May is Rotary Youth Service Month. See the nice article from our District Governor later in the bulletin describing the different activities we have going on in our District for high school and college students.
We are also continuing our community service work in Rotary's environment area of focus with two park cleanups. One is this weekend and the next is the first weekend in June. I hope you'll be able to participate in one of these fun, easy to do service projects. See the community service section of the bulletin for more details.
Speaking of service, we also have a great update on our International Service activities. Check out the great photos that are included later in this bulletin.
We are hoping our club can be a "Every Rotarian Every Year Club" with the Rotary Foundation. This means that every Rotarian in our club donated at least $25 this year to the Rotary Foundation's Annual Fund. This is the Fund that half the donations from our District are returned to the District to use for future District grants. So please donate if you have not done so already. If you are unsure if you have donated this year, please check with John Buckley, our Foundation Director; Karen Mooty, our Club Administrator; or with me and we can let you know.
Don't miss our next social, which will be in conjunction with all the other local Rotary Clubs on May 25th. We are requesting that you RSVP a week ahead. This is not a requirement it is just so we can get a rough idea of how much appetizers to order. See the information later in this bulletin for the full details.
Our club has been invited to join with the Colorado Springs Rising Professionals at their upcoming June 8th social. This will be a great opportunity to introduce a group of community service-minded young professionals to the wonderful world of Rotary. See later in the bulletin for more details and how to get a ticket to this event.
Please note that our May board meeting will be held one day earlier this month. It will be held via zoom at noon on Tuesday, May 23rd. The link to the zoom meeting is in the events section below. All members are welcome to attend.
This week our speaker will be Chris Leiber, discussing the Fountain Creek/COS Creek Plan. Our speaker next week will be John Register on how to "Amputate Your Fear". John Register is a two-time Paralympian, a Paralympic Games Silver Medalist, a Persian Gulf War veteran, and a TEDx motivational speaker who inspires people to live healthier, wealthier, more fulfilling, passionate, and purposeful life. Don't forget to RSVP - and bring a friend!
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.
John Register is a two-time Paralympian, a Paralympic Games Silver Medalist,a Persian Gulf War veteran, and a TEDx motivational speaker who inspires people to live healthier, wealthier, more fulfilling, passionate, and purposeful life. Born and raised in Oak Park, Illinois, John is a true survivor who has overcome countless challenges to achieve great success. Despite losing his left leg after a misstep over a hurdle during his training for the 1996 Olympic Games, John never lost his fighting spirit. He learned how to “amputate his fear of disability” and became a world-renowned motivational speaker, sharing his powerful message of perseverance, determination, and resilience with audiences worldwide.
John is a four-time All-American graduate of the University of Arkansas and served six years in the U.S. Army, including active duty with the U.S. Army World Class Athlete Program. He has won numerous awards and accolades, including nine gold medals in the Armed Services Competition and two World Military Championships.
After his injury, John started swimming to aid in his recovery, made the U.S. Paralympic Team in 1996, and four years later went on to win a silver medal in the long jump setting an American record and finishing fifth in the 100 meters and 200 meters at the U.S. Paralympic Games in Sydney.
An RSVP to Ron Rubin by May 17th is very helpful and is requested. We need to get a rough count into Tara King our Area Director so she can let the restaurant know. The clubs will be chipping in to provide some light appetizers. Each member will purchase their own drinks.
These monthly socials are an opportunity for fellowship among Rotarians and also a great way to introduce potential members to Rotary, so bring a friend!
Guardians of Palmer Park for their "First Saturday Work Day" in June!
Jun 03, 2023 at 9:00 AM - Jun 03, 2023 at 1:00 PM
Palmer Park 3650 Maizeland Rd Colorado Springs, CO 80909
We will be walking the trails in an effort to help clean and maintain the trails @ Palmer Park, so please remember to bring good hiking shoes, and also plan for sunny weather with hats/ bandannas and sunscreen. I will have some disposable vinyl gloves available, but if you have garden or other more durable gloves please bring those as well. Volunteers will meet at the parking lot off of the Maizeland entrance to Palmer Park.
Click on Sign Up to view available slots and book yourself directly online.
