President Anne Slack rang the bell at 12:00. Karen Thompson gave the Invocation. Annie led the Pledge of Allegiance.
Announcements
Annie Slack: there are still seven sponsorships to attend the District meeting on June 12-14 at Embassy Suites in Loveland. See Annie to sign up. Also, there will be a tour on May 28 of the Veterans Housing Veterans project in Longmont.
Karol Rinehart: President’s Night is June 12 at the Legion. Tickets are $35 and social hour will begin at 5:30. The deadline to sign up is June 1.
Scott Robbins: next coffee talk is Saturday, June 7 at 8:30 at Inkwell and Brew.
Karol announces President’s Scott announces Coffee Talk
Night on June 12. at Inkwell and Brew, June 7.
Annie presented Paul Harris awards to Karen Thompson and Doug Mann.
Annie presents Paul Harris
Fellowship pins to Doug
Mann and Karen Thompson.
The rest of the meeting was a discussion and assessment of the Duck Race by six different groups, each of which reported their findings to the members.
Adjournment
Annie led the Four-Way Pledge and rang the bell at 1:00.
Barry Hannigan, Scribe
Update from President Anne Slack
I have compiled the information gained from our Rotary meeting last Thursday. I listened to the recording as well, to gather every bit of input from our discussions. There is too much information to include here; I will be sending out another email blast so you can read the results.
There was some consensus from our discussions. -The name “Rotary” must be included on all advertisement of our signature event, the Rotary Club Duck Race.
-If a festival is added to the duck race, it is too large for our club to handle. *We should split the tasks of
raising funds for the organizations holding a festival for the visitors. *Our club wants to focus on raising funds for the non-profits *Give the festival to another entity, i.e.Visit Estes Park A Partnership with town won’t work because they don’t want to
fshow avoritism to one organization -We want to always keep in mind that we are doing this race to raise
money for the non-profits in town. -We must be profitable; we cannot continue to lose money. -The race course has to be longer so the ducks are spaced out as
they arrive at the finish line. -We need better communication with both the club and community. -We need better organization, even if our club only handles adoptions. -We need job descriptions: Big Duck, Little Duck, Volunteers, river
walkers, training about being in the water; finish line duties -We need adequate volunteer help. -We need to be able to continue with computerized technology.
Thanks to all of you for participating in our discussion on Thursday. I think we made progress. My hope was to have enough input from everyone to know how we want to move forward.
Happy Memorial Day.
Annie
Meeting Recording for May 22, 2025
What is the future of our signature event, The Rotary Duck Race? A discussion occurred at six discussion tables. The meeting recording this week was only able to cover table #4 per our President and meeting organizer's druthers. While not representative of the entire Rotary Club, you may find table #4 discussions about the misunderstanding at the finish line and resulting chaos important as we look toward 2026.
President’s Night at the American Legion, Annual Changing of the Guard and Rotary awards.
THURSDAY, JUNE 12th
5:30 - 6:00. Social Time 6:00 - 6:45. Dinner 6:45 - 7:30 Program
Cash Bar
$35 Cash, check (Rotary of Estes Park), Credit Card $37
UPDATE ON
CRUTCHES4AFRICA
DONATIONS
Candace Talbot, Gordon
Slack, Bill Howell
Crutches
Dave Talbot
Sunrise Rotary and Noon Rotary have been collaborating on a project titled Crutches4Africa. It is a 501(c)(3) organization and is the international project of Mountain Foothills Rotary Club in District 5450. David Talbot is a Rotarian and a polio survivor. He and his wife Candace, founded this organization after witnessing people in Africa struggling to move due to the effects of polio. Crutches4Africa is now a worldwide organization and every person participating in it is a volunteer. No one is paid. They do this out of the goodness of their heart to provide mobility devices to people stricken with polio. They collect these items from discarded equipment that people no longer need. They are living Rotary’s motto: Service Above Self.
