Backgrounder on History of Thompson Valley Rotary Club

 

The Thompson Valley Rotary Club was established in 1989, shortly after women were welcomed into Rotary as full members. The first club president was female.

The club adopted the motto “The Club with Heart.” One of the club’s main fundraising efforts (in cooperation with the City of Loveland and the Thompson Valley High School’s Honor Society) is to display wooden hearts with Valentine’s Day messages on light poles around Loveland during the month of February.

The club also joins with the Loveland Rotary Club to sponsor the Governor’s Art Show, a juried art show and sale featuring Colorado artists.

The Thompson Valley Rotary Club supports many diverse international, environmental, community and youth causes. Local support goes to many groups including the Loveland Youth Gardeners program and the Thompson Education Foundation, providing a variety of services for homeless students and their families.

To celebrate its 30^th anniversary in 2019, the club is gifting a life-sized bronze sculpture of a woman helping a teenage boy surmount a stone precipice (entitled “Reaching Our Goal”) to Loveland’s downtown project, The Foundry. In addition, the legacy project will include two benches and a table top stone with a map of the world.

Charter members still active in the club include Jane Anetrini, Dorothy (Dot) Cada, Tom Paulson and Linda Sioux Stenson.

Jane Anetrini joined Thompson Valley Rotary club as it was a club launched for younger members, including female members. She has continued with the club for 30 years because “many of the things we support matter to me.”  Anetrini is especially proud of the club’s work with children and the environment. Anetrini worked with Alternatives to Violence and helped to secure a Rotary grant to support the program. She also led and worked with Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA).

Dot Cada travels two to three times per year to improve living conditions in developing countries. She has been involved with numerous international projects including providing water purifiers and stoves to families and schools in Nicaragua and establishing loans and teaching at Aung San Suu Kyi’s Education Network Schools. “Thompson Valley Rotary Club is a busy group, using its members’ time and talents to dig in and get something done,” said Cada.

Tom Paulson has remained a member of Thompson Valley Rotary Club because of the friendships he has made in Rotary and because he enjoys the various presentations given at the club’s weekly meetings. “We are a friendly club that raises money for various community and international projects,” said Paulson who is most proud of his work with the annual Santa Party for grandparents raising grandchildren. “I have felt a warm connection with and appreciation from the grandparents and kids,” he said.