food boxes for 65 Air Force families in need. 

 

What a year! Our small club helped hundreds of families in many ways, here and in Senegal.

 

Here's our track record for the Rotary year that began July 1:

 

In July we bought and filled the backpacks of first graders at Bishop School with all the required supplies. This is a project that we've done for more than 10 years. Each year, it seems, the backpacks and their contents get more technological and more expensive. Families in Englewood really need our help. Members Vee Sabel and Dawn Shepherd did the shopping, assembling and delivering. 

 

In August our former member Judy Beggs was in Gueoul, Senegal, carrying out two grant projects -- a district grant secured by our club with contributing partner clubs of Highlands Ranch, Wheat Ridge and DTC. This project was to teach English as a Second Language to girls who are part of a Friends of Gueoul program, founded and directed by Judy, and others in the community. The second, smaller grant was from the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter to obtain software and produce an online news report about happenings in Gueoul. Shy girls found the courage to ask strangers questions about soccer and changes in their community. The grant was secured by our member Bob Burdick. 

 

September rolled around, and we were all about wine and raising money. We held the 2nd Annual Harvest Wine-tasting fund-raiser at The Guild in Englewood. President Ed Koerperich and his family get the lion's share of credit. We raised about $10,000 mostly from the auction that featured vacation getaways to Provence, Santa Barbara and Winter Park. 

 

We also participated in a golf tournament-fund-raiser organized by the United Service Clubs of Englewood, of which we and the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce are members. That brought us about $1,800 for our charitable work. 

 

In October and November it was all hands on deck for our program helping Air Force families in need with Thanksgiving food and holiday gifts. The families were screened for need by commanders or designees at Peterson and Schriever Air Force Bases and at the Air Force Academy. We filled huge carts at Costco with turkeys and all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner for families of four. And we filled wish lists of toys and clothing for 65 families that included more than 100 children. Whew! This was a $15,000 project, with a matching grant from the district and some financial and volunteer support from the North Colorado Springs Rotary, and East Colorado Springs Rotary and Castle Rock  High Noon -- all ably led by our club President Ed Koerperich. Many members shopped and helped on the distribution day.  

 

We also rang the bell for the Salvation Army, a club tradition of many years. 

 

If it's December, it's another party with Santa for Head Start kids at the Center for Early Childhood Education in Littleton. With a grant from the Englewood Walmart and funds from our foundation, we invited 65 kids for lunch, a spot on Santa's knee and a bag full of winter clothes and toys. This is Dr. Frank Sargent's project, possibly the 20th year. Special thanks to Vee and John Sabel, as well as volunteer shoppers and wrappers. 

 

January and February are usually quiet times for our club. We did get creative, though. We selected not just one president for the next Rotary year, but three. We're calling it the Team of 3. Linda Spear, Gary Sears and Susan VanDyke each will take a four-month tour of duty. 

Because of software issues in Rotary, Linda Spear will be the name on Rotary records, but in our reality, the three will have equal responsibility and authority. 

 

Every month we enjoy three lunch meetings with fabulous speakers. On the fourth Wednesday we dine out! We call this "happy hour," but it has morphed into dinner. We've been to Zane's, Bar Louie, One Barrel, Volcano. . . . We usually have 15-20 participants -- wives, husbands, guests all invited. 

 

In March and April we are interviewing seventh graders and high school sophomores and juniors for the fabulous Rotary camps known as the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. We are sending two high school students this summer -- at no cost to the families. Every RYLArian returns and says the experience change his or her life.

 

May: Our signature project is scholarships to graduates of Englewood High School and Colorado's Finest School of Choice (the alternative school). We have given more than $120,000 over the last 15 years. Again, we were able to help 12 students with tuition to a wide range of schools, from MINES to Johnson & Wales. Our Englewood Rotary Foundation provides the bulk of the scholarship money, though some comes from current-year fund-raising. 

