Rotarians, this has both been a very difficult week and a week that has given us the first signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Although we have not received the official word from Governor Polis yet, we know that we will not be able to meet at the Antlers as long as gatherins are limited to 10 people. For those members who prepay their meals and have already paid their current quarterly dues, we will be applying that credit (5 meals at $23.50 each = $117.50) to your July Invoice. For members who have not yet paid their current quarterly dues, and prepay meals, you may short pay your invoice by $117.50 or pay your invoice in full and we will credit your July invoice. If we are able to resume meetings at the Antlers in May, we'll ask everyone (aside from Prime members who have prepaid two meals) to pay at the door. At our Board meeting yesterday, the Board agreed that it does not pass the Four-Way Test to ask members to pay for meals they are unable to eat. Although this will have a short-term financial impact to the Club, we remain in good financial shape overall.
We will continue to meet on Zoom every Friday if we cannot meet in person. If you have not yet attended a Zoom meeting, please plan on doing so. They are really tremendous fun, and have been consistently attended by about 70 of our Rotarians each week. We have had some fabulous guests, including a soul-stirring performance from Peter Tuff last week. Thanks, Peter! In honor of the Chancellor's visit this week, please feel free to wear your best collegiate gear (T-shirts, sweatshirts, and caps)!
May 2 is next week, and there are TWO competing Rotary events at which I would love to see some participation. First, we need to have at least one person in the club attend the Grant Training Seminar via Zoom. Please email or text me if you are willing to do so. If we aren't grant qualified, we won't get any District money in this coming Rotary year, so we can't have that. The second event is the COVID-19 #RotaryResponds Telethon to raise critical funds for disaster response on FaceBook Live. You should have received an email about this from our Zone Rotary International Representative, Johrita Solari, who joined us at our weekly meeting two weeks ago. The Telethon on FaceBook Live begins at 9 a.m. MST on May 2. Please note that your email says that the event is a 10 a.m. CST. Obviously, we're not in the Central Time Zone, so please adjust accordingly.
Our Club participated in #RotaryResponds in cooperation with the other five Rotary Clubs in Colorado Springs and collectively raised $6,000 for the Ronald McDonald House. As mentioned last week, the families of sick children who would normally be housed at the RMH facility cannot stay there and still comply with social distancing requirements. Therefore, RMH has been paying for hotel rooms for these families in furtherance of the RMH mission.
Our Club has also responded enthusiastically to the idea of making masks. (Yes, we could buy them, but we want to make them with love, and so we will). Sam or I will be picking up the materials from Cass on Monday and distributing them to the fabric cutters. The fabric cutters will have a couple of days to complete their tasks, and then the materials will be taken to the sewers/seamstresses. Voila, masks!
Thank you all for your continued efforts to look out for each other, to participate in the life of the club where you can, and to further the mission of service above self. I extend a special thank you to the bankers, who have been working non-stop to get loans out to small businesses. If you have a moment at the end of this very busy week, we would love to see you at the meeting today.
Consciously or unconsciously, everyone of us does render some service or another. If we cultivate the habit of doing this service deliberately, our desire for service will steadily grow stronger, and it will make not only for our own happiness, but that of the world at large. Mahatma Gandhi
I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy. Rabindranath Tagore
As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do. Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
The thing that lies at the foundation of positive change, the way I see it, is service to a fellow human being. Lee Iacocca
Be of service. Whether you make yourself available to a friend or co-worker, or you make time every month to do volunteer work, there is nothing that harvests more of a feeling of empowerment than being of service to someone in need. Gillian Anderson
The life of a man consists not in seeing visions and in dreaming dreams, but in active charity and in willing service Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity. Unknown
Service to others in their time of need is a privilege and an honor. Harley King
Our success in life is directly related to the quantity and quality of service we give.
Rotary expands access to quality medical care, sanitation, education and economic opportunities so mothers and their children can live 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.
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.
