If you plan to attend the Thursday, April 18 meeting, please contact Club Administrator Karol Rinehart by 10a.m. Friday, April 12to let her know the following:
You plan to attend and have lunch.
You plan to attend and have beverage service only.
You will be bringing a guest(s).
kj.rinehart@centurylink.net
Posted on Apr 07, 2019
Rebuilding Nepal: Dave Boon to present Thursday
Dave Boon, a Rotarian and Estes Park resident, will be our speaker on Thursday, April 11. He will present a program on projects in Nepal that the Rotary Club of Fort Collins After Work Club has been involved with for the past 10 years. More recently, the Nepal work included rebuilding of six school damaged by the 2015 earthquakes. They have funded schools, toilets, women's empowerment centers and much more.
Dave Boon
Nepal a country that is approximately 500 miles long and only 120 miles wide bring up visions of beautiful landscapes, terraced rice fields, trekking and the highest mountains in the world. Some things you may not know about Nepal is that they have elephants, crocodiles, tigers, and rhinos. It is also a very poor country and is one of the largest sex trafficking corridor in the world with an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 girls and women being smuggled to India each year.
In 2015, Nepal was hit by two consecutive devastating earthquakes (April 25 - 7.8 and again on May 12th 7.3) that resulted in over 8,500 deaths. These earthquakes also destroyed or damaged 7,923 schools. Of those destroyed and damaged only 2,700 have been rebuilt leaving approximately one million students still studying in temporary structures.
Public education is free, but only approximately 15% of women aged 20-24 have completed secondary school - 85% have not. Even though public school is free, there are still costs of uniforms, exam fees and other costs that keep many rural, poor children from attending school. Why help the children of Nepal with education?
As Nelson Mandala said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Providing access to education (personal and financial support) is key to helping girls and women in Nepal succeed and gain gender equity.
Dave Boon is a charter member of the Fort Collins Rotary After Work (RAW) Club, is a two-time President, and is currently the Chair of the International Committee. He is a Paul Harris Fellow and was awarded the RI Presidential "4-Avenues of Service Award". He has been involved in RYLA and Young RYLA since 2003 and has been a Chair of YRYLA, and a Senior Councilor at RYLA and YRYLA, a speaker at all three, has been on the Rocky Mountain Board of Directors and is their Past President. Dave is passionate about helping children -- he is the Executive Director of the Children's Speech and Reading Center and he and his wife have a non-profit (Empowering Opportunities) that support orphan and marginalized youth in Nepal. Dave is married to Rotarian June Boon. They recently moved to Estes Park, and also celebrated the birth of their grandson, Bodie.
Give to our Foundation while you shop!
Do you find that you are placing Amazon orders more frequently these days? Don't forget to help your Rotary Club of Estes Park Foundation with every order. As a recipient of funds in the smile.amazon.com, our foundation will receive a portion of the sale. All you need to do its sign up to get the funds flowing. And SHOP!
Choose the charitable organization by typing in Estes Park Rotary Foundation. Our club and the Longs Peak club will come up in the search. Click on Estes Park Rotary Foundation.
Create a bookmark so every time you shop Amazon, you will participating in the smile.amazon.com program.
April 7 Meeting Highlights
President Dave Evans called the meeting to order. Scott Thompson gave the invocation. Pete Sumey led us singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as the Rockies open at home this weekend, then the Pledge of Allegiance.
Wayne Newsom led the introductions. Visiting Rotarians and Guests of Rotarians included:
Pat Vorreiter, a sojourner, and her husband John, are here for a short visit from Sunnyvale, CA.
Marsha Yelick introduced Barb Bibler, who has applied for membership in our club.
Pete Sumey introduced Jeff Morris, who succeeded Carol Grasso at Investment Center of Estes Park.
Kevin Mullin introduced Paul Newendorp.
Dave Tavel introduced his wife Marsha.
Karen Thompson introduced Jennifer Comstock.
Scott Thompson told the joke.
Happy Money
Bill Solms is happy the membership committee is doing so well and our club is growing.
Dennis Gellhaus is excited to be going to the Final Four basketball tournament in Minneapolis with his two brothers and two nephews.
Kevin Mullin is happy that ground is being broken for the new Urgent Care Facility.
Rick Taylor is happy that his daughter is the new program director of the YMCA and so is moving back to Colorado and hopes to live in Estes if she can find housing.
Karen Thompson is happy that we now have over 50 merchants signed up with the Friendship Card.
Virgil Holtgrewe confessed he gave today’s joke to Scott.
Announcements
Dave Evans said three new members were approved by the board: Tom Gardner, Carl Robicheaux and Audri Smith.
Chuck Bonza said we are doing our annual club project reading and giving out “Josh The Otter” books on water safety to the elementary school. We need four people to read the book to the children. We then took a collection to fund it.
Gregg Jurgens said we will sort ducks after this meeting at Quality Inn.
Big Duck Kathy Groesbeck pointed out the Duck Adoption Forms on our tables to buy for our cub Rotary Foundation. She hopes we beat Wayne Andersen’s record of 7,064 ducks. Last year was 6,699. We need more volunteers to work the Duck Festival. Sign up on the web site epduckrace.org where there is a link to volunteer. We need merchant prizes, too, and you can also sign up for that on the web site.
Chuck Bonza needs help to coordinate the Josh The Otter event with the school contact.
Program
Jack Overly introduced Milt Garrett, former member of our club and Estes resident, who presented his program “Two Sides of the Coin: The Russians Point of View”. He has consulted in Russia over many years and gave us their perspective of America and a history of our countries’ relations, as told to him by his clients, staff, Rotarians, and family.
Submitted by Madison Casey, scribe and Scott Thompson, photographer
All sorted!
Lucky says, "Great Work!"
