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Rotary Club of Casper WY
Meeting Summary
04/13/2015
President Bill DeGraeve called the meeting to order at 12:32 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary. He also thanked the Rotarians that always set up the meetings for us, Dennis Gazdiewich, Bill Mortimer, Percy Anderson, Tom Broumley and Tony Valdez.
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Deb Theriault
Greeters:
Tim Havasi and Dennis Gazdiewich were our greeters and Dennis introduced guests:
Cori Burton introduced Sgt. Joe Nickerson;
Anthony Martinez introduced Scott Peterson;
Chad Nelson introduced Steven Schnell and visiting Rotarian Dennis Jack ;
Al Metz introduced his wife Margi Metz;
Robin Mundell introduced Dan Cantine;
Jim Beck introduced Liz Roth;
Mike Stepp introduced his daughter, Cathy Stepp;
Rachel Bailey introduced Lindsey Grant;
George Bryce introduced Kendall Bryce;
Susan Griffith introduced her guest Miguel Gabriel and also the Interact students, Chi-yian Dalton, Lindsay Gordon, and Brinna Nichols
Martha Rakestraw introduced the parents of our students of the month Kara Patterson, and Mr. and Mrs. Reed;
Dennis had all of the members of Rotaract who are attending today stand up.
Song and merriment:
Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “America The Beautiful”
Family of Rotary:
President Bill let us know that Stan Lowe tendered his resignation to the club but the board rejected it and there are members who volunteered to sponsor Stan in order to keep him as a member of our club. Robin Mundell then let us know that Stan will be turning 92 on the 23rd and she proposed that each of us send him a birthday card so if you would like to we will gather all of the cards next week and take them all to him at once or you can mail one if you prefer.
Rotarians of the week:
Kevin Hawley nominated Joe MacGuire for stopping and picking up litter that was blowing and stuck in a tree outside the Petroleum club today.
President Bill nominated Liz Becher for conducting the meeting two weeks ago and for standing in for Mike McIntosh on the minutes when he is away.
Announcements:
Dave True announced that the District conference will be held at the Marriott in Fort Collins June 18-20; the club will pay the registration fee and half of up to 3 night’s hotel stay and the rest of the costs are on the member. Wendie Allen in Dave’s office will be handling the hotel reservations as always and you need to register for the Conference online at rotary5440.org. Wendie’s phone is 307-266-0254.
Dennis Lower announced that we will have a Rotary International exchange with 5 couples from India on April 24 and 25th and he is in need of volunteers to host the couples for those two days and nights. Pam Walker, Brian Deurloo, Teresa Corkill and The Theriaults volunteered to host the couples.
Hal Hutchinson reminded the club about the highway cleanup on Saturday April 25th at 9:00 a.m., he has 19 people signed up so far and needs at least four additional volunteers, he will have the signup sheet on the tables next week.
Blue Badge:
Don Mealer, sponsored by Sandy Widmer, turned in his red badge for a blue one today, congratulations Don.
Students of the Month:
We had two great young students from KWHS, Bailey Patterson and Sarah Reed, fantastic speeches from both.
Program:
Today we had two presentations, the first was Rotarian John Jorgensen who spoke about the program that he and his family created to honor his late wife Sue Jorgensen. The Sue Jorgensen Library Foundation was created in 1996 to benefit libraries and advance the cause of childhood literacy in Wyoming. After making a significant contribution of books to the library of her children’s elementary school, the foundation learned of a community that held an annual drive to raise enough money to give every first grade child a book to encourage early enthusiasm for reading. With the support of local teachers, administrators, and parents, the “Casper Cares, Casper Reads” project was born. A steering committee of teachers, librarians, school administrators and parents was formed in January 1999. Six hardback books of varying reading levels were selected to be distributed to each first grade classroom in the school district. Each student then had the opportunity to select the book of their choice. Orders were compiled and placed through an independent local bookstore. In June 1999, all of the Natrona County School District first graders gathered on the campus of Casper College for the very first CC/CR festival. One of the many exciting aspects of this program is that it benefits all children -from great readers to those who are just “breaking the code,” from those with veritable libraries of their own to those without a single book in their home. In 2006, the Casper Cares, Casper Reads program was taken to a new level, expanding statewide for the first time as “Wyoming Reads.” The program has since grown to include celebrations in all of Wyoming’s 23 counties, distributing books to over 7,000 first graders in 2008. Each year since 2006, the Governor has issued a proclamation declaring Wyoming Literacy Day to fall in conjunction with this valuable statewide celebration. John said that the Wyoming Literacy day is celebrated in many different ways around the State with each School district doing something unique that fits with their area of the State. For example in Northeastern Wyoming they hike around Devil’s tower with the first graders. He also told us that many other states have begun this type of program in their schools and the concept is spreading around the country.
Our second portion of the program today was presented by Debbie Mueller, the Rotaract Club President, who spoke to us about Rotaract. Debbie had the Rotaract members stand and be recognized again and thanked them for their support. She gave us some history on Rotaract and our club here in Casper. They have doubled in size since last July and are still growing. She would like for us as Rotarians to attend their events and be mentors, to help them develop and learn more about Rotary. They are sponsored by the Five Trails club as well as our club back in 2006. They want us to tell people about Rotaract, talk to our employees, tell anyone from 21-40 age group that are professionals and see if they would like to become involved in Rotary and Rotaract. We need to start engaging the Rotaract people before they age out of Rotaract so that we can get them involved in Rotary and get them to continue into Rotary and become involved in our club. We are seeing stagnation in our membership and we need to keep growing Rotary. We can find the Rotaract club on Facebook or at their website casperyoungprofessionals.org where we can find their schedule of events and other information. If you would like to get their emails to see what is coming up please let them know as they would really like to have us involved with them. She then opened it up for questions, great presentation and information. You can contact Debbie at destinyundefined@hotmail.com if you have more questions.
President Bill DeGraeve reminded us that May 16th will be the Rotary ride the Teton's bike ride so please sign up, also next Monday at 7:00 a.m. is the monthly club board meeting.
President Bill DeGraeve adjourned the meeting at 1:34 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are back at the Parkway Plaza.
“Light Up Rotary”
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