Have you asked someone? Happy 90 th birthday to the Grand Junction Rotary Club On Sept. 16, the Grand Junction RC celebrated 90 years of serving the Grand Junction community. The club was established with their first meeting on September 11, 1919. Although it is rumored that some of the clubs original members are still members today, it is true that they have four members that have served the club and the community for over 50 years—Pat Gormley, Herb Bacon, Dr. Mike Kercheval and Dr. Lynn "Jesse" James. Kathy Herzog broke into the bastion of male dominance as the first female member in 1988 and served as president in the Rotary year of 1997-98. District 5470 congratulates the Grand Junction RC for its service to the Grand Junction community and to the world. September 22, 2009 Volume 1, Issue 1I Rotary District 5470 Newsletter August/September Special points of interest: Why I am a Rotarian? International Literacy Day Ducks in Pueblo! Australian GSE Team Festival of the Americas ―Rotarian of the Year‖ DD Monroe Award Inside this issue: Ducks in Pueblo 2 District Simplified Grants 3 Australian GSE Team 4 Grand Junction School Supplies 4 Literacy 5 New District Gov- ernor 6 District Awards 6 Home Makeover in Pueblo 7 Membership 9 Aspen Scholar- ships 10 Club Rotario 10 Gunnison Liter- acy Project 12 enriches our lives. The Fu- ture of Rotary is in Our Hands, and we can ensure that future by extending our hands to those individuals who are already Rotarians at heart and who are waiting to be asked to join us. Yours in Rotary, Peter As I travel around our dis- trict, I am constantly re- minded of all the great things that individual Rotarians and their clubs accomplish. I keep asking myself, “Why do we have a membership prob- lem?” If our community members knew all we do locally and globally why wouldn’t they want to join us? Why wouldn’t they want to be Rotarians? Quite often the answer is simply that they have not been asked. I should have become a Ro- tarian long before I actually did, but no one asked me. Although I was often an invited guest speaker at Ro- tary meetings, it wasn’t until I moved to Glenwood Springs and spoke at the Sunrise Club that someone asked me to join. Dave Harmon said, “Peter, you’ve got the heart and ethics of a Rotarian and I’d like for you to join our club.” There are undoubtedly nu- merous good people in your circles of family and friends who have the hearts and ethics of a Rotarian and who would love to join you in sharing the pride and re- sponsibility of Rotary. These people are your neighbors, they are your coworkers, they teach your children, they serve your communi- ties, and they would gladly join you in providing Service Above Self, if you would only ask them. Rotary International Presi- dent John Kenny asks each club to increase its member- ship by just one net member this year. District 5470’s exceptional clubs should be able to meet that goal multi- fold by simply sharing with others the many ways Rotary
Transcript
Have you asked someone?
Happy 90th birthday to the Grand Junction Rotary Club
On Sept. 16, the Grand Junction RC celebrated 90 years of serving the Grand Junction community. The
club was established with their first meeting on September 11, 1919.
Although it is rumored that some of the clubs original members are still members today, it is true that they have four members that have served the club and the community for over 50 years—Pat Gormley,
Herb Bacon, Dr. Mike Kercheval and Dr. Lynn "Jesse" James.
Kathy Herzog broke into the bastion of male dominance as the first female member in 1988 and served
as president in the Rotary year of 1997-98.
District 5470 congratulates the Grand Junction RC for its service
to the Grand Junction community and to the world.
September 22, 2009 Volume 1, Issue 1I
Rotary District 5470
Newsletter
August/September Special points of
interest:
Why I am a Rotarian?
International Literacy Day
Ducks in Pueblo!
Australian GSE Team
Festival of the Americas
―Rotarian of the Year‖
DD Monroe Award
Inside this issue:
Ducks in Pueblo 2
District Simplified
Grants 3
Australian GSE
Team 4
Grand Junction
School Supplies
4
Literacy 5
New District Gov-
ernor 6
District Awards 6
Home Makeover
in Pueblo 7
Membership 9
Aspen Scholar-
ships 10
Club Rotario 10
Gunnison Liter-
acy Project
12
enriches our lives. The Fu-ture of Rotary is in Our Hands, and we can ensure that future by extending our hands to those individuals who are already Rotarians at heart and who are waiting to be asked to join us.
