SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN … to make Christmas brighter for students at Century Elementary School and the victims of domestic violence at Gateway Domestic Violence Services! Community Services Chair PP Darryl Harvey distributed the gift tags containing the names of each student from Century Elementary and their gift list at the meeting this week. Make sure you wrap your gift, attach the tag to the gift and bring it to the club's holiday party on December 1 (details below) or otherwise get it to Darryl by December 1. We are also purchasing gift cards ($25 denominations, no cash) for Gateway this year. Gift cards from grocery stores are preferable but you can also purchase cards from discount retailers such as Target or Kohl's.
HOLIDAY PARTY DETAILS … Club Service Chair PP Terry Remigio provided some more details on the club's holiday party on Saturday, December 1st, just two weeks from this Saturday. Terry has sent out an Evite for the party. It begins at 6pm at Talee's home located at 9006 E Evans Court, Denver, 80231. The club will provide wine, beer, soft drinks, etc. Each Rotarian is asked to bring either an appetizer (last names beginning with A-L) or a dessert (last names beginning with M-Z). Dress is holiday casual which pretty much means wear whatever you want! Terry also introduced his guest at the meeting, John Palmer, who is with the Denver area Council of Boy Scouts. Hi John!
HAPPY VETERANS DAY! On this snowy Veterans Day President Talee Crowe was decked out in her official RIVDSSBS ("Rotary International Veterans Day Star Spangled Banner Sweater")! PP Al Horton provided a Veterans Day invocation … Veterans Day originated as "Armistice Day" on November 11, 1919, the first anniversary of the end of World War I. Unlike Memorial Day, Veterans Day pays tribute to all American veterans - living or dead- but especially gives thanks to living veterans who served their country honorably during war or peacetime. Veterans Day occurs on November 11 every year in the United States. In 1954 Dwight D. Eisenhower officially changed the name of the holiday from Armistice Day to Veterans Day. 16.1 million living veterans served during at least one war. 5.2 million veterans served in peacetime and 2 million veterans are women. Tens of thousands of veterans serve on Team Rubicon finding new purpose in continuing to serve by providing relief to communities devastated by disaster. Team Rubicon is on the ground in 37 U.S. communities, as well as international locations. Members of Team Rubicon are driven to serve -- to reach out to help those in need. The similarities with Rotary, and Smoky Hill in particular, are real and important! Al, thanks for the special invocation!
In tribute to our veterans, President Talee asked all veterans to stand for an ovation. While still standing, Talee asked everyone with a parent and then son or daughter who served in the military to stand. By now, practically everyone in the room was standing to receive an ovation for their service to our country!
GRANT APPROVED FOR THE BEIUS ROMANIA PROJECT! PP Bev Edwards was delighted to announce that the grant for the Beius medical equipment project has been approved by Rotary International!! The Beius project is a coordinated effort of 11 Rotary clubs from 4 countries and Smoky Hill Rotary, with the great leadership from Bev, has and will continue to be a very important part of the project! Bev estimates the equipment, valued at $117,000, will be dedicated in March 2019. All Smoky Hill Rotarians are invited and encouraged to attend the dedication in Romania. The trip to Romania is estimated to cost about $3,000 per person (includes all travel, lodging, food, etc).
CLUB BOARD MEETING IS THIS WEEK … Thursday, November 15 at Susan Aubin's office. This is the final meeting for 2018 (no meeting in December).
The Ronald McDonald House is Tuesday, December 4 (see PP Betsy Jansen).
NOVEMBER IS ROTARY FOUNDATION MONTH … so Foundation Chair PP Lloyd Gottman reminds us the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will match our donations to the Polio Plus Fund of the Rotary Foundation two for one ($100 becomes $300). Lloyd is not a scrooge because instead of sending out Christmas Cards, he contributes the money he saves on the cards and postage to Polio Plus!
DISTRICT MEMBERSHIP WORKSHOP … on November 10 at Red Rocks Community College was attended by Membership Chair PP Jeff Kaes. It was not well attended since, as Jeff put it, no one wants to attend workshops on a Saturday morning. Only 13 people were there and of that only 8 were actual attendees if you don't count the instructors and district reps. There was a lot of talk about a la carte attendance, satellite clubs and the difficulties of certain meeting times, including lunch meetings. Apparently you can double the fun of attending a Saturday morning workshop by finding out Red Rocks Community College and the Jeffco Fairgrounds are two different places!
