Serving the Community of Steamboat Springs

Members of the Steamboat Springs and Gillette Interact clubs and the Casper Rotaract club will present information about their recent projects at the spring assembly’s keynote luncheon.  They will also host breakout sessions at the District Spring Assembly in Laramie on March 31. 

District Trainers Barbara Redder and Phil Murphy are finalizing the schedule which will also include breakout sessions on membership, ClubRunner, risk management, fundraising, FaceBook and new social media tutorials.   District Governor Elect Mike Forney will kick off the session with information about the upcoming 2012-13 Rotary year.

“Our spring program is closely tied to the major challenges and opportunities the clubs will be experiencing in the coming year,” Redder said.  “We’re also offering repeat sessions on membership, ClubRunner and new social media so attendees won’t have to miss subjects they are really interested in hearing,” she said.

The district’s spring and fall assemblies are designed for club board members, committee chairs and regular members who just want to learn more about Rotary.  “We’re focusing a lot more this year in areas that will attract younger Rotarians as well,” Murphy said.  “For instance, people who attend one of the FaceBook sessions will be able to create their own page, enhance the one they have, or help to create a FaceBook page for their club,” he said.  The Interact and Rotaract breakouts will provide useful information on the creation of new clubs. 

More than half the clubs in the district are now using ClubRunner as their website and for direct communication with the district and Rotary International.  The ClubRunner sessions will provide excellent information that will help clubs utilize both the basic and advanced features of the system.

A tandem session conducted by District Governor Nominee Julie Phares will also be held at the assembly to train facilitators for Club Visioning and Rotary Leadership Institute.  That session will be held from 9:15 to 12 noon.  

The assembly and facilitator training will be held on March 31 at Laramie’s Hilton Garden Inn. Assembly programs will begin with registration at 8:15 and continue until 3 pm.  Facilitator training will run from 9:15 until noon. 

Registration for both sessions is available on the District 5440 website. The cost to attend is $45.   The website will also contain contact information and a discount code for lodging which must be reserved directly through the Hilton website.

Interact students watch as orphans open the gifts brought down by the Interact & Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs

Orphans receive Christmas gifts from the Interact and Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs

Click on the link below to learn what Rotary has been up to the last couple months:

Rotary Action Insert

The Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs is accepting applications from nonprofit organizations that would like to be the beneficiary of the club’s 2012 Barn Dance fundraiser. The event consistently draws 500 attendees and last year’s recipient received over $18,000. Selection will be based on the fit of the non-profit’s mission to the mission of Rotary, as well as the ability of the non-profit to provide support for the event.  Selection will be made by a committee of Rotarians. To download the application please click on the link below.

5th Annual Barn Dance Beneficiary Application

Application deadline is January 5, 2012.

Fill out application and submit by email to SteamboatRotary@gmail.com or send applications to Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs PO Box 771336 Steamboat Springs, CO 80477

If you have any questions please contact the committee chairs Tara Weiss tara@centralparkmgmt.com or Ellen Kendall ellenkendall@earthlink.net

Either:

Take 131 follow the big curve to the right.

Take first right after curve (Co Rd 14) follow to the barn. 

OR

Take 131 South

Right on Co Rd 22

Left on Co Rd 14 (River Road)

Left on Co Rd 14E follow to Barn

There will be signs on the Road to lead you there as well.

WHAT: 4th Annual Community Barbecue & Barn Dance   Presented by Wells Fargo Bank

WHEN: Saturday, September 24th 5pm-9pm 

WHERE: Sidney Peak Ranch

FOR THE BENEFIT OF: The Boys & Girls Club of Steamboat and Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs Local Charities

WHAT TO EXPECT: Awesome BBQ catered by REX’S, Music & Dancing from SUNDOG, Activities for the Kids, & Absolutely Positively Stupendous Extraordinary RAFFLE PRIZES!!!!

TICKETS AVAILABLE IN ADVANCE AT: All That Jazz, The Boys & Girls Club, & Central Park Liquor  $70/Family (up to 5)  $35/Single $10/Each Additional Kid under 16

Bring the whole FAMILY… there will be activities for everyone!!

