RYLA Student Returns

There will be a two week hiatus of the newsletter as we will be having our summer picnic on Thursday, August 23 at Main Park. This newsletter presents the activities of the club at its last meeting on Thursday, August 16.

PROGRAM
Windsor Rotarians were treated to an outstanding and emotional presentation by Holly Cheramic on Thursday. Holly is one of the three recipients of the Windsor Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA). She recently attended RYLA camp in Estes Park along with 200 other District 5440 high school students. Rotary Youth Leadership Awards (RYLA), Rotary's training program for young leaders, emphasizes leadership, citizenship, and personal growth.

Holly was nicknamed “Sunshine” at the camp because of her bright outlook and positive personality. She admitted to the Rotarians that when she first went to the camp, she thought it was a dumb idea, but upon arrival was greeted with hugs and friendship by people she never met before. Holly told Rotarians that she learned more in the five days at the camp than she had learned the rest of her life. It was obvious to those who attended the Rotary Club meeting that the RYLA camp was a life changing event in her life. Holly told of how she overcame her shyness and fear of public speaking and especially of singing solo in public. Before she left camp, she sang solo in front of the other RYLA campers. She said, “That was a really big deal for me.” On request, she sang “Amazing Grace” acappella for the Rotarians and exhibited a strong, clear, beautiful voice.

Holly will be a sophomore at Windsor High school and was accompanied at the club meeting by her mother, Lindy Hafeman who is incidentally a Rotarian in the Greeley Downtown Rotary Club. Holly extended her sincere thanks to the Windsor Rotary Club for sending her to the RYLA camp in Estes Park.

Holly Cheramic and mother Lindy Hafeman

QUIZ
The only US Embassy in the world NOT owned by the federal government is the embassy in England. The property is owned by the Duke of Westminster and he granted the US a 1000 year lease for the sum of…one peppercorn per year. The lease is up in 2953.

Next question: What country makes the most feature-length films each year?

Interesting trivial sidelight: John Lynch, Probowl Safety for the Denver Broncos, has the distinction of throwing the first pitch for the Florida Marlins Baseball Club when it was formed. He was drafted out of high school as a pitcher and started for one of the Marlin’s farm clubs that played the first game in the Marlin’s schedule. Bill Walsh encouraged him to go back to school and told him he thought Lynch had what it took to be a safety in the National Football League. What a genius Bill Walsh was.

Guests last week included Jack Birns standing in for Dave Persons.

Windsor Town Manager Shares Thoughts

LAST WEEK
We were graced with a visiting Rotarian from the Kaohsiung Club in Taiwan, Mark Shih. Mark was here on business and visited our club before heading back to Taiwan. Mark said that his club has 56 members.

Dorothy Simmons announced that there are shirts with the Rotary Emblem available. Karen Kunz also said that if we bring her a shirt, she can have the emblem put on it. It is late summer and Jody Niswender is again bringing in some of her incredible garden. Flower arrangements are $8 and the money goes to the club. Pete Hyland announced that beer sales bodies are needed for the Labor Day Weekend Harvestfest. President Ardin Wright announced that on Aug. 23, we will not have a noon meeting, but will instead have a picnic in Main Street Park at 5:30 PM. Spouses and children are welcome.

PROGRAM
Our program for the day was presented by Kelly Arnold, Town Manager of Windsor. Kelly is originally from Brighton. While in college at CSU he worked for the City of Ft. Collins and found that it was a profession he wanted to pursue. He then went to the University of Kansas where he got a Masters in Public Administration with emphasis on City Management. He worked at Lawrence, Kansas, interned at Pueblo, was the Assistant City Manager in Laramie and then spent six years as the City Manager in Grand Junction.

Kelly, who by the way is a former Rotarian, discussed many of the City’s goals, budget, and current issues including working to get the citizens in Highland Meadows connected to Windsor. He showed how the City of Windsor compares with other cities in how much per person the City spends. $3.90 per person per day is what it costs to provide all the city services. He also touched on some of the transportation issues that have been discussed here before. Arnold wasn’t sure if the Revitalization Authority would survive as there is significant pressure to eliminate it. He is fairly certain that the 392 bypass idea is dead at least for the time being. There is some work on changing truck routes through the City.

QUIZ
Eddie Mathews played for the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta. Next question: There is only one US Embassy in the world NOT owned by the federal government. Where is it, and for extra credit who owns it?

If you read your August issue of the Rotarian Magazine, you may have seen a very good idea. District 7490 in New Jersey made up cards that can be passed out to prospective guests. They give the date, time and place of the meeting, and an invitation to “Be My Guest”. It is then signed by the Rotarian, and if that person attends a meeting, it is as a guest of the person who gave him/her the card. It sounds like a great way to prospect for new members.

Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra

President Ardin Wright announced that we may cancel the meeting on September 20 in lieu of each member visiting a nearby club that week. We would then come back the following week and report on what we had learned and possibly share some new ideas. Ardin also announced that we may be having a summer picnic of August 23. More on that next week. Dorothy Simmons announced that the District Grant of $11,700 for the new music and library room at Casa Hogar had been approved and money should be wired to the account any day.

PROGRAM
Ron Clark introduced the program for the week. We were visited by Pat Streeter, Board Secretary, Jeanette Kolokoff, Executive Director, and Rumi Naito, an intern from Japan. All of these ladies represented the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, and Pat Streeter gave a presentation of the upcoming season and what programs are scheduled.

Pat talked about the new conductor, Glen Cortese who took over after Dr, Skinner retired. She said that Cortese was selected out of more than 200 applicants for the job. Cortese, in addition to his musical prowess is also an accomplished furniture builder, specializing in Mission Style furniture, an accomplished chef, and a baseball fan. Apt left a number of programs on the tables or tickets can be obtained by calling the Union Colony Civic Center at 356-5000. Additional information can be obtained by logging onto the orchestra’s web site www.greeleyphilharmonic.com.

QUIZ
“Hakuna Matata”, a Swahili phrase that is commonly translated as ‘No worries”, from the Lion King has been sung over 450,000 times in theaters around the world. Next Question: This is for you older baseball fans. What Braves baseball player played for the Braves in three different cities…Boston, Milwaukee, and Atlanta?

EDITORIAL COMMENT
The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota came as a shock to many Americans, but to those of us who have worked in the industry and had responsibility for bridges, it was not a great surprise. It was more a question of when and where. Our national infrastructure including roads, water, sewer, and power is badly in need of upgrading. The bridge program nationally has a good inspection system, but year after year, the sufficiency rating of bridges drops as they deteriorate. Although each state handles it a little differently, monies are typically not available for repair or replacement until the sufficiency rating goes below 50, and then the bridge will likely be put on a list for future work. While I was the Public Works director in Rawlins, I worked for 15 years to get a 1600-foot bridge over the rail yards repaired. Finally, the citizens of the City passed a Capital Facilities Tax to raise the $2 million plus to repair the structure. It was in the final stages of design when I retired and the work was performed last summer to the tune of $2.3 million. No state or federal monies were made available. I applaud the citizens of Rawlins for stepping up and doing what had to be done to protect a vital transportation link. It seems that as a nation, we can find monies to invade and rebuild other countries, but we cannot be bothered to take care of our own.

District Governor Visits

We were honored to be visited by our District Governor Nancy Pettus and her husband, PDG Bill Pettus. The Board met with the DG for an hour before the meeting to go over club and district goals and to share ideas and concerns about Rotary, membership, and other issues. DG Nancy told us that the Rotary International Web Site has forms for transfer of members between clubs. The decision is still with the receiving club as to whether to accept the new member or not (when was the last time you saw that happen?). This form and many other questions can be answered by going to http://www.rotary.org/membership/development/faqs.html#14

It should be pointed out that this form helps the member and both clubs by providing a more seamless approach for new members who wish to transfer clubs. There is much more information that can be obtained through the web site, particularly as it relates to your membership. To access this, you will need your club ID number, the Club Number and the District Number. The District is 5440. Dorothy can provide the club number and your club ID number. You can, for instance, see where you stand as a Paul Harris Sustaining Member.

DG Nancy said that the District Conference would be in Cody WY June 5-7, 2008. If you have never visited Cody, this provides an excellent opportunity to also visit Yellowstone as well as the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. This museum is a fascinating place, and you can spend the entire day in the basement looking at firearms if that is your thing.

Nancy’s focus was on membership. She told us that although Rotary is growing worldwide, it is static here in the US. District 5440 grew by 76 members last year. Nancy is striving to have a net gain of at least one new member per club for the year. At the rate we have been growing, that should not be a challenge.

Aside: I believe that Nancy and Bill Pettus are the first husband/wife district governors in the United States. There have been others in other countries.

Last week, we also recognized our servers, Bertie and Bob for the outstanding service they provide to the club. We welcomed back Scott Rulon as a guest.

Eric Swanson has resigned from the club to return to Florida. As he was the program chair for August, we may be a couple of programs short. If you have a program that you think would fit, please contact Ralph Moore. We will miss Eric and wish him well in his new endeavors.

QUIZ
T. E. Lawrence died in a motorcycle accident. Next Questiojn: What Swahili phrase has been sung more than 450,000 times in theatres throughout the world?