Updates & Announcements
Visitors included: Virgil Scott, visitor from Rotary of Denver. Potential new members: Dr. Joshua Mongillo, Jeff Lewallen
Announcements:
- Happy dollars are going to the 285 Backpack project, food for kids who need it on the weekend.
- Dean recommended viewing the documentary, “Unknown: Cosmic Time Machine,” on Netflix, with images from the space telescope.
- Ann thanked everyone for help with the Ukrainian refugee family who arrived July 14.
- Charlotte introduced new prospective member Jeff Lewallen; who saved us today with his knowledge around Zoom.
- Bill Taylor introduced a guest attending today, his friend Dr. Joshua Mongillo, a chiropractor.
- Stan gave the Tree Award to the MindFest team for winning a matching DDF grant from Rotary for their upcoming event. The grant is $3,000, for a total of $6,000 budget for the mental health fest that is being planned for February.
- Stan thanked everyone who helped at Elevation Celebration with the Rotary Wildfire Ready fire truck and education.
- Lee updated everyone on the Palisades Peaches sale: at least 200 boxes of peaches have been sold online and Angela has approximately 30-40 sales as well.
- Stan provided an update from Tim Berg (the evening meeting chair): He would like us to join Operation Pollination. It’s a national/international project. The district governor-elect is fully behind this. He’s asking us to sign a resolution saying we will promote pollination for habitat. This is part of a Rotary International Environmental Sustainability Action Group project, signed by previous RI President Jennifer Jones and District 5450 President-Elect Tammie Fennell. He’s hoping that signing the Pollination Resolution which simply asks the Rotary to carry out activities to educate and promote plants that will contribute to pollination. One idea is an event in early November spreading native wildflower seeds at the Peace Park with children, educating them. Discussion around this topic:
Lee: As club treasurer, we are stressed this year. What is this going to cost us?
Stan: I have the budget for $100 for wildflower seed for the Peace Park but I don’t expect any other additional costs.
Dean: I have space in my yard.
Almost everyone raised their hands as supporting.
- Update on schedule from Stan: From Aug. 13 to Sept. 3, he will be in Indonesia to set up a student exchange program for CU-Boulder. NO MORNING MEETING on August 15, 2023.
- Update from Stan: There was an International Refugee Committee training yesterday. We have a core group of at least 7-8 to mentor a refugee family, probably in late fall. With the $1500 Rotary budget and other donations, we will have over $2000 for this, and IRC will help us to raise more funds.
- Bill continues his great work distributing Rotary glasses for donations!! Thanks to him for all his great work!
Upcoming Events
- REMINDER: Please sign up to volunteer for ConiferFest.
- Diana needs help on Aug. 9 between 12:00pm and 6:00pm at Mountain Resource Center’s School Supply Market. Lots of families come to this to get school supplies; this is how we get a lot of our students signed up for our Backpack project.
- The Visioning exercise is being moved to October because of the upcoming Sept. 30 District 5450 Conference.
Meeting program
Colorado Rotary Endowed Fellowship for Pediatric Mental Health at Children’s Hospital, Debbie Doig and Shrin Murthy, Highlands Ranch Rotary
OVERVIEW:
Speaker was Debbie Doig from Highlands Ranch Rotary, which raised the money for the Colorado Rotary Endowed Fellowship for Pediatric Mental Health at Children’s Hospital. She was accompanied by Shrin Murthy, also from Highlands Ranch Rotary.
She showed a video of our new Rotary International president Gordon McInelly, who told the story of his brother Ian, who developed depression, hid it and then took his own life.
In 2021, Children’s Hospital declared a state of emergency for youth mental health. Suicide is the leading cause of death for Colorado’s children aged 10-24. Studies show 15% of Colorado kids 65,000 age 12-17 are depressed. In the U.S., one in five kids have a mental health disorder, and less than 50% will get treatment. Families take them to the Emergency Room, thinking somebody can help them, and they sit there for days, weeks.
Highlands Ranch Rotary decided to raise $500,000 for an endowment for a pediatric fellowship at Children’s Hospital. A fellow is a psychiatrist who has completed his residency and decides to do a deep dive into Pediatric Psychiatry for two years. The average fellow will have 1500 patient visits a year. Long after we are gone, there will be a cohort of fellows seeing kids. They have raised $465,000.
For donations, please make checks to Highlands Ranch Rotary Foundation Inc. PO Box 632118, Highlands Ranch, CO 80163-2113. Note restricted to: REF4PMH. https://rotaryclubhr.org/donate/ref4pmh