Col. (Ret) Gail Benjamin Colvin serves as the Air Force Academy’s Director of Staff. Her presentation provides an update on the Academy’s commissioning and university missions focusing on officer development for future conflict and COVID operations.
Gail’s military and civil service careers span leadership experiences across various disciplines including joint military doctrine, research and development, and command. She served as USAFA’s Vice Commandant for Culture and Climate leading efforts dealing with organizational culture issues. She has been an advocate for culturally responsive leadership based on access, equity and inclusion and chaired USAFA’s 2020 Internal Racial Disparity Review.
(Program Notes: Col. Colvin was a member of the very first USAFA class to admit women! She graduated in 1980. And while she didn’t provide this in her bio for the program, last year she was recognized as a “Distinguished Graduate” for her extraordinary contributions to the U.S. and the Colorado Springs community!)
As a global network that strives to build a world where people unite and take action to create lasting change, Rotary values diversity and celebrates the contributions of people of all backgrounds, regardless of their age, ethnicity, race, color, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, sex, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
Rotary makes high-quality health care available to vulnerable mothers and children so they can live longer and grow stronger.
We expand access to quality care, so mothers and children everywhere can have the same opportunities for a healthy future. An estimated 5.9 million children under the age of five die each year because of malnutrition, inadequate health care, and poor sanitation — all of which can be prevented.
HOW ROTARY MAKES HELP HAPPEN
Rotary provides education, immunizations, birth kits, and mobile health clinics. Women are taught how to prevent mother-to-infant HIV transmission, how to breast-feed, and how to protect themselves and their children from disease.
OUR IMPACT ON THE LIVES OF MOTHERS AND CHILDREN
The Rotary Foundation reaches mothers and children in need by giving communities the help and training they need to take control of their own maternal and infant health care.
Rotary makes amazing things happen, like:
Mobile prenatal clinics
Haiti has the highest maternal and infant mortality rate of any country in the western hemisphere. Rotary provided a fully equipped medical Jeep to volunteers and midwives to reach mothers and children in remote areas.
Cancer screening
Rotarians provided a mobile cancer screening unit and awareness trainings around Chennai, India, where there is a high mortality rate of women with breast and cervical cancer due to late diagnosis.
Preventing injuries and deaths
Rotary members launched a $3 million, five-year pilot to save lives of mothers and children during home deliveries in Nigeria. Since 2005, they’ve also repaired 1,500 obstetric fistulas — 500 more than their initial goal — restoring dignity and hope to vulnerable mothers.
Throughout the month of April, we are encouraging Rotarians to recycle plastic sheeting in support of Earth Day celebrated in April. This project is in support of Trex’s earth-friendly composite decking and railing.
Trex will accept Produce Bags, Store Bags, Ice Bags, Ziploc & other reclosable bags, Cereal box liners, Case overwrap, Bread Bags, Bubble Wrap and other types of plastic sheeting.
Weigh your plastic sheeting donation then drop it off at a local King Soopers or with Samantha Chapman.
Since our previous Saturday Habitat for Humanity volunteer opportunity was cancelled due to weather we have a new sign-up opportunity for May 21-22!
Volunteer with your fellow Rotarians and other local Rotary clubs with the Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity. All Rotarians and friends are welcome to volunteer and there are options between a morning/afternoon or all day shift. Encourage a spouse, significant other, or friend to join you as we assist with a local build project in our Colorado Springs area.
International Committee is working on some great projects!
- Joint Project with Denver Mile High Club Uganda mental health is approved and in motion!
- CSF approved $500 for Ashesi University project in Ghana. Distract Grant request submitted. Looking to get other local clubs to partner with us.
- Colorado Haiti Project is continuing on their agriculture project and has changed their name to Locally Haiti.
- We are drafting a request for the Practical Education Network (PEN) in Ghana for funding to help with transition to online learning because of covid. We get to hear from PEN's CEO & Founder, Heather Beem in April as one of our speakers!
- Next International committee meeting will be April 9th via Zoom at 1:30/1:45 immediately following our weekly meetig (or in-person if you are joining us inside Sportivos for BYOL).
Onward and upward, Jordan Davis - International Committee Director
Are you missing seeing your other Rotarians in person? Feel free to join Jordan Davis and Kay Rendleman with some of your other fellow Rotarians on Fridays over at Sportivos inside the Antlers hotel. Arrive starting at 11:30 for socially distanced socializing and bring your laptops and headphones to participate in the meeting on Zoom at 12:15! Questions? Contact Jordan or Kay."
1. Where were you born and where did you grow up?Born in Denver, to Springs 1 month later (grew up in Springs)
2. Coffee or tea? Coffee
3. Do you currently or have you ever played a musical instrument? Was a classical saxophone music major in college. (Haven't yet turned saxophone into a lamp) Now re-learning the piano.