Gregg Jurgens reports that he had a great turnout Thursday for duck counting. He and his wife, Suzanne, had done a few buckets before Thursday, and then the group of volunteers completed another eight tubs on Thursday. Only one remained, and Gregg and Suzanne completed the task Thursday evening.
All ducks have been sorted! No volunteers will be needed April 11.
Thanks to all the duck counters!
Posted by Rita DuChateau
Have you heard? Have you met them?
The club board unanimously approved applications for membership at the April 2 meeting from three new prospective members. You can learn more about them from their sponsors (listed below) orMembership Chairman Bill Solms. Please direct comments or questions to President Dave Evans before Monday, April 15.
Drum roll, please! The proposed members are:
Audri Smith, whose classification is Librarian. Her sponsor is Dave Evans. Audri was born in Denver and grew up in Greeley. She has worked most of her life as a caregiver for different individuals, including children, the elderly, individuals with developmental disabilities or special needs, and those in wheelchairs. She always wanted to be a librarian and finally fulfilled her dream at the Estes Valley Library in January 2019. She also works for Home Instead Senior Care as a caregiver for seniors in their homes. She volunteers as a Crisis Advocate and is on call three nights a week. She has been volunteer for Special Olympics for 37 years, coaching gymnastics, attending two national competitions and one international competition as the Colorado Gymnastics Coach. She started the Estes Park Special Olympics who she moved here eight years ago. She lives on a property with two homes and a shop, with her parents and her youngest son, who own and operate Smith Sign Studio. She has three children: Kaesi, 24; Andrew, 20; and Blake, 18. She has a granddaughter Riley, born Feb. 16.
Tom Gardner, whose classification is Air Traffic Control. His sponsor is Larry Williams. Tom has applied to change his membership status from Inactive to Active. He previously was a member of our club from May 2003 to July 2016. He was active on several committees during his time with the club. Tom was born in Hackensack, NJ. He is married to Linda and they have two daughters: Heather, 49; and Erica, 46. The Gardners live in Allenspark. He and Linda moved to the Estes Valley in 1971.
Carl Robicheaux, whose classification is Attorney. His sponsor is Trudy Collar. Carl was born in Lafayette, LA and is married to Aime. They have one child, Anna, 27 and two grandchildren. Carl and Aime vacationed in Estes Park the summer of 2009 and ended their visit with a contract to purchase a condominium. In the past 10 years, Carl and Aime visited Estes Park as often as possible, spending at least 4-6 weeks here each year. Aime is Vice-President for a large pharmaceutical company. Carl is a lawyer. Aime moved to Colorado in 2017. Carl followed in May 2018. Carl has practiced law for 31 years. He is licensed in CO, LA and CT. He practices in Estes Park, at Elkhorn Law Office, L.L.C., 166 Virginia St., Suite 6. Carl's practice is focused on wills, trusts, estates, real estate transactions, litigation, corporate formation, general legal advice and corporate governance. In addition, Carl also has been legal counsel for local municipalities, state and federal government agencies. Carl's hobbies are golf, hiking and beginning fly fishing. Aime is an avid hiker and loves to paint. Although living in Longmont now, Carl and Aime are in the process of building their forever and permanent home in Estes Park.
Friendship Card invites merchant partners
Help others while helping yourself: that’s the purpose of the new Friendship Card. Based on a simplified concept of the former Rocky Card, the new Friendship Card will be sold by the Rotary Club of Estes Park for $10. It will open the door to discounts at local restaurants and stores for a calendar year.Net proceeds from the sale of the Friendship Card will be used to support our club's many charitable projects,
Karen Thompson is launching the project with her committee members. They are currently asking business owners to become a part of the Friendship Card initiative. In exchange for discounts, merchants will be listed in promotional materials and display a decal advertising their membership in the program.
The Friendship Card will be available for sale at 8-10 area locations, which will be announced when the card launches in May.
For more information, send an email tot epfriendshipcard@gmail.com. A committee member will promptly follow up.
2020 Rotary Peace Fellowship seeking applicants
The spike in regional and local conflicts around the globe has boosted the need for peace and development leaders skilled in building positive social change. The fully funded Rotary Peace Fellowship, which covers tuition and living expenses, increases the capacity of existing leaders to prevent and resolve conflict through academic training, field experience and professional networking.
Up to 100 fellows are selected every year in a globally competitive process based on personal, academic and professional achievements. Fellows earn either a master’s degree or a professional development certificate in peace and conflict studies at one of the Rotary Peace Centers, located within seven leading universities around the world. More than 1,200 program alumni are working in over 100 countries as leaders in national governments, NGOs, social enterprises, the military, law enforcement and international organizations such as the United Nations.
The 2020-21 academic term deadline is May 31, 2019. Additional information on Rotary Peace Scholarships, including an application checklist video and a timeline for the application process is available at: https://www.rotary.org/en/our-programs/peace-fellowships Interested? Contact Ron Gordon, International Service Director, at rgordon@frii.com.
Honor a Rotarian with a memorial gift
The R.I. Foundation makes it easy
It's easy, if you use the R.I. donation form. Click on the link below to access the form. You can designate Polio Plus or the annual fund, and a notice will be sent to the recipient's family. This link takes you to the online donation page where you can donate with a credit card OR download a form to mail in with your check.
"April is Maternal and Child Health Month in Rotary... Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, a woman dies from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth. And babies whose mothers die within the first six weeks of their lives are far more likely to die themselves than babies whose mothers survive. As I've traveled around the world as president of Rotary, I've met families for whom these aren't simply tragic statistics. But I've also met people who are devoting themselves to helping mothers and children — and because of them, I'm hopeful. And because many of those people are Rotarians, I'm also proud."
-Barry Rassin, 2018-19 Rotary International President
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