How long have we been ringing the bell for the Salvation Army? Maybe 20 years? This year we had lots of volunteers filling two Saturdays. We hope our friendly faces encouraged shoppers at the King Soopers at Belleview and Yosemite to give generously.
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Wow! We did it!
On the Saturday before Thanksgiving we staged a massive sorting of gifts and food for 64 families in need at Schriever and Peterson Air Force Bases and the Air Force Academy.
Thanks to all Rotarians and friends who shopped for the gift wish lists of the families -- 110 children included! Thanks to the members of the Rotary Clubs of North Colorado Springs, East Colorado Springs, Castle Rock High Noon and the now-disbanded InterQuest club. This project took a village!
And thanks to volunteers Friday (shopping at Park Meadows Costco) and Saturday (sorting at an American Legion Hall in Colorado Springs):
Josh, Gary, Bob B., Mike and Katherine Dow, Don, Patty.
And of course ED! Ed, our esteemed president and Champion of this $10,500 project. It's a good thing he isn't paid by the hour.
And then there were the First Sergeants. We had about 20 First Sergeants looking out for the people they lead. These men and women were the muscle. About 1,000 pounds of potatoes. About 1,000 pounds of turkeys. Not to mention canned goods and heavy gifts like the child car seat one family needed. And, boy, were they fast. All that food went into boxes and got carted out to SUVs for delivery to the families.
Wow! We did it!
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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!
We had a Changing of the Guard party, celebrating Patty Burnett's two years as president of our wonderful club and Ed Koerperich's ascent to the top. Our club enjoys a good party! We meet three Wednesdays a month at the Brookdale Meridian Englewood for lunch, and then on the fourth Wednesday we do an evening happy hour at rotating restaurants. We socialize well.
Our Englewood Rotary Foundation gives $10,000 a year to graduates of Englewood High School or Colorado's Finest School of Choice as they pursue college or trade school paths. These are some of this year's recipients, from left:
Brayden Espinosa, Sofia Montoya, Lauryn Williams, Paige Langley, Alexandra Foster, Isabel Montanez and Emma Hubbard.
We are very proud of these young people.
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This is the Englewood Rotary Pizza and Teddy Bear team. We served pizza and other goodies to preschoolers at the Early Childhood Education Program at Maddox School in May. We sent $50 gift cards home to parents to help with buying summer clothing. Lunch with 60 3- and 4-year-olds!
RYLA: Our club is a big believer in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, which is a long name for a fabulous opportunity for middle school and high school students. We award them five days at an extraordinary camp where they learn about teamwork, about civic responsibility, about our core Rotary ethic, the Four-Way Test.
This summer we have three students will be attending: Logan Hilzer, Cherry Creek High School; Anina Qazar, Campus Middle School, and Rocky Grajek from Merrill Middle School. Every student who attends returns to say, "It changed my life." So we look forward to hearing from these young people later this summer.
College and trade school scholarships: Our club has a history of supporting the graduates of Englewood High School and Colorado's Finest School of Choice. We have awarded at least $90,000 in scholarships over the last 10 years. We just selected a new group: Jade Barela, Alonzo Cobos, Manuela Berisa, Jakob Garcia, Isabel Montanez, Tatum Newman and Lauryn Williams. They each will receive $1,000 scholarships sent to their schools of choice. Congratulations, scholars!
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Our District Governor Abbas Rajabi reminds us that Rotary began in 1905 as a networking group, long before that term arose. Chicago attorney Paul Harris created a club in which professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships and give back to their communities. Rotary's name came from the group's early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of its members.
That's Rotary today, as well. Somehow, along our history, the networking function got a bad name in Rotary, and we were told, It's NOT a networking group. It's Service, Service, Service Above Self. But the reality was that my dentist and my insurance agent, and, time was, my travel agent were all Rotarians. It's only natural that you seek the professional help of people you know and trust through Rotary.
District Govenor Rajabi encourages us to deepen our networking connections. So I am planning a program in March in which we will have a structured networking exercise. Now, a great many of us are retired, so you won't be needing the services of, say, a retired urologist! But this is also a way for us to know each other better. Some of our best programs have been from our own members. Susan on recycling. Peter on his amazing life all over the world. And next week, we'll have Diane Arave, who has had a career in health education, advising us on how to live more healthily.
So, this is the bottom line for this story: Networking is good. Let's do it!
Patty
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Santa sounds a lot like former Rotarian Ron Olivett. Ho, ho, ho.
For the 18th year Englewood Rotary, hosted Head Start preschoolers at a holiday lunch. The kids walked from their Village for Early Childhood Education on Powers Avenue in Littleton to the Douglas Buck Community Recreation Center.
Rotarians helped them through the buffet line, selecting burgers and hot dogs, chips, Jello and cookies. At tables of eight Rotarians engaged the kids in chit chat until the Big Hour. That's when volunteer pianist extraordinaire Cheryl Saborsky played "Here Comes Santa Claus." And here he came, much to the kids' delight. Santa stopped at each lunch table, said "Merry Christmas" and dropped off trinkets.
Then up on stage, Santa greeted each child, one by one. Rotarians Dawn and Diane helped the children tote a giant bag that Rotarians had filled with winter outfits in their exact sizes and toys, of course.
