Updates and Announcements
Peace Group Update: Stanley Harsha will be in Indonesia from Oct. 30th to Dec. 30th. Denise will run Peace meetings while he is gone. Stanley also sent the club an email with information about upcoming non-violent communication trainings to be held jointly with the Evergreen and Conifer club peace committees. An informational zoom session will be hosted on January 18th to learn more. See Stanley's email for more details.
Club President: We are in need of a PE (President Elect) for the Rotary year 2023 / 2024 and NPE (Nominated-President Elect) for the Rotary year 2024 / 2025. Rotary will train future Presidents and most of the work is around running the meetings. Contact Diana if you have any interest or questions.
District Governor: Rotary District 5450 is now accepting nominations for our 2025-2026 District Governor.
Conifer Christmas Parade: The theme for this year's Conifer Christmas parade is Heroes on Parade. The club discussed various ideas on how to highlight the services Rotary provides in our community. Thank you to Suzanne and Charlotte for volunteering for the committee!
As a follow-up from service day: Trish Cox and her husband, and Ann Imse and her husband will do yard work in November for a couple of older women.
Home and Garden Show: The Home and Garden Show will be April 1st and 2nd at Evergreen High School. Tim Eagan of Evergreen is to be chair. Erika Sprenkel will be co-chair. The show switches between Evergreen and Conifer. Many sponsors said, “Sign me up for next year.” More to come soon!
ConiferFest: Will be Aug. 12th. We are focusing on finding more parking and we have decided to have tables delivered to expedite the set-up process. More info to come!
Grant Applications: The deadline is Friday November 4th. The application form is posted on the website at rotaryconifer.org
Word Polio Day: The club collected $163 for polio through Happy Dollars and a raffle!
Volunteer Opportunities:
West Jeff is seeking volunteers to read to kids, or listen to the kids read to them. You can choose the grade level and this is meant to be a fun time for reading. Lori Harrison (Chuck’s wife) is the person in charge. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c0e4aaeab2fa7ffc16-donuts
Elk Creek also is looking for volunteers to teach a robotics lesson for Dec. 12-16 coding week; they provide all the information in advance to teach the class to young kids. They are hoping to buy a box of materials for K-2 robotics. Kit costs $1200, looking for a $950 donation and seeking a grant for $250.
Rotary International efforts for Ukraine: John Hewko, the Rotary General Secretary, will be speaking to Boulder Rotary on December 9th about RI efforts for Ukraine. They would like to invite anyone to attend either in person or over Zoom. We are joining with Evergreen Rotary and Kharkhiv Rotary to get blankets made in Kharkhiv for the shelters there. We sent $2000 from our club, including $1000 from a donor. It’s being matched multiple times. Our budget includes $2500 for International and we used $1000 of that.
Youth Exchange Bucket Lists: Diana Phelps has sent out bucket lists of the metro exchange students, if anyone wants to help fulfill a wish. As an example, Diana is taking a Brazilian student in Summit County to the theater.
Sergeant-at-Arms Request: A volunteer is needed for December and beyond. Please contact Diana if you are interested and able.
285 Backpack Project:
- We send bags of food home every week when kids are in school. We are feeding 60 now, but the need is larger, more than 100, possibly 200. We need more help.
- We need regular volunteers, at different times and days. One day a month is fine.
- Thank you to Trish Cox who offered to be volunteer coordinator.
- We also need a sponsor recruiter to gather sponsors and potentially facilitation of a coupon book.
- Regular volunteers are needed for this schedule to deal with the food distribution:
- 9:15 a.m. on the fourth Thursday of every month: We need volunteers to meet behind Safeway in Conifer at 9:15 a.m. to meet the truck from the Food Bank of the Rockies. Truck might be late so we have to be patient. We need to schedule a 2½-hour window. Truck arrival depends on weather, loading, etc. It takes about one hour to pull about 1000 lbs of food and take it to our pantry at St. Laurence Episcopal Church, not far away in Conifer. (The truck doesn’t fit at St. Laurence parking lot.)
- In November this will happen on Tuesday Nov 22nd the week of Thanksgiving
- Thank you to Ann and Robert and Tom who will help this week.
- We have volunteers currently to pull food from the pantry on Tuesdays for four schools near Conifer and for three Platte Canyon schools. They leave it at the pantry for pick-up.
- We need volunteers to pick up these boxes between Tuesday and Thursday from the pantry at St. Laurence and take them to Deer Creek Elementary.
- No delivery Thanksgiving week.
- We also need volunteers to pack on Thursday 1:30 - 2:30 at Deer Creek Elementary (take upper driveway)
- Thank you to Trish and Carol for doing this week.
- Lesley and Candy sort and distribute to Conifer schools every week. Bambi needs to concentrate on ordering food and organizing recipients.
Please Email 285backpackproject@gmail.com to volunteer. Thank you!
Evening Meetings: Evening meetings happen every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, and the next one will take place on Wednesday November 9th at 5:30 PM at Our Lady of the Pine Catholic Church.
November 29th: No meeting will be held the 5th Tuesday of the month in November.
Upcoming Events & Training:
Below is just a snapshot of upcoming events. All District Events can be found by going to the Rotary District 5450 Website.
Holiday Party: Holiday Party will be on Dec 4th at Janine’s place, details to follow.
Throw-Back Thursday on a Saturday: will be held on January 21 at the Aspen Park Community Center, details to follow.
Home and Garden Show: April 1st and 2nd at Evergreen High School.
2023 District Conference: The 2023 District Conference is scheduled for April 29th.
ConiferFest: August 12th
Polio Plus:
Rotary has been working to eradicate polio for more than 35 years. Our goal of ridding the world of this disease is closer than ever.
As a founding partner of the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, we’ve reduced polio cases by 99.9 percent since our first project to vaccinate children in the Philippines in 1979.
Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect nearly 3 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.
Today, polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But it’s crucial to continue working to keep other countries polio-free. If all eradication efforts stopped today, within 10 years, polio could paralyze as many as 200,000 children each year. It costs $3.00 to fully protect a child against polio, including the cost of the vaccine and activities required to deliver the vaccine.