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OCTOBERÂ 2015
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Posted by DG Mary Kay Hasz (Highlands Ranch) MaryKayDG15-16@MaryKayHasz.com
As I have visited Area Assemblies and individual clubs this past three months I have been so impressed with the programs and projects of clubs in District 5450. From mental health initiative programs, feeding the hungry, engaging the special needs of young adults in service projects, to providing school children with supplies for the new year, our service to our communities is great and varied. Internationally District 5450 Rotarians are visiting Mongolia, Nepal and Guatemala to name a few humanitarian initiatives in other countries.
Our international theme this year, "Be A Gift To the World" is alive and well in the hearts of Rotarians. An immense gift that Rotarians, along with our partners, will give the world is the eradication of polio from the face of the earth. This will happen very soon.
You may have read in the September "Rotarian" that October 24, 2015 will be World Polio Day. Hopefully some of our clubs can draw awareness in their communities to Rotary's involvement in eradicating this dreadful disease. As RI President Ravindran stated..."Today I truly look forward to the reality of a polio-free world.....once the poliovirus is interrupted completely does not mean we have reached the end of our work. Three years must pass before the world can be certified polio free. During this time we must continue to immunize children, monitor the environment for signs of the virus, and keep awareness high."
Let us all in District 5450 and around the world continue to support polio plus with our donations. Last year our District contributed approximately $150,000 - let's match and surpass that amount this Rotary year!
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Posted by Debi Bush (Denver Cherry Creek) membership@rotary5450.org
Increasing Your Club's Membership
Sharing real-life stories about what clubs in District 5450 are doing to strengthen and grow their membership demonstrates the importance, relevance to create flexibility for members to participate in service projects and be Rotarians. Here’s a story from Rotarian Dee Leh, Membership Director for the Littleton Evening Satellite.
My husband was the Littleton club president from 2013-2014, and I had the privilege to attend the RI conference in Portugal. I attended several breakout sessions on membership, as declining membership was apparent in our club with our aging member population.
I supported the Club and got to know members as I helped with our annual fundraiser. After two years of participating in a marketing role for the event, our incoming president for 2014-2015 asked me if I'd be interested in starting an evening meeting. I accepted the position and we were off and running. We had three (3) Meet and Greets and at the 4th Meet and Greet, we asked peeps to sign up...I recruited heavily to my empty nester gal pals.
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Posted by Mary Jean Ewing, Polio Chair, maryjeanewing@gmail.com
So Many Ways to Raise Funds & Get Involved!
We are a quarter of the way through this Rotary Year. Many things have changed but some remain the same. The eradication of polio continues as the #1 Rotary goal. Though cases decline, new countries become polio free, and an effective 'end-game' strategy is in place, there continues a need for vigilance, persistence and follow through.
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Posted by Kam Breitenbach (Parker) kamieb1234@gmail.com
Rotary Clubs of Parker and Parker Cherry Creek Valley Work Together
The Rotary Club of Parker and the Rotary Club of Parker Cherry Creek Valley joined together to assist Project Sanctuary with one of their retreats. Rotarians from both clubs met at Sam's Club in Lone Tree and joined staff from Project Sanctuary to load supplies for a new group of Military Veteran families arriving Friday evening. The supplies were then delivered to Project Sanctuary at Snowmass YMCA facility in Granby, CO.
Once on site the Rotarians put away groceries, helped with childcare, rearranged the furniture for incoming families, set up the kitchen, put together goody/welcome bags for each family, made name tags and met with one of the Veterans wives who told us how much Project Sanctuary has helped her and her husband.
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Posted by Debi Bush (Denver Cherry Creek) membership@rotary5450.org
Keep Members Active and Happy!
One of the clubs in District 5450 is Rotary eClub One which is the first eClub in all of Rotary. Rotarian Cheonhee Sohn is a member of Rotary eClub One and she shared their Buddy System strategy with me. I have been curious how an eClub manages retention and I learned that it’s really no different from a “terra” club.
The "buddy" system strategy Emmanuel (Rotary eClub One president) was talking about was arranged by him (not me), and it counts a member’s attendance from their participation in the forums and their service reports. What I made for the club this year as Membership Committee Chair was that I had set up a mentoring program. Everyone in the club has a mentor, who gives them guidance and cares for them. We have three mentors on the Membership Committee, who are all Past Presidents of the Rotary eClub One. This mentoring program works very well at the moment. I just would like to keep members active and happy, which will be correlated to more service and engagement.
There are at least two Rotary eClub One members here in terra District 5450 – Dave Amen (known for his involvement with RYLA) and Deb Brackney (just saw her at Zone Institute for Emerging District Leader training). And, remember that you can do a make-up through Rotary eClub One’s website at www.rotaryeclubone.org.
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Posted by Mike Hitchcock (University Hills) mhhitch@aol.com
Mental Health & Childhood Vaccinations
In a recent meeting of the District Service Resource Committee we discussed two major new ideas worthy of club consideration: a Mental Health Initiative and a possible Colorado Childhood Immunization Initiative. Rotary has done wonderful work abroad but these are two huge areas of need right here in Colorado that are crying out for attention.