Yours in Rotary, Peter
As I travel around our dis-trict, I am constantly re-minded of all the great things that individual Rotarians and their clubs accomplish. I keep asking myself, “Why do we have a membership prob-lem?” If our community members knew all we do locally and globally why wouldn’t they want to join us? Why wouldn’t they want to be Rotarians? Quite often the answer is simply that they have not been asked.
I should have become a Ro-tarian long before I actually did, but no one asked me. Although I was often an invited guest speaker at Ro-tary meetings, it wasn’t until I moved to Glenwood Springs and spoke at the Sunrise Club that someone asked me to join. Dave Harmon said, “Peter, you’ve got the heart and ethics of a Rotarian and
I’d like for you to join our club.”
There are undoubtedly nu-merous good people in your circles of family and friends who have the hearts and ethics of a Rotarian and who would love to join you in sharing the pride and re-sponsibility of Rotary. These people are your neighbors, they are your coworkers, they teach your children, they serve your communi-ties, and they would gladly join you in providing Service Above Self, if you would only ask them.
Rotary International Presi-dent John Kenny asks each club to increase its member-ship by just one net member this year. District 5470’s exceptional clubs should be able to meet that goal multi-fold by simply sharing with others the many ways Rotary
Australian GSE Team visits
Rocky Ford and La Junta
Page 2 Volume 1, Issue 1I
More Ducks from Pueblo
What do Ducks and Dictionaries have in common — Read on!
One maybe saying, ―What do ducks and dictionaries have in common; well more
than one would think.‖ This year Pueblo #43 was approached by another local
foundation to aid them in putting on a ―Duck Race.‖ After some discussion we
decided to utilize the Ducks to fund the Dictionary Project. With the aid of the
Mannequin and Pueblo West Clubs, Pueblo #43 provides between 1600 and 1700
dictionaries to all Pueblo County Third Graders. The gift of words is immeasur-
able, providing a resource to today’s youth that will allow them to experience the
joy of reading is an initiative we are very proud of.
Under the leadership of Mark Swanson, with overwhelming support from the club
and the community it was an overwhelming success. We sold rubber ducks ($5/
duck) to the community at large and raced them down a waterway. We enlisted
the aid of both school districts (District 60 and 70) and organizations like 4H, the
American Legion in Duck Buddy program in which the selling organization re-
ceived one dollar back for every duck sold. We are also blessed with an extraor-
dinary location to hold the event and that is the Historic Arkansas Riverwalk in
downtown Pueblo. To top it off, we were able to hold the fundraiser in conjunction with the first annual
Wild West Fest brought to Pueblo by the Professional Bull Riders (PBR).
While it seems that the stars may have aligned to make this an event so successful, it was truly a success
because of all of the hard work put in by our Rotarians, the Demmler Foundation, and everyone else in-
volved. We had an excellent marketing campaign utilizing the newspaper, television, and radio. In addition
great sponsors from our local business community were instrumental in the Inaugural Race.
This Duck race put over $32,000 back into the community. We sold over 7,500 ducks. We were able to
fund a huge portion of the Dictionary project with this fundraiser. The race itself had a high attendance and
the community is anxious about next year’s race. Rotary 43 is taking over full control of the race next year.
We anticipate it to be bigger and better next year. This gave us a chance to truly serve our community and
everyone involved benefited. Being part of this gave us all a chance to show what being a Rotarian really
means, service above self.
While in the Rocky Ford area, the
Australian GSE team got to visit Bent’s
Old Fort National Historic Site, the
Koshare Kiva Indian Museum, Vogel
Canyon where they saw petroglyphs,
and had half a day vocational opportu-
nities. These pictures include the GSE
team at a joint meeting with the
Rocky Ford Rotary Club and the La
Junta Rotary club at Christine’s res-
taurant.
The GSE team shows off the
club banners each of them re-
ceived from the two hosting clubs.
Left to right are Emma Adcock,
team leader Michael Cook, Mandy
Pearson and Angela Buck
Rocky Ford Rotarian Jeff
Smith, left (back to camera)
was talking with (left to right)
Angel Buck, team leader Mi-
chael Cook, and Emma
Adcock.
