Last week we had a great club assembly. Here are just some of the ideas that come out of the meeting were:
Circle of 5 for Rotary Foundation to increase number of club members who have a Paul Harris
Do something different for the 5th Friday in a month meeting, such as a doing a service project in place of the meeting
Do special mini-fundraisers to cover some of the operation costs such as once a month happy dollars, opportunity drawings, or a social with an admission charge
For membership: try for ways to get older and younger members to interact more, adopt a fellow Rotarian, have members not sit with the same people every week, let members know when Rotarians leave the club, do a member highlight
Increase visibility by having an entry in one of the parades in town, rebrand flight, get weekly meetings on various calendars on social media,
In case you missed it, we also welcomed four new members to the club and presented them with their Red Badges: Roxanne Barber, Jessica Mamula, Aaron Prupas, and Jot Singh. Don’t forget to take some time to say hi! and welcome them to the club.
Don't forget that our Community Service project for March is a Habitat for Humanity build. Cody has arranged several different days so I hope at least one will work in your schedule. It is a wonderful way to help those who are looking for a hand up to get back on their feet. More details are listed later in the bulletin.
This week will be a program you do not want to miss. It will be Sheriff Joe Roybal discussing the current state of the Sheriff's Department's war on regional narcotics.
Next week, our speaker will be Lola Woloch, President and CEO of the Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce. She will be speaking on Women’s History Month. Ms. Woloch has received numerous accolades to include CEO of the Year from the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce and a recipient of the Women of Influence award from the Colorado Springs Business Journal. Don't forget to RSVP by Monday at 5 pm! come 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.
If you would like an announcement in the bulletin next week, please email to both me and Dennis Shoemaker. Dennis is helping me with the bulletin.
3333 Templeton Gap Road, Colorado Springs, CO 80907
PURPOSE
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
It's time again for the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs to give back our time to a great organization helping to bring homes and stability to those who need it most! Join the Community Service Committee in volunteering at Pikes Peak Habitat for Humanity this season, helping with their Sand Creek development build!
Our club will be focusing on the following dates to get volunteers coordinated and able to join up in groups: March 25th, March 30th, and April 1st. Please see the details below for times available on those dates! However, if you can't make one of those dates but you still want to volunteer, please take a look at their volunteer page here: https://pikespeakhabitat.org/volunteer/ and see if one of the other days around or within that same week might work, choose the option for Sand Creek Construction Site. Pikes Peak Habitat operates every week Wed-Sat.
Send an email to Cody Burket or sign up at the Sign Up link for an available timeslot if interested in volunteering. Thank you all and I look forward to seeing you there!
Dates & Times Available:
Sat. March 25th, Afternoon Shift Only, 12:30PM - 4:30PM
Thur. March 30th, Any Shift, 8:30-12 or 12:30 - 4:30
Sat. April 1st, Any Shift, 8:30-12 or 12:30 - 4:30
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
Yours in service,
Tom Nelson
Director and Chairman of the Community Service Fund
March is WASH Awareness month, so lets take a look at RCCS engagement with the 6th SDG! Two water purification enterprises were just installed at 2 Maasai communities in Kenya. Once certified and launched this Spring, both will be run by Maasai women and will be supplying purified water to over 20,000 per day, and generating an annual revenue stream of over $300,000 combined each year. This was funded 90% by a Program Related Investment from a Minnesota Rotary Club, and 10% by our own CSF and an anonymous club member.
We are developing some exciting projects going forward. These include:
A Refuge de Higene in Guatemala at Escuintla Regional Hospital. For the past 4 years, the H2OpenDoors project has been adding purification equipment made here in Colorado. This last January, an expedition of 34 installed the final system, bringing total capacity to 100,000 liters each day. Next January we return to cut the ribbon on a new 20 toilet and sink building to provide sanitation and hygiene for the family visitors to the hospital. Their pediatrics unit performs 45,000 births annually.
A rural community in Peru will be receiving a large water system from Global Water First, our social impact investment strategy to fund projects. Our Minnesota Rotary partner will be funding their second PRI for $80,000 to establish a water business. An expedition will be promoted to Rotary members in late Spring once political unrest calms down there.
Ethiopia and Somalia are experiencing extreme drought. Global Water First will be working with Alight Foundation to rehabilitate dozens of boreholes and establish water distribution points to serve over one million people.
At EarthX in Dallas on April 19-23, we'll be displaying 6 water tech configurations made in Rocky Ford to an estimated 200,000 attendees and investors. EarthX is the largest environmental and climate conference in the world, and for the first time we will have our own Rotary Pavilion. Opening day of the Expo features a presentation by Jon Kaufman, followed by Past RI President, Mark Maloney.
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!
This report was prepared at the end of my visit to Niamey, Niger in Feb-Mar 2023.
Yesterday, Hamani, Moustapha and Balkissa took me to see our Farmers of the Future project. Hamani and Moustapha are members of our Host Club, Rotary Club Gaweye Niamey. Balkissa works at the farm every day, often traveling on her motorcycle from Niamey. She is the on-site manager and seems to know everything that is happening at our farm. Some photos with explanations follow:
There is a police checkpoint 2-3 miles before our village. A hundred yards before the checkpoint, I was transformed into Sheikh Eben David from Qatar. The village chief sat in the front seat and took us through the checkpoint. Everybody knows him! Photo of Balkissa, Sheikh Eben David and the village chief in the background.
Trees have been planted on most of the 1.3 h of land in a 2 m x 2 m grid. They will grow to shade other crops. The trees are trimmed to allow just enough light to enter.
It was a cloudy day, so the solar powered pump in the well was producing only a little water.
I wanted to know what remains of such projects 10 yrs after funding stops, so we visited another site that was established with a similar grant 10-12 years ago. It is flourishing. Green everywhere. Seedlings everywhere. The ladies are making good money selling mango trees that they have grafted to sturdier root stock. Given the number of potted mango trees, I think they concentrating on this business.
Hamani was pleased to find pineapple growing here. It was the ladies idea to grow pineapple.
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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!