Recently Dave Talbot and his wife Candace came to Estes Park to pick up what we have been collecting over the year. Bill Howell, President of Sunrise Rotary, and Anne Slack, President of The Rotary Club of Estes Park, along with Gordon Slack, Sunrise’s President Elect, met at Bill’s home to give Dave all the assistive devices that had been donated.
We want to thank Gary and Kris Hazelton who have run a weekly ad for Crutches4Africa for minimal cost. We want to thank all the individuals who have contributed to this cause...people from Allenspark, Drake, Estes Park, and even the Quota Club. We will have a collection site at the Shred-A-Thon in August.
If you have an assistive device you no longer need or want, bring it to our Rotary meeting on the first four Thursdays of the month at the American Legion at 11: 30 AM. I will collect them and deliver them to Bill at his home.
To contact Crutches4Africa, view their website at http://www.crutches4africa.org Please help us with this very worthy cause.
Anne Slack
President 2024-2025
The Rotary Club of Estes Park
970-231-6697
anneslack@aol.com
Lander Rotary Club Fundraiser
to support Ukraine
The Lander Rotary Club is holding a fundraiser to send assistance to the people of Ukraine! Jerry Venters is Foundation Chair for the Club and sent this request. After sending 100 solar panels converted to cell phone chargers for use by the people of Ukraine, the Lander Rotary Club is launching a District-wide artwork raffle and auction fundraiser to send another 100 of the cell phone chargers to war-torn Ukraine. The campaign goal is $15,000 and will continue through June 15. Paintings and photographs newly created by artists in central and western Wyoming especially for this fundraising effort will be offered – six items in a silent auction and five smaller items in a $25-per-ticket raffle (only 250 tickets will be sold). The offerings range from “Barn Owl Over the Snake,” a framed oil painting by Noelle Weimann, to “Gathering the Herd,” a metal print by Scott Copeland. The market value of the artwork in the auction ranges from $1,200 to $5,000, and in the raffle from $175 to $250. To purchase raffle tickets and bid on the auctioned artwork – and to view all of the art pieces -- go to the Lander Rotary Club’s Website, http://landerrotary.org/. To donate to this international project without purchasing artwork, click on the link for “Raffle Items,” which offers a donation option. The link for the raffle tickets is just below the link for Auction Item # 6 on the Home page, and is:
For further information, contact the project lead, Ken Schreuder, at ken.schreuder@gmail.com. The fundraiser will close on June 15.
WE STILL NEED HELP!
The vacancy is Big Duck for our Duck Race 2025-2026. This is a huge task that requires hours of work but can be so rewarding. You can speak to any number of people in our club who have held this position to learn what is involved. Scott Thompson is our most recent Big Duck. Also Scott Robbins, Beth Weisberg, Bill Solms....the list goes on.
Many thanks!
Annie
August Fundraisers Heads-Up
We have two fundraisers in August this year:
August 9th, Estes Recycles Day, Event Center parking lot, Shredathon, 9 am until noon.
August 23, the John Denver Tribute Concert, Ruesch Auditorium at the YMCA, noon until approximately 9 pm.
Mark these dates on your calendar, and plan to volunteer/attend both events.
You may have already been contacted by the Volunteer Coordinator for the Recycle Day event. We need people to work the truck and crutches collection, and to help set up/tear down and direct traffic.
The concert will need sponsors, poster distribution, set-up people, ushers, and clean-up help.
Sign up sheets will be circulated closer to the dates.
These events are crucial for our scholarship program for 2026, so please plan to participate.
Phil and Tara Moenning
Do You Still Have Your Vest? Update
Rotarians At Work Vest
We are missing 1 “Rotarians At Work” Vest after the Duck Race. If you have one would you please bring it to a Thursday meeting so we can keep them for the Shred-A-Thon in August. If you cannot come to a meeting email either Beth Weisberg or Anne Slack at weisbergfamily@verizon.net or anneslack@aol.com respectively. We need to know where they are. Thank you so much!!
From The Chaplain
Do you know a Club Member who needs assistance? Maybe a ride to meetings, or just a phone call to keep in touch? Please contact Bill Smith 970-420-1033 or billsmithbronx1956@gmail.com.
