Home Page | Rotary Club of Glenwood Springs

Donate to a Rotary Cause

Chinle

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=rotary%20club%20of%20glenwood%20springs

https://www.facebook.com/RotaryClubofGlenwoodSprings

Sing! Sing! Sing!

It's always a treat to hear Steve Shute sing. He has such a beautiful tenor voice, is always on key, and shares his love of music with each note. But it is a true gift when he brings his lovely wife, Jan, and musical friends, Sharon Young and Heidi Rovig, to present a Holiday Concert for us Rotarians! We were very blessed to enjoy 30 minutes of joyful music with these four fine musicians.

It was great fun to enjoy the music from these talented voices, as well as to raise our own voices in singing familiar Christmas carols. Steve played his guitar and Heidi provided keyboard support as we all sang with gusto the songs we know well.... at least the first verses, anyway! It's always a treat to find out our favorite carols have a number of additional verses! Steve and his band of musical companions are always so welcome. Steve donned a blond wig and wire-rimmed glasses, apparently a necessity for any John Denver tune!

We are very grateful for their time during the busy holiday season. After the Friday noon concert for Rotary, the four musicians traveled to Aspen for the evening performance of the Aspen Choral Society's traditional Christmas Messiah concert held each year at this time. On Saturday the Society had its concert in Basalt, and on Sunday they sang in Glenwood Springs. This year is the 48th season of Handel's Messiah performed by the Choral Society. What a beautiful tradition. Happy holidays one and all.

Inspiring Service in Young People

We left last week's meeting with a sense of renewed faith and optimism about Rotary's future, thanks to the dynamic presentation by Eli Hauber, A Rotaract member at UNC Chapel Hill. Eli has a heart of service and he shared his story via a virtual video presentation. He grew up in Colorado Springs in a Rotary family; his father was deeply involved in the local Rotary club. But Eli's personal journey in Rotary began in high school where he initiated an Interact Club during his junior year at Cheyenne Mountain HS. It was after the COVID pandemic shut-down and Eli was looking for a way to find his "people" and a way to belong to something bigger than high school.

Eli served as Interact club president for two years, was able to recruit over 25 enthusiastic members, and start several service projects. Eli noted that all of his fellow Interact members joined the group because they wanted to make a difference in the world, not just to beef up their college applications! Their first projects included collecting unwanted apples from the school lunch program and donating them to a local food bank, and the construction of "little libraries" in low-income neighbors across the greater Colorado Springs area. The Interact Club at CMHS continues and has grown in size and scope since his graduation.

Eli also spoke about his multi-year involvement in RYLA (Rotary Youth Leadership Awards) where he currently sits on the board. He is an avid supporter of RYLA and his involvement has energized both students and Rotarians to lift up RYLA and support its continuation. Eli created a wonderful recruitment video that showcases to prospective students what RYLA is and how beneficial it can be. He shared the video with us and I think it made all of us excited to support next summer's program.

Rotaract is Rotary's college-level club organization and Eli is a member at UNC Chapel Hill. One of the club's initiatives matches members with local Rotarian mentors. Through his mentorship with a past District Governor, Eli got connected with Ugandan organization, All We Are, where he recently served a one month summer internship. Their mission is simple: to bring clean, affordable energy to rural communities in Uganda. Rotary is one of the organization's key supporters. He also spoke at the Restorative Leadership Academy, sponsored by the nonprofit, Love Does, which fights for human rights, cares for the vulnerable, and provides education in conflict zones since 2002. His experience was incredible. It inspired even greater desire to do more, to find ways to provide more resources and know-how to address the challenges of everyday Ugandans. "There is so much need," Eli said, "So many things are broken." But Eli is an optimistic In concluding his presentation Eli shared his vision for the future: Together WE can fix what is broken.

Please click on the links in this article to learn more about RYLA, All We Are, and Love Does. You can also email Eli directly by clicking on this name in paragraph one. I encourage us all to embrace Eli's vision.

End Polio Now

donate/end-polio-now

As the organization that made the first commitment to eradicate polio from the world, we need Rotary members and clubs to use their collective voice to advocate, raise awareness, and fundraise on 24 October for World Polio Day." Taken from the October End Polio Now newsletter.

The subject of polio eradication had cautious optimism within Rotary last year with only 12 cases of the wild polio virus in only two countries. Now that optimism has turned to guarded concern with 54 cases between Pakistan and Afghanistan already in 2024. This marked increase of polio cases is a reminder of how important it is that as Rotarians we MUST keep the promise to eradicate polio. As the subject of polio eradication becomes a distant memory it is fair to assume that many club members have little or no knowledge about Rotary's efforts to eradicate only the second disease in history. The continued support of Rotary Clubs and their members is essential to ensure the successful completion of this task.

Update from Tanzania

Jumbo from Africa!

I just wanted to send you an update. It has been a busy first month here and it was good to get my feet back on the ground in Tanzania and boy have I hit it running. I’ve been in my happy place again busy with many clinics and school visits along with the most recent trip to Kenya. Our dear friends, the Perlmans’ were up there doing a launch for their Malaria project and I joined them for about a week. We organized a huge Dental camp at a local school in Kakamega. With Dan and Bryna’s help along with two other Kenyan dentists we were able to see and treat many students and staff.

These patients had never seen a dentist before and suddenly they had the excitement of seeing 3. We were so thankful for all the items donated, along with items I was able to purchase due to donations I received. They helped us through these busy days where Approximately 250 children and 30 staff were seen. We performed 68 interventions that included extractions and fillings. Below you’ll see just a few Photos from our busy days. I hope you all know how much I miss you and how excited I am to be here. Without all of your help, this would never be possible. Truly, thank you from the bottom of my heart for helping me to help others.

Asante Sana,

(Thank you: Swahili)

Dr Annie: The Tanzanian Tooth Fairy

🇹🇿🌍🇰🇪🦷🧚‍♀️

donate/tanzanian-tooth-fairy

Strawberry Days Parade