 

June: Our Englewood club has a long tradition of giving an annual award to a club with an outstanding role in literacy. This year we gave two: One to Castle Rock High Noon for at least six projects, three of them new this year with new Champions. We have decided that in some years we will give two because of how different the clubs might be in size. For a club of under 30, Castle Rock High Noon rocked!

 

But we also awarded Boulder Rotary, a large club, for its extensive work in the greater Boulder Community.

 

Our Last Blast for the Rotary year was a New Presidents Party, a lovely evening in which we recognized the good work of the year, including by our president Ed Koerperich, who has been living in Europe on a grand adventure for the last several months. We hailed our new presidents, Gary Sears, Linda Spear and Susan Van Dyke. Each co-president will preside over four months, lessening the individual load. Thank you, Linda and Bruce Spear, for hosting the party in the Three Fountains Community Room.

Here's to the Rotary New Year!

 

 

Natalie Dow told the club all about her year as a Rotary Exchange Student in Peru -- the fun like playing in a band and the scary like unsanitary drinking water. Despite the lows, it was an amazing experience for her, and she thanked the club for sponsoring her.

 

Several years ago we sponsored Natalie for a Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA), meaning she attended a five-day camp learning about leadership, teamwork and Rotary values such as Service Above Self. When she reported back to the club, our member Larry Matten asked if she knew about youth exchange, and that's where her adventure began. 

 

Natalie applied and asked for a South American country, even though she did not speak any Spanish. She's fluent in German, but she had lived in Europe and she wanted "different." Different was Lima, Peru. 

 

Natalie's sister Audrey attended Young RYLA the same summer. She's now a student at Cherry Creek High School. In August Natalie will be off to Washington University in D.C. 

 

Their parents also have dived into the Rotary world. Mike became a member of our club, and Katherine sometimes comes in his place when he's traveling. As a family, they will host a Rotary Exchange Student from Switzerland, beginning in August. He will attend Cherry Creek. The Dows will host him for the first part of the year, then two other families will take over. We are co-sponsoring Raphael with the Centennial Rotary Club. 

 

Rotary: It's all in the family!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                 -- the wife of an airman in the 4th Space Operations Squadron

 

 "My husband, father-in-law (Ed) and myself wish you and your family the very best Christmas and that your Thanksgiving is memorable this year.

 

 

                                                                 -- Happy holidays, Molly (daughter-in-law of our member Ed Koerperich,

who was a very important coordinator of our project, along with her veteran husband Chris)

 

Under the supreme leadership of Ed Koerperich, we carried out our own version of a military mission. We provided 30 families of active military or veterans with an amazing array of holiday food and gifts.  

 

This was the main thrust of our $7,000 project ($3,500 from our members and a match from our Rotary District) called the Military and Veterans Appreciation and Support Program. About $1,000 of that is unspent and reserved for financial or family crises that might occur between now and the end of the Rotary year, June 30.

 

We were aided by members of the North Colorado Springs Rotary and wonderful contacts at the Air Force Academy and Shriever Air Force Base. 

 

 

 

 

 

We will honor Dr. Frank Sargent as Englewood Rotarian of the Year at our meeting on Wednesday, Nov. 15. Frank has been a member of our club since 1970, and has helped us help thousands of children and others in our community and around the world. 

 

Frank loves all things Rotary, but has a special place in his heart for the preschool kids at the Village for Early Childhood Education in Littleton. In December Englewood Rotary will treat 65 of those kids to holiday lunch, complete with Christmas carols, burgers, hot dogs and cupcakes, and, oh yes, Santa. Frank has championed this project for seventeen years. Each child will receive a huge bag of gifts and winter clothing. 

 

Englewood Walmart is an important partner in this project. Employees help select clothes in specific sizes for each of the kids, wrap and through grants help us pay for the overall program. 

 

Frank is also a champion of the program we call RYLA -- Rotary Youth Leadership Awards -- in which we send middle school and high school students to fantastic summer camps that teach leadership, team-building and service. Rotary's motto is "Service Above Self." And that's pure Frank!