First, our news outlets are filled with reports of school shootings and other violent acts. The immediate response is a call for more gun laws when the underlying problem of recognizing, acknowledging, and treating mental illness is not being addressed. The almost universal response of those close to the perpetrators, be they other students, teachers, school administrators or friends and relatives is, “We had no idea this would happen”. In fact, in each of these cases there were red flags of mental problems for months or even years preceding the incident. We have returning veterans with PTSD and record suicide rates who are not being treated. Suicide is second only to accidents as the leading cause of death in teenagers. Several clubs in District 5450 are following the lead of the Commerce City Rotary in addressing the need for mental health initiatives within their communities. These various programs are patterned after medical first aid training, i.e. to recognize and understand a mental health problem, stabilize and defuse critical situations, evaluate the seriousness of the problem, and help direct the person to appropriate help that might be needed.
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Posted by Carolyn Schrader (Denver Mile High) schrader407@gmail.com
Denver Mile High in Nepal: Nineteen Years and Still Making an Impact
Thulo Parsel is a village in Nepal, 76 km from Kathmandu. Agriculture is the major occupation of the highly wooded region. In 1993, members of the Rotary Club of Denver Mile High visited the village and met village leaders who told them of their need for running water in the village. In 1996, a matching grant of $26,000, sponsored by Denver Mile High and the Patan Nepal Rotary Club, provided drinking water and taps to the households in the community. At that time there was no road to the village; materials were brought in by raft. Later the Patan Rotary Club funded toilets in each house. Labor was done by the villagers.
After availability of water, life in Thulo Parsel changed dramatically, without further assistance from Rotary. Agriculture flourished rapidly, as well as forest conservation.
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Posted by PDG Peter Ewing (Boulder) pmjewing@earthlink.net
We all have an opportunity to leave a legacy with Rotary International. It is called being a BENEFACTOR or a member of the BEQUEST Society.
A Benefactor has made a pledge of between $1,000 and $9,999 to The Rotary Foundation’s ENDOWMENT Fund.
A Bequest Society member has pledged $10,000 or more to the Endowment Fund. There are several ways to accomplish this - in your estate plan, as an outright cash gift or as appreciated stock and many others.
District 5450 is in the midst of a pledge drive to fund The Rotary Foundation’s Endowment Fund, which, when realized, will provide a supplemental stream of funding (DDF) to match our club’s grant applications. Donations must be marked “SHARE” to have funds returned to District 5450.
We ask every Rotarian in our District to consider making a pledge to support this effort. For more information, please contact Immediate Past District Governor Peter Ewing at pmjewing@earthlink.net or 303-449-4795.
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Posted by PDG Peter Ewing (Boulder) pmjewing@earthlink.net
A World Class Meeting in San Antonio!
Every year, a five-day meeting is held called the Zone Institute. First and foremost this is a training meeting for the District Governor Elects and Nominees of every District in Zones 21b and 27. DGE Bill Downes and DGN Abbas Rajabi and their partners represented District 5450 at this important training. In addition, District Membership, Public Relations, Foundation Chairs, District Trainers, and Rotary Leadership Institute (RLI) Coordinators were able to compare best practices with their counterparts from the 22 Districts in our two paired Zones. Selected Rotarians attended sessions for Emerging District Leaders (EDL) that gave them the broad yet deep insight into what Rotary International is. These individuals will be our District Governors of the future.
Current District Governors shared their experiences and past District Governors were able to discuss issues of importance to Rotary at the Club, District, Zone, and Rotary International level. We were honored to meet and converse with RI President-Elect John Germ, RI Foundation Trustee Chair Ray Klinginsmith, and RI Director Greg Podd. In total, this was an awesome and inspiring meeting!
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Posted by Jim McGibney (Denver) jmcgibney@earthlink.net
In 2016, Rotary International will be holding the International Convention in Seoul, Republic of Korea (ROK). The current projection is the meeting might exceed the current record attendance, which was in Osaka, Japan in 2004 and was 43,381. We are hoping to top 45,000 this coming year.
Rotarian Jim McGibney, Club 31, was appointed in 2011 to the position of Honorary Consul to the Republic of Korea in Colorado, and has worked to promote the relationship between Colorado and the ROK. The focus has been on Visa's, Driver license exchange, visiting Executives and much more.
For those that are interested in Seoul and Korea, Jim has developed a 30 minute program that he presented to the Rotary Club of Fort Collins and to the Denver Rotary Club. He is scheduled to give that program in Steamboat Springs in November.
If you have an interest or any questions on the program, please feel free to contact jim at jmcgibney@earthlink.net or by phone at 303-888-3689. You can also watch a great (short) You Tube video for the convention at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbeRjRF-x0E.
°¨»çÇÕ´Ï´Ù. (Thank you)
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Posted by Steve Baroch (Castle Rock High Noon) steve@baroch.net
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Two $30,000 Awards Available
Our Rotary District 5450 will be awarding 2 very significant scholarships in the 2015-2016 year.
There are two $30,000 Rotary District 5450 Ambassadorial Scholarship Awards for Graduate Study outside the USA. Eligible applicants will intend to study and have future career plans related to at least one of the following areas of focus:
- Promoting Peace
- Fighting Disease
- Providing Clean Water and Sanitation
- Maternal and Child Health
- Basic Educations and Literacy
- Growing Local Economies
Please promote these scholarships and discuss them at your Club meetings. We are looking for applicants with high levels of academic achievement and exemplary backgrounds. Application forms and further information can be found at the district website. The Pre-Application Deadline is October 10, 2015. For more information contact Steve Baroch at steve@baroch.net.
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Rotary Global Awards Program was launched this year to offer Rotary Club members discounts on products and services for travel, entertainment and merchandise. Every active Rotarian is automatically eligible to participate. Go to www.rotary.org/globalrewards for information and registration.
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