I want to tell you how a handful of Rotarians changed twenty thousand lives in five minutes this past weekend, but before I get to that story…
October is Economic and Community Development Month, and we still NEED a few more volunteers for the Habitat build tomorrow morning. If you can, stop reading right now, and go sign up. There’s a link in the story below, if you need it. There’s also a link in the email Claudine sent you yesterday. For my friends on the left, are you really going to let a 95 year-old former president show you up like that? Jimmy Carter is disappointed you’re not out there. (He still loves you, but he's disappointed.) For my friends on the right, are you really going to cede that moral high ground on volunteerism to a decrepit Democrat like Jimmy Carter? If he won’t let being older than dirt, a black eye, and stitches stop him from building, what’s your excuse? Discuss. (No, don’t discuss. I’m joking here, but please do volunteer if you can.)
We continue our partnership with the Garden of the Gods Rotary Club this month by joining them today at Village Inn for a meal (a portion of which comes back to their club). We will still be selling the sweepstakes tickets for the Cougars Cares Thanksgiving project through the end of the month.
And now back to my story.
To set the stage, imagine that you’re with me at the end of the district conference weekend. You’re heard some motivational speakers. You’ve applauded fellow Rotarians for their good work over the past year. Now PDG Jerry Weems, the representative from RI President Mark Maloney, is speaking about how the work of Rotary can start small, how it can build momentum, and how we change the world. He talks about the fight to end polio. He challenges everyone in the room to pull out their wallets and give a few dollars, whatever they might have on hand, to the End Polio Now campaign. As the hat passes through the room, he reminds us that a single dose of the polio vaccine costs 15 cents. Some of us are caught out without cash or checks, not anticipating The Ask. (Some of us aren’t there at all, having slept in on the last day.) But within five minutes, the hat comes back to the front of the room with $991.00 in spur-of-the-moment donations. Will someone make that an even thousand? Yes, someone does. That $1,000.00 will now be matched 2 to 1 by the Gates Foundation. And $3,000 will buy 20,000 doses of the polio vaccine.
World Polio Day is next week, October 24. Our club is participating in an Awareness Raiser. For more on how to raise awareness of the End Polio Now campaign with cookies, read on. Come to the meeting this week and next and sit where you can see the videos from the frontlines of the fight. But never think that you and your individual contributions don’t matter. You do. Your work matters. As we learned at conference, it doesn’t matter if you start small, so long as you start today.
The Broadmoor Art Academy and the Fine Arts Center's 100 Year Anniversary
Don't miss this special presentation by Dr. Jim Raughton, an historian and art collector of works by artists from the early days of artists in our city. The first artists in our region belonged to the Broadmoor Art Academy which later became the Fine Arts Center.
Share some cookies with family, friends and co-workers while sharing information on Rotary and World Polio Awareness Day on October 24th.
We have arranged for Boonzaaijer’s Bakery to provide sugar cookies in the shape of a hand with the #1 finger dipped in purple frosting. The purple finger denotes a child who has received the polio vaccine.
These cookies are 2.5” tall and available for $12 a dozen but must be pre-ordered with Samantha Chapman at samanthac@sentinelsoffreedom.org no later than Monday, October 21st. While we couldn’t arrange it for this year, we hope next year to have a portion of the proceeds to go towards the fight to eradicate polio.
They will be available for pick up on October 24th at Boonzaaijer’s Bakery at 610 E Fillmore StColorado Springs, CO 80907 between 6:30 am and 4 pm. You will pay for the cookies when you pick them up. We will have a flyer for each box of cookies with information on the fight to end Polio and Rotary’s involvement in that effort.
Take pictures of your friends and family enjoying the cookies, and please share them with us. Although this isn't a fundraiser, it IS an awareness raiser. Let's get out there and spread the word of what Rotary is doing to End Polio Now.
WE STILL NEED VOLUNTEERS! If you long for the kind of service project that lets you "pick up your shovel and DO something," please consider signing up for the Habitat for Humanity build on October 18. This will be our service opportunity for Economic and Community Development Month.
The address of the build is 2620 Dale Street, Colorado Springs, 80909. Below is the link for the ten members to register through Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity's system. Each person needs to sign up online, read the safety information, and electronically sign the required waiver. For questions the website cannot answer, you can reach out to Sarah, the volunteer scheduling guru, at volunteer@pikespeakhabitat.org
We will need to be on the site by 8:30, with safety briefing beginning 8:45. We will start building by 9:00 a.m. Habitat asks that we park along Dale Street and NOT in the build area. (The neighbors get cranky when their very limited parking spots are filled.) Habitat will make sure construction is wrapped up between 11:30-11:45 a.m. so that we can make the club meeting. (Note the site below will say the shift is 8:30-12:30. The construction superintendent knows the Rotarians will need to leave earlier than usual.)
