New Club President John Starnes called the meeting to order at 12:25 welcoming all Rotarians and guests to Rotary. With a special welcome back for Martha Rakestraw.

 

Susie McMurry and Steven Schnell were our greeters and Steven introduced guests:

Denise Prugh introduced Dr. Everett Maynard;

Hal Hutchinson introduced his daughter Sara Hutchinson;

Brian Deurloo introduced Clay Hickling;

Steve Shive introduced Fred Feth;

Jim Anderson introduced his son in law Monte Still;

Bret Ladenburger introduced Nicole Tholson;

Susan Griffith introduced her granddaughter Beau Griffith;

John Griffith introduced Mary Koernig from the NIC;

Bill Pierce introduced his nieces and nephews, Lilly, Octavia, Omiah and Omario;

 

Liz Becher has a card going around for our assistant District Governor Barb Redder who was diagnosed with spinal meningitis, she is doing better but it will be a long recovery.

Denise Prugh let us know that her son and Tara Short’s daughter are both at young RYLA this week.

Steve Loftin let us know that his son started a little store in town for repairing cell phones.

Kevin Murphy let us know that he just picked up his son from RYLA and they had some phenomenal speakers and he feels that we should promote RYLA more than we do.

 

Ronna Boril announced that the golf tournament is this coming Saturday at 7 am and they are in need of additional volunteers.

Brian Deurloo asked for a volunteer to organize the blood drive, and got a volunteer, he then spoke about the upcoming Duck Derby and reminded us to sell tickets and put your duck sticker on the board when you have sold a book of tickets. He said that if you go up to Rotary park remember to take your tickets with you as people that use the park are very happy to buy tickets.

Pam Walker reminded us of the Bear Trap festival this coming weekend and we will be selling tickets and if you volunteered she will be sending out an e-mail this week. Also there are signup sheets on the tables to volunteer for the work that needs done at the derby so please sign up for what you can help with. On August 10, 11, and 12 we will be numbering the ducks so be ready for that. On Tuesday evening we will be selling Duck tickets at the farmer’s market so let her know if you would like to be there.

Deb Theriault then gave us a history of the Duck Derby and her feelings on how wonderful it is to see everyone be involved. It all started in 1999 when she was President Elect and they were looking for a fundraiser. They went to Estes Park CO where they had been having a Duck Derby for years and they decided that it could be done here. Everyone worked hard and it has been going every year since and has helped with many community projects.

Susan Griffith asked for a volunteer to help with Students of the Month and quickly received a very enthusiastic volunteer, Denise Prugh, who has always wanted that job.

Angela Emery let us know that this Friday night, July 31, Platte River Trails is hosting an event to celebrate the Grand opening of the Fort Caspar underpass. It will start at the Pump House at 5:30 and will be a bike ride to the underpass and then back to the pump house for food, drinks and live music.

Barry Johnson announced that the motorcycle and car rally to Logan UT will be August 14-16 and will help raise money for the international project through the games they will play along the way. Everyone can participate in one of the games of guess the mileage; it is a $10 per guess 50/50 raffle and the signup is on the wall. More information and signup sheets are on the table.

Steve Loftin let us know that last Saturday was a work day at the Rotary Park and they worked on the upper end on some land donated by Dick O’Quinn. He said that they built a trail down to some waterfalls and an Eagle Scout was there and they installed a bench as part of his Eagle Project, he then nominated Rotarians of the week those who helped last week.

 

 

Steve Loftin nominated Dave Elmer, Jim Porter, Jim Fowler, Rick Diamond, Clarke Turner, Jim Grenfell and Bill Schilling for their work on Rotary Park.

Susan Griffith nominated Kevin Murphy and Craig Valdez for all of their work with RYLA and young RYLA.

 

Jim Anderson treated us to a good chuckle and then Gary Pehrson had us in singing “Home on the Range” accompanied by Brenda Peters on the piano.

 

Chandra Ortiz, sponsored by Susie McMurry was inducted into our club today, welcome to Rotary!

 

Dennis Jack introduced himself to us today; he is a long time Rotarian and transferred in to our club. He told us that he is a twin and should have been the first born but his brother pushed him out of the way so he was second born. The nurse hugged him when he was born and this gave him a great appreciation for health care so he studied health care administration. He got his under graduate degree from Oregon State as he is an Oregonian then he went to Arizona State for his Masters. His first job was at the mental hospital in Austin TX, he was glad to get out of that industry. He has built eight new hospitals across the country and prior to coming to Casper he was in Border TX just north of Amarillo, a big industrial area, where he had the opportunity to tear down an old hospital and build a new one. He then had the opportunity to come to Casper to work for the new hospital, Summit Medical Center. He is very happy to be here working for this Hospital and living in Casper.

 

Richard Schwahn introduced today’s speaker, Rotarian Dan Cantine, the director of the 12/24 club here in Casper. Dan started by thanking Heidi Foy for her hard work when she was running the 12/24 club for them over the past 3-4 years. Dan had a great slide show showing us the evolution of the 12/24 Club. He said that it all started back in 1993, because of a man that needed help and they had no way to help him. When they tried finding him again to try to help he was already gone and they never saw him again so he and his friend decided that it was time to create a place for people that need help with addiction problems. They wanted a place that could be open all of the time in order to help. They started with a nine member board to start the 12/24 club; they studied and planned for a year before being able to finally open up the first location here in Casper out on West Yellowstone, formally the Sunset Café. They were there for five years and they had 80-90 people coming in daily for help. The second location was in the former Senior Citizen’s center, they won the bid and were able to move in there and stay for the next ten years. With it being in the center of town it was a great location for people to be able to get to. They started a search and one day they decided to check out the old Coliseum Motors building and discovered that Neil and Doris McMurry owned it so they put together a plan and got many people involved in order to make it happen. In order to make the building work the roof needed to be replaced and the City had a grant available but it could not be done with Neil McMurry’s name on the title so they discussed Neil temporarily signing the building over for them to get the grant to repair the roof. Then a miracle happened and Neil decided to just give them the building outright. This started the ball rolling and created the new 12/24 club, there is a big boulder out front with a plaque thanking everyone who helped make it possible. The main funding source is the recovery rally they hold every year. There are now over 3,000 people who come to the club every month and with all of the layoffs going on there are a lot of new people coming in. The facility is a safe haven for anyone seeking recovery.

The club also houses, on the first floor, the Natrona County Drug Court outpatient treatment center along with the literacy project with a daycare for people who need a daycare while they are studying at Casper College. Also Wyoming’s first and only recovery High School, Reach High, is in the building. This year they graduated four students. There is also a Prostart kitchen facility for kids who have dropped out of school, they are able to train to work in a professional kitchen and have a career. If anyone would ever like to take a tour, please call Dan and he would be happy to give you a tour.

 

President John Starnes adjourned the meeting at 1:27 with the ring of the bell, reminding us that next week we are back at the Parkway Plaza and the program will be energy climate and Policy in Australia.