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Honoring First Responders

From left: Englewood Police Chief Sam Watson, award recipient Officer Matt Creaghe,

recipient Sergeant Reid McGrath, Lt. Alex Dorgan from Station 37 in Englewood, recipient Brad Thayer,

Deputy Chief Robert Murphy accepting for recipient Brad Balding, Rotary President Shawn Lewis

Two Englewood Police officers and a district chief and captain from the Denver Fire Department, which serves Englewood, have received Spirit of Rotary Awards as First Responders of the Year.

Englewood Rotary created the Spirit of Rotary Awards this Rotary year to recognize leaders, doers and high achievers in our community.

“First responders – police, firefighters, paramedics – are critical to public safety. Englewood Rotary is proud to present these awards and our deep appreciation to these four people who have shown exceptional service this year,” said Club President Shawn Lewis at the recent presentation.

During the presentation Rotarian Patty Burnett characterized first responders as Real Life Super-Heroes.

Englewood Police Officer Matt Creaghe received his Spirit of Rotary Award for his initiative in the job of School Resource Officer for Englewood Schools. He has developed valuable relationships with staff, students and the greater school community.

Sergeant Reid McGrath was honored for his 31 years with the Englewood Police Department, and a total of 40 in law enforcement. Sgt. McGrath recently retired. His work in mental wellness and alternative policing programs has made Englewood Police one of the most progressive departments in the state and in the country, according to the department chief.

Denver Fire’s District 7 Chief Brad Balding received his Spirit of Rotary Award in recognition of his successful role in integrating coverage of Englewood into the Denver Fire system, ensuring that members of Stations 37 and 38 know the resources and policies of Englewood. Service in Englewood began in 2015.

Captain Brad Thayer was cited for methodically building Station 37 into one known for its professionalism, pride and community service commitment. He worked well with city planners as they navigated a major remodeling and upgrading of that station serving Englewood, his nomination said.

Spirit of Rotary Awards have also recognized leaders in business and the nonprofit sector. A fourth recognition in the spring will honor leaders in education.

Winter Membership Drive

As part of our winter membership drive, we want to schedule you to join us for lunch! Space is limited, so click here to sign up to join us for lunch!

Basketball team pitches in for us

The Girls Basketball Team of Englewood High School sorted winter clothes and packed them up for the 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds at The Village for Early Childhood Education in Littleton.

Englewood Rotary has provided these children with winter coats, gloves, hats and boots for 25 years. In some years we also provided toys.

The project was the passion of Dr. Frank Sargent, a member of the club for more than 50 years. This year members Josh Staller and Bruce Spear coordinated the effort, with the help of Kristine Wallen at Englewood Walmart. Kristine has pulled the clothes, in exact requested sizes, for many years. It's a community service from Walmart and Kristine.

The club greatly appreciates the support of the Girls Basketball Team. We're hoping they have a great year on the court and together in service to our community.

Rotary honors local business leaders

Awards winners with Englewood Rotary President Shawn Lewis, right: Tiffany Fixter, Lindsey Runyan, George Gratis, Brian Hart

Brian Hart of Frame de Art is Business Leader of the Year, an award made by the Rotary Club of Englewood. The club also awarded George Gastis of Grow + Gather as Entrepreneur of the Year.

The awards are part of an annual program by Rotary to recognize the people of Englewood who care about our community and its people and demonstrate that care through exceptional leadership and service.

Honorees were nominated by local citizens.

Runner-up nominees received Spirit of Rotary Awards. These honorees were Lindsey Runyan, interim executive director of the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce, Tiffany Fixter of Brewability & Pizzability, and Kelly Vigil and Tommy Scarborough of CO CEO Solutions.

Brian believes in Englewood and has a long history of community service. Most recently he is sponsoring a student art calendar and is donating the matting and framing of all student art pieces.

George had the vision, commitment and tenacity to convert an old car service garage into a wonderful urban farm and restaurant. Grow + Gather is a creative venture, serving the Wellness District and beyond.

Lindsey also serves on the board of the Englewood Historic Preservation Society and does graphic design for some of Englewood's best known non profit organizations, including this club.

Tiffany, a former special education teacher, created a business that employs people with disabilities, giving them purpose and dignity. Brewability is a craft brewery and restaurant on Broadway.

Kitchen crew at Cafe 180

Club members volunteered recently in the kitchen of Cafe 180, whose mission is to feed people, regardless of their ability to pay. Those who are unable to pay simply exchange their time and energy for a nutritious meal. It's a great community service.

Shawn was on pizza duty, Josh and Bob did the dishes, Patty made salads and Vee delivered the delicious food to the diners.

A fun way to help.

Hoodies for H.E.R.O.E.S.

These Englewood High School students received their Hoodies for H.E.R.O.E.S. this quarter. Popular athletic brand hoodies go to students who have shown their true character by being helpful to others and treating others with respect. H.E.R.O.E.S. stands for:

H. - Helping others

E. - Effort shown in being a good person

R. - Respect for oneself and others

O. - Ownership of self and actions

E. - exemplifies Courage and strength through adversity or hardship

S. - showing Kindness and compassion for others

The honorees this quarter are Millie Townsell, Naomi Vazque, Dulce Rodriguez, Dana Martinez, David Martinez, Jeremiah Wittington, Tanzer Labbe and Jose Gurrola.

