A Woman's Place

GUESTS
We were happy to welcome Judy TeSelle as a visiting Rotarian last week. Judy is with the Casper, WY 5-Trails club and has been involved with the District's work with the Saratov Russia club. A little bird tells me that she is moving to this area and may opt to become a member of our club.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
President Ron announced that we will be having elections for officers on Dec 7. Dorothy Simmons has agreed to continue as Secretary if the club desires. Mike Warne has also agreed to stay on as Treasurer.

Eric Swanson told the club that the first "meeting of interest" for an Interact club at Windsor High School was more successful than anticipated with over 30 students showing up. Tuesday, Dec 5, there will be an organizational meeting in room 120 at 11:15. Rotarians are encouraged to attend to give some support and background to the kids.

President Ron also announced the coming visit and luncheon with the RI President Bill Boyd at the Ranch on January 19. We will not be having a regular meeting that Thursday. He encouraged all members to attend as the club will pick up the cost for the meals for club members.

Ron also passed around a sign up list for members to go to the District Mid-year meeting in Laramie in January. Again, the club will cover the cost of registration for this meeting.

PROGRAM
Wendy Torres and Abby Peterfeso presented a program on "A WOMAN’S PLACE." This is a non-profit agency serving victims and survivors of domestic violence in Weld County. The facility is in Greeley at an undisclosed location for security purposes. They passed out literature and information about the program and facility which has 28 adult beds and a number of cribs for children They said the number of people housed or served varies significantly from week to week. Several weeks ago, the facility was full, but this week, only two people were in residence. The handouts gave much more detail and information than can be presented here, or you can get more details at http://www.awpdv.org/.

QUIZ ANSWER
The Vatican is a nation with approximately 1000 residents. Maybe it remains small because of the extremely low birth rate.

NEXT QUESTION
As December 7 is the 65th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor, who was the Japanese Commander in charge of planning and carrying out the attack? Incidentally, www.nationalgeographic.com has wonderful chronological presentation that you can watch on your computer. The answer to the question is NOT there.

The Hidden History of the Arapaho Bend Nature Area

GUESTS
Attendance at the weekly meetings is increasing. The caterers normally set up for 22, but the last couple of weeks we have had to add additional place settings for members and guests. At our last meeting before Thanksgiving, President Ron brought two guests, Joe Leuthmers and David Thiemann, both of the Greeley/Windsor Tribune.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Ron announced that at the first meeting in December, we will have an election of officers for the coming club year (July 2007-June 2008).

PROGRAM
Our speaker at the last meeting was Dr. Bob Meroney, Professor Emeritus at CSU. Meroney is a long time member of the Ft. Collins Rotary Club. Meroney gave a fascinating talk about the history of the Poudre River in this area entitled "The Hidden History of the Arapaho Bend Nature Area, Poudre River, 1500-1878". In addition to his extensive credentials in his 40+ years as a professor at CSU, he is also a volunteer naturalist with the Ft. Collins Natural Area Program.

Meroney told of the succession of occupants in the area starting with the Apaches in the 1700's, followed by the Comanche and Utes who pushed the Apache out by about 1750. In the 1830's, the Arapaho and Cheyenne were pushed out of Minnesota by settlers. They in turn took over most of eastern Colorado by 1870. He also told of the Legend of Horsetooth Mountain.
Meroney also gave the history of the incursions by European and white settlers. He left us a sheet showing the timeline of the major events that took place in the subject area.

QUIZ ANSWER
Governor Dan Thornton (1951-1955) is the namesake for the City of Thornton, Colorado. On Dec 24, 1952, F & S Construction announced plans for a 500o home community to be built North of Denver. Mr. Hoffman announced that it would be called Thornton in honor of then governor Dan Thornton.

NEXT QUESTION
What is the world's least populated country?

Cardiovascular Risk Assessment

GUEST
We were graced with visiting Rotarians from nearby clubs. Marci Liddell, wife of Tim Fleming, was here from the Downtown Greeley Club, and Herb McCulla was visiting from the Fort Collins Breakfast Club.