4. Favorite sport to watch? Favorite sport to play? Favorite sports teams? Not much of a watcher, but favorites would be, in order, hockey, tennis, football. Favorite sport to play was tennis (no longer have depth perception so playing days are long gone...
5. Who would you consider to be your “hero” or “mentor” and why? My "hero" was godmother, Ellen Enoch.
6. Do you speak any languages besides English? Can barely speak English adequately, much less any other language.
7. What is one thing from your Bucket List? Yosemite (Yo-sem-mite)
8. Do you have pets? Currently 1 dog "Barkley"
9. What is one thing you’ve done that you never want to do again? Get a divorce
10. If you had to give up one of your five senses for the rest of your life, which one would it be: sight, sound, touch, taste, or smell? Smell
11. What was your first job? First paying job was at Flying W Ranch (65 cents per hour, My father was Russ Wolfe's CPA).
12. How long have you been in Rotary? Eight years in this club
13. What is your favorite community service activity that our club has participated in? Flight
14. Who was your rotary sponsor? Laurel MacLeod
15. What board positions have you held in our club or in prior clubs? President
16. What is something else that other Rotarians would find interesting about you that you'd like to share? Spent 2 of 3 Army (enlisted) years ('71-'74) post college here at NORAD. Then went to UCCS for MBA.
More and more often I'm doing a double-take in the mirror. I walk casually by just checking to make sure I haven't spilled lunch all over my shirt and suddenly there is this old lady looking back at me. It kinda looks like me except really, super digitally aged. Except it's not a computer. And it's really me.
I've heard people talk about aging for years. Of course, I was thinking how that would never happen to me because I couldn't possibly get old and wrinkly. People who are as immature as I am can't get old. And pre-June 2017, I was super active and planned to always be going like crazy. Ain't nobody got time for gettin' old!
But life happened. I grew babies in my belly and suddenly road maps appeared in weird places on my...person. I was so proud of my littles that I was constantly smiling and laughing about their silliness so I saw the expanding wrinkles around my eyes. Then the sharpei neck began. Thank you, style-gods for scarves!
One day I was reading a book and happened to notice my hands. Where did these ol' lady, bony, spotty hands come from??
And some days it just feels like dinner time at 4:30 pm.
I went to a show at Hudson Gardens a few years ago to see my high school favorites - Air Supply! Interestingly enough, their lead singer, Russell Hitchcock, still had an amazing voice but he looked a little like my grandma. And the show was sponsored by AARP. So there's that.
While the world keeps turning and getting all grown up, my maturity level is still in the single digits. That's probably what keeps me young. That and some high dollar moisurizers.
I just thought my brain would age with my face. But that's like walking and chewing gum for this blonde. I'm just not that together.
To the whippersnappers in our club, someday YOU TOO will see someone you barely recognize looking back at you in the mirror. And to you senior actives, I'm not far behind and someday I too will enjoy your privileges. In the meantime, I've decided that we're all aging and I'm ok being a lady with a face-map that tells countless stories of fun and feel-good shenanigans and certainly more fancy times than I probably deserve.
Please don't expect me to grow up though because, God forbid, if the Antlers serves black olives...I will be wearing 10 of them.
If you have makeups you would like to turn in to be counted for your attendance, please email me with the date and purpose of the meetings! KSaltmarshVoss@yahoo.com
If you have bulletin announcements, please email the EXACT WORDING of your announcement to KSaltmarshVoss@yahoo.com by Wednesday at 5 pm. I don't write your announcements but I do make them nice 'n' fancy!
As you're doing your shopping online, did you know that you can support our Rotary Club with every Amazon purchase? Here’s how:
Go to smile.amazon.com (not amazon.com). Amazon Smile is the same company, same account, same password, but the Amazon Smile program gives one half of one percent of every purchase to charity. No, it’s not a lot, but it’s also not nuthin’ (to be exact: about $150 for the Club so far). So again, go to smile.amazon.com
Sign into your Amazon account as you normally would
On the very top left of the page, next to the AmazonSmile logo, are three horizontal bars. Click there for the drop-down menu.
Scroll ALL the way down to “Your AmazonSmile”; it should be the last option right before “Sign Out”; Click on “Your AmazonSmile”
On the right side of the page, click on the “change charity” box under Your current charity (Note: If you are currently supporting another charity, that’s awesome! These instructions are for those who are not doing so. Also, if you have not previously selected a charity, your default option will be St. Judge Children’s Research Hospital.)
Type in Community Service Fund of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs; click Select
That’s it. You’re all set. Just remember to go to Smile.Amazon.com when you shop from now on.
