If you were planning on attending this Thursday's board meeting, we've delayed it by a week.  See you on the 27th at 7:30 a.m., The Antlers Board Room.

***Walk for Water***: Palmer High School’s Interact Club has been working diligently to raise money for Rotary’s water project and have already raised over $10,000. The project was originally going to be in Nicaragua but has since moved to somewhere in Africa, most likely in Kenya. All of the proceeds will go to a water project of some sort. The next fundraiser event, Walk for Water, will be held on April 22^nd starting at 9 am at the small gym parking lot (in the block north of Palmer High School on Nevada Avenue). The event will be a 5K walk along Fountain Creek and will have a $20 entry fee. The students will be asking for pledges from friends and family members, and Rotarians are more than welcome to do the same. However, all the Interact Club is asking from Rotarians is for the $20 entry fee and some light walking. I would really like to see a great turnout for this event as the students are raising money for one of our very own projects. This will also take the place of our normal Earth Day Clean-Up day for April. If you have more questions, please let me or Carol Bach know.

 

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***New Leader***: Last night, Michaela Smith was announced as the incoming Prime President!! I will be leading the next two Prime meetings and then the baton will be passed on to our next fearless leader in July. May’s Prime meeting will still be business related, but the meeting in June will most likely be more of a celebration of the end of one term and the beginning of the next. Stay tuned for details, and please join me in my enthusiasm for all the amazing things that are going to happen under Michaela’s leadership!

 

***Next Social***: The next Prime Social is coming up sometime in May. We are talking with Red Leg Brewery right now to see if they are interested in hosting and what date works for them (we are shooting for a Thursday or Friday in May). This social will benefit our friends at Cougars Care (the group we do our Thanksgiving project with). I will keep everyone posted as more details become available. In the meantime, we would like to compile a list of possible venues for the socials as well as groups/individuals/organizations who could benefit from each of these. There has been talk of the socials happening monthly instead of once a quarter, so we need to build our list for future events. If you have any input on this, please let me know.

 

**Next Panel**: A couple of weeks ago, Prime hosted a panel of Classic members who spoke on work/life balance. I got several comments from people who said they really enjoyed the presentation and thought it was great to see members of the club speaking on stage. We would like to do another panel, this time with Primers as the panel and Classic members as the hosts and question writers. If you have any ideas on what kinds of topics you would like to hear Prime present on, please let me know.

 

**Midland Elementary**: Sohrab and I met with Sohrab’s friend Patty Donovan, a librarian/technology teacher at Midland Elementary, and she has some excellent ideas about how we can get involved with the school over the summer and maybe into the future. Midland Elementary is a Title 1 school (75% of their families live at or below the poverty level). Like most schools, they work with families with autistic children, ADHD, students facing violence, addiction, and neglect within their families, and all of the issues of poverty. Over the summer, we would like to do a clean-up day at the school to spruce up the property, do some painting, weed pulling, fence building, etc. Patty was also very open to a literacy project which could just be reading to students on a regular basis. As the Classic Club is very focused on children’s literacy, I think this could be a very cohesive relationship. As we develop the relationship with Midland, we will be in touch with more specific dates and project details.

 

*Operation Bear Hug: Juliana brought this to our attention last night, and I think it is a great opportunity if anyone is interested. This is an event hosted by the CSU Student Veteran Organization, and it will take place on April 23^rd from 9 am – 3 pm at Colorado State University. The main goal of the event is to educate and promote suicide prevention. Teams will go through an obstacle course that includes trivia questions, tire toss, a support bridge, and other various obstacles/games. There will also be a keynote speaker and a concert. Please see the following link if you would like more information (or search for Operation Bear Hug on Facebook): https://www.facebook.com/events/395928504106569??ti=ia

Rotarian Dave Finkleman is enjoying some time in Florida -- looks like a nice place for a makeup at the Delray Beach Rotary Club.

 

Here's a no-cost way for you to donate to our Service Fund with every purchase you make online at Amazon.com with your existing account.  Sign up for Amazon Smile at https://smile.amazon.com/ and select Community Service Fund of the Rotary Club of Colorado Springs as your designated charity.  .5% of your purchase amount will be donated to the Service Fund.  It's easy and costs you nothing.  Give it a try!  

More info  https://smile.amazon.com/gp/chpf/about/ref=smi_se_rspo_laas_aas