Rotary Club of Casper WY

Meeting Summary

11/14/2016  

 

President Elect Richard Schwahn called the meeting to order at 12:25, welcoming everyone to today’s meeting. 

Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:

Dick Jay

Greeters:

Guy DeWitt and Dale Bohren were the greeters today, and Dale introduced the members who brought guests:

•Wendy Lucas, a visiting Rotarian was introduced;

•Dean Cline introduced Mike Brown;

•Mike Ward introduced his sister Brenda Worthington from Tulsa, OK;

• Brian Helling introduced Tina Conley;

•   Tobby, the club’s exchange student, was introduced;

 

Family of Rotary:

The Ruble family is in NY for the Thanksgiving where Jim will be one of the handlers for the Sinclair dinosaur balloon in the parade.

Marie Celine Stegleman was welcomed at the meeting.

Brian Deurloo and Tom Lockhart spoke about Martha Rakestraw who has had a hemorrhage in her eye and will need to keep her head down for a couple of weeks.

 

Rotarians of the Week:

Dale Bohren nominated George Bryce and John Jorgensen for offering to raise the remaining money fpr the David Street Plaza in honor of Brian Scott.

Jim Porter nominated Al Metz for retiring from teaching OLLI classes at the college.

Kevin Murphy nominated Dr. Dan White for volunteering his time at high school games.

 

Announcements:

Deb Theriault gave an invitation for members to attend the Friendship Exchange trip to Australia.  She stated that there is a need for 4 to 5 couples to go to Sidney on March 16-26, 2017.  She listed all of the great activities that will be taking place on this trip.

Mandy George spoke about the planning of the Foundation Dinner to be held February 10, 2017 at the Ramkota.  She has posters to hang at businesses if you have a space for one.  She is still looking for auction Items.  If you have anything for the auction, please contact Mandy.

Eric Easton spoke about the annual Turkey Trott that will be taking place on Thanksgiving morning, beginning at the Tate Pumphouse.

Jim Porter announced that there will be a UW Strategic Planning and Listening Session on Monday, December 5 at 4:15 at the Casper College Union Building.  All are welcome to participate.

Brian Deurloo announced that Dave Elmer has agreed to be the Duck Commander for the 2017 Duck Derby.

Dave Elmer, then, gave a Duck Derby 2016 update.  He said that there were 4536 tickets sold.  After all expenses, the club’s net revenue was $73,929.31.  He stated that he learned a lot of lessons at this Duck Derby.  He listed the main crew and then had everyone stand who helped with this year’s Derby.  

  

Program (Brad Hopkins, the Executive Director of the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission):

Richard Schwahn introduced our speaker today; Brad Hopkins, the Executive Director of the Central Wyoming Rescue Mission who gave a 25 Year Update on the mission.  He began by thanking the Rotary Club for helping to renovate the CWRM, 25 years ago, by donating $45,000 and 2700 man hours.  He called this project, “The greatest thing the Rotary has done”.  As it stands right now, the flagship location is at 230 N. Park.  The mission of the CWRM is reaching lives and restoring lives back into society. Brad stated that they serve a large portion of the state.  CWRM got started in 1978, was originally called the “Souls Anchor” and was located on CY Avenue.   Brad went on to say that there are basically four reasons that people end up at the mission. The first reason is losing their job; the jobless rate in Natrona County is 6.6 at this time which is high.  Second, they struggle with some sort of addiction.  Of those who struggle with addition, 3.5% of their situations are so severe that they lose everything.  The third reason people end up homeless is domestic breakups and the fourth is mental illness.   For the people who struggle with addiction, the CWRM has the Discipleship Recovery Program which is a deep, 12 step, faith based program that lasts three months.  Rescued Treasures is the thrift shop associated with the CWRM where many of the residents work.  20% of all income from the store goes to CWRM.  He concluded his talk by saying thank you, again, to the Casper Rotary Club for their help with the last 25 years and by telling us about the next 25 years.   The CWRM will be embarking on “Project Transformation,” and 8 million dollar expansion program.  

  

President Elect Richard Schwahn concluded the meeting at 1:12 and reminded us that next week we will be here again at the Parkway Plaza and the program will be Liz Becher speaking about the Rotary International Foundation.