I sent an email out yesterday to the membership with an invitation I created for tomorrow's program so you can forward the email to anyone you might want to invite! I will start sending those invitation emails out on Mondays so you have time to invite someone for the coming Friday. I still believe my goal of membership growth is attainable but that is dependant upon us getting those people into our meetings! So please use the invitation emails to recruit those community members that, in the words of our Past President Caryn Adams, "are Rotarians but they just don't know it yet!"
We had a fantastic Rotary Rally on Tuesday evening! We had two visitors but lots of Rotarians that attended. These events are very much about recruitment but also retention. I am enjoying getting to know our club members better! One of our newer members, Jon Kaufman, attended and WOW! He's full of amazing information and one of our visitors is going to connect him with a pretty powerful person in our community that will most likely be very interested in helping to further the great work that Jon does with water projects around the globe. Jon will definitely be presenting in 2022 about his work, which is very much about involving Rotarians!
We are getting to that time of the year when some of us create new year's resolutions. Last year I wrote about this in my Kolumn and said to remember to set some fun ones as well as the usual diet, exercise, blah blah blah. You might recall that last year I set a resolution to learn to eat with chopsticks. It was a completely random thought and had no connection to anything else in my life. Well, the bad news is that I'm still learning to use chopsticks but the good news is that in February, I was invited to go to Vietnam. We were hoping that would happen last October but we all know how that went. Then we hoped it would be this coming March but I'm not overly optimistic that that time will work either. BUT it will happen eventually! So in the meantime, I began taking Vietnamese lessons and studying about the culture. The longer it takes to make this trip happen, the better I will be with the language and maybe even chopsticks.
This year I'm setting a resolution to eat lots of kalamata olives and buy some Italian leather boots! HA! Greece and Italy, here I come ~ when it's safe to travel again!
This week's Random Awesome Deed suggestion is to write a note or a couple of notes on post-it notes with uplifting words or phrases and leave them where someone will find them but not necessarily know who wrote them. I'm not completely comfortable yet with checking out library books, but I have been known to leave notes in them occasionally. A public restroom mirror is one of my favorite spots to leave one. Or under the windshield wiper of a random car in a parking lot. Or an elevator, right by the buttons, so anyone can see! Some suggestions for these notes: "You are brave." "You are amazing." "You are bright as sunshine." "You have a great smile." (I would love to put a camera in an elevator for that one. Can you imagine how probably every single person would smile when they read that?!) It's that time of the year when so many are feeling the pressure of the season instead of the beauty of it. Those extra touches will turn someone's day around!
Now let's go forth, be great stewards of Rotary and Catalysts of Caring in our Community!
Please be well, be safe, and be kind. There are a lot of people needing just that.
In Rotary Service,
Kathleen Saltmarsh-Voss
President
Rotary of Colorado Springs
Here is the link for tomorrow's meeting!
Topic: Weekly Rotary Meeting
Time: Dec 3, 2021 12:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)
Meeting ID: 852 1712 5280
Passcode: 4039519754
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Meeting ID: 852 1712 5280
Passcode: 4039519754
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kbQttQn2G1
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HO, HO, HO! Santa Day at Queen Palmer is just around the corner ~ following the Holiday Party for the club on December 17!
We will need 5 or 6 people to help assemble gift bags with goodies for the children at Queen Palmer. This will be done at Carol Bach's house on Wednesday, December 8 beginning at 10 am and usually is finished by 11:30 am. WE NEED MORE SIGNUPS FOR THIS!
Santa Day is on Friday, December 17 at Queen Palmer. We need 5 Rotarian Elves to volunteer to hand out the holiday gift bags to the children. We will arrive at 2:20pm and will be finished by 3:15 pm. Masks are required and you will need to fill out a volunteer form for School District 11. Carol will email the form to you and collect them that day.
We would also like to provide the 6 families from Columbia Elementary a box of food for Christmas. If you would like to donate 6 items of one thing please sign-up at the above link for an item for the box. These items can be brought to the Dec. 10th meeting or you can coordinate a drop-off with Samantha Chapman or Cass Daley.
Wreaths Across America:
Thank you to those who sponsored a wreath for Wreaths Across America. The club purchased 23 wreaths and 12 were sponsored by WWA for a total of 35!
Join us at Evergreen Cemetery on Saturday, December 18th at 10:00 am to volunteer for the Wreath Laying Ceremony, friends and family welcome to join.
2. I Plan to Attend With: My WAA Sponsorship Group
3. Enter Rotary Club of Colorado Springs (CO0223)
4. Provide additional requested information
Be sure to share with friends and family and encourage them to volunteer with you!
Santa Day:
Volunteer on Dec. 8th to help stuff the goodie bags that will be given to students at Queen Palmer Elementary School on Dec. 17th. Volunteers are needed for both Dec. 8th and 17th.
Support the Salvation Army by volunteering to ring the bell at the King Soopers on Uintah and 17th on December 5th, 11th, 12th or 19th. Bell Ringing will take place from 10:00am - 6:00pm on each day and there will be shift options every 2 hours available to sign up for 2 Rotarians or with a family member/friend during each shift.
If you are interested in participating in our International Committee, please email Jordan Davis at Jordan@sociallyexceptional.biz to be added to the notification list!
I’m writing on behalf of The Borgen Project, a nonprofit that is working to bring political attention to severe poverty. I’m hoping you can forward this to members of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs.
The Borgen Project is currently trying to improve the way the United States assists those living in poverty and we’d love to have your members help on this issue. The details are below and I appreciate your consideration.
The need: 45 emails in support of the Food Aid Reform sent to each Congressional leader in Colorado.
Why this matters: Political offices tally how many calls, letters, and emails they receive in support of each bill or program. Leaders and their staff use this info to determine how the leader should vote.
Two quick and easy ways to help:
1. Visit this link and enter your address. Our system will automatically send the email to the Congressional leaders representing you. This only takes 30-seconds to do and has a huge impact.
2. Mobilize friends and family to do likewise. Forward this email to anyone you think will care enough to take action.
That’s all there is to it! If you’re looking to get involved with The Borgen Project, information on national volunteer opportunities (writers and political team) is listed here and internships are listed here.
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.