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Eric Swanson reported on the progress of the Interact Club at the high school. The first informational meeting will be November 28 at 11:15 in room 129 and then the first organizational meeting will be December 5 if enough members can attained.

President Elect Ardin Wright announced that he would be hosting a $50/plate fund raising dinner at his house on Saturday, January 27. He has room for eight guests.

Kristi Benningsdorf announced that the next "cake day" would be December 13, and she asked for volunteers to make specific things such as pies, cakes, and "something lemony". Contact Kristi if you can help out.

We were glad to welcome back Rotarian Bob Berling after a summer at Red Feather.

PROGRAM
Our speaker for the day was Craig Kapral of the Colorado Prevention Center who talked about the cardiovascular risk assessment kiosk that we used at the last 9 Health Fair, and would be using again this year. He told us that they participated in 27 such events in 2006. He said that cardiovascular disease is the #1 killer in Colorado and throughout America. The risk assessment kiosk is designed to better enhance the interaction between the patient and the health care provider. It is based on the Framingham Heart Study which is now starting its third generation of participants. It helps assess the difference if any between perceived and actual risks. His organization has started randomized clinical trials in Denver with kiosks in 16 provider's offices. During our last health fair the average time to do the assessment at the kiosk was 3.6 minutes. He also pointed out that the assessment can be done on line at http://www.health-e-solutions.org.

QUIZ ANSWER
According to Rawlings Sporting Goods Company (official supplier to Major League baseball), six pitches is the average life span of a baseball in major league baseball.

NEXT QUESTION
What sitting Colorado Governor had a city named after him?

An election follow-up: Regardless of your party affiliation, it was sad to see that Major Tammy Duckworth lost her bid for the House of Representatives. Tammy, as you may recall, was an employee of Rotary International in Evanston when she was called up to fly Blackhawk helicopters in Iraq as part of the Illinois Army National Guard. She lost both legs when her chopper was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. After a long recovery, she had two major goals: to once again fly helicopters and to fight for the interests of the people of the Sixth District in Illinois. Let’s hope she is flying soon.

Club Assembly

President Ron Clark led the club in its first Club Assembly in a while. Ron told us of the work of Rotary Foundation, how it works, and what programs are emphasized. For instance, the money given through the Paul Harris program is not spent for three years. The interest in that time pays for the administrative costs so that the principal is directly applied to programs. Emphasis is in three areas:

1. Ambassadorial Scholars
2. Group Study Exchanges
3. Peace Scholars - This latter program is relatively new and provides for selected students to study abroad to receive a masters degree in world peace and conflict resolution. (They'd better hurry).

All of us in the Windsor Club are automatically Paul Harris Sustaining Members by contributing $25/quarter to the program. There are already a number of Paul Harris Fellows in the club and some are working on second or third levels.

Dorothy Simmons gave an update in membership and attendance. She pointed out that a member can make up fourteen days before or after a missed meeting. Make ups are counted for visits to other clubs, board meetings, Rotaract Clubs, Interact Clubs, District or International Conventions. With the number of clubs within 25 miles, we should all have perfect attendance.

Ralph Moore spoke on the six-member program committee. Each committee member takes one month each half year.

Scott Bailey reported that the Fund Raising Committee has a goal of $4000 for the club year and we have raised over $3300 to date.

Ardin Wright told of the International Committee’s efforts at Casa Hogar and at Mulege, Mexico.

Chris Leffler updated us again on the efforts of the Community Service Committee which has a lot on its plate for the year.

QUIZ ANSWER
Surprisingly, Moscow has more billionaires than any other world capitol city.

NEXT QUESTION
According to Rawlings Sporting Goods Company (Official supplier to Major League baseball), what is the average life span (in pitches) of a major league baseball?

Our thoughts and prayers go out to Jody Niswender for the loss of her mother this past week.

Saturday is Veterans Day, so fly your flag and show support for our veterans. At last count, there were only 53 surviving WW I veterans worldwide, 14 of whom are Americans. All are over 100 years old. WW II vets are dying at the rate of 1100 per day.