Stories

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.

Our club's spring raffle is live! Please visit go.eventgroovefundraising.com/telluriderotary to buy entries for a chance to win one of 13 great prizes. Prizes include weekend getaways and gift certificates for local services and goods. 

The money raised will support Telluride Rotary's service projects and scholarships. The drawing will be June 8, and we will notify winners by email, so you do not need to be present to win.

You may be wondering, is Rotary Youth Exchange happening? Telluride Rotary Club has a long tradition of hosting high school students from other countries, and sending local students to study abroad. Because of the Covid-19 global pandemic, however, no Rotary clubs have been able to host or send exchange students since spring of 2020. The program will resume for the 2022-23 school year, and applications for the program are being accepted now through December 2021. For complete info for high school students applying to the program, or for potential host families, visit mountainandplainsrye.com, the website for Mountain & Plains Rotary Youth Exchange, the study abroad program in Rotary International District 5470. The first part of the program's application for the 2022-23 school year is due November 20, 2021. 

Telluride Rotary Youth Committee co-chairs Patricia Kiernan and Nancy Kerr are overseeing the program at this time. If you have any questions about Rotary Youth Exchange or would like to support it, please contact one of them at kiernanpatricia6@gmail.com or nancylkerr@gmail.com. 

Pictured here: Telluride High School student Maile Silva as a Rotary Youth Exchange student to the Czech Republic and Slovakia from August 2019 - March 2020.

In this Rotary year of 2022-23, our club has given $500 to sponsor the Telluride AIDS Benefit Student Fashion Show and $500 to support Angel Baskets, which runs the Telluride Food Pantry. We also sponsored with a $500 grant the September 25 Out of the Darkness Walk for suicide prevention. Pictured here are some of the Telluride Rotary members who participated.

In the prior Rotary year, to support local youth, Telluride Rotary 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, 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 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 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. 

Earlier in the year, 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. We contributed $500 to support the Rotary International Global Grant to build new schools and support girls' education in Kenya.