Page 3 Volume 1, Issue 1I
Home-grown project earns global award
display explaining the Four-Way Test and Rotary’s work in schools. “It was clear at this point that the relationship between the BBB and Rotary was destined for greater good,” said Pam King, president/CEO of the BBB. In 2002, three Rotarians from RC-Fort Collins approached the BBB Board of Directors to request funding for a scholarship. The board voted unanimously to pro-vide the $5,000 scholarship to be awarded each year during the an-nual BBB Torch Awards. RC-Fort Collins oversees the pro-ject and contacts all 63 Rotary Clubs in the BBB service area. Each Rotary Club is responsible for contacting high schools in their area, inviting and collecting student essays based on Rotary’s Four-Way Test and selecting one entry to forward for final judging. So far 20 communities, some with
multiple Rotary Clubs, have par-ticipated. Scholarship recipients thus far include: Sasha Gartin, Merino; Gabriel Recchia, Ber-thoud; Amy Kreykes, Windsor; Emily Garcia, Fort Collins; Kelly Joy Lemon, Vai l ; Sonja Koldewyn, Berthoud; Joshua Metherd, Wiggins; and Jarek Buss, Laramie. In addition to rewarding a high school student who demonstrates outstanding ethical behavior, the BBB/Rotary Ethics Scholarship strives to impact all businesses by demonstrating the importance of ethical behavior and decision-making for the business market as well as the general population. For more information on the BBB/Rotary Ethics Scholarship and the BBB Torch Awards for Market-p l a c e E t h i c s , v i s i t www.wynco.bbb.org or call 970-484-1348 or 800-564-0371.
Rotary International’s out-going president, D.K. Lee, presented the first ever “Best Cooperative Pro-ject” award to the collaborative effort of the Better Business Bu-reau serving Northern Colorado and Wyoming and the portion of the BBB service area in Rotary Districts 5440, 5450 and 5470. The partnership between the BBB and Rotary began in 2001 during the BBB Torch Awards for Busi-ness Ethics. During the awards program, RC-Fort Collins had a display explaining the Four-Way
District 5470 - 2009-2010 District Simplified Grants:
CLUB PROJECT DOLLARS Alamosa Aspen Buena Vista Colorado Springs Conejos Del Norte Durango Daybreak, Durango High Noon, & Pine River Valley Cent. Durango Daybreak Garden of the Gods Grand Junction Grand Junction Horizon Sunrise La Junta La Junta La Junta Lamar Montrose North Colorado Springs Pagosa Springs Paonia Pikes Peak Pueblo West Telluride
Valley Health Books & Shelves Intercultural Awareness Training Plastic Trash Cans for Events Poor Children Dental Care Park Equipment Globes for 5th Graders Help for Boys &Girls Club Heating for Handicap Winter Sports Fac. Sharing Knowledge Internationally Print Insert in Newspaper for Partners Org. Provide Food for Needy Children Chest Freezer for Food Bank Water Heater for Community Theatre Help for RSVP Medical Transportation Help Start a Pregnancy Center Shoes for Needy Kids Funding for Local Food Bank Funding for Pagosa Outreach Connection Funding for Local Food Bank Flag Pole Dog Park Start Interact Club
As students in School District 51, Grand Junction, unloaded notebooks and folders onto their desks and compared backpacks at the beginning of the school year, a few will had someone other than their parents to thank for those back-to-school supplies. The School District 51 predicted it will host an in-creased number of students who are eligible for free and reduced lunches as
well as students living without a permanent home this school year. Thanks to a growth spurt in donations, though, the district was ready to meet the need. The Downtown Rotary Club, with help from Horizon, Redlands and Fruita Rotary clubs, helped pick up more than $18,000 worth of supplies from Wal-Mart. That’s enough to serve every middle school and elementary student that qualifies for the free lunch and breakfast program in District 51. Demand was up, with more parents calling in to see how they could get a piece of the donation pie. Cathy Haller, the school district’s prevention ser-vices director, has seen calls double from homeless parents seeking school-supply assistance. “We are just exploding with people, and the majority are asking for school supplies,” Haller said. “Our secretary was on a conference call (Tuesday), and when she got off the phone, she had 12 messages wait-ing for her.”
