Newsletter January 23, 2017 (Jan 23, 2017)

Club Assembly

Club Assembly took place - and what a great number of services Smoky Hill Rotary provides both locally and internationally!

Foundation Committee: Lloyd shared that our Foundation contributions average $270 per member and that we exceeded our goal of $500 for polio plus. He also shared that 27 out of 30 members donated to the Foundation this past year. Foundation dollars have helped eradicate polio - there are only 37 cases reported world wide this year! Foundation dollars also help in places like Montenegro where Rotary dollars helped insure that of 640 births in one hospital resulted in 0 deaths!

Club Services: Terry reports that we just completed a successful Charter Night. We can look forward to a social event in March or April and then there will be the Installation dinner. If you have suggestions for activities you'd like to see, please talk with Terry.

Membership: Clay encourages us all to take responsibility for membership. What's great about Rotary? Why do you remain active? Fellowship, busy, good food, great people, educational opportunities, networking - all good reasons to promote Rotary!

Community Service: Talee shared our list of community service accomplishments this year: 306 pairs of socks for the 180 program; 43 gifts for Century Elementary students plus Christmas shopping; 30 backpacks filled for homeles youth and 56 hats collected; dinner prepared and served 3x at Ronald McDonald House; Arts & Crafts Night at Children's Hospital; $1000 in gift cards for the Battered Women's Shelter; Peaceful Schools - 4 sessions this past Fall and one day of Habitat for Humanity!

International Committee: Betsy shared that we have agreed and committed to participating in the Shelter Box program and will be Shelter Box heros for the next 3 years! A 'shelter box' contains a tent and other emergency supplies that can take care of a family of 4 for a few days until emergency responders can get to them during a natural disaster. The International Committee has a budget of $3200. We have provided support to Mercy Hospital in India, committed to assistance with a maternity ward in Romania, looking at assisting with 'Breathing for Life in Ethiopia and another opportunity in Uganda next year.

Vocation Committee: Mark talked about scholarships. We will be doing a $2000 scholarship to a Rangeview student and will continue to provide scholarships to Pikin Tech. We will also be taking part in a food packing event as part of one of our meetings in the near future. Vocational Bio's - Mark is asking and getting little response - please send him your bio!

RYLA: Craig was not with us today, however, there will be 3 slots available to Rangeview and another 6 slots available to DAVA. Applications are being completed at this time and $4000 has just been paid out to cover 9 spots between RYLA and Young RYLA. Consider volunteering for one of the conferences!

MEETING NOTES

CLUB MEETING NOTES:

President Denny presented this day in history with these facts:

1935: The board game Monopoly goes on sale for the first time. A fun family game, with the goal of driving all of your Thopponents into bankruptcy, is now licensed in 103 countries and printed in 37 languages. The game actually played a role during WWII when British Intelligence created a special edition that was sent by fake charity groups to POW's held by the Nazi's. Inside these games were maps, compasses, real money and other objects useful for escape.

1971: Alan Shepard pulled out a makeshift six-iron that he smuggled on board Apollo 14 and hit 2 golf balls on the lunar surface, becoming the first and only person to play golf on the moon. The first shot actually hit a beer cart! However, his second shot was estimated to have traveled over one mile by the moon's reduced gravity environment giving him the unofficial record for the longest drive in history.

2014: After 22 years, Jay Leno hosted his final Tonight Show. To put that into perspective, Leno said 'when he started hosting in 1992, marijuana was illegal and you could smoke cigarettes anywhere you wants.'

Thank you to our greeters and to Jim Wingert for the Invocation.

NEXT WEEK: February 13th meeting is an OFF SITE at the Medical Center of Aurora. Please be there by 11:50. The Medical Center is on Potomac between Mississippi and Peoria. Please wear some RED in honor of HEART HEALTH.

Tuesday, February 14th: Children's Hospital at 6pm to do crafts and other fun activities with children and families visiting siblings/children in the hospital.

Thursday, February 16th: Board Meeting @ 5:30.

Tuesday,February 21st: Golf Committee meeting @ 5:00 at 21993 E. Ridge Trail Circle in Aurora at Mark Johnson's home.

Nominees for the Board were announced and Jeff Kaes made a motion to accept the nominees as read. Betsy Jansen 2nd the motion and the motion passed. Congratulations to all the new Board members!

Al Horton shared the results of the football pool. We raised just over $450 which will go right to work funding our various programs. Winners: Miles Edwards, Al Horton, Bev Essex and Betsy Jansen! Congratulations! And way to go Patriots! (Sorry Falcon fans!)

We got lots of Valentine Day Quotes - but let's save those for next week's newsletter!

Joe Taylor joined us from Century Elementary and expressed his gratitude for all we do for his school as well as a thank you to the students from Rangeview HS who helped make Peaceful Schools a success.

And thank you to Ryan, Leo, Vincent, Hawi, Grace, Nina and Lexi who joined us! Thank you! How great to see so many youthful faces at our meeting!

Charter Night!!

What a great evening! Just 34 years ago on January 23, 1983, the Smoky Hill Rotary Club was officially chartered and you'll see the original charter in these photos! We were honored to have 3 of the original charter member's with us: PP Jeff Kaes, PP Terry Remigio and PP Bill McClay!

Jeff and Denny researched other historic events that share our historic event, however, there was not much that could compare! They did find these news worthy bits:

* The A-Team premiered on NBS starring Mr. T whose claim to fame was the catch phrase 'I pity the fool!'

* A Russian nuclear-powered radioactive satellite carrying 100 pounds of enriched uranium fell into the Indian Ocean. To put this in perspective, it only takes 35 pounds of uranium to make a nuclear bomb. The Soviets initially denied that the satellite was out of control. They later released this single statement 'Something went wrong.'

* The AFC Championship Game, otherwise known as the 'Mud Bowl' was played on the afternoon of 1/23/83 in Miami. The Miami Dolphins beat the NY Jets 14-0 in a game that had 9 turnovers and 19 punts. Heavy rains earlier in the day created extremely wet and muddy field conditions that negated the Jets significant speed and skill advantage. Why is this notable? The muddy conditions occurred because the Dolphins refused to tarp the field prior to the game, It was that kind of questionable gamesmanship that became the forerunner to a more advanced form that now know as Belichicking.

Thank you to the organizers of this event: Linda and Terry Remigio!

PP Lloyd Gottman recognized several Paul Harris recipients! See photo below of just some of the great work these Paul Harris Fellows have helped make happen: