News from

The Rotary Club of Indio is proud to announce the winners of the 2018 Rotary Math Field Day for Middle School Children of the Coachella Valley. This year’s successful event took place on Saturday, April 28 at John Glenn Middle School in Indio.

RMFD celebrated its 24th anniversary focusing on achievements in mathematics by Coachella Valley Middle School students. RMFD began in 1995 when past Riverside County 4th District Supervisor, John J. Benoit, was President of the Indio Rotary Club. Benoit found that due to transportation and travel issues and lack of funds in education for extra-curricular activities, Coachella Valley students were not participating in the Riverside Math Field Day. Through his leadership, the Rotary Club of Indio stepped up and organized this event to provide our local students the chance to participate in such a competition. Partnering with Desert Sands Unified School District and with the assistance of other area Rotary Clubs and the business community, this event continues to challenge today’s middle school mathletes.

This year’s event featured over 300 students coming from 15 schools representing Desert Sands Unified School District, Palm Springs Unified School District, Coachella Valley Unified School District as well as valley private schools. Competition was by grade level featuring sixth, seventh,

and eighth graders. Each student competed in both a math event as well as a math game. Students competed for individual scores as well as by school. Awards were given out to the winners by grade for each math event and math game. Overall school awards were given out by grade level. The Top Mathematician Awards went to the top overall student at each grade level. In all, 134 Awards and Prizes were presented for outstanding mathematical work by these students. (Full Winners List attached)

Top Mathematicians:

8th Grade Henry Nation Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Jackie Jones Palm Desert Charter

6th Grade Eric Rodriguez La Quinta Middle School

Overall Outstanding School Awards:

8th Grade Palm Desert Charter 1st Place

7th Grade John Glenn Middle School 1st Place

6th Grade Coral Mountain Academy 1st Place

Special Guest during the RMFD Awards Ceremony was Carl Christman (CarlReadsMinds.com). This was Mr Christman’s second appearance at this event. His presentation centered on mathematics and magic with many middle school attendees participating in his performance.

Mr Christman was a huge hit for both the students and the parents in attendance.

“This event was created to promote math as a fun subject. You can’t help but get inspired by the hard work, competitive spirit, and outstanding results shown by all our young participants” reported current Indio Rotary President Don Casper. “We do a number of annual youth oriented activities in our community including Dictionaries for the Third Graders in Indio, trips to the Coachella Valley History Museum for grade schoolers and Scholarships for our adopted Shadow Hills High

School. Math Field Day is our commitment to middle schoolers in the Valley,” Casper continued.

Martha Mendez, Co-Chairwoman of RFMD for the Indio Rotary Club said, “There is high emphasis on student athletics as opposed to academics at times. This program takes the competition from the field into the classroom. This event helps fill the void and reaffirms to students that academics are very important and worthy of recognition. We help our MATHLETES excel.”

The Indio Rotary Club is the fun loving service club that since 1949 has been working to help make Indio and the world a better place. Our group of civic leaders share their time and energy to support our community. We meet weekly to network, hear speakers on various subjects and work on service projects including the Coachella Valley Middle School Math Field Day, Dictionaries for Indio Third Graders, and Scholarships for Indio Students. We meet Tuesdays at Noon in the Special Events Center at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Our club is always open to new members who would like to participate in the activities. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected] or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IndioRotary or on Twitter @IndioRotaryClub. “Service Above Self”

Top Mathematicians:

8th Grade Henry Nation, Palm Desert Charter – 1st Place

Brody Toth, Palm Desert Charter – 2nd Place

7th Grade Jackie Jones, Palm Desert Charter – 1st Place

Leyna Jaster, John Glenn Middle School – 2nd Place

6th Grade Eric Rodriguez, La Quinta Middle School – 1st Place

Remi Benomar, Palm Valley – 2nd Place

Overall School Scores:

8th Grade Palm Desert Charter – 1st Place

Cahuilla Desert Academy – 2nd Place

Bobby Duke – 3rd Place

7th Grade John Glenn Middle School – 1st Place

Palm Desert Charter– 2nd Place

Cahuilla Desert Academy – 3rd Place

6th Grade Coral Mountain Academy – 1st Place

La Quinta Middle School – 2nd Place

Palm Desert Charter – 3rd Place

Events:

Leap Frog

8th Grade Henry Nation & Brye Jankowski – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Jackie Jones & Jonathan McCarthy – Palm Desert Charter

6th Grade Luis Medina & Yamilet De Anda – Valle del Sol

Calculator Challenge

8th Grade Rocco Caronna – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Cynthia Ruiz – John Glenn Middle School

6th Grade Sylvia Mitchell – Nellie Coffman

Mental Gymnastics

8th Grade Paul Minchev – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Divan Mejia – John Glenn Middle School

6th Grade Maverick Risenmay – Palm Desert Charter

Team Investigation

8th Grade Melisa Ramirez & Stephanie Flores – DHS Painted Hills

7th Grade Harliana Otto & Katelin Slosky – Palm Valley

6th Grade Dominik Rutowski & Robert Fox – John Glenn Middle School

Construction Derby

8th Grade Courtney Chapetz & Josh Makksi – Palm Valley

7th Grade Cody Larson & Maricarmen Aceves – Cahuilla Desert Academy

6th Grade Remi Benomar & Sauman Zadeh – Palm Valley

Games:

24

8th Grade Theodore Wong – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Shafaa Munjal – Palm Desert Charter

6th Grade Frida Arriaga – Coral Mountain Academy

Hex

8th Grade Brody Toth – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Jackie Jones – Palm Desert Charter

6th Grade Genaro Diaz – Coral Mountain Academy

3D Tic Tac Toe

8th Grade Henry Nation – Palm Desert Charter

7th Grade Chloe Lindermann – Palm Desert Charter

6th Grade Andrew Cecena – Coral Mountain Academy

5 in a Row

8th Grade Christian Hernandez – Bobby Duke

7th Grade Alexa Vasquez – John Glenn Middle School

6th grade Kylie Frescas – La Quinta Middle School

Capture

8th Grade Edwin Rodriguez – Cahuilla Desert Academy

7th Grade Leyna Jaster – John Glenn Middle School

6th Grade Eric Rodriguez – La Quinta Middle School

The Rotary Club of Indio is a group of civic leaders meeting to share ideas to make a difference in our community. Since 1949, our group shares their time and energy to support our community. We meet weekly to network, hear speakers on various subjects, and work on service projects. Our signature project since 1995 is the Coachella Valley Middle School Math Field Day. We also provide Dictionaries for Indio Third Graders each Fall and trips to the Coachella Valley History Museum. We sponsor the Rotary Youth INTERACT Club at Shadow Hills High School and provide Scholarships for students to further their educational pursuits. We meet Tuesdays at Noon in the Special Events Center at Fantasy Springs Resort Casino. Our club is always looking for new members. We help members become better leaders and in that process, we help our communities become better places to live. For more information, e-mail us at [email protected] or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/IndioRotary. “Service Above Self”