Rotary Club of Park Cities

08/31/2026

Remember to sign up for The World's Largest Polio Walk. it's a great sponsor opportunity as well.

08/28/2026

Packed house today for our College Game Day Luncheon

08/28/2026

We have a VERY fun and informative program today to celebrate the kickoff of college football season...it's College Game Day! Come join the conference table of your alma mater and learn from our panel about the changing landscape of college athletics.

08/14/2026

We have another great program today featuring the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum. Come join us for lunch, networking and inspiration at Maggiano's NorthPark Center. Doors at 11:45. You can also watch/listen to the live/recorded podcast at

6th Meeting of year: President MARK KASHAR presidingMAGGIANO’S LIT...

08/07/2026

Come join us for a great lunch and program tomorrow at Maggiano's NorthPark at Noon. Our featured speaker is trey Bowles with the Park Cities Angel Network. Live and recorded podcast here

07/31/2026

Come join us for lunch tomorrow at Maggiano's NorthPark Center for an informative program about Earth Day! The live and/or recorded podcast will be available at

4th Meeting of year: President MARK KASHAR presidingMAGGIANO’S LIT...

07/24/2026

Come join us for another great lunch program tomorrow featuring Darren Collins of Project Hand Up. If you can't join in person catch the live & recorded podcast at https://www.youtube.com/live/dBXrDI5Zh94?si=vnz5USjexjREzQlr Darren Collins is the Co-Founder and acting director of Texas non-profit Project HAND UP, which was kickstarted through a Rotary Foundation Global Grant. Originally from Seattle, Washington, he has trained more than 20,000 people in over 15 countries and forty-five U.S. states to use puppetry and performance as tools for education and behavior change.
Darren began teaching puppetry for crime and drug abuse prevention in the mid-90s at the America’s PRIDE and DARE conferences. In 1999, he made his first trip to Cambodia to help develop puppet presentations on waterborne illnesses. There, he also penned germ theory videos that aired on government television in Myanmar. With a background as a family entertainer and educator, Darren spent decades using the performing arts to address health, disease prevention, and social issues in engaging ways for all ages. Motivated by his belief that "Any uncomfortable subject can be made compelling and enjoyable to all ages," he quit his performing career to start Project HAND UP in 2013.
Project HAND UP was founded with the ambitious acronym Healthy Africa (or America, Australia, or Asia…) a New Directive Using Puppets. HAND UP. But the name was also strategic. The charity was not about providing resources like a “hand out” but providing knowledge as a “hand up.” Project HAND UP is passionate about using edutainment to engage and educate audiences about taboo or otherwise tedious or uncomfortable subjects. During the COVID-19 pandemic, restrictions opened new ways of engaging with audiences. In addition to handling the design & implementation of in-person school and community behavior change/education programs, services now include creative writing and video production, media buying, cinematography, and post-production. Project HAND UP also airs as an educational children's puppet show to 13 million children weekly on Kenyan Akili Kids! TV (a family network in Kenya) to teach children and families about health, hygiene, and disease prevention.
Collins is the recipient of the Rotary Foundation’s 2017 Service Above Self Award and is also a Paul Harris Fellow, Major Donor, and graduate of Rotary University and the Rotary International Leadership Institute. He now resides on the edge of a national forest in Nairobi, Kenya, where he shares his home with the local wild hyrax population.

3rd Meeting of year: President MARK KASHAR presidingMAGGIANO’S LIT...

07/04/2026

07/04/2026