New Club President John Starnes called the meeting to order at 12:25 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary.

 

Dan Cantine and Tim Monroe were our greeters and Dan introduced guests:

Dan introduced visiting Rotarians Lynn Williamson and Lynn Lockhart;

Steve Domonkos introduced Ethan Dexter;

Bill Schilling introduced Dick O’Hearn and had all of the Wyoming Conservation Corp stand up ;

Steve Loftin introduced his wife, Cindy Loftin;

Tom Broumley introduced Fred Feth;

Susan Griffith introduced Beau Griffith;

John Griffith introduced Mary Koernig from the NIC;

George Bryce introduced his son Kendall Bryce;

Dan introduced club guest from the YMCA, Katie Adrian;

 

Today we honored those members of our club who passed away this past year, they will be missed. We had a moment of silence as we remembered each of them.

 

Dennis Lower treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “Cowboy Joe”

 

 

Stephanie Reid let us know that the husband of Rotarian Martha Rakestraw passed away last week and that there is a card going around the room for us to sign, our thoughts and prayers are with Martha at this time.

 

Bill Schilling nominated all of those Rotarians and spouses that helped with the dinner for the WY Conservation Corp.

Brian Deurloo nominated Bill Schilling for rounding up all of the great people to help up on the mountain at Rotary Park and also he nominated Steve Schnell for his work on Crazy Days.

 

Bill Schilling brought the Wyoming Conservation Corp team come forward to introduce them and thank them for their hard work. He also asked for volunteers for this Saturday from 8 to Noon to help with clearing the trail and installing a bench as part of an Eagle Scout project, many volunteered. Bill then passed the microphone to the WCC members to introduce themselves, they are; Christian from Hawaii,Alek Angele from Laramie, Matt Cronin from Chicago, Heidi Dowling from Parker CO, Skeete Armstrong from Amarillo TX, Walker Madden from Joshua Tree CA, Christian Marr from Jupiter FL, and Amanda Harper from Birmingham Alabama (roll tide). Christian explained a little about WCC, they travel around the State helping with trails and conservation work, usually working with agencies such as BLM and Game and Fish. He said they get to use chainsaws and have fun in the sun working on trails and building stairways out of stone. They built a nice stone stairway up at the top of our trail that should be there for many years to come and that will help with erosion problems. Amanda then took the mic and let us know how happy they are to be working on our trail and Rotary Park. They have built about 20 stairs and have drilled lots of holes in the upright poles so that the cable handrails can be ran through the uprights. She thanked Bill for the donuts he takes them and Brian for the fruit he brought up, they like treats. Bill then gave each of them a four way test coin.

Past President Bill DeGraeve then introduced Susan Thomas and she presented the Craig Thomas Leadership Award for this past year. This award is given each year to someone with the following qualifications; Integrity, doing something larger than self, sharing knowledge and skills not only to their community but also to the State and Military Service when possible. There are many in this room who have these traits but only one can be chosen. This person is very capable, competent and has common sense. He graduated with his Bachelor degree from UW, and an MBA from Portland State University. He served in the Korean War and was honorably discharged as a First Lieutenant from the U.S. Army. He served as Chamber president in both Thermopolis and Laramie and as the past president of the Casper College Board. He is a distinguished Alum of UW and also is in the Hall of Fame as an eminent Engineer for the UW College of Energy. Susan’s most favorite thing that he did was to be the first to step forward and support the Wyoming 1^st annual Susan B. Komen Race for the cure. He became the fundraising chair for major donors and did an excellent job. He is a retired executive of a utility company, joined the Wyoming legislature in 2000 and has been reelected every two years since then. Last term he was the chair for the business and economic development committee. The thing that he enjoys doing the most is mentoring because he feels that a true leader gives it away, teaching those coming up in the ranks. A paraphrased quote, “with every choice that you think do or say, choose to do it with the highest mind within you until that is all there is. Congratulations Tom Lockhart, the 2015 Craig Thomas leadership award recipient.

Past President Bill DeGraeve then gave out more of his awards to people who were not here last week, Dennis Gazdiewich, Percy Anderson and Tom Broumley for their work every week in setting up the meeting facilities. Pam Walker for taking care of greeters, inspiration and 4-way test presenters every week, Hal Hutchinson for 2 years being chairperson for the Duck Derby. Richard Schwahn for hosting exchange students in his home for 3-4 years, becoming part of the board and now being President elect nominee, and for three years taking care of ticket sales for the Duck Derby, along with this Bill also is naming Richard the Rotarian of the year, Congratulations!!

