CLUB NEWS
"Welcome to Smoky Hill Rotary Club ...
the best place to be at noon on Monday!
Smoky Hill Rotary Club … serving the City of Aurora and the World!"
2018-19 President & PDG Talee Crowe
SMOKY HILL ROTARY'S
9th ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT … Friday, August 2nd! Tournament Chair PP Gary Frisch reminds everyone we are only 10 weeks out from the tournament and donations have been slow so far so it is time to kick it in high gear with the goal of getting a decent count of golfers within the next five weeks or so. Please don't procrastinate!
SMOKY HILL ROTARVARIETY OF NEWS …
PP Betsy Jansen had a full team to prepare and serve dinner at the Ronald McDonald House last Tuesday, May 14th. The team was comprised of Betsy, Jacquie Gallo, PP Darryl & Donita Harvey, PP Al Horton, PP Nancy Jones, PP Denny Passantino, PP Mike Peterson, and PP Terry & Linda Remigio! Everyone arrived promptly at 4:15pm but some of the volunteers kept Betsy in limbo until 4:30pm because they went to the third floor kitchen instead of the second floor kitchen where Betsy was waiting! All's well that ends well and Betsy enjoyed watching everyone "dig in" and work together to create a delicious chicken enchilada casserole, Mexican Caesar salad and cupcakes for about 40 residents!
Our very own PP Craig Essex is the 2018-19 recipient of the Kevin Farrell Leadership Award. Karen Loeb, President of the Denver SE Rotary Club, sponsor of the award, advised Craig of the great news. Craig has exemplified the legacy of Kevin Farrell's style of servant leadership in many arenas, while fostering leadership growth in others, particularly our youth. He has served in numerous Smoky Hill Rotary board level roles and demonstrated his leadership in many district activities such as the District Internet Committee, an alternate GSE Team Leader to China, District Rotaract Committee and International Service Chair! Craig has a deep commitment to working with youth serving as a senior counselor for YRYLA, serving on the Rocky Mt RYLA board and will be assistant chair of YRYLA in 2020 and chair in 2021. Craig is truly creating the future leaders of Rotary by his selfless example of service to others! Craig said he is very honored and humbled to receive the award. CONGRATULATIONS CRAIG! WELL DESERVED!
President Talee Crowe welcomed Carol Hartman from the Aurora Gateway Rotary Club. Carol spoke about their club's food pantry which has been in place for about one year. The pantry is filled 3 times a week and provides food for the elderly, homeless families and librarians who give the food to kids for snacks and food for weekends. Talee presented Carol with the food Smoky Hill Rotary has collected the past few weeks for their pantry and Carol was pleasantly surprised and very grateful for our efforts!
A tan PP Jim Wingert made his way up to Colorado from Florida just in time to see it snowing! Jim is a member of the Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch (Florida) which has 105 singing members, swelling to 120 in the winter and down to 60 during the summer. Jim said it was good to be back. His home in Castle Rock was sold last fall but he will be spending some time in Colorado this summer including a couple of weeks in Steamboat Springs. The Lakewood Ranch Rotary club's largest fundraiser is their annual Suncoast Food & Wine Fest. It raises about $120,000 and 100% of the proceeds are granted. Hopefully we will see Jim a few times this summer … he is already signed up for the golf tournament and we might see him at the Installation Dinner on June 22nd.
Foundation Chair PP Lloyd Gottman read a letter Prez Talee received from the Rotary Foundation thanking the club for averaging $74 per member in donations to the Polio Plus program. The Foundation goal was $50 per member so the club did very well to exceed that!
International Chair PP Bev Edwards reports the $117,000 Beius Romania urology equipment project has run into a small speed bump. The standard waiver for the avoidance of Value Added Tax (VAT) is no longer available so $19,000 needs to be raised for the VAT. Bev is confident that will happen through efforts from the Eradia Romania Rotary Club, Smoky Hill Rotary and solicitation from new clubs.
The club's annual Installation Dinner will be held on Saturday, June 22nd at Heritage Club Eagle Bend! Please Note: No lunch meeting next week, Monday, May 27th (Memorial Day) and Monday, June 24th (Monday following the Installation Dinner).
Enjoy the Memorial Day Holiday!
Had to find out where PP Bill Maclay found his "long" invocation this week because he could not remember where he found it - who would of thought … it is a quote from Golda Meir!! Not sure how inspiring it is but suppose there is some truth in it! Actually, there is nothing Bill needs to do - he has everything he wanted as a teenager … he doesn't have to go to work or school, he gets an allowance every month, he has his own pad, he doesn't have a curfew, he has a driver's license and his own car, he has a ID that gets him into bars and whiskey stores, he doesn't have acne, he doesn't have to worry about getting someone pregnant and he can go to his room whenever he wants to play Nintendo! "Ladies & Gentlemen, the Captain has turned on the fasten seat belt sign. We are now crossing a zone of turbulent weather. Please return to your seats and keep your seat belts fastened in case we encounter any turbulence or the Captain decides to jerk the stick back & forth, because there's absolutely nothing else you can do. Thank you."
THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT … "The Rotary Foundation is not to build monuments of brick and stone. If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work on brass, time will efface it; if we rear temples they will crumble into dust; but if we work upon immortal minds, if we imbue them with the full meaning of the spirit of Rotary . . . we are engraving on those tablets something that will brighten all eternity.” Arch C. Klumph, President of Rotary International, 1916-1917
THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM
Don Massey is the manager of the Town Center at Aurora (o.k.a. The Aurora Mall, the "TCA"). The TCA was built in 1975 and is the oldest enclosed shopping mall in Colorada. TCA serves the communities of Aurora, Buckley Air Force Base, The Anschutz Medical Campus, the Lowry neighborhood and residents of southeast Denver. TCA is 100% leased and home to over 130 stores and restaurants including top retailers like Macy’s, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Sears, Victoria’s Secret, Express and Bath & Body Works, as well as dining options like Chick-fil-A, Baskin Robbins and Taco Bell. TCA was remodeled in 2005 and a large food court was added.
You hear talk that shopping malls are dying but the Amazon's of the world can't grow anymore so they are looking to brick & mortar malls to bolster their growth. Amazon purchased Whole Foods, is opening kiosks in malls for their top products and placing lockers in malls for customers to pick up products.
The TCA is community oriented and provides support for a robust group of 60 mall walkers, provides a large children's play area, puts on a Tamale Festival and other festivals, carnivals, and a Food Truck Fight, all of which raise funds for the community.
There are only 500 Sears stores left in the country but the Sears at the TCA is one of the top 25 stores in the country! The Macy's store sells more fragrances than any other store in Colorado thanks to PP Joe Hughes who purchases his English Leather there! The TCA is also the number one shoe center in Colorado!
Omni-channel marketing is the buzz word in retailing - it is a multichannel approach to sales that seeks to provide customers with a seamless shopping experience, whether they're shopping online from a desktop or mobile device, by telephone, or in a brick-and-mortar store.
Plans are being made to demolish the Sears store in 2020 and replace it and the land east of it with a outdoor life style center where people can live, work and play. It would be a mixed use development including a hotel, offices, retail stores, restaurants and apartments/condos. Like many older malls, the TCA was built too large so it may also be right-sized to eliminate stores on both end zones.