If you missed Janet Foerster’s presentation on May 5, meet the two young women from Tanzania who are studying for their degree in Social Work thanks to scholarship funding from the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs — Meryn Buchocho and Namara Rwegoshara — and our Tanzanian partner, Dr. Theresa Kaijage, the founder of the Department of Social Work at Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) in Dar es Salaam!
PEN in Ghana used the funds our club provided to purchase recording equipment to deliver professional quality teacher training lessons. This capability makes it possible to expand their hands on approach beyond Ghana. Recently they hosted a representative of the Ministry of Education of Liberia and have conducted teacher development training in several other sub-Saharan African countries.
At EarthX in Dallas, over 150,000 attended the event that straddles Earth Day each year. The Rotary Pavilion featured Colorado-made water tech used in projects all over the world by H2OpenDoors and Global Water First. Speakers on the stage included Mark Maloney, Past RI President, Jon Kaufman and Jack Barker, President of Innovative Water Technologies in Rocky Ford and a recipient of a Paul Harris Fellowship.
The first stage of a new water enterprise in Kenya began last month with the drilling of an 800 foot deep borehole. Next are elevated tanks and a bottle sanitizing and filling building to produce an estimated 500 20L bottles per day. The entire facility will be solar-powered and expectations for sales to commence are mid June from this homestead an hour outside of Nairobi. The project is funded by a Program Related Investment for around $95,000 with all funds plus interest returning to the investors within 3 years for recycled investment all over again.
A new initiative for use of the PRI method of funding is being planned for American inner cities. Global Water First is starting discussions inn Las Vegas to create a glass bottle water enterprise in the 5th Ward to employ the marginalized of that community in the bottling and sale of purified water with expectations of annual gross revenue exceeding $3 million. Net profits
will go towards the building of Tiny Homes communities for the homeless. Occupancy will be on conditions of being drug-free, employed and good stewards of the property. The facility will be adjacent to Harrison House, the boarding house that black stars like Sammy Davis Jr and Naty King Cole had to stay in because they weren’t allowed to stay at the hotels they were performing in.
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!
The Rotary Club of Colorado Springs received an invitation to join Colorado Springs Rising Professionals for a Summer Kick-off Event on June 8th from 5:30 pm to 8 pm at Trainwreck at 812 S Sierra Madre Street. CSRP is extending an invite to several organizations to join them. This is a great opportunity for our members to introduce the CSRP members to Rotary and all the work that we do. See Eric Birr’s (CSRP President) invite below.
Greetings,
In place of our Monthly Membership Mixer, CSRP is hosting a Summer Kick-off event on June 8th from 5:30 pm to 8 pm at Trainwreck at 812 S Sierra Madre St. We would like to extend an invite to all Rising/Young/Emerging/Elevating Professionals/Leaders/ETC. There are a ton of great organizations in this town with even better people that are apart of them. Our vision is to be the place they connect, build relationships, and find where they want to get involved. We would like to not only extend your membership list our membership rate, but allow you, or your representative, to represent your organization and its mission!
Now in its fourth year, the Craig and Kyle Whitney Memorial Golf Tournament was established to provide community service. To-date, this very fun event has been sponsored by a wide range of local businesses and individuals and has raised more than $50,000 to benefit our community through the programs of the Salvation Army and the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs. Beginning last year and now going forward, the Whitney Tournament also provides “scholarships” for First Tee youth.
“Being able to participate in the Whitney Memorial Golf Tournament gave our participants an experience that they will never forget because it gave them a chance to grow and provided them a safe place to fail. They were pushed outside of their comfort zones and were able to rely on all the active learning experiences that we have been teaching them through our life skills and leadership curriculum.”
Emily Ortmeier, LPGA, Director of Golf and Education First Tee – Southern Colorado
Updates from District Governor Sam Kevan May is Youth Service Month in Rotary The following highlights underscore the importance of youth programs in Rotary International and especially in our District.