The program was created by Michele and Mike Campbell. She's an adolescent psychotherapist (LPC) in private practice specializing in teen girls. He is a teacher and head football coach at EHS. Teachers nominate the students, who receive their hoodies at a school-wide recognition ceremony. In Michele's words: "We feel that it is important to highlight those qualities and celebrate those students."

Englewood Rotarians Josh Staller, far left, and Dawn Shepherd, far right, were there for the presentation. Hoodies Heroes and Rotarians have much in common. Rotarians' core values, a sure indicator of strong character, are embodied in the Four-Way Test, which Englewood Rotarians recite at every meeting. It's a code of ethics about truth, fairness, friendship and respect.

Englewood Rotary has signed on as permanent sponsor for Hoodies for Heroes, providing funding for the jackets and certificates.

Rotary celebrates nonprofit leaders

Tami Slipher was the top Rotary honoree among Englewood nonprofit leaders.

The Rotary Club of Englewood honored Tami Slipher of Movement 5280 with its first Non-Profit Leader of the Year Award on Sept. 7.

Slipher is Director of Development and Outreach for Movement 5280, whose mission is to provide a “family of support” to homeless youth who have aged out of foster care and to other high-risk young people.

Rotary President Shawn Lewis said, “Tami has demonstrated a great collaborative spirit throughout her career at Movement 5280, building relationships with neighboring businesses at 5280’s downtown Englewood location. She has led the organization to greatly expand services, including implementing usage of the Homelessness Management Information System.“

A second Spirit of Rotary Award went to LynnAnn Huizingh, director of the Severe Weather Shelter Network. The organization provides emergency winter night shelter for adult individuals and couples. It is known for building relationships with warm meals, conversation, and personal stories. The organization provides important resource connections for clients to help them become stable and self-sustaining.

Lewis cited Huizingh’s leadership during the pandemic when the Network was forced to drastically change its business model from offering shelter in churches to providing hotel accommodations. She also worked with the Englewood City Council to modify code to allow sheltering in church basements, as the organization again provides shelter in a church.

Lewis is City Manager of Englewood.

A Spirit of Rotary Award also went to Jen Engquist, formerly Executive Director of Break Bread in Littleton, but she was not able to attend the presentation. Break Bread provides a free weekly community meal and fosters meaningful relationships among neighbors.

Englewood Rotary intends to honor local leaders in various areas of public service through the year – first in the nonprofit world, and later in business, education and among first-responders.

We sold peaches!

Every August for the last 20+ years Englewood Rotary has sold Palisade peaches to help fund our many community projects. This year we brought in $3,000, thanks to our many friends who support us and our work. Thanks, everyone! We even have a good time on distribution day -- here are our volunteers.

'Business of the Week'

The Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce named Englewood Rotary 'Business of the Week' for the final week of 2021.

Abe Lincoln and our District Governor

When District Governor Ray Anderson, our esteemed leader, visited Englewood Rotary

he had to share the podium with Abraham Lincoln who was there to read the Gettysburg

Address. Great fun!

Abe is the alter ego of our member Bruce Spear, who is a certified Lincoln Presenter.

Bruce tells the story of how he became Abe. While he was working in Washington, D.C.,

people would pass him on the street and say, "Hello, Mr President." So, he capitalized

on that resemblance, and has a great time marching in parades (Englewood's, among

them), talking to students and, of course, entertaining Englewood Rotary. That's

the "other" president, Patty Burnett, in the middle.

Basketballs anyone?

The Englewood High School Girls Basketball team's ball cage was falling apart,

so we came to the rescue with this new equipment, shown with the team captain.

We also provided funding for team shirts to wear en route to games and at special

events.

It's a two-way partnership, as the girls recently helped sort and package winter clothing

that we purchased for 60 preschoolers at The Village for Early Childhood

Education in Littleton - a program we have supported with holiday gifts for 25 years.

We made the holidays a little happier

We got a call from The Village Preschool at North, a school we have supported for about 25 years with a lunch with Santa and gifts of toys and winter clothes. Because of the pandemic, we couldn't do that this year, or last. But a call for help came.

Could we provide winters coats and boots for 60 children? Yes, we could, and did.

Thank yous go to our members Josh Staller, who coordinated the effort, and to Bruce Spear, who was a chief Schlepper. 60 sets of kids' coats and boots is a haul.

Thank you also to Kristine Wallen of Englewood Walmart. Kristine is amazing. For many years she "shopped" for the kids' clothes and aided our members in selecting toys. This year, she found 60 sets of coats and boots in the exact sizes those 60 children needed. Thank you, Kristine!

We also had the help of the Girls Basketball Team at Englewood High School. The girls sorted all the stuff into large red gift bags for us.

Thank you, everyone. It was a merry Christmas in Englewood.