Dust off your dancing boots and get ready for a fine family gathering.   On September 24^th, from 5:00 to 9:00 at Sidney Peak Ranch, the 4^th Annual Rotary Community Barbecue and Barn Dance takes place.   This year’s event, with Wells Fargo Bank as presenting sponsor, benefits  the Boys and Girls Club of Steamboat Springs and the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs local charities. 

This family friendly event includes food, dancing, raffles and lots of fun!    The barbecue is catered by Rex’s and Sundog will provide great western themed music and dancing for all ages.  As a five year old attendee from last year enthusiastically said at the end of the evening, “Mom, when’s the next dance party?”   There will also be bouncy houses, games and activities for children, as well as a photographer for family photos     

This event once again includes a fantastic variety of raffles prizes, all valued at $1,000 or more.  Raffle packages include: A trip for four to Disney World and Universal Studios; A cruiser bike with accessories; Dining at local restaurants; Fly fishing gear, Ski passes and gear; Advertising for businesses; Home and car cleaning, and a family activities package among others.    You may purchase as many tickets as you want for $10 each or 3 for $25 and drop tickets in your selected package bucket,  along with your good luck wishes, of course!   Winning raffle tickets are drawn over the course of the evening.   Imagine!  It’s possible to win a trip for four to Disney World with only one $10 raffle ticket!

Advanced admission tickets are available for individuals at $35 each and for families (up to five members) at a price of $70, and include dinner and one beer/wine or soda drink ticket per adult or child.  You may purchase tickets at All That Jazz, the Boys & Girls Club, Central Park Liquors and Zirkel Trading.  You can also purchase tickets at the door.  Last year’s event was a near sell-out, so get your tickets early and join us for a rollicking good time benefitting the children of the Boys and Girls Club.

Volunteers Needed

Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs have joined with the Routt County Riders and the Bureau of Land Management to build a Multi-Use trail, which is located about six miles west of Steamboat Springs adjacent to Cow Creek just off County Road 33 (Twentymile Road). Rotary Trail begins at the Ridge Trail trailhead.

Please help us finish this trail before July 31, 2011.  A five-mile “loop” is now under construction in the Special Recreation Management Area of Emerald Mountain.

This trail is being constructed 100% by Volunteer efforts and has been under construction since last summer.  We are looking for more volunteers from organizations such as yours and as friends of biking and recreation in Routt County to join in and help finish the trail for use by the end of July.  Any organizations that participate will be acknowledged in an ad in the Steamboat Today and at a Grand Opening Event hosted by Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs.

Work Schedule through July 31:

Wednesday;  10am – 3:00pm
Thursday:  Noon – 5:00pm
Friday:  10am – 3pm
Saturday:  10am – 2:00pm
Sunday:  Noon – 4:00pm

At these times, someone will be at the staging area, just above the parking lot and trailhead for the ridge trail, to meet volunteers and guide them to the work area. Show up at a time listed above and work as much or little as you like. Please bring your bike.

Many of your groups helped out last year and we are asking that you contact the appropriate and/or interested members in your Organizations again to coordinate work sessions as shown above.  If nothing else it is a great opportunity to get outside and even bring your bike to get a workout and learn about trail building with a fun group of people.  “Like” the Facebook Cow Creek – Rotary Trail wall and please contact me (846-6807), Grant Fenton (846-1560), or Aryeh Copa (846-5363) for scheduling information and directions.

Thanks in Advance and go outside and play!

Following a visit to Nepal in 2000 Past District Governor Jack Morrison, a Steamboat Springs Rotarian, spearheaded fund-raising efforts by the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs to raise $15,000 in member contributions and another $15,000 in Rotary grants to purchase and deliver an x-ray machine to a small clinic in Phaplu, a remote Himalayan mountain village in Nepal.

: This sign provides a cheery welcome to visitors searching for medical treatment in the remote regions of Nepal

The location was so remote that reaching the nearest functioning road to Katmandu required a four day trek.  With the help of the Katmandu, Nepal Rotary Club the new x-ray machine was flown into the Phaplu clinic by helicopter in 2002.

Last year author Dave Norman stumbled into the high mountain village suffering from a life-threatening lung condition called “pulmonary edema.”  In a recent letter to the Steamboat Springs Rotary club, Norman said “I would like to thank you for the role you don’t realize you played in saving my life!”  Norman and his wife had been trekking in the Himalayas when he fell ill.

