Meeting tomorrow at our new location at the DoubleTree Hotel at 1775 E Cheyenne Mountain Blvd (1-25 and Lake Ave).
I hope you all had a nice time over the holidays with family and friends. I spent the holidays traveling and stumbled upon the Erfurt-Kramerbrucke Rotary Club's stand at the Erfurt Christkindlmarkt in Germany. They welcomed me and were excited to meet me, as I them. It was nice to share the fellowship of Rotary. Sky Foerster shared that he was in Portugal, at the westernmost point on the continent of Europe … and saw this photo of a 75th RI anniversary statue placed there by the Lisbon Rotary Club. I'd love to hear other stories Rotary fellowship. What a great reminder that we are all part of a wonderful network of people all around the world working to improve our communities, locally and internationally.
Speaking of fellowship, our next social is January 25th at Atmospheric Gastropub. This is a perfect opportunity to invite friends and neighbors to join you. In the process, they might find out how amazing Rotary is and consider joining. I hope all of you can make it! More details are below and on the website. Also, a little of the proceeds will go to support our Rotary club and community service fund.
Our service projects for January and February include a winter clothing drive and the Mock Trials. The Mock Trials are a wonderful opportunity to see high school students present their cases to a judge. These students are truly impressive. It is inspiring to watch them in action. See later in the bulletin more details on these projects.
Our speaker this week will be Susan Edmundson, President and CEO of the Downtown Partnership to give us an update on what is new and what is coming to Downtown. Our speaker next week is Doug Price, President and CEO of Visit Colorado Springs to give us a Visit Colorado Springs Tourism Report. Tourism is a major economic driver for Colorado Springs. How did our area perform during and after COVID? What exciting things are going to happen to further grow this major local industry? Come and bring a friend. Don't forget to RSVP by Monday at 5 pm.
If you can't attend but would like to watch the meeting, let our club administrator, Karen Mooty know and we'll try to get you set up as we are no longer Zooming the meetings.
Please take time to read the bulletin each week and check out our website that has more information about all our events, activities and upcoming speakers.
Tourism is a major economic driver for Colorado Springs. How did our area perform during and after COVID? What exciting things are going to happen to further grow this major local industry?
We've had no new wild polio cases reported for the last 15 weeks, yeah!
Meanwhile, the state of New York is still surveilling polio in wastewater and urging all residents to get vaccinated against Polio. Remember, polio anywhere in the world can be transmitted to anyone in the world.
Poliovirus Weekly Update 28 December, 2022, World Health Organization
The number of wild polio cases for 2022 as of December 28 is 30 (2 in Afghanistan, 20 in Pakistan and 8 in Mozambique).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2021 were 6 (1 in Pakistan, 1 in Malawi and 4 in Afghanistan).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2020 were 140 (84 in Pakistan and 56 in Afghanistan).
The total number of wild polio cases in 2019 were 176 (147 in Pakistan and 29 in Afghanistan).
In January, we will be having a warm clothing drive. We will be collecting new or gently worn socks, gloves, hats, scarves, mittens and coats. You can just bring them to the meetings in January.
Mock Trials
The 2023 Mock Trial is Friday Feb. 3rd (afternoon) and Saturday Feb. 4th (morning and afternoon). The entire Mock Trial will take place at the El Paso County Courthouse, 20 S. Vermijo.
Our January social will be at Atmosphere Gastropub on January 25th from 5-8:00. It’s located at 1327 Interquest Pkwy. We will have reserved seating on two long tables by fireplace. They offer a variety of food and beverages. This is a great opportunity to introduce your friends to Rotary and learn about the projects we work on, get to know us and possibly become a new member.
Contact Craig Engelage at cengelage@icloud.com to RSVP and for further information
The Concert Committee is forming with captains being chosen to plan a Concert to Rock Your World next October for 8500 ticketed guests. The District Conference will preceed the concert day, all to be held at UC Health Park. If you want to be part of the formation committee email Jon Kaufman at jkaufman@GlobalWaterFirst.com
Recurring Projects include Trampled Rose in Ethiopia, PEN (Practical Education Network) in Ghana
Possible upcoming projects include a Science Lab at Maasai Mara High School, Kenya and HKMU Social Work Student Scholarships in Tanzania
If you are interested in participating in our International Committee, please email Jon Kaufman jk595@aol.com to be added to the notification list!
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.
If you have bulletin announcements, please email the EXACT WORDING of your announcement to kay.rendleman@comcast.net by Wednesday at 5 pm. I don't write your announcements, but I do make them nice 'n' fancy!
