill Menadier's engineering firm!

02/16/2026

We marked Valentine’s Day with roses, hearts and plenty of hearty laughter as five brave members — and their even braver partners — took the spotlight for our annual version of the Newlywed Game.

Couples answered questions about their relationships, habits and favorite things, earning points for matching answers. A few answers were definitely not for the faint of heart!

Congratulations to Sherry and Joel Houston for taking the top score. But everyone walked away a winner after such a joyful start to the day.

Many thanks to President Bobbie for the festive décor and to Laraine Teiss for once again making Valentine’s at Sunrise a celebration to remember.

📸 See more photos at our Flickr album: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCKDPB

02/11/2026

Our local Rotary family has recently lost a couple stalwarts in Carole Anne and Rob Oglesby. Please enjoy this remembrance from longtime Gainesville journalist Ron Cunningham.

Rotary Club of Downtown Gainesville, Gainesville Rotary Club, Rotary Club of Greater Gainesville, Rotary District 6970

Rob and Carol Anne Oglesby. I wrote this piece about the passing of my old friend and mentor Rob Oglesby for The Gainesville Sun. I wish it hadn’t been necessary. I am one of a couple of generation…