Rotary Club of Casper WY
Meeting Summary
08/02/2021
President Mike Howe called our hybrid zoom/in person meeting to order promptly at 12:10, and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.
Inspiration, Pledge, 4-Way Test:
Susan Griffith
Greeters and guests:
Craig Valdez was our greeter and Craig introduced the members who brought guests.
- Susan Griffith introduced her only grandson Ryder Marvel;
- Tami Chappell introduced Leah Ranes (Highland Hotel Group);
- Fred Feth introduced Kelly Ivanoff (Wyoming Plant Company);
- Tim Havasi introduced Natalie Thiel Jones (PP Jackson Supper Club);
Family of Rotary:
Rotarians of the Week:
Dan O’Dell nominated Anthony and Peaches for all of their work on the Golf Tournament, musically with his guitar and singing. Can’t wait for next year’s golf tournament.
Anthony Martinez nominated Dan O’Dell and Peaches Lynch. He also nominated Dale Bohren, for all he did; Gena and Kristin, for coming up with the theme; Mike Howe and Dan and Lisa as well as Richard Schwahn all for being willing to get dunked. Guy DeWitt tents and water and being there. Dean Cline and Mike Lougee for all of their help, Dave, Lisa and Miamie, and Matt Grant for working the holes. Thanks to Sinclair for the golf balls, Jim for setting that up. Darren for all of his help, then he nominated everyone who helped and participated in the golf tournament.
Special Introduction:
President Mike Howe introduced a special guest, Carrie Murray, President of shelter box USA. She then thanked all of us for the Golf tournament that she said should be known as “Service with a Swing” she thanked us for all of our efforts with shelter box and reiterated the international needs for shelter boxes.
President Mike asked that everyone go into ClubRunner and update your information and make sure everything is current and correct. He also wished Laura Burback a Happy Birthday on August 5th.
Steve Loftin announced that today is our day to volunteer for the Food Bank.
President Mike reminded us that last week we had a club social where we are encouraged to bring guests. He said that we will be doing this every month on the last Wednesday of the month from 5-7 pm and the one this month will be an Ice Cream Social at Donell’s Candy.
Membership:
Today we had a classification talk from Mike Morrissey. He is married to his lovely wife, Jodi, and they have three adult Children, Ben, Nic, and Zach. He was born and raised in Wisconsin. He studied Physics at the U.S. Naval academy where he was the captain of the rowing team. When he graduated, he went on to the nuclear Navy and served in many submarines. He left active duty then joined the reserves and retired after 30 years of service after serving one more tour in Bahrain on the Admiral staff for Navy Central Command. He loves Wyoming and loves the outdoor activities we have here. He currently works for Rocky Mountain Power as a regional business manager.
Program (Big Brothers Big Sisters):
President Elect Miamie Sleep introduced our speaker today, David Branson from Big Brothers Big Sisters. He told us that BBBS is the oldest, largest, and most research based one to one mentoring organization in the U.S. They started over 110 years ago in NYC. They want to make sure that every child in the U.S. has the opportunity to have and adult one on one mentor. Everyone who is successful has had the opportunity to have a non-family member adult mentor, it makes a huge difference in anyone’s life. Our youth really need this opportunity to have the guidance of a mentor. Children will look at adults and don’t know or understand the journey that it has taken for the adult to be successful to the degree that they are, they think that we just automatically arrived there. They need to understand the steps it takes and have a guiding hand for them to get there. He said that the mentoring programs make a huge difference in these children’s lives. 92% of children in mentor relationships have improved their confidence in their school work 97% have improved their attitudes on risky behaviors. 93% do better in school, their grades go up and graduations increase. Truancy goes down, 84% just feel more engaged with their families and larger community, so mentors make a huge difference in these kids lives. He said that being a mentor is a simple thing to do, you don’t have to be an expert at anything, they just need your time and you to show that you care. Having an adult, you can trust and talk to makes a huge difference in every child’s life.
He said that they have three programs, the first is the community-based program that we are all familiar with, we see it advertised etc. It is quite simple; they match the adults with a child after an in-depth interview process with the adult, the child, and the child’s family, and they determine a child that has similar interests, what makes you both tick. Then you get together and do whatever activity you want to do together. The key is the consistency of developing that relationship with the child, consistency of spending time together. With that consistency comes the trust that then develops and allows the child to ask questions and learn and feel safe. They get children from all walks of life.
They also have a program they instituted a few years ago that got slowed down due to COVID. It is the lunch buddies’ program where you go eat lunch with your buddy one time a week at school and just eat lunch with them and visit during their lunch hour. The time you spend with the child, you end up learning things from them, sometimes things you don’t want to know. It also helps the mentor as well as the mentee develop leadership skills.
They also have a referral program called the progressive youth program. It is a program that serves youth that are either about to get into the juvenile justice program or are in it or on probation etc. They call it a Restorative Justice Program; they provide positive supervision and support systems that are intended to help those youth reconnect in society and reengage with family and friends while still maintaining community safety and holding the youth accountable for their actions. This started 14 years ago when two probation officers in Natrona County asked for their help. They do lots of group activities with these youth, where they have them serve the community to give back and also to get them engaged in feeling good about the work they are doing. They allow them to do all of the fun activities so that they can be kids. They are having more and more families coming to them for help with their children because of all of the stress from Covid and the sense of isolation they have endured. Currently they have 23 children waiting to be matched and only have 18 matches compared to 150 children and 45+ in previous years. So, they are in need of adults to be matched with these children. These low numbers are across the country. Being a mentor can make a huge difference in these children’s’ lives. They want to do their best to minimize the damage from the Covid isolation to help these children get back to normal, they are worried about the long-term effects on these children. Over the years to come they hope to be a huge resource and help the children.
He stated that on the table there are some posters for their Wyoming Adventure family Fun Night on August 11 up on the mountain at Bear Trap. It is a free family event for the whole community, they will have fly casters, roping, ATV rides, roping contests, Science Zone, Firefighters, Archery, and many more activities. He said if you have a business that you would like to put up a table you are welcome to do so. He then opened it up for questions.
The littles age from 5-16 years old and there is no set minimum time you have to spend with the children. He said you can contact them if you are interested in being a mentor and they will explain the process and get you going. They suggest an hour a week at least but they know that you can’t do every week but the consistency is what is important, the time, it could be just running errands with you for an hour. The lunch buddy program is for the school year and is once a week.
He added that they do work with other agencies such as the DFS and others as well as non-profits, CPD, and the School District. They are always open to work with anyone. He said that the one on one of the mentorships are the key, the kids open up more and develop that better relationship and feel more trust in the mentors. He said that in Natrona County the agencies work together better than any other county in the state.
President Mike Howe concluded the meeting at 12:53, he let us know that next week, we will be at the Hilton Garden Inn and our guest speaker will be Dr. Nicholas Whipps for an overview of the Casper College Veteran Services.
“We serve to change lives”
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