Grand Junction Rotary Clubs help with school supplies!
Page 4 Volume 1, Issue 1I
Australian GSE Team visits District 5470
Team Leader - PP Michael Cook, Sponsored by Ro-
tary Club of Berri. Michael, is a Paramedic with the
South Australian Ambulance Service in addition to being
current president of his club (his fourth time as club
president) is a full time paramedic in Berri (a position he
has held for 20 years). He is married to Vesna, a chemical
engineer.
Mandy Pearson, Sponsored by Rotary Club of Flagstaff Hill. Mandy is a police constable
(Intelligence Supervisor) with the South Australian State Police. A former AFS exchange student to
Borneo in Malaysia, she is married and has two daughters.
Angela Buck, Sponsored by Rotary Club of Berri. Angela is manager of business services for
a non-profit organization, Orana Incorporated, which employs people with disabilities to develop
and train in social and work skills. She has two grown daughters and a grandson, She and her part-
ner, Wayne, live in a house she renovated into an eco-friendly home.
Emma Adcock, Sponsored by Rotary Club of Eastwood. Emma works for the Adelaide
City Council in property valuation and is
working on a masters degree in urban and regional planning.
Blog http://australiagse9520tocolorado.blogspot.com
The District governor for 2012-2013 was an-nounced at the 2009 Dis-trict Conference. Con-gratulations go to Carla Vauthrin. AG Carla is currently AG for Area 2 including the Rotary clubs of Garden of the Gods, Colorado Springs Interquest, Pikes Peak, and Rampart Range. Carla is a member of the Garden of the Gods Ro-tary Club and was club president in 2006-2007.
Carla holds a BA in Ele-mentary Education and an MA in Communications. She relocated to Colorado Springs from St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, where she directed the federal Ele-mentary and Secondary Education School Library Resources Title II pro-gram for the territory be-fore becoming part of a cooperative creating a pri-vate alternative K-8 school where she taught reading and language arts,
acted as a librarian, and finally became principal of the school. Carla was a member of the parents' and citi-zens' committee that worked to create the first public Montes-sori School pro-gram in Colorado Springs and is currently the site coordinator for the Children’s Literacy Center in Colorado Springs.
The name of the newly chartered club, Florence – East Fremont Rotary Club will
be celebrating their official charter on September 29th. They meet at the Meetign
Place, next door to the Main Street Grille, 132 West Main Street in Florence, CO
81226 every Thursday noon. Congratulations to Charter President Rudl Mergel-
man and the Florence—East Fremont Club members. District 5470 owes a big
thanks to the Canon City Rotary Club, AG George Small, and PDG Jan Williams
who helped immensely to get this club formed.
DD Monroe Best Club Award
The Grand Junction Rotary Club receiving the DD Monroe Award from
PDG Walid Bou-Matar. The club:
Increased their membership
Implemented humanitarian projects addressing local and interna-
tional needs
Developed leaders to serve Rotary beyond the club level
Home makeover in Pueblo!
Page 7 Volume 1, Issue 1I
The Rotary Club of Minnequa in Pueblo partners with Neighbor-
Works Community Housing Services each year to help paint a
home of an elderly or disabled person. This yearly event in a spe-
cific area of Pueblo uses hundreds of volunteers from businesses
and organizations to help perk up older neighborhoods. They
have found that if one house in a two block area gets painted sev-
eral others will follow suit.
It is exciting to see the neighbors come out to watch us and even
help. The Rotary Club of Minnequa selects a home that has been
pre-qualified through NeighborWorks, the club finds a team
leader within our Club, then works on the project two times.
Once is a few days before the event to power wash and get the
house ready, then on Saturday morning we all show up with our
painting equipment scavenged from home and put on our old
paint clothes and begin the transition. Working together the club
has many fun hours.
