CLUB NEWS
"Welcome to Smoky Hill Rotary Club ... the best place to be at noon on Monday!
Smoky Hill Rotary Club … serving Aurora and the World!"
2018-19 President & PDG Talee Crowe
As President Talee noted, it was a house full of Rotarians at the meeting this week. It was great to see almost the WHOLE club in attendance because, as Talee also noted, the WHOLE is more than the sum of the individual parts!
CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL VALENTINES … PP Al Horton provided a brief follow-up on the Valentine arts & crafts evening at the Children's Hospital on February 12th. The hospital knows Smoky Hill Rotary very well and whether it is one child or countless children who show up for our event, the hospital always welcomes us with open arms! On this particular evening a small number of children participated in arts, crafts and face painting but there was great fellowship while an excellent pianist performed on the lobby piano. There was some discussion about holding the same or a similar event at the Ronald McDonald House in the future.
THE RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE … and PP Betsy Jansen have another service opportunity lined up for Smoky Hill Rotary Club. On Tuesday, March 12 we will prepare and serve dinner for the residents at the RMH. Volunteers need to promptly arrive at 4:15PM because as Betsy said, that is "crunch time" - a lot of food has to be prepared, cooked and ready to serve at 6PM. Sign up sheets are available and about eight volunteers are needed. Contact Betsy if you have any questions.
ROTARY DISTRICT 5450 DISTRICT CONFERENCE … Saturday, April 27th at the Arvada Events Center. Register at Rotary5450.org - registration closes midnight Ap
ril 19. Full Conference fee is $125 per person (9:00 am - 9:00 pm) and there are reduced rates for first time attendees/Rotaract and if you attend the Saturday lunch/program or dinner/program instead of the full day of interactive events. Highlights: Connections Cafe - learn about Rotary from other Rotarians; Rotary Club Presentations - service in action; Tracey Carisch - Making Connections; Andrew Romanoff - Mental Health in Colorado; Hall of Service - show off your club; Up with People - Saturday night speaker & entertainment.
President Talee Crowe would like to see Smoky Hill Rotary highlight the club's fantastic $117,000 Beius Romania hospital project in the Hall of Service. The club has not had a display at a district conference in a number of years.
SMOKY HILL ROTARVARIETY OF NEWS …
There is a club board meeting this Thursday, February 28th at Susan Aubin's office - all Rotarians are welcome to attend. PE Hugh Radke is attending the PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) this coming weekend (March 1-3). The District's Literacy Conference is on March 30 from 8:30AM to 3:30PM at the University of Denver. Remember you can add a listing of your business to the District's online business directory for only $25 per year. Go to the District's website for more information, conference registrations or to create a listing for your business. The Aurora Rotary Foundation wrote our club a nice thank you letter in response to the $1,000 Smoky Hill Rotary donated to them for the inclusive playground they are building at Red Tail Hawk Park.
SMOKY HILL ROTARY 9TH ANNUAL GOLF TOURNAMENT … is on Friday, August 2, 2019 and it is time for the planning process to tee off so the golf committee is conducting its first meeting this week. It will be on Tuesday, February 26th beginning at 5:30PM at PP Mark Johnson's home (21993 E Ridge Trail Cir, Aurora 80016). If you are interested in serving on the committee contact Golf Committee Chair PP Gary Frisch or attend the meeting! One of the first orders of business is the redesign of the tournament's brochure.
Registration for this summer's RYLA and Young RYLA began on February 15. Young RYLA is for students entering the 8th grade and RYLA is for students entering their Sophomore through Senior years of high school. Contact PP Craig Essex if you have any candidates or for more information.
WHAT'S IN THE BAG?? … It looks like the Sgt-at-Arms pecking order has been resolved because PP Jim Suss was back in the saddle this we
ek despite the What's in the Bag? performance by PP Clay Fell last week - his taunting of Jim in the parking lot probably did Clay in. Jim said several Rotarians asked him whether he had a What's in the Bag? this week and he said the only bags he has are the ones under his eyes. Jim looks good and it is hard to see any eyebags but maybe he was hiding them with his reading glasses because when the glasses came off … well … see for yourself. Jim, get more sleep, use the $10 that mysteriously appeared to buy some cucumbers (chill, slice 
and gently place on eyes for 15 minutes) or buy some Plexaderm Rapid Reduction Cream Plus (results are not permanent but you will love the way you look after the very first use!). You want to delay that moment when your eyebags have eyebags as long as possible!
THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT … “The most useful asset of a person is not a head full of knowledge, but a heart full of love, with ears open to listen and hands willing to help."
THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM
Dan O'Bryant provided a program entitled 'Shining a Light on the Darkness of Human Trafficking. Dan has an extensive background including teaching at the Air Force Academy for five years. He has been involved with human trafficking for six years and is on the board of directors of the National Center of Sexual Exploitation (NCSE). Jim is a person of faith and believes his faith is needed to deal with human trafficking.
After talking with survivors of human trafficking, Dan found it was not something he could walk away from. Many believe it occurs everywhere else but it is prevalent in the United States. Trafficking crosses all boundaries, all areas, your neighbor could be conducting it. A huge percentage of victims are women and young girls. As a result of being beaten, drugged and sexually abused, most of them suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. In the United States alone there are one million prostitutes!
There are three areas trafficking can be addressed in: prevention, restoration and rescue. Dan's passion is the prevention area and government legislation to stop trafficking. A few years ago Colorado received a letter grade of "D" for its legislation. Now it is a felony in all states to have sex with a minor and the biggest victory in six years occurred last year when the "backpage.com" website was shut down by the justice department following an amendment to the Communications Decency Act. The owners of the website are in federal prison. That multi-million dollar website business sold girls and made it very easy for men to have a girl in their hotel room in 20 minutes. Men no longer had to go to red light districts and risk exposure. As a result of legislation passed in the past six years, Colorado now gets a grade of "B" for its efforts against human trafficking.
There still has to be a better job of educating people on human trafficking to decrease the demand by men to pay women for sex. Of all prostitutes, 92% of them have a pimp and it is the pimp, not the prostitute, who makes the money. Germany legalized prostitution in 2002 and it now has 500,000 prostitutes. Legalization increased the demand for prostitution and brothels are going up everywhere in Germany.
Pornography is a serious crisis in the U.S. as well. By the age of 20, 70% of all boys are exposed to pornography. According to the NCSE, the impact of pornography on the young brain is horrible. Dopamine is the central chemical in your brain that regulates how you perceive and experience pleasure. More and more stimulus (pornography) is needed each time to release dopamine required to experience the same or greater levels of pleasure. Eleven states have declared pornography a public health crisis but Colorado is not one of them.
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