“My overburdened wife navigated us straightaway to the village of Phaplu, where we were sure to find a phone to call a rescue helicopter or plane into their tiny gravel airstrip.”  Unfortunately, the last plane out had already departed with nothing further scheduled for an indefinite period.

Author Dave Norman posing in Nepal under healthier condition.

“Annie—my wife-cum-Sherpa—dragged me uphill to the Phaplu Clinic, which we identified by the red crosses painted everywhere and the large number of sick and mangled people milling hopefully in the courtyard. Then it was back across the courtyard so the doctor could x-ray me for pneumonia.

“Standing shirtless and shivering, my chest pressed against a freezing steel plate… I spotted a tiny brass plaque on the machine that read “Courtesy of the Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Rotary Club. Then the machine zapped me with enough radiation to explode a potato.”

The x-ray didn’t show pneumonia, but Norman’s heart appeared significantly enlarged due, possibly, to cardiac edema. With the x-ray in hand, he was able to convince officials at the nearby airstrip that evacuation was essential and a special flight was arranged for him and his wife a few hours later.

“The support of your Rotary Club made a tremendous difference to the Phaplu Clinic and the people it supports. As one of its few Western patients, I am tremendously thankful to their staff and for the role your service played in empowering the Phaplu clinic to save people’s
lives,” Norman said.

“What a story,” Jack Morrison said.  And Rotary’s involvement in the Phaplu Clinic has continued.  Morrison stayed in touch with the clinic’s director Dr. Mingma and helped the Steamboat club raise another $8,000 to install the first telecommunications satellite system in Nepal at the clinic.  “The satellite has provided the means for this very remote hospital to consult with experts elsewhere on patient diagnosis and treatment,” he said.

: Because of the extremely remote and rugged terrain, locals must carry personal goods and supplies some four days to the nearest navigatible road.

“I feel quite sure that this satellite was also important in the diagnosis of Dave Norman’s problem. This wonderful story should put a smile on all of our faces,” Morrison said.

(Dave Norman is the author of four books, including the forthcoming “Following Josh” (October 1st, f/64 Publishing). More of his writing is available at www.davenorman.net.)

Members of the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs and the Ski Town Rotary Club have joined fellow Rotarians in Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Nebraska in the past several days to support the flood relief efforts of Rotary clubs in Australia’s Queensland area.

“We have been following the news with great concern, “Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs President Jane Denning said.   “We’ve had close ties with the Australians for a number of years and hosted a group of young professionals from New South Wales in our district last May,” he said.

To date, the combined efforts of Steamboat’s two Rotary Clubs have raised $1,000 for their international funds and another $1,350 in direct contributions with additional fund raising to come in support of the Australian flood relief efforts.

The Steamboat Springs clubs are 2 of 52 in the four-state area that comprises the Rotary district led by District Governor Bryan Cooke of Greeley, Colorado.  Cooke contacted some of his counterparts in the hardest hit areas along the coast of eastern Australia earlier this week and learned that the Australians had organized their local Rotary clubs to provide food and supplies for volunteers and formed teams of Rotarians to help residents clean up after flooding.

Cooke kicked off the campaign on January 20^th with $10,000 from Rotary district funds earmarked for community service grants.  “We’ve gotten more involved in first-response disaster relief in the past year or so,” Cooke said.   Last January Rotarians in the district raised more that $165,000 to purchase “shelter boxes” that were distributed immediately following the earthquake in Haiti. Members of the two Rotary Club’s in Steamboat contributed $8,100 to the effort.

.Rotary District Governor Anne Brand in southeast Queensland around the Brisbane area created a special Rotary Flood Disaster Appeal, giving Rotarians a mechanism to provide immediate financial assistance according to Jane Denning, President of the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs.

Rotary past district governor Errol Wildman is coordinating the relief efforts from Brisbane.  “Substantial offers of assistance are pouring in from all areas of Australia and from around the world,” he said.  “Rotary clubs and Rotary districts, individuals and corporations are eager to help flood victims, through the network of our 48 Rotary Clubs in this area. It is truly a humbling experience being a member of this trusted community-based organization in times such as this,” Wildman said.

There are more than 1.2 million Rotarians in 33,000 clubs in some 200 countries and geographic regions around the world.  They have raised nearly $1 Billion since 1985 to eradicate polio, provided scholarships to thousands of high school, college and graduate students, and devoted time, energy and funding for  community service projects both locally and internationally,  Last year alone more than $185 million in grants for humanitarian causes were distributed worldwide for Rotary-sponsored projects.  .

