January is Vocational Service Month to recognize this "Aecond Avenue of Service". According to "50 Things Every Rotarian Should Know About Rotary", each Rotarian represents their vocation to fellow Rotarians and strives to exemplify the characteristics of high ethical standards and the dignity of work. Rotarians understand that each person makes a valuable contribution to a better society through daily activities in a business or profession - and continue to promote the worthiness of all useful occupations even in retirement.
Our service project this month is the warm clothing drive. Please bring your donations to the meeting so Cody can collect them and deliver to the charity. Please see the Community Service section of the bulletin for more details, as well as information on volunteering for the Mock Trials. (A project that just so happens to fall under the category of Vocational Service).
Also, look for information on our January Social and an updated report from the International Service Committee in this week's bulletin.
Our speaker this week will be 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?
Next week our speaker will be the new Sheriff, Sheriff Joe Roybal giving us a preview what his plans are to make our community safer. 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.
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
It is time once again for the High School Mock Trial Competition.
The Southern Colorado trials will be conducted on Friday, February 3rd, Saturday, February 4th and Tuesday, and the finals on Tuesday February 7th, 2023, with volunteers needed all three days. Steve Bailey and Jason Downie will be heading up the competition again this year. General questions or concerns can be directed to Jason or his paralegal, Sunde King, at (719) 579-6500 or by e-mail to jdownie@smmclaw.com and sjking@smmclaw.com, respectively. You may also reach out to Charlie Brown, charlie.brown@wesellmore.net, who is the Rotarian chairing this volunteer opportunity for us.
For the first time since COVID, the Mock Trials will be held in person at the El Paso County Court House, 20 S. Vermijo. Volunteers will be subject to security screening so please allow a few extra minutes for this process. There is parking in the Pikes Peak Center garage located one block to the west of the courthouse at 255 S. Sawatch St.
We need Presiding Judges and Scoring Panelists for the Friday and Saturday trials. This will be a commitment of about three hours on Friday afternoon and/or Saturday morning and/or Saturday afternoon. Please sign up to volunteer at the respective Club-runner sign-up form and your information will be passed along to Jason and Sunde.
This is a great opportunity to watch some of the brightest students in Southern Colorado demonstrate very impressive trial skills. This program gives our legal profession an opportunity to have a positive influence on several high school students, their teachers, friends, and families. However, it will not happen without your three hours of participation. They need your support more than ever!
Please mark the dates on your calendar now and plan to participate.
Thank you all for your continuing commitment to putting Service Above Self!
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
Greetings from Guatemala. I am here with 34 Rotarians from 8 California clubs doing an H2OpenDoors expedition. 3 large water purification systems at a hospital and 2 villages. Big impact!
Tonight I was on a Zoom call with our club's Community Service Fund. I have good news to report. The board approved the following:
$5000 for PEN (Ghana)
$2500 for a science lab for Maasai High School in Kenya
$3000 for HKMU in Tanzania
So wonderful things happening throughout the world as we kick off 2023!
Warmly,
Jon Kaufman
P.S. If you are interested in participating in our International Committee, please email Jon Kaufman jk595@aol.com to be added to the notification list!
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).
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!