The work is not easy because most homes need a lot more than
just paint. Sometimes they need just some TLC and sometimes
major repair work, we’ve cleared away junk, trimmed tree
branches, cleared off porches, and hauled away bigger pieces of
trash that the older homeowners couldn’t deal with. Several
members enlist spouses and children to help. It becomes a tradi-
tion. With any luck at all we usually finish around noon or 1:00
that same day. The reward from the homeowners faces when we
finish is worth a thousand words. This Minnequa Rotary Club
has done at least 15 houses in the last 22 years.
This year the club is working on a home the same weekend as
District Conference, so President Tom Ruth will be enjoying Ro-
tary District Conference instead of painting, however he did
work hard on the prep work last Saturday. Attached are three pic-
tures of last year’s home.
Rich Mestas working to take off the house
numbers before the painting took place
This years Club President Tom Ruth with
paint on himself instead of the house due
to a sprayer malfunction ( he claimed)
The completed house with the newly
installed US Flag.
Upcoming Foundation/Presidents dinner
Jan 8th RI Presidents Dinner in Denver
Jan 9th Foundation Seminar
This is a multi-district dinner and conference with
Rotary International president John Kenny speak-
ing. Book your calendar now!
I
Why am I a Rotarian? is a feature of RGHF. Here are some samples. I would like to continue this with:
“Why am I a Rotarian in District 5470”? If anyone is willing to share their reasons email me at [email protected] and I will place this information in the next newsletter.
Volume 1, Issue 1 Page 8
RGHF (Rotary Global History Fellowship) is a much-used website which contains the most comprehensive collec-
tion of Rotary’s history over the past 100+ years with over 3,000+ pages and 15,000 articles on the history of Rotary In-
ternational. Hopefully, anything you ever wanted to know about the movement is here within this website. You can read
about Rotary’s Paul Harris and find wonder in his messages, essays and books. You can also learn about Rotary’s famous 4-
Way Test or take our Rotary Global History tour. In addition, we offer four monthly features: “Why I Am A Rotar-
ian,” “What Paul Harris Said,” "Our Foundation Newsletter," and "Rotary Global History Day." You will
learn a great deal from our global, Rotary-hoped-for future, such as: essays on the journey toward Peace. The highest com-
pliment you can give is for you to say, ―Wow,‖ after a visit to rghf.org!
I rolled out of bed at my usual work-
day time of 5:00 a.m. on the morning
of July 4th, 2006. I immediately asked
myself, ―Self why did you volunteer?‖
I had volunteered to help The Rotary
Club of Lake Conroe (not my club,
but a close neighbor) with a rest stop
for the ―Burn Your Buns‖ bike ride
benefiting Bridgewood Farms, chal-
lenged. a local facility for the mentally challenged. I
did gather myself together, drink some coffee and
headed on over to the home of Rotarians I did
gather myself together, drink some coffee and
headed on over to the home of Rotarians Michael
and Kris McBride. Their ranch was the location of
one of the rest stops for the bike riders. My self
talk on the way home that day was totally different
from the thoughts of the day as I reflected back on
the morning. ―Service Above Self‖ is not just our
motto. Rotarians live and breathe the motto in eve-
rything Rotarians, friends and family on hand to
work the rest stop were the real winners. The fel-
lowship shared was priceless. been for Rotary and
another ―volunteer day‖. When Kris agreed to
write the weekly Rotary column in The Courier
(our local daily newspaper) she asked for a volun-
teer from each of the Montgomery County Rotary
Clubs to gather news of their club for her. I was
the Rotarian to represent The Rotary Club of Con-
roe. The rest is history and she is truly the sister I
never had. THIS is why I am a Rotarian. Doris A.
Lockey Past President 2006/2007, The Rotary Club
of Conroe, Texas, USA, District 5910
When someone asks me why I became a Rotarian and what do we
do, it is not an easy question to answer. I became a Rotarian for
many reasons. The most profound was the fact that I myself have
had to rely on a Local Food pantry for help at some point. Having
five children at home with two in Diapers and being a single parent
all at once can be a somewhat overwhelming experience. No mat-
ter what you do for a living. I wanted the children in a good school,
and paid for it dearly.