The floods in Australia have covered a geographic area as large as France and Germany combined.  Hundreds are dead and missing, and more than 30,000 homes and businesses in Queensland alone have been swamped.  And the worst may not be over.   Queensland premier Anne Bligh said weather forecasters have predicted more extreme weather in the coming months.  Restoration estimates have reached $5 billion and continue to climb as some communities have been flooded two or three times in recent weeks.

The objective of the Rotary Flood Appeal in southern Queensland is to be the conduit to best match local requirements with the wide-ranging resources available through Rotary Clubs and the community, according to Scott Stanford, President of the Ski Town Rotary Club   “Our contributions will be dispersed through Rotary clubs in Queensland that are on the ground and in tune with local communities devastated by the floods,” he said.

Tax deductible contributions can be made to the Casper Rotary Foundation.  Checks, written to the Casper Rotary Foundation,  can mailed to Joni Kumor, Rotary District 5440 Treasurer, 135 N. Ash, Casper, WY  82601.  For more information on local relief efforts, please contact Public Relations Chair Randy Rudasics at 970-819-2016.

Just days after Berenice Rioux and Ane Cornelia Pade arrived in Steamboat Springs from Europe, they found themselves in work clothes clearing brush on Rotary’s new multi-purpose trail west of town. Natapat Kitsiripat , nicknamed “Pun,” landed from Chang Mai, Thailand several days later and also immediately went to work on Rotary projects. “I didn’t know we would be this busy,” Berenice said. “I haven’t had a free weekend since I left my home in Talence, France.”

Cornelia flies a Cessna over Dinosaur Canyon

Her class schedule at Steamboat Springs High School is no pushover either. Her subjects include mathematics, biology, history, Spanish, psychology and desk top publishing. She is also on the cheerleader’s squad and practicing for the school’s annual dance showcase. Debbie and John Holloway are the first family hosts for Berenice. (Typically exchange students spend about three months with each host family during their stay.) Berenice has traveled to Lake Powell with the Holloways and attended her first college football game watching the Colorado “Buffs” defeat the University of Hawaii Warriors. “I still want to see a Colorado Nuggets game,” she said.

Cornelia, from Odense, Denmark, was delighted to find a wide variety of choices available to her in classes. Unlike Denmark where the curriculum is pre-determined, Cornelia chose subjects here which include advanced studio art, mathematics, American history, film photography and fashion design. “Traveling in the West is just like going from country to country in Europe, but it is also very safe here,” she said. She has been surprised at the size of the country. So far she has ridden a horse in a Wyoming cattle drive, toured the Utah canyon country, and taken the controls of a small airplane in a flight over Dinosaur National Monument. “I’ve already felt that I’m growing as an individual in my exchange so far,” she said.

Berenice Rides "Mesa"

Berenice and Cornelia are fluent in English which has helped them to settle into their American environment quite easily. “Pun” is still struggling a bit with his English but manages to get by quite nicely with his ready smile and friendly manner. “He’s building his English vocabulary quite quickly,” according to Sarah Fox, a staffer at the Boys and Girls Club where Pun is volunteering after school.

“He’s working with the younger kids and they really have enjoyed getting to know him,” Fox said. Pun also has a heavy class load including engineering, Spanish, business and American history. He is also taking English as a Second Language (ESL) at Colorado Mountain College. “I’m not homesick because I’ve been pretty busy,” he said. “I want to learn to skateboard while I’m here.”

Pun’s biggest moment so far was a surprise party for his 17th birthday on October 17th. “We had Mexican food because there were too many people to cook Thai dishes,” he said. His family hosts Ray and Sheila Wright made sure to serve Pun’s favorite dessert – blueberry cheesecake. “That was a big hit,” Sheila Wright said.

"Pun" works at Boys and Girls Club

The three exchange students here are among 23 students from 19 countries spending the school year in Rotary District 5440. Sixteen students from the district are now studying for the next school year outside the United States. Three Steamboat Springs students left the states for their school year exchanges. They include Zane Elston who is in Thailand, Alli Major in Australia and Kelly Ernst in Switzerland.