R O T A R Y G R A M

High Noon Rotary Club

February 26, 2004

“You think you are giving, but in reality you get so much back.

Their smiles just light you up!”

Joy Mathis on Adaptive Sports’ Dave Spencer Ski Classic

With his familiar booming “Welcome!” Acting President Steve Wheeldon opened our meeting. It was déjà vu all over again.

Guests:

Fifteen-year old birthday boy Brian Govreau, another son of you know who, joined us as did Amy Benjamin, the guest of Jay Hwang. Frank Valen bought lunch for Tyler Silvernail of Dollar Rentacar while Scott Mathis did the same for wife Joy and returning guest Bob Geffe. Our Guest Speaker sought support from two of his Trails 2000 Board members, Cindy Dunbar and DVM Jodie Petersen of Animas Equine.

Happenings:

Joy and Scott Mathis are strong supporters of Adaptive Sports and they have organized two ski teams to participate this Saturday’s event at DMR. Reflecting Rotary colours, volunteers for the Gold Team include Steve Osborne, Steve Wheeldon, Steve Govreau and non-Steve Chip Lile and Bob Chaput. The Blue Team is represented by Peter Marshall, Tom Brossia, Mike McGuire, Charlie Albert and Wayne and Jonathan Bedor.

Joy also asked for financial support from our group and was rewarded by more than $400, helped in part by the gracious generosity of a lucky local Realtor! Call Joy and Scott to find our how you can help this wonderful cause.

Mike McGuire is seeking a home for our Youth Exchange student from Japan Yuta. We have all met him and he is a fine young man. I get the impression Mike and Carol are getting a tad worried about this since they have plans to travel before PE Mike takes office. Give them a call!

Did you enjoy the Christmas train trip? Bud Deering took a bunch of snapshots and offered them free to any member -- who needed to prove where they were on that day!

Charlie Albert reported our Club has sponsored 280 Wheelchairs for distribution somewhere near Mexico City. Isn’t he amazing?

That generous, lucky Realtor mentioned above? Yes, it was Janette Kay Measles pulling the magic card and then donating the pot to Joy and Adaptive Sports. Wow!

Program:

The long-time Executive Director of Trails 2000 presented an interesting program on the activities of his group. Working with private and government organizations, they do trails: digging dirt, cutting felled trees, clearing debris and creating new trails. That’s it! Trails. They have nearly 2000 members (who pay dues for the fun of working on trails) and last year 3700 volunteer hours maintained more than 100 miles of the things. We saw pictures of trail work being done on a 15-mile stretch of the Colorado Trail adopted by Trails 2000. [The adoptee is from Gudy’s Rest up to the Champion Ventures Sliderock Road, if you must know] Another project of importance was repairing the Vallecito Lake Trail severely degraded by the fires and subsequent washouts. Much of Trails 2000’s efforts are focused on the area east of Highway 3.

A current project is examining the feasibility of converting the old railroad track on the north side of 160 across from Farmington Hill into a connecting trail between Home Depot and Grandview. This should be a fun exercise, since the route spans 12 different landowners!

Why do they do it? To make the outdoors more user friendly…and because it is fun. The scenery and fellowship, plus sense of accomplishment, make it all worthwhile. Go to www.trails2000.org to learn more! Almost forgot – that “long-time Executive Director of Trails 2000” is of course Bill Manning. Thanks for a nice program!

Another fine Rotary meeting!

Yours in Rotary,

Spencer, your scribe