With this Friday's meeting, half of our Rotary year will be over.  Many thanks to members of our club for their support of Rotary in a variety of ways -- regular attendance and participation at meetings, support of Flight, contributions to the Rotary Foundation and our own Community Service Fund, support for our service projects, plus adhering to the tenets of the Four Way Test in your daily life.

 

I hope you and a guest ($22 for lunch) are able to make it to this Friday's holiday gathering at our regular meeting.  We'll be entertained by the Pikes Peak Singers, a group from the Colorado Springs Children's Chorale.  Ron, Claudine, and I had lunch with management from The Antlers Wyndham on Monday; the hotel and it's catering staff are ready for our special event.  Santa will visit and, after the meeting, head to Queen Palmer Elementary along with fellow Rotarians to hand out candy.

 

 

One of our long-term (45 years) members has brought joy and merriment to our meetings for a long time.  I joined in 1995 and have always looked forward to Santa's visit.  Our Santa is 1976 Past-President Curt Ormond.  Santa also visits the children at Queen Palmer Elementary each year to hand out candy -- the children's eyes light up and they are truly excited to see Santa.  Curt is also involved each year with the Rotary Champions program along with other Rotary clubs in the area.  Our special thanks to Curt for his selfless donation of time, humor, and true love for what he's contributing to Rotary and our community.

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Our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Christopher Grundner, is finishing up his first semester at Discovery Campus Canyon H.S.  Chris is now living with his second host family -- Larry & Chris Keefe from our own club.  He's looking forward to some skiing over the Christmas break.  Our club has been asked by the district exchange student organization to consider hosting again next year.  To do that, we need volunteers from within our club to serve as counselors and host families.  If you're interested, please contact Carol Bach or Judy Casey.

 

Please watch for next quarter's invoice in your e-mail by the 29th of the month.  We use e-mail as your stewards to keep costs down.  I have heard from some of you that you have not received the invoice, so you will get a reminder e-mail after the first of the year.  Sometimes, you may find it in your "Spam" folder.  If you have not seen your invoice by January 10th, please contact Claudine.  Regarding payment by credit card -- the club has a cost of doing business of about 3% of the transaction to provide this service to our membership.  If you utilize the service and paid by credit card for the latest invoice but did not include the 3%, you may anticipate that charge on your next invoice.

 

Program information -- Craig Engelage has volunteered to manage programs for January and April.  If you would like a short-term position in the club, how about organizing programs for February (2 programs), March (4 programs), May (4 programs), or June (2 programs)?  We have a nice list of possible programs put together by Elaine Gibbs and Bill Sinclair -- just make the phone call and introduce the guest speaker. 

 

I hope you have a wonderful Christmas, Hannukah, or whatever celebration you might have over the next two weeks.  Enjoy the opportunity to be with family and friends.  No meetings on December 23rd or 30th -- see you this Friday and after the holidays on January 6th.