It was then I had to turn to the local food pantry in my area, after a
lot of soul searching. I was embarrassed that I even had to go
there, but I was out of diapers and had just paid the rent. I had
nowhere else to turn, so I went. When I went there I was greeted
by a very nice woman with a Rotary Pin. She helped me, she lis-
tened, and she understood. I was not a slacker or lazy. I worked
hard for what I had, and hated having to go for help. She showed
me more respect and dignity than I could ever imagine. I remember
the Rotary Emblem prominently displayed above her head. I do
not think I will ever be able to pay back that one act of kindness.
Ever.
I went back over the years and volunteered there whenever I
could, but always in the back of my mind I thought I could do
more. There had to be more. Two of my children grew up, one
died, and two were left at home. Then I found myself moving to
New York State. I thought a change would be nice, a better place
to raise my other two children.
I ended up with a terrific boss who asked me, ―Hey, would you
like to join Rotary‖. He tried to explain about Rotary, how it was-
n’t just the food pantry I should recognize it by. He then took me
to his father who was also a Rotarian. His father was a passionate
man who showed me a project he had done for an Orphanage in
South America. It was an oven that used no more than the sun to
cook for them. The passion in his eyes reached my very soul and a
realization came to me. This was my ―More‖, the rest of the story
so to speak. However, it turned out to be only the beginning.
I have been a Rotarian now for almost 8 years. In that time I have
learned that Rotary is many, many faces. Literally. Catherine Ricci
D i s t r i c t 7 1 7 0 A G 2 0 0 6 - 0 7
District 7170 Foundation Treasurer
Page 9 Volume 1, Issue 1I
T he Membership Minute is an e-mail newsletter that provides membership development ideas,
resources, and tools. It features:
The latest research on Rotary membership
Suggestions about where to find and how to recruit qualified, committed Rotary club mem-
bers
Ideas for creating or enhancing new member orientation programs
Tips and trends for keeping and retaining members
Simply go to http://www.rotary.org/en/members/generalinformation/membershipresources/pages/
membershipminute.aspx to complete the sign-up form to subscribe. If you register, you will re-
ceive only the Membership Minute, and you may unsubscribe at any time. If your e-mail provider
has spam filters, be sure to add [email protected] as one of your approved senders.
August was Rotary International Membership & Extensions Month
THE MEMBERSHIP MARKETPLACE
At its June 2009 meeting, the RI Board of Directors adopted a new membership slogan, "Each Ro-tarian: Reach One, Keep One". The slogan emphasizes the need to focus on both recruitment and retention in membership efforts.
RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS TO GENERATE INTEREST IN ROTARY CLUB MEMBERSHIP
Focus groups of non-Rotarians conducted by RI indicate that many people are not aware of what Rotary is or what Rotary clubs do. Public awareness and your club’s public image have a direct effect on membership growth, so it is important that the membership and public relations committees work together to coordinate their goals and activities. When your club has a prominent, public presence in you community, inviting prospective members to become Rotarians becomes a much easier task to accomplish.
USING TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE YOUR CLUB’S PUBLIC IMAGE Rotary clubs should strive to be creative and resourceful when it comes to electronic communication. A modern, sophisticated club webs site is a source of pride for existing members and promotes your innovative club to pro-spective members. Streaming video, digital audio, podcasts, and blogs on your site all add to its appeal. Con-sider embedding video clips from the YouTube Rotary International channel as well. If your club does not have a member who is tech savvy or familiar with how to use new media, consult you local business directory to find a new media marketing professional in your community, and invite him or her to speak at a club meeting. Then recruit that person to join the club!
RECRUITMENT TIP OF THE MONTH Hold a luncheon or dinner for community leaders. Develop a list and divide among the club members to issue written invitations and follow up with personal contact. Club or members pay for invitations and meals. Have Rotary literature, such as “What’s Rotary” cards (419-EN) and “Rotary Basics” (595-EN) at each guest’s seat. Show the six-minute video “This is Rotary” (449-EN), and bring in a dynamic Rotary leader as speaker. Individ-ual members follow up with each attendee, inviting to the next club meeting, engaging in conversation about Rotary, answering questions, and encouraging membership. A successful event should yield new members – up to perhaps 25% of those invited. Let us know if you tried this recruitment technique and how many new members it generated. Sarah Bishop, co-chair, District Membership Committee. [email protected]
