Passing the Gavel

Our last meeting was what outgoing President Ardin Wright called “President’s Day". It was a day to reflect on the past year, honor special members, and turn over the gavel to the incoming President, Susan Van Deren.

Both Ardin and Susan spoke of the Rotary International Convention in Los Angeles wherein 40,000 Rotarians from around the world gathered. Ardin said everything was first class and he was impressed with the grandeur and organization of it all. He cited for instance that 167 busses were needed to transport conventioneers to the Hollywood Bowl. Rotary International is especially proud (and rightly so) that it’s efforts along with the UN, CDC, and WHO have virtually eliminated polio worldwide. To date, Rotarians have contributed US$700 million and another US$200 million is expected to be expended within the next two to three years to completely eliminate polio.

Awards were given to Bob Penny for attendance, and to Jody Niswender for membership. Jody has brought a guest nearly every week and sponsored many of our new members. Thanks Jody.

Ardin refreshed our memories about what the club has accomplished in the last year:

• Club picnic in Main Park


• Fund raiser at Harvest Fest


• Literacy Carnival at Skyview Elementary School


• Christmas gifts for “ranchers” at Triangle Cross Ranch


• Led the way for a District Matching Grant for the orphanage in Mulege Mexico


• Gave $500 to assist the Windsor High School International Relations Class drill a well in Haiti


• Initiated the Rotary Club of Windsor Foundation


• Put on the 9 Health Fair for which the club won the District Community Service Award


• Provided funds to build cabinets for the Triangle Cross Ranch


• Received both the Governor’s Citation and the Presidential Citation at the District Conference

QUIZ
A teraflop is the measure of operating speed of the new supercomputers—measured in trillions of floating point operations per second. Next question: What famous actor and director attended the University of Colorado on a baseball scholarship?

Two Weeks of Newsletters in One

This newsletter will cover the last two weeks as last week was a field trip to the Cozy Cow Dairy.

Two weeks ago, were pleased to welcome PDG George McIlvaine and Cheyenne Rotary President Bob Womack. Their presence was significant because of the purpose of their visit. Womack presented our club with a check for $2000 from both Cheyenne clubs to assist with the tornado recovery efforts. ODG McIlvaine also announced that the District was giving $5000 for the same effort. It is good to be in Rotary. We were also visited by Galen Schwaner and Ft. Collins Rotarian Bill Brayden. The program for that week was Lee Seward of the Honor Flight Program. Lee is from Ault and talked about the Honor flight Program which raises money and provides for WWII vets to visit the ii memorial in Washington DC. He told us that there are two flights leaving in September and they re taking reservations for flights next May. WWII vets are dying at the rate of over 1000 per day. He noted that the “greatest generation” is passing from the scene. So far, 4000 vets have visited the memorial under this program and another 3000 are on line. The program pays for the chartered planes as well as all meals and expenses. There are 74 to 76 “guardians split between the two planes. There is an MD and a paramedic on each flight. All “guardians” pay their own way.

Last week, we visited the Cozy Cow Dairy where we were treated to a video, tour of the facility and a great lunch. Thanks to Susan Van Deren for setting up this tour, it was very informative and enjoyed by all who attended. The Cozy Cow Dairy is on County Road 17 southwest of Windsor. They have 40 dairy cows that are milked twice daily. As we watched one of the milking of five cows at a time, each produced approximately 65 pounds of milk (about 7 gallons). Tina, the tour guide said that although most dairies including Cozy Cow use Holsteins, Jerseys produce the richest milk.

QUIZ
The answer to the last question posed is: Jefferson grew tomatoes which at the time, people thought were poisonous. Next question: What is a teraflop?

Thanks for a great year President Ardin Wright.

Northern Integrated Supply Project

We were again graced with the presence of Galen Schwaner who will hopefully be a member soon. Susan Van Deren reminded us that we would be touring the Cozy Cow Dairy on the 17th. Susan also announced that the fund raiser the previous weekend for the Windsor Community Foundation raised about $30,000 plus another $1000 was sent to the Parkersburg, IA.

PROGRAM
Our speaker for the week was Brian Werner from the Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District. He spoke to us about the Northern Integrated Supply Project (NISP). This is the project that calls for a 170,000 acre foot reservoir in Glade Park (US 287 valley north of Ft. Collins), and a 40,000 acre foot reservoir near Galeton. This project, if brought to fruition, will be the product of a very complex set of agreements between municipalities, water districts, irrigation companies, the US Army Corps of Engineers and others. There are fifteen separate entities involved in the project including most of the municipalities in the area. It involves capture of water from the Poudre west of Ft. Collins, exchanges to get it where it is needed, and pipelines and structures to deliver it.

Werner told us that of the original Colorado Big Thompson Project, only 34% of the water is now being used for agriculture. Over the years, more of this water has been converted to municipal use. The area has doubled in population in the last thirty years, but no new reservoirs have been built in that time. The environmental permitting process was started in 2002 and was finally released to the public about six weeks ago. It is now out for a 90 day public comment period. It is estimated that a decision will come down from the Corps of Engineers in about six months. Werner said that the project must stand on its own two feet or it won’t be built. The total cost for the project is currently estimated to be about $400 million. He also said that the “do nothing” option would cost about $800 million to serve the same growth. Even though the Colorado Big Thompson water is easily transferable within the service area, this option is becoming much less viable.

NEW QUIZ
A man of many talents, Thomas Jefferson was a master horticulturist, growing about 70 different species of vegetables in his garden at Monticello. Jefferson was among the first in the United States to grow which vegetable, thought by many at the time to be poisonous?

Reflections on a Tornado

On behalf of the club, I want to thank Doug DeMercurio for the use of the Main Street Grill for our meeting last week. It wasn’t our standard Rotary Meeting, but rather one where we took stock in what we could do to help our community recover from the tornado of two weeks ago.

We had one guest last week. Ron Clark brought Galen Schwaner, a semi-retired Optometrist who had been the President of the Torrington, WY Rotary Club about 30 years ago.

As we had no speaker last week, and held a general discussion on what the club and its members could do for the tornado victims, there is little to recall on this page. If you will allow me, I would like to put down some of my thoughts and reactions about the storm.

I can tell you where I was and what I was doing on November 22, 1963, when I heard on the radio that JFK had been shot. I can tell you where I was and what I was doing on January 28, 1986 when the Challenger exploded, and I will never forget what I was doing at noon on May 22, when the tornado swept through Windsor bringing “shock and awe” to our community.

Natural disasters such as the tornado have a way of humbling us. We quickly learn how miniscule and powerless we are in the face of nature’s forces. We have also learned how resilient and resourceful our community is. To be sure, it will take months to rebuild and recover, so we must not loose sight of the plight of those who were so severely damaged. We have to be in this for the long haul. Our friends and neighbors deserve no less.

The TV news told of how debris from a tornado in Northern Iowa was found 125 miles away in Crawford County, Wisconsin. Could it be that Windsor’s debris is scattered from here to Laramie, WY?

Our local papers as well as statewide media have done a very good job of showing the destruction that occurred here. So, for a little in the way of serenity I will present a calming photo I took a couple of weeks ago on Buckhorn Creek west of Ft. Collins.

QUIZ
The answer to the question of two weeks ago which few saw except in electronic format...Shortly after WWI Adolf (Adi) Dassler started making shoes in his mother’s kitchen. In 1936, he convinced Jesse Owens to wear a pair of his track shoes in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. Much to Hitler’s dismay, Jesse Owens won with the help of the shoes from Adi Dassler (Adidas). Ironically, Adi and his brother Rudolph had a falling out and Rudolph started his own shoe company...Puma.