HIGH NOON ROTARY

January 11, 2001

Steve Wheeldon opened the meeting. This is the second meeting in a row he

has had the opportunity to lead the group. Steve did read an update on

Tom's crossing of the Atlantic. They are taking a few days longer than the

usual crossing time. This may because of the fourteen cases of wine they

have aboard. They are eating fresh fish and apparently they have bloodied

the deck of Joe's boat as a result. Tom said they saw a whale just

yesterday. It does sound like they are having a great time from what we

heard. Steve did ask Paulette Church to open with Prayer and Pledge.

We introduced our quests for the day. We had members of the evening club

with us. They were Clyde Church, husband of Paulette, Marv Dworak and Jim

Reser. The visiting Rotarians this day were Ken Fusco and Doyle Pickett. We

had three spouses and a son present for lunch: Travis Kimmel, the son of

Brian Kimmel was there, as was Leonard Gray, husband of Margaret, Lisa

Govreau, wife of Steve, Sissy, wife of new member John Anderson and

Charlotte Walls, wife of Past District Governor Jack Walls. Two of our

Interact Club members joined us for lunch. They were Kelsey Thye and Devon

Seibel. They spoke to us about their ongoing projects at the High School.

Steve then told the story of his free trip to Las Vegas. This story was a

segue into a game of "what do you know about Rotary". Steve elicited the

assistance of the Bob Volger, our Sargent at Arms for the day. Steve asked

questions about this year's theme for Rotary, the four avenues of service,

where the first club was organized and the year, what is RYLA and what is

the Permanent Fund. There were some who answered well and some who missed.

January is Rotary awareness month and Steve was making us aware of Rotary.

Bob Volger did attempt to give away ten bucks to the person whose ticket

was drawn. The only condition was that they had to be wearing their Badge

and Pin. Bob Chaput was the winner but he was without his badge and

therefore had to pay a ten-dollar fine.

Paulette Church is looking for a few good spellers to join the Adult

Education Spelling Bee during Snowdown. Our team from last year won the

spirit award. The evening club has offered a challenge but will it go

unanswered? We will see.

We then inducted our newest member, Jack Walls. This man served as the

President of the Aspen Club and the Queensland Club during his Rotary

service. He and his wife spent two years in the Peace Corps prior to moving

to New Zealand. The one Rotary accomplishment that stands out for Jack is

the year he spent as District Governor for our District. Jill did offer him

a Past Presidents pin and a Red Badge. Jill added that it was great that

Jack joined our club rather than that other one. Steve said we probably

could change the Red Badge for Blue if Jack came to the next Board meeting.

Jack said that is was really nice to be a member of High Noon Rotary. He

and his wife love Colorado and they are really excited about being in

Durango. Jack will do some architect work and his wife Charlotte will work

on importing architectural hardware. Welcome, Welcome, Jack and Charlotte.

Emil Nagy was then asked to come forward and tell the club about his

experiences in Hungary. Emil was a part of the 1956 Revolution. This

occurred on December 21st 46 years ago. Emil was an engineering student at

the time. The Russians defeated the Revolution and Emil had to escape. His

escape route took him through a mine field and barbwire. He slept under

bridges and in church pews until he met some Canadians. These people gave

him a permit to immigrate to Canada and he returned to Engineering at the

University of Michigan. He was given a chance to succeed and he has. He is

thankful to have a nice family and to have been able to go to school. He is

proud of his nationality, the culture and food but he is thankful to be an

American Citizen. He wrote a check to the Foundation to celebrate theseforty six years.

We then inducted our guest speaker into the club. This may have been atrue first for the group. John Anderson the Vice Chairman of New AmericanSchools joined our group. John and his wife Sissy have two grown children.

They have lived in Durango for one and a half years. John said that he had

not been in one place long enough to join a club although he has been a

member of Rotary in his past. John attended Yale and has worked at IBM. He

has spent the last twelve years working on Public Education. He feels we

are fortunate to have Dr. Mary Barter in our community as he is aware of

her national reputation as an educator. John began by telling the story of

his daughter, Carrie. She is a graduate of Fort Lewis and is a teacher in

California. Her first day of class she had thirty-two five-year-olds many

who did not speak English and many who were unprepared for school. John

said that eighty percent of the teachers today do not feel equipped to deal

with the modern classroom. Schools have been asked to solve all the social

ills from racism to economic recovery. There are fifty five-million kids

in school and another two million teachers will be added to schools. What

can be done to make the schools viable? How can we improve the interaction

between teachers and students? How about parents and the school? In 1991

New American Schools was formed. This groups mission was to raise student

achievement through comprehensive school reform. They have developed and

tested models that accomplished these goals. They have 3500 schools using

their models in every state. John used an example of a class he observed

using an integrated learning model. A class of students sat on a patio in

neatly arranged rows of chairs. There was an outline of an airplane drawn

around the class and a flight attendant was giving the pre flight safety

instructions. This was a culmination of a semesters work. The students had

studied geography to determine where they were going. They had studied

science to understand how airplanes flew. They had studied math to

determine the costs of the flight. The social interaction and the team

building were clearly other benefits. John feels we have an Economic

Imperative as our students graduating from High School are near the bottom

in math skills when compared to other countries. John feels we have a

Democratic Imperative as change in schools happen so slowly. Finally we

have a Moral Imperative as we lose half our students. He spoke of lessons

learned and gave us six do's and don't's. Thanks John.

ONE FINAL NOTE: " The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in

moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of

challenge and controversy." Martin Luther King

Bear

2000 - 2001 DIRECTORS

Pete Sanders - Past President

Steve Wheeldon - President-Elect

Steve Govreau - Club Service

Chessa Gill - Vocational Service

Jeff Brown - Community Service

Tom Brossia - International Service

Charlie Albert - World Service Projects

Jill Bruce - Membership

Marv Collentine - Programs

Joe Thompson - Club Bulletin

Kevin Bruce - Sergeant at Arms

Ward Holmes - Public Relations

Steve Redding - Director

Mike Matheson - Director

Paulette Church - Director

OFFICERS

Tom Galbraith-President

Steve Wheeldon-President-Elect

Margaret Gray-Secretary

Mark Seiter-Treasurer

NEARBY

ROTARY CLUBS

Durango: Tuesday, 6:30 P.M.

Strater Hotel

Cortez: Monday, 6:30 P.M.

Elks Lodge

Dolores: Tuesday, 6:30 P.M.

Ponderosa Restaurant

Farmington: Thursday, 11:45 A..M.

Holiday Inn

Pagosa Springs: Thursday, 11:45 A.M.

Pagosa Lodge

Telluride: Monday, 6:30 P.M.

Lyons Club