SMOKY HILL ROTARVARIETY OF NEWS …
PP Craig Essex was wearing a red poppy in honor of Veterans Day and he was all smiles because he was flank
ed by the Susans … Susan Aubin and Susan Michalakes! The red poppy on Craig's sweater must have drawn them together... one Susan on his left and one Susan on his right, all facing West, despite the fact every other chair at that table was available! It looked like they were sitting at the head table before their Royal Court of Rotary! With all the pomp-py and circumstance created by that red poppy at the head table, it is worth taking a moment to look a little deeper into the "remembrance poppy".
The red Poppy is a Veterans Day tradition in Craig's homeland, Canada. In the spring of 1915, shortly after losing a friend in Ypres, a Canadian doctor, Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae was inspired by the sight of poppies that were the first flowers to grow in the churned-up earth of soldiers' graves in Flanders, a region of Belgium, and wrote the famous poem called "In Flanders Fields". After the First World War, the poppy was adopted as a symbol of remembrance.
Sgt. at Arms PP Jim Suss gave out 3 lotto tickets to everyone this week EXCEPT those wearing a Rotary pin who received 4 lotto tickets in an attempt to reward those pinned with a higher chance for lotto winnings (for the record, the big winner was "pinless"!). Someone in the back of the room said he was wearing Rotary underwear instead of a pin, think it was PP Al Horton. Jim did not bother to verify Al's Rotary underwear, so we had to find out if … where you can find … had to Google "Rotary International underwear". Oh my … the styles are endless and some are a bit exotic! Al, for your "personal" commitment to Rotary, next time you deserve at least 8 tickets!
THIS WEEK'S THOUGHT … "Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in Democracy. You vote in elections once a year. But when you volunteer, you vote everyday about the kind of community you want to live in." - Former Colorado Governor John Love
THIS WEEK'S PROGRAM
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Our speaker this week was Ron Cole who is the Defense Council Chair for the Aurora Chamber of Commerce. Ron attended Regina University and the Naval War College and has served at the NSA and the Air Force as a technical analyst. Ron's topic of discussion was the economic impact of the Department of Defense, Veterans and Military Retirees, and the Department of Veteran Affairs activities in Colorado. The study was prepared by Summit Economics, LLC using 2017 economic data. The study was conducted to recognize the economic effect the defense related sector has on Colorado and to understand how employment, expenditures and other economic contributions are impacted by the Department of Defense (DOD), military retirees and veterans, and the Department of Veteran Affairs.
The study found the economic impacts are larger and broader than previously known - the defense economic sector produces an overall $26.6 Billion annual economic impact on Colorado. It produces 7.4% of the total jobs in the state, the third largest sector. We are #2 in the nation in aerospace (California is #1; Texas is #3) and the DOD is a key support to this position. It is estimated that 61% of the aerospace industry is tied to the defense sector. There are over 50 DOD and VA facilties across Colorado which include military installations, VA Medical Facilities, Air National Guard facitlites, cemetaries and Veteran's homes.
The DOD's impact organizations in Colorado include Buckley AFB, Cheyenne Mtn Air Force Stn, Fort Carson, Greeley Air National Guard Stn, Peterson AFB, Pueblo Chemical Depot and the US Air Force Academy. Other impact activities include VA expenditures, retiree pensions, tricare and contractors to the DOD. In Colorado, 147 companies do business for the DOD. Tourism is the number economic driver followed by the DOD and agriculture.
All 64 counties in Colorado benefit from some level of DOD funding, from Kiowa's 11 employees to El Paso's 121,035 employees. In total, the DOD employs 246,723 in Colorado with total labor income at $16,357,135,201!
The Aurora Defense Council is comprised of 200 members and one of its major activities is defending Buckley AFB from "BRAC" (Base Realignment And Closure). Currently there is no threat of BRAC to Buckley which employs 14,000 people and pumps $1 Billion per year into the local economy.