   

 

Past President Bill recognized those Paul Harris Fellows that were gone last week.

First time fellow: Susan Thomas,

Paul Harris plus one: Richard Schwahn

Paul Harris plus two: Leo Riley, Steve Domonkos,

Paul Harris plus three: Dave True,

Paul Harris plus four: Sandy Widmer

Paul Harris plus seven: Al Metz

 

 

Peaches Lynch announced the upcoming Golf Tournament for Saturday August 1, and let us know they still need players and hole sponsors as well as volunteers for registration, photographers and hole sitters. She also needs help stuffing the goody bags and will send out an email with more information on that. Please watch for an email and thank you to those who stepped forward today.

Brian Deurloo announced that the Duck Derby is coming up, they are putting together a flyer to show what the funds have been used for and needs a list of things that it has helped with. He would like people who have helped with the Duck Derby to come forward each week to give a testimonial about the Derby and what it means to you and the community. Also they will have a poster up on the wall each week to show who is selling tickets so as you sell a book (10) of tickets get a duck sticker to put next to your name.

Barry Johnson announced that August 14-16 is the annual motorcycle, automobile ride to raise money for the International project. More information is on the tables.

Dusty Johnson let us know that the Casper Rotary Foundation has pledged $1500 for the Lusk relief fund, the True Family has donated $6,000, our club has donated $1,000 and the other clubs are raising money. If there is anyone who would like to donate more please donate it to the Foundation and mark it for the Lusk flood relief fund.

   

 

Richard Schwahn introduced today’s speaker, Brent Kleinjan, CEO of the Casper Family YMCA. Brent spoke to us about the YMCA here in Casper and told us about the fundraiser for a new building and showed us what the new building is going to look like. He started by passing around a capital campaign brochure from 1975 when they were fundraising. It was neat to see the pictures in that brochure. He thanked YMCA Board member Kendall Bryce, campaign co-chair Susie McMurry and Katie Adrian from the YMCA for being here today. In 2010 when he arrived he thought he knew everything and that running the YMCA would be easy, he quickly found out that the building was old and they needed to raise some money. They started the “Building Tomorrow Today” campaign to raise money for new facilities. The YMCA focuses on helping people through Christian based service. They serve a wide variety of people, some who can pay and others who are unable to pay but need the services. They have been recipients of Rotary Foundation Scholarships to help those who can’t pay. They focus on strengthening our community through youth development with sports, swimming lessons, child care etc. with teaching healthy living with senior swimming, cancer survivor physical therapy and exercise programs. Social responsibility they teach by including everyone in the community whether they can pay or not. With the capital campaign they needed to raise $14 million and thanks to Susie McMurry and Peter Wold they only lack about $1 million. Before starting this campaign they did a feasibility study and discovered that they could be serving even more people with the proper facilities. The YMCA is on city owned land and the new building will be built to the south west of the current building where the skate park is located. With the ground breaking last week they were able to announce some naming opportunities for the major donors. The McMurry Foundation gave a generous lead gift and there will be a unique memorial outside the main building to honor the McMurry Foundation. Other naming opportunities are the Bill Daniels Field house with the Goodstein Foundation court, the Kinske Family lounge, the Jane Wold fitness studio. There will be a great wellness center and the Skate Park will be moved and rebuilt to a better quality skate park. There will be the Kelly Foundation weight lifting area within the wellness center. They will have the Jean D. True drop in childcare center for parents to drop their children off while they exercise. Outside of there will be the Dave and Melanie True playground. There will be the First Interstate Bank welcome center, the Casper Star Tribune Skate Park. The current Gym will be kept and will be named the Platte Valley Bank Gymnasium. He showed us some great renderings of the new facility, a great upgrade from the old building originally built in 1962. Security and convenience will be greatly improved with this new facility and many more people in the community will be served. There will be a Phase 2 which will add more to the facility eventually.

 

President John Starnes adjourned the meeting at 1:28 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are back at the Parkway Plaza, and the program will be Dan Cantine from the 12/24 club.