Interact The RI Interact program, designed for youth aged 12-18 turned 60 years old this year. In reviewing the timeline on page 42 of the May 2023 edition of Rotary magazine (Interact at 60 “to change the world, start young”) it becomes readily apparent that a student’s active participation in community service through Interact can evolve into a lifetime of service in Rotary. Despite that, only a small percentage of Rotary clubs in our District 5470 sponsor an Interact Club. Establishing an Interact club requires one or more active Rotarians from the local Club. These committed club members partner with a faculty member at the middle school or high school who would help organize and mentor students in the school-affiliated club. We encourage all Rotary clubs to reach out to their local schools to explore this possibility. If your club currently has an Interact Club in your middle school or high school, let PDG Becky Smith, District youth services chair, know via email beckyjsmith.rotary@gmail.com. We are currently seeking a chairperson and District committee members to coordinate all Interact Club activity and expand Interact’s impact in our District.
Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) RYLA takes place June 2-4, 2023 at the Colorado Mountain College campus in Leadville, CO. Nearly 50 high school students will experience a stellar leadership curriculum with all sorts of fun activities. There is also an opportunity to meet these students during the Sunday afternoon Rotary Rides the Rails event that will cap off the weekend. We had a greater challenge with recruitment for RYLA this year. The two-year hiatus due to COVID created a lack of upperclassmen who had participated in RYLA to share their experience with this year’s candidates. This underlines the importance of having teachers, counselors, or 2 administrators from local schools participating in your Rotary Club as active members.
Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) The number of Rotary Youth Exchange (RYE) participants had also suffered because of the two-year COVID hiatus But I am happy to report that RYE is back. Seventeen outbound students from our District are nearing the end of their exciting year abroad. A similar number of inbound students are finishing an academic year in our District’s high schools and communities. Of note is the fact that the RYE program is fully supported by the U.S. State Department as an important cultural exchange program that fosters peace in our world. The positive impact of this experience for a U.S. student studying, developing life-long international friendships, and experiencing another culture can be life-changing. Kristi Redlinger, our current RYE chairperson, can attest to that fact. The story of her experience as a foreign exchange student many years ago and how it changed her life is both touching and inspirational. Our RYE committee goal is to significantly increase the number of Rotary Clubs in our District willing to host exchange students and give more Colorado students the chance to experience this tremendous opportunity. For more information, go to www.mountainandplainsrye.com and/or contact Kristi Redlinger at kristi@mountainandplainsrye.com or John Stroud at jtstroud@comcast.net.
The importance of attracting younger Rotary members One refrain I continually hear from Rotary clubs across our district is the desire and importance of increasing the number of younger members. Giving our young people a positive Rotary experience through one or more of our youth programs is an important way to encourage them to engage with Rotaract or Rotary when they become adults. Toward that end, let’s make a concerted effort to reach out to the youth of our schools and their mentors and teachers to expand our youth programs in our District.
We are excited to announce the Rotary Rides the Rails event, a fellowship opportunity for Rotarians in our District, and the surrounding Districts, to come together and celebrate the end of our 2023 RYLA in the Rockies Weekend.
Please meet at the Leadville Train no later than 12:30 PM, Sunday, June the 4th, for a 1 pm departure. The train takes approximately 2 1/2 hours. Adult Tickets are $54, Kids (4-12) are $32, and our RYLA youth tickets are $35. Profits from group tickets sold through our link go to benefit RYLA in the Rockies. MyEventRunner - Event Public Fill (crsadmin.com)
Tickets purchased will be available on the day of the event. All ticket pick-up and train rule information will be sent to participants prior to the event.
We can't wait to see you in Leadville for the first of many upcoming fellowship events across our District!
PEN (Practical Education Network) in Accra, Ghana (installation of online training facility) $5,000
Science Lab at Masai Mara High School in Kenya, Africa. $2,500 (with $2,500 from the Los Altos, California Rotary Club)
Social Work Scholarships at Hubert Kairuki Memorial University (HKMU) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Two individual scholarships) $3,000
School bus purchase for Rotary Volcanes School of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico $2,000 (Tri Lakes Rotary Club project; total goal from area clubs and District grant $16,000)
Ukrainian Letter Project (supplies, printing and shipping) $2,600
Ankara Turkey disaster response $3,000
Our Community Salutes (recognition of high school military enlistees) Vendor Booth $500
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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!