Englewood Rotary received a $2,000 grant from Walmart to help with the cost of the gifts. Englewood Walmart employees helped with the shopping and gift wrapping, as well.
Rotarian Dr. Frank Sargent leads this project every year. "I just love you kids," he told the group. And they love him, an experienced grandfather.
That's Ed in the back of a pickup, loading food purchased at Costco.
We filled the pickup and three SUVs, and wrote a check for about $3,800.
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That's just SOME of the 30 15-pound bags of potatoes!
With Josh and Bruce
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Members of the North Colorado Springs Rotary, all veterans,
and their wives shopped and sorted and delivered, too.
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Ten of us, plus Ed's family, shopped for toys and clothes.
Picture bicycles, Transformers, Pokemon gear, winter sweaters. . .
Listen in to what we have accomplished in the words of a recipient of our holiday support
and in the words of a key volunteer:
"I just wanted to say thank you for the Thanksgiving meal and the presents for the kids. We really appreciate it! The kids look forward to unwrapping them! Thanksgiving and grocery shopping is stressful especially when my husband is in Afghanistan! Thank you so much again!"
-- the wife of an airman in the 4th Space Operations Squadron
at Shriever Air Force Base,with 3 children approximate ages 2, 4 and 10
"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.
"We cannot thank your husband enough for his service to our country. Without individuals like himself, we would not live in such a great country. Thank you again!
"We thank you and your family for your sacrifice while your husband is deployed. If there is anything we can do, do not hesitate to reach out to us.
"Many blessings to you and your family."
-- 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.
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Englewood Rotary is about friendship and service. We excel at both.
The club recently enjoyed a wine-tasting organized by our member Ed Koerperich, featuring his talented family and friends who are certified wine experts. The most fun experience of the night was tasting three wines -- semi-cheap, moderate cost and high-priced. We apparently like expensive wine!
The wine-tasting fund-raiser brought in $2,000 for our service projects, which include college and trade school scholarships for Englewood students, holiday gifts and food for military families in need, holiday gifts and fun for Head Start preschoolers, and support for the poorest of the poor girls in a small village in Senegal.
Englewood Rotary meets three Wednesdays a week for lunch and an enriching speaker. On the fourth Wednesday, we just socialize -- meeting in the evening at restaurant for food, drink and camaraderie. We welcome guests at all our events. Please check our calendar, or contact our president, Patty Burnett, 720-234-6010, paburnett@aol.com.
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!
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Natalie Dow, sponsored by Englewood Rotary, arrived in Peru in July to begin her youth exchange program. Natalie is attending high school in Lima, and is shown here visiting Cusco with some special friends. Natalie is writing a blog where she details the excitement and challenges of her experience (she did not know Spanish, but she's learning fast): "I don’t think I knew what the word challenging really meant before. It’s one thing to conquer things from home - but being here in a 3rd world country and having to figure out the: customs, food, expectations, dress code, gender roles, weather, transportation, safety, and language has been life changing."
On July 20th the Englewood Rotary "English as a Second Language" project team, which includes Judy Beggs, Katie Wright, Carole Youngren and Eldijana Bjelcic, will depart for Senegal. There they will meet up with their Senegalese counterparts in the small town of Géuoul.
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Our top priority for community service is giving scholarships to Englewood students for college or trade school. This year we interviewed more than 20 candidates and had to make some very hard decisions, as all were so wonderful and deserving. We gave six new four-year scholarships at $1,000 a year. We are still funding returning scholars in their second or third year, as well.
It's an extraordinary accomplishment for a club of just 30 members. Investments in our foundation plus current-year fund-raising make this possible.
Englewood Rotary is featured in the Jan. 12 edition of Your Hub, a local news section of the Denver Post.
It's all about our campaign to increase our membership and our ability to do good things in our community and in the world.
The Board of Directors recently approved an impressive list of charitable giving for the 2016-17 Rotary year, totaling more than $23,000.
At the top of our list, we continue to give scholarships to college or trade schools in the amount of $10,000 or more per year. We also will sponsor a senior high recent grad for a year abroad through the Rocky Mountain Rotary Youth Exchange program.
Our philanthropy and service projects are heavily focused on children and youth. We will spend $1,800 to send four students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards camps next summer. Students always report to us, "It was life-changing."
Our Four-Way Test Essay Contest touches every elementary school child in grades four, five and six, at a cost of $2,500. Students solve an ethical problem, using Rotary's code of ethics called the Four-Way Test, then write essays. Winners are honored at a lunch and given bookstore gift certificates.
Thank you, Vee and John Sabel, Bonita Carson and Dawn Shepherd for buying, packing and delivering these darling backpacks for first graders at Bishop Elementary School. Pretty cute!
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The Rotary Club of Englewood conducts an ethical learning experience for children in fourth, fifth and sixth grades in Englewood Schools. It is based on Rotary's code of ethics called the Four-Way Test.
  Children watched a video in which a student saw another student steal a pocketbook. They then were asked what that boy should do, and how he could use the Four-Way Test to solve his dilemma. The Four-Way Test asks these questions: First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, will it build good will and better friendships? And, fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned.
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