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It's a new Rotary year starting July 1, and we welcome Roger Young as club president for 2022-23 and thank Sarah Lavender Smith for her service as president last year (both pictured here). Sarah will continue to serve on the board and as membership chair. Read this article in the Telluride Daily Planet about Roger taking the reins.

Our first meeting of the new Rotary year will take place Wednesday, August 10, 6 - 7 p.m. at the Elks Lodge (we encourage members and guests to arrive closer to 5:30 to socialize). The guest speaker for the August meeting will be Jason Corzine, president and CEO of the Telluride Foundation.

On Friday morning, August 5, 8 - 9:30 a.m., we'll gather at the bridge on South Pine for a stroll around the beaver pond and Town Park for a birding lesson with local birding expert Eric Hynes.

Starting in August, we will hold regular meetings on the second Wednesday of the month, and a social happy hour meetup on the fourth Wednesday of the month. Join us for a happy hour Wednesday, August 24, 5:45 at The Distillery and Communion Wine Bar (two side-by-side establishments) in Mountain Village.

Thank you to the speakers who make our meetings so informative and interesting. If you are interested in being a guest speaker at our club's gatherings, or attending a meeting as a guest if you're interested in Rotary, please email telluriderotary@gmail.com. We host hybrid meetings, with a Zoom option for remote participants. Click Read More below to see the list of past guest speakers.

Congratulations Emma Walker-Silverman on Global Grant Scholarship

Our club is proud that a scholar we put forth as an applicant, Emma Walker-Silverman, has been awarded the prestigious Rotary International Global Grant Scholarship for $30,000 to support her PhD studies and fieldwork at the University of Oxford. Emma, born and raised in Telluride, is doing valuable and timely research on refugees, with a focus on refugee migration in Turkey, to understand and reduce conflict and suffering among refugees and host countries. Her work furthers Rotary International's mission of peace and conflict resolution. Many thanks to Rotary District 5470 for selecting and supporting Emma. Emma got her start as a Rotary ambassador by leading the Telluride High School Interact Club (a community service club sponsored by Telluride Rotary) and going on a life-changing year abroad to Turkey as part of Rotary Youth Exchange while in high school. Read the full story here to learn about Emma's focus of study.

Congratulations Telluride Rotary Scholarship Recipients

Congratulations to Telluride Rotary scholarship and prize recipients in the Class of 2022! Our club is proud to award $10,500 in scholarships this year, plus a special prize.

Pictured here, Sarah Ireland received Telluride Rotary's Service Above Self award and a $400 prize for outstanding community service. Sarah is going to the University of Hawaii at Manoa to study nursing, and she won this award because of her extensive volunteer service, on top of working part-time jobs, during high school. In particular, she earned EMS and EMT certification and worked as a junior firefighter and EMT at the Rico Fire Department.

Also pictured is our top scholarship recipient, Isaac Guerrero Garcia, who earned a $5000 scholarship. Isaac is attending Fort Lewis College and plans to major in History and Film. Isaac stood out as an accomplished and resilient young man. On top of working several part-time jobs, he also was active in community service and student government. Additionally, he has had to cope with a painful medical condition for the past six years. The committee was impressed by his positive demeanor and passion to study history and become a documentary filmmaker.

Telluride Rotary also awarded the following scholarships (click "Read More" for a list of recipients).

Could you make a difference in a high school student’s life by making a tax-deductible donation to the Telluride Rotary Foundation for scholarships? In addition to giving through our Donate Now button, you may mail a check made out to Telluride Rotary Foundation with "scholarships" in the memo line and mail to PO Box 1265, Telluride, CO 81435. Or you may donate through Venmo @T-ride_Rotary_Foundation and indicate “scholarships” with the payment.

Update on Rotary Youth Exchange

Telluride Rotary Club is excited to bring back our club’s participation in Rotary Youth Exchange for the 2022-23 school year, after a two-year hiatus due to covid. The Telluride community has a long tradition of sending local high school students abroad for a year of study and hosting foreign exchange students, whose presence enriches the classrooms and community by sharing their perspectives and culture. Through Rotary Youth Exchange, Rotary clubs build cross-cultural ties and create international ambassadors of goodwill and understanding. Find out more about Rotary Youth Exchange and being a host family at mountainandplainsrye.com.

For the 2022-23 school year, Telluride high school students Philip Brooks will travel to Austria, and Liam Intemann will travel to Argentina. We'll also locally host one inbound student, Annemarie Davidova of the Czech Republic. Read this local news article about them.

To make this great program happen in the coming school year, our club must find host families for an inbound foreign student; otherwise, we cannot send a local student abroad, because the program functions as a two-way exchange. Thankfully, we have three host families lined up for the coming school year, but our club is always looking for more for subsequent years and as backups. This is an enriching experience for any household, as you share your family traditions and American culture while learning about theirs. While it is optimal to have host families with a student at Telluride Middle/High School, it’s not necessary; host families can have younger children, be empty-nesters or be single parents. If this is an opportunity that interests you, please contact our club’s Rotary Youth Exchange Officer Patricia Kiernan, kiernanpatricia6@gmail.com or 619-517-5336; or you may direct general questions to telluriderotary@gmail.com.

Pictured at right: 2022-23 RYE students Philip and Liam

Recent Telluride Rotary Club Donations

To support local youth, Telluride Rotary interviewed, selected, and sponsored three local high school students for the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy three-day camp in early June to develop leadership and interpersonal skills. Raelyn Aldrich and Jesse Bates of Norwood High, and Kiara Kelly Warren of Telluride High, were the three who attended. Says Kiara, "It was a truly unique experience that I’m grateful for. I got to make new friends and connections while exploring the outdoors and areas near me that I didn’t know about before. I feel I learned a lot of valuable information that I wouldn’t have had the chance to learn anywhere else. The knowledge about teams and leadership that I’ve gained will be invaluable and without a doubt be put to use. ...Thanks again for sending me, I’m sure I’ll remember this for the rest of my life!"

Our club also sponsored a Teen First Aid/CPR workshop in partnership with Wilkinson Public Library (pictured here) to teach teens life-saving skills and earn certification for child care, camp counseling, and other summer jobs.

On the recommendation of our International Committee, our club recently made donations to two nonprofits working to support maternal and child health, literacy, and economic development in Uganda. We donated $2500 to African Women Rising and $2500 to International Midwife Assistance. We invited the executive director of each organization to speak at our April 6 meeting, and members unanimously approve supporting the critically important and sustainable work their organizations do to improve the lives and education of women in Northern Uganda.

For an environmental project, our club donated $500 to support Footprints Running Camp, a weeklong program in the San Juan Mountains for climate action. Each camper is selected based on having a proposal for a community-based environmental project related to climate action, and each camper is paired with a mentor who's an expert in the field. The camp combines trail running with project development and leadership skill-building.

At our first meeting of the new year, January 5, our club approved granting $1000 to support the Telluride Medical Center's covid fund for staff support; $500 to the ShelterBox disaster relief organization; and $500 for the Telluride AIDS Benefit Student Fashion Show. Our club has been designated a "Shelter Box Hero" for annually supporting their nonprofit for more than three consecutive years.

In February, we contributed $500 to support the Rotary International Global Grant to build new schools and support girls' education in Kenya.

"Mountain High Service"