Dr. Ralph Petrilli presented his Rotary Vocational talk.  These talks are great opportunities for new club members to share some things about their personal and professional lives.  Ralph is looking forward to getting involved in club projects and he is grateful to Andres Puky and Dale Sherrod for inviting him to Longmont Rotary.  Ralph has two grown children and he and his wife, Cynthia live in Longmont.  Ralph spent the second half of his career at Longmont United Hospital as an anesthesiologist.  Faith is important to Ralph and he also has some serious hobbies, enjoying Ironman events. He fondly recalls an Ironman event in Hawaii and cycling 500 miles across Iowa in the RAGBRAI event.  Wow,  we have much to learn from Ralph and it's clear he has much to contribute.  Welcome Ralph to Longmont Rotary!!

Boulder Rotary Club Rotarians, Alessandro Sachs and Lynn Johnson, provided an informative program about their project to provide clean drinking water to the citizens of Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.  The Oglala Lakota Sioux reservation is listed as the poorest and the 8th largest, (the size of Connecticut).  Many families have no running water or septic service and the groundwater is contaminated with arsenic and uranium.  High cancer rates and the short life expectancy is attributed to this groundwater problem.  What is needed is piped clean water going directly to the homes on this land.  The nearest clean water supply system is "Mni-Wiconi- Water is Life" in Fort Pierre, SD. 

The CLEAN non-contaminated Water for Oglala Lakota Sioux project was initiated by the World Community Service Committee of the Boulder Rotary Club (BRC) and supported by 22 US Rotary Clubs in 3 Districts and 2 European PC, along with 97 donors (Rotarians and Private).  Thanks to these donations, thus far raising $144,952, providing 48 at-risk, off-the-grid homes with clean drinking water.  Donations have been matched by a local NGO partner, "Running Strong for American Indian Youth".   

The peaches have been picked up and we are all enjoying them in various yummy recipes or just eating them straight from the box.  A big thank you to our club Rotarians for purchasing, advertising and distributing the boxes on August 29th at High Plains Bank drive-thru area.  Thanks to Rose Hopman for coordinating this event.  

To learn more about Rise Against Suicide, watch the recent video from Longmont's, The Backstory .  This is a powerful and informative interview about this non-profit organization.  Longmont Rotary is so proud to support Rise Against Suicide through our month long fundraising event, Cycle to Serve (for details of this event, read information on the club website).