High Noon Rotary Club of Durango

District 5470

Club 1161

Meet at Doubletree Hotel

Time: 12:00 Noon

Thursdays

Newsletter: October 16, 2008

Fellow Rotarians:

• Mark Prouty, President, Pro Tem reigned supreme today and nary a slip did he make! A more patriotic pledge we’ve not heard. He moved smoothly into guest introductions with Steve Wheeldon introducing his spouse Jeanne who needed no introduction since she was a member for many years. Mark introduced Boom, our Rotary Exchange Student, who had just returned from Denver after visiting CU and CSU and was proudly sporting a new Rotary Exchange T-shirt. Boom was in awe of the size of the universities and how unlike they are to the colleges in her homeland, Thailand. Boom’s confidence and English seem to be improving exponentially on a weekly basis. Jill Carithers introduced her daughter Princess Angela who single handedly lowered the average age in the room by 7 ½ years. A sweet, vocal and active girl, she has a bit of her mother in her. Robin Jackman introduced the owner of Eyecare, Lee Ann Haven. Wayne introduced a distant relative of Mark Prouty, Craig Prouty of the Phoenix 100 Club. Paulette Church, past president of the Durango Rotary Club and a member of the High Noon Club and Harry Bruell (our program) were introduced by Mark. Nancy Bennet introduced a local, John Harrington.

•  Announcements: Niles Bruno announced that La Plata Youth Services is bidding out its accounting services if any of our CPAs are interested. Leanna Jaworsky announced the Habitat for Humanity’s 11/7/2008 wine tasting, $30 @ for tickets now or $40 at the door. Bill Cartwright reminded us of Rotary’s “Build Day” for Habitat for Humanity on 10/25/2008 in Bayfield. Bill has lost a couple of the early volunteers and is looking for replacements. Dan McCarthy announced Interact’s first fund raiser at DHS on 10/18/2008. Interacters will be selling their calendars and having a bake sale. Interact is also looking for the donation of items that they can sell. Interact will receive them on 10/18/2008 at the DHS parking lot as early as 6:00 AM.

• Happy $$$ and Fines: Niles Bruno paid for traveling to the Baltics, London and Wyoming where he culled the deer population. According to Niles, all of his victims were of age. Steve Osborne and Jan Measles announced their engagement. Steve had asked Jan on bended knee in their living room and Jan asked him if he really wanted to do it. Lots of happy $$$$ for that news item I am sure. Sara Olsen paid for the joy of attending a recent family reunion where Chip passed the family test and the family passed the Chip test. Steve Wheeldon announced that his son made an appearance in the pages of the Herald and is doing very well in his business. Dan McCarthy is happy to be playing a free round of golf at the Glacier Club with his father. Dan garnered the free round from his attendance at the United Way and Rotary golf tournament in July. Since Dan and his Dad are going to be the only ones on the course, they can take as many strokes and as long as they want to play. Cathy Crum paid a fine because her group’s petition to get a recall election for a 9R school board member on a ballot for recall came in 100 signatures short. Ted Robson took a cell phone call while sitting at the senior’s table and paid a really big fine (we hope). Jill Carithers then played Pictionary with two teams made up of lucky ticket holders. The game involved drawing pictures on butcher paper which team mates then guessed the words. All monies were donated back to the club.

Ø PROGRAM: Paulette Church and Harry Bruell, the catalysts for bringing The Commons building to fruition were the program. Paulette represents the Adult Education Center and Harry the SW Conservation Corps. The Commons Building is the ugly grey building NE of Albertsons facing Camino del Rio. Important project points:

Ø Building Costs: $5.2mm, Renovation $2.4 mm for a total of $7.6mm.

Ø They got a lot of free money: 1) $852,000 individuals, 2) $424,000 from foundations 3) $684,000 from Community Development Block Grants and 4) $430,000 from New Market Trust Capital.

Ø They have raised $7.2mm (98%) of all the money they need to complete the project.

Ø The project took 2 ½ years to put together including some help from High Nooner, Mark Donohue. Fund raising started in early 2007.

Ø Rent from the 20 or so non-profits occupying the building pay the debt service.

Ø The project creates tremendous synergy between all the non-profits so it makes them much more efficient. For example, recent graduates of the SW Conservation Corp went on to Pueblo Community College with credits they received from their work in SCCC and when they complete their work at PCC, Fort Lewis will offer them scholarships to attend the Fort.

Ø This project is a great example of how to work together and get something really complex done in a timely manner. Good job Paulette and Harry!!

The Four Way Test in everything we do and say:

ü Is it the truth?

ü Is it fair to all concerned?

ü Will it build good will and better friendships?

ü Will it be beneficial to all concerned?

Yours in Rotary,

Editor

Wayne Bedor

waynebedor@yahoo.com