ROTARY GRAM
High Noon Rotary Club
October 30, 2003
"Rotary has won
a place of respect in the global village - in fact, Rotary
has helped make the
world a global village."
Carol Bellamy,
Executive Director
of UNICEF
Chessa greeted us all and asked Bud D. to
give an invocation and to lead
us in the
pledge. She asked us to key Jay in our
thoughts as he deals with
a disk problem. Jay is scheduled for a surgical consultation
on November
6th and asked me to
thank everyone in Rotary for the support.
Guests included visiting Rotarian, B. J.
Boucher of the Daybreak club.
Guests of Ted Robson
included John Windsor and John Lopez.
Laura Shelton
was the guest of
Angie Beach, our exchange student from Japan, Yuta was
introduced by Chip
and Past President ('02 - '03) Jeff Brown hosted Regina
Mullennix
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Paulette asked that members get their
ticket proceeds turned in as soon
as possible. She saluted everyone that worked to make the
scholarship fund
raiser a success.
114 fun lovers have signed up for the
holiday train on December 6th.
There is room for
another 16 Rotarians, families and guests for the event
that leaves at 11:45
AM from the Durango, for a round trip to Cascade. It's
a party!
The tables were decorated with a Halloween
theme, courtesy of Dr. Susan
Sanders. Thanks for nice touch!
Steve Govreau and family have welcomed our
exchange student, Yuta, into
their home for the
next few months. A big thank you to Steve
for his
generosity. As Chip said at the last meeting, a host
family will show Yuta
what its really like
to be an American.
Wynn thanked the members for their support
in helping the Ft. Lewis
men's choir make the
trek to Nashville.
Dan Morgenstern announced the Habitat for
Humanity wine tasting fund
raiser on Friday,
November 7th. Learn more on Thursday,
time and place etc.
The affordable
housing task force will meet on Saturday, November 8th at
Merced de Las
Animas.
A work day is scheduled for November 15th,
to put up fences, sheds etc.
Contact Keoki Sears
for details. He needs 5-6 folks to be
involved.
The San Juan Symphony will perform on
November 16th, 3:00 PM at the
Community Concert
Hall.
Tickets were drawn and neither Past President
('87-'88) Dr. Bob Volger
or visiting Rotarian
B.J. Boucher were successful in find the queen of
hearts. The pot grows.
Ron Holligan presented Steve Redding with
a stylish and coveted,
official looking ,
Subway hat.
Steve then drew tickets to award the
center pieces to lucky members.
Our able and eager Sergeants at Arms are
in the trivia business, this
time asking a member
to name the last for female club presidents.
Two other
questions were what
do Chessa and Arvella have in common and who is the
youngest looking man
in the club roster. A petition was
started to require
member's photos to
be no more than 2 years old. Bob, that
doesn't mean a
baby picture.
Ted Robson, Charlie Albert and President
Elect Mike McGuire left today
to attend the first
tridistrict conference in Chihuahua, Mexico.
The
conference will
rotate between Mexico, New Mexico and our district, with the
next meeting here in
Durango.
In the continuing series that is the life
of Bud Deering (County
Commissioner, '87-'91),
he picked up when he was deployed to Japan as part
of a fighter
squadron. He explained training
dogfights with the USAF and
upon returning to
the U.S., he earned the opportunity to participate in an
exchange with the
Air Force.
He stated that it was a good experience,
that he learned a lot. He was
in the Strategic Air
Command structure, where he learned to be a nuclear
weapons pilot. Returning to the Marine Corps, he was
responsible for
setting up their
nuclear programs.
Bud indicated that his time in the Air
Force made him a better person
and told us to stay
tuned for more. Bud, thanks for your
service to the
country and to the
community.
PROGRAM
Chessa introduced club member Ralph Martin
to speak about the Sunshine
Foundation and his
nearly 10 year involvement with it.
The Sunshine Foundation, "The
Original Wish Granting Organization",
http://www.sunshinefoundation.org/
was founded by a Philadelphia police
officer in 1976,
when he saw kids in need. He got a few
people together to
raise some money and
began to answer the dreams of ill, challenged and
abused kids. Since then, the organization has never said
no to a deserving
child or young
adult, ages 3 through 21.
Sunshine is an all volunteer organization,
with only 4 paid positions
nationwide. Currently there is a 300 kid backlog, who's
dreams are awaiting
funding. A unique aspect of the Sunshine Foundation
is that it supports
kids with progeria.
Progeria is a rare genetic condition
characterized by accelerated aging
in children. The children who are diagnosed with this
condition age
approximately eight
to ten years for every year that we normally age. Their
average live
expectancy is between 14 and 16 years of age.
Its name is derived from the Greek and
means "prematurely old." The
classic type is the
Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome which was first
described in England
in 1886 by Dr. Jonathan Hutchinson and again in 1886
and 1904 by Dr.
Hastings Gilford.
The foundation sponsors an annual reunion
of all know progeria kids and
has done so for 21
years.
Ralph started a chapter of the Sunshine
Foundation in 1994, helping
their first
youngster get an prosthetic leg. He
(Ralph) is currently
working with the Sky
Ute Casino to advance the mission.
Sunshine sponsors a Dream Lift 2 times a
year where kids are flown to
Disney World, the #1
request of most deserving youngsters.
In Orlando,
Sunshine has guided
the construction of Dream Village, with the help of
individual and
corporate sponsors. Kids and their
families stay there
together while
visiting DisneyWorld.
Sunshine quietly takes care of the dreams
of every deserving child that
it can, with the
total now exceeding 22,000! The average
cost of a Dream is
about $2,500.00, one
that means so much to a child that cannot enjoy the
simple pleasures of
childhood.
Ralph's goal is to organize a Dream Lift
every year from Colorado and to
be the site of a
future progeria reunion. Thanks,
Ralph!! For more
information on
participation, go to the website or give Ralph a call @
884-2414. And, if you know of a deserving child, by
all means refer him/her
to Ralph by fax,
385-1690. Include the date, child's
name, age, diagnosis,
parent's names,
parent's address, telephone number and the name of the
person referring the
child and their phone number. Be sure
to advise
parents if you are
referring their child.
With nothing more for the good of Rotary,
and there was plenty of good
today, Chessa closed
the meeting