Ringin' the bell for the Salvation Army

For the umpteenth year, Englewood Rotary was out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, ringing the bell (it seems to get tinier every year -- ding ding!) Thank you, Marco, Gary, Spencer and Patty. Read all the ways the Salvation Army is helping people in the Centennial, Littleton and Englewood communities here: https://centennial.salvationarmy.org/centennial_corps/overcome-poverty/

How we lived our motto during the pandemic

We volunteered on a food distribution day at Integrated Family Community Services, which we supported with $4,060 in contributions from members. Rotary volunteers also served at COVID-19 vaccination sites.

Report by Club Treasurer Don Schneider

Our usual Englewood Rotary activities and projects came to a screeching halt in March 2020 when the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country and our state.

Once our club was able to regroup by scheduling Zoom meetings in place of our regular in-person Wednesday meetings, an immediate topic of conversation was what could we as a club due to help those in the Englewood community more adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with all its disruptions to schools, jobs, and the community in general.

The club soon reached a consensus to seek voluntary contributions from our Rotary Club members to help fund a COVID Relief Fund to be run through the Englewood Rotary Foundation. The stated goal of the fund was to find agencies or organizations that would be providing pandemic related services and relief efforts in the greater Englewood community.

During the remainder of the 2019-2020 Rotary fiscal year the club members contributed $1,450 to the relief fund. This was through June 30, 2020. Then, in Rotary fiscal year 2020-2021, through June 30, 2021, the club members donated an additional $2,610 to the relief fund. In all, a total of $4,060 was contributed by a total of 15 club members.

From time to time during the16 months the project has been active the board of directors gave direction as to what community groups were to receive donations from the fund. We found IFCS, Integrated Family Community Services organization (formerly Inter-Faith), to be the ideal partner for our COVID-19 project, and for that reason all $4,060 was directed to IFCS and paid out through the Englewood Rotary Foundation.

During the pandemic, IFCS focused its energies on alleviating hunger, not just in the area it historically served (Englewood, Littleton, Sheridan, northern Douglas County), but beyond. Club volunteers Josh Staller, Dawn Shepherd, Gary Sears and Patty Burnett helped with a drive-through distribution of food in May. This coincided with the Day of Service initiated by Rotary District Governor Bob Kemp.

In other service, club members Linda and Bruce Spear, Josh Staller, Gary Sears and Scott Koland answered a Rotary district call for volunteers to assist at the 9Health COVID vaccination sites.

(Apologies if I've overlooked anyone. Let me hear. PB)

From Foundation funds prior to the designation of donations to COVID causes, we also provided about $800 in school supplies to Englewood Middle School, $1,000 for camp chairs for outdoor classrooms at Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice (the Englewood alternative school) and $500 for its lending closet. Vee and John Sabel and Patty Burnett were instrumental in the school supplies project. Josh Staller directed the efforts for Colorado’s Finest.

We lived Service Above Self in a pandemic.

Englewood Rotary Earns High Honor from Chamber

The Rotary Club of Englewood received the Lifetime Business Achievement Award from the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce May 27.

At the Chamber’s 35^th Annual Business Awards Banquet Club President Susan Van Dyke and President-Elect Patty Burnett accepted the award, which was for the year 2019. Because of the pandemic, last year’s awards banquet was cancelled.

Van Dyke said, “We are very honored to be recognized by the Chamber, which has just come through a difficult year, but one distinguished by amazing, supportive connections with members and the City of Englewood.”

Also at the Chamber event Englewood City Manager Shawn Lewis was named Chamber Member of the Year (2020). Lewis is a member of Englewood Rotary, making the evening doubly special for the club.

Burnett told the Chamber group that the club’s major outreach is scholarships. In April the club, through its foundation, awarded a total of $8,000 to six students from Englewood High School and two students from Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice.

Since the year 2000, the Englewood Rotary Foundation has funded over $150,000 in college or trade school scholarships and provided more than 100 students with scholarships of $1,000 or more.

“We also recently received a bequest from a former member, C. Charles Buchler,” Burnett said. Mr. Buchler was a prominent Englewood attorney and mayor pro tem of Greenwood Village when it was founded in 1950. He joined Englewood Rotary in 1947 and served 60 years. He died in 2008.

His bequest, funded after the death of Mr. Buchler’s wife in 2020, was for $250,000. The money has been invested by the club’s foundation. Earnings will fund scholarships, including a new one, the C. Charles Buchler Scholarship.

Englewood Rotary, chartered in 1937, continues its service to the community, especially Englewood Schools and its students. Anyone interested in participating may contact Burnett at paburnett@aol.com.

We celebrate Dr. Frank Sargent and his 50 years of Rotary service

On Nov. 18 Englewood Rotary presented a Zoom tribute to Dr. Frank Sargent, our member who joined out club in 1970 and has faithfully served for 50 years.

Rotary dignitaries attending:

District Governor Bob Kemp, Past District Governors Mike Oldham, Jim Halderman, Diane Kessel Knight; former Rotary International Director and Vice President Greg Podd

Narrated and directed by Englewood Rotarian Patty Burnett

Click on READ MORE to access the script for the day and some of the tributes posted or read by those of us who have served alongside Frank.