High Noon Rotary Club of Durango

District 5470

Club 1161

Meet at Doubletree Hotel

Time: 12:00 Noon

Thursdays

Newsletter: December 11, 2008

PROGRAM December 18, 2008. St. Columba Hand bell Choir. Joint Meeting with Kiwanis.

Next two Thursdays: December 25^th and January 1^st, no meetings.

Fellow Rotarians:

• Our esteemed President Elect, Mark Prouty, led the pledge and asked Rick Routh to introduce our program presenter, Kirk Rawles, of the Durango Winter Sports Foundation. Other introductions included Honorary member, Al Harper, and Doug Lashley who has been conspicuously absent for several meetings. Boom gave us an update on her activities, which included riding in a car to Grand Junction with 7 other people, participating in a Chinese Fire Drill in Grand Junction and playing hide and seek in a Grand Junction hotel with 45 other kids. Ward Holmes introduced newly married Mark Tucker of Durango Rafting who is interested in immersing himself in the community. Jennifer Simon introduced her mom who is a newly arrived Durangotan and was a Rotarian in her former life in Loveland, Colorado prior to moving here. Sounds like she would be a great candidate for HNR membership.

• Announcements: Peter Marshall announced that the dictionaries are here, wrapped and ready to be distributed to St. Columba School and Needham Elementary. Anyone who is interested in participating in that activity, please contact Peter. Rotary is looking for a Rotarian of good standing, age 21-35, to lead a GSE team to South Australia next year. Mark Prouty recognized Doubletree Chef, Jack Keyes, who is leaving the Doubletree after 17 years, to open his own restaurant in Cortez. Jack was instrumental in making HNR look good at a number of our past fund raisers and meals outside the Doubletree from 1991 to present. Jack was presented the “Service Above Self Award by Mark on behalf of all HNR members. Good luck Jack!! Jack invited everyone to stop by his new place called Jack and (didn’t catch it) located at the former Gordie’s in Cortez. Mark reminded everyone that ballots for the 2010-2011 HNR President were on the table and not to vote if one had already voted.

• Sergeant of Arms, Tom Crabbe, fined a number of people for birthdays and anniversaries that were not present: Brad Bartel, Dan Morgenstern, Tom Brossia, and Samantha Gallant. Samantha was ringing bells for the Salvation Army. Bob Salzer, Tom Brossia and Marilyn Weston were fined for anniversaries. Walt Nowotny was reminded that he had an anniversary coming up and to try and not look as surprised as he did today if his wife reminds him of same in the next week. Ward Holmes and Vern Swanson were also fined for their anniversaries. Thank you announcements came from Sherry Tabor for the long ordeal of the new Public Library project being successfully completed (Yea Sherry, Good Job!!), and Cathy Crum for all the food donations by the HNR membership for Project Merry Christmas. Steve Wheeldon paid for Dan McCarthy being in a Kiwanis apron while ringing the bell at Wal Mart. Dan defended himself by ratting on Justin Osborne who actually had the ringing bell duty and had asked Dan to cover for him (Justin) so he could make a quick personal comfort call. No good deed goes unpunished Dan! Chip Lile paid a happy dollar because he was so happy to see High Nooner, Doug Lashley, at one of our meetings. Dan McCarthy was happy to be making a trip to Flagstaff to meet a friend from Singapore and if this trip were a replay of last year, Dan would be bringing something back to smoke. We won’t go there thank you very much. Jill Carithers put the arm on us to pick up our Red Ball Express tickets so we can help with one of the easiest fund raisers the club puts on with a little help from its friends. Jon Anderson won the drawing and donated the money to Rotary.

Program: Rick Routh introduced Kirk Rawles, Program Director, for the Durango Winter Sports Foundation (DWSF) that has been up and running for three years and serves 8-18 year olds in the Alpine, Nordic and Freestyles disciplines. Kirk reminded us of Durango’s winter sports heritage which gave us 9 state championships in the 1960s- 1980s while nurturing a few Olympians such as Mike Elliot and Dolph Kuss along the way. The DWSF subsidizes about 150 kids and last year had 23 that went to the Junior Olympics. One student, Zak Watkins is striving for the Olympics and was named Colorado athlete of t he year for 2008. The DWSF also has been instrumental in bringing Chapman Hill back into viability and announced that the City’s 2009 budget includes monies to purchase and install snowmaking equipment at Chapman Hill next spring. Anyone who is interested in sponsoring or volunteering for DWSF is welcome to contact Kirk at 382-9302.

Mark closed the meeting at 12:40 and helped count the ballots for the 2010-2011 HNR Presidential election. Mark announced that Wayne Bedor had eked out a close win thus narrowly avoiding a recount of the ballots.

• Upcoming : December 18, the St. Columba Hand Bell Choir

No meetings December 25^th and January 1^st.

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