President John Griffith called the meeting to order promptly at 12:27, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

Michelle Sorenson and Greg Brondos were our greeters today and Greg introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”

President John announced that Percy Anderson’s Wife Doris passed away, we are sending around a card and please keep him in your thoughts.

Bill DeGraeve let us know that he ran into former Rotarian Rob Doane who lost his wife and fellow Rotarian Paulann this past May. He is doing well and Bill invited him to return to Rotary when he is ready.

Susan Griffith reminded us to remember the victims and families of the violence that occurred over the weekend in El Paso and Dayton.

Mike McIntosh nominated Kendra Ziler for stepping in and taking care of the minutes for the past few weeks as he has been gone for work.

Chastidy Fox nominated everyone who helped at Bear Trap Festival selling tickets over the weekend, she also nominated Taylor Schwahn for doing a great job as Duck Commander this year.

Martha Rakestraw nominated Erroll Miller for taking her and Lynn Lockhart to Cheyenne to see the redone State Capital Building, she encouraged us all to go see it.

Anne Ruble nominated everyone who supports RYLA and Young RYLA for the outstanding job they do. Her son Jimmy came back from Young RYLA a completely different kid.

Bill Schilling nominated Liz Becher and said that she has been appointed to be the Administrator of High Country PETS for our Rotary District.

Taylor Schwahn nominated Chastidy Fox for all of her hard work with the Duck Derby, he also nominated Jason DeWitt for helping him get some Gruner Brother’s beer into the hands of Skid Row.

President John announced that we will have new club T-Shirts for when we do volunteer service work we will have them available. He also said we will be counting Ducks on Thursday at 5:30 at the pavilion at Crossroads Park.

Deb Theriault announced that the Rotary Exchange will be happening September 9-11^th and we will have 6 couples coming to visit from England. She is still in need of a host family for one of the couples so please let her know if you are able to host this couple. Dennis Lower volunteered to be the interpreter for the visitors.

Deb Theriault also announced for Mike Stepp that he has about 70 prizes and she encouraged us to donate anything for a prize, even a $25 gift certificate would be good, so that we can have a huge amount of prizes for our 20^th Duck Derby for our 100^th year anniversary of our club.

Miamie Sleep announced that she has more tickets available and asked that when you sell some to bring the money and stubs to her at the meeting next week or drop them off to her at ServePro by the 16th if you are not going to be at the Derby.

Steve Loftin announced that they are volunteering at the Food Bank of The Rockies packing meat today and asked for volunteers.

President John let us know that after the Shelter Box presentation last week our club was recognized for our continued commitment to the program and all of our past support. They designated us a Hero Club and presented us a nice banner.

PE Lisa Scroggins introduced our speaker today, Christi Parrish who is here to speak to us about the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy and what they are all about. She started with an introduction video that told us that the mission of the Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy is to provide a safe, disciplined and professional learning environment that empowers non-traditional learners (ages 16-18) to improve their educational level and employment potential and become responsible productive citizens of the State of Wyoming. The Challenge Academy concept was started in 1993 to help address the issue of High School drop outs which is an epidemic across the U.S. The Wyoming Cowboy Challenge Academy was started in 2005 and opened to students in 2006. They have two classes annually one that starts in January and the other in July. The classes are up to about 100 kids per class now compared to 25-30 when they started. Nationally there are 160,000 graduates. They are 75% federally funded and 25% State funded. It is a free option so the students’ financial background does not matter. They are newly accredited and are a 5 ½ month program that accepts male and female students that are nontraditional learners that are at risk for dropping out of school and not graduating. They have about 4 male students for every female student. They also focus on other areas, they are quasi-military so that they can learn to work as a team and learn some discipline and develop leadership skills and confidence. She stated that the transformation in the student is amazing to see. They do physical training and wear a school uniform. They teach them how to become an adult as well as helping them do credit recovery to be able to return to their HS or they can earn their GED. They also teach them job skills along with how to interview and build a resume. They show them all of the options they have available to them such as going on to College or learning a trade. They even teach them about health and hygiene. Everyone has to be in a leadership position for a period of time while there so they rotate them every couple of weeks so that they can have that opportunity. They also instill the value of serving and giving back to the community through different types of service projects. They teach them the Cowboy Ethics and how to live by these rules and when they are having problems they circle back to these rules to help them. After the 5 ½ months in the program they go back to their community and work with an assigned mentor. This mentor is meant to be their support system, a lifeline, to help them continue to be successful in life. It is really important to get them matched with a strong mentor, they are in need of more mentors, so if you know of anyone or if you would like to be a mentor please contact the Academy. They do get to have a formal graduation along with senior pictures and a diploma when they complete their GED. She showed us a video of one of their Graduates from Casper, he graduated in 2009 and now has his own business in Casper. They also partner with the Wyoming Contractor’s Association in Casper and if a student graduates from the academy they are able to sign up for classes with the WCA to take classes and get a certification. They help them to get a further education whether it is in a trade or college so that they will be successful in their adult lives. She opened it up for questions where we learned a little more. She said that nationwide 5% of the students go into the military and in WY it is about 8%. They have about a 20% attrition rate where about 10% fall out the first couple of weeks because they can’t handle the changes. Staffing wise they have about 88 employees. She stated that the mentor makes a huge difference in how successful the graduate is after they leave the academy so the mentor needs to be very involved and strong.

 

 

President John Griffith concluded the meeting at 1:16 letting us know that next week we will be back at the Ramkota and we will have Betsy O’Neil from the Natrona County Public Library as our guest speaker.

“Use Rotary to connect your world”