Updates and Announcements
 
Evening Meetings: There will NOT be an evening meeting Wednesday December 22nd. The next evening meeting is on January TBD  at 5:30 PM at Our Lady of the Pine Catholic Church. 
 
Morning Meetings: We will not meet on the morning of December 28th. This Tuesday’s meeting will be run by Dean and the topic will be a “Good News Meeting”. In lieu of a speaker, Dean is inviting anyone to share any good stuff that happened in 2021.  Kindness, accomplishments, positive events, and other things that reinforce the better side of humanity. Send Dean an email or get yourself on the list at the beginning of the meeting.  Plan on roughly 3 minutes each. 
 
285 Backpack Project: A Sign-Up Genius is available to volunteer to assist. To sign up, go to: ​​https://www.signupgenius.com/go/9040c48afa823aa8-back 
 
License Plate Petition: Our District is working with District 5440 and 5470 to get 3,000 electronic signatures so a specialty Rotary license plate will be considered by the State Legislature.  Signing the petition does not require you to purchase a license plate. To sign the petition, please visit: https://www.rotary5470.org/Stories/co-rotary-license-plate-petition 
 
Sponsoring a family for the holidays: Last Friday Pat, Yvonne, and Suzanne helped with wrapping gifts for the families we are sponsoring for the holidays. So far everything has been working out really well and a big thank you to everyone for helping out so far. We also picked up 4 trees from Mt Evans Hospice Home and Health, one tree went to the bailey library where the Mt. Evans visiting nurses rendezvous to do their charting. A big thank you goes out to Suzanne for organizing everything!
 
Here are some photos of all of the wrapped gifts:
 
  
 
Happy birthday to Tom Becker!  Tom's birthday was on the 14th and we all wish him a happy one.
 
The Dictionary Project: They are looking to get 3rd grade dictionaries from the American Indian Academy of Denver. They are trying to raise $84 to cover a box of 24 dictionaries. If anyone is interested in making a donation, reach out to Amanda for more information.
 
 
Upcoming Events:
 
White Elephant: We need to start planning our White Elephant Holiday Party for sometime in early January.  If you’d like to host this year’s event, please reach out to Amanda.  For those of you new to the club, we do our holiday party in January so that everyone has the opportunity to get rid of an unwanted gift they received this year.
 
Colorado Women’s Day Conference: Know a woman who has worked hard and deserves recognition? Nominate her for one of the awards to be presented at the 7th Annual Colorado Women’s Day conference to be held on March 10  & 11, 2022. The deadline for nomination pdf or WORD documents to be emailed to the Colorado Women’s Day office in Golden is Friday, January 14, 2022. Nominations should be emailed to: Awards@ColoradoWomensDay.org.
 
Area 8 Social: Planned for April 6 2022. 
 
Home & Garden Show: To be held on April 9th and 10th at Conifer HS. 
 
 
 
Meeting Program: Conifer Rotary Foundation Grants Presentations
 
Michael Demko with Platte Canyon High School Cross Country: 
  • Mike Demko is the head boys and girls coach at Platte Canyon High School. 
  • Mike and Team thanks Conifer Rotary  for the grant to purchase jackets for the cross country team.
  • By the end of this past season the boys won the frontier league championship. They also sent two runners to compete at the state meet in CO springs. 
  • After the league meet the team posed for a team photo, every runner had a different jacket on, and it was cold.
  • With the new jackets they’ll look like the successful team that they have become. 
  • The Platte Canyon homecoming parade will happen next year and the team will look very worthy on their float with their new jackets.
 
Kate Broyles with West Jeff Middle School PTA: 
  • The Educator Grant Program gives teachers a bit of a break in the out of pocket funding they have to do for their classroom. 
  • Teachers have been incredibly dedicated and every year they rely on Conifer Rotary’s support to help teachers get extra supplies to help their kids in the classroom.
  • Teachers have to write a grant to describe the project, what the expected impact will be for the classroom.
  • There is a set of criteria to be considered for the grant and that includes something that has potential to improve students' achievement, number of students who will benefit, creativity of project, impact it will have, and it must be endorsed by the principal.
  • Past examples include an “I Can Show you the World” digital microscope. 
  • Colorado or Bust - where the social studies and history department buys 200 pieces of balsa wood so the kids can build models of historic colorado buildings. 
 
Amy Carman with Boys and Girls Club Platte Canyon:
  • The Boys and Girls Club are serving more kids than ever and saw numbers over the summer that they’ve never seen before.
  • During covid, they did become state licensed as a child care facility in both Bailey and Fairplay.
  • Over the course of the past year and a half they’ve seen behaviors and effects of trauma that have happened in the past year and a half that they’ve never seen before.
  • They have mental health providers who come to the club 1-3 times a week to work with kids individually and in a group setting. 
  • Running programs that include interaction with therapists like hiking or crafting.
  • They’ve also been able to offer time for staff to be trained by the mental health providers. 
  • Sometimes it’s tough to know how to deal with some of the behaviors they’re encountering and the last thing they want to do is have to turn away a kid because they can’t help them.
 
Arleen Long with Platte Canyon Boy Scouts:
  • Arleen has been involved in scouting for over 15 years with the Cub Scout pack and Boy Scouts assisting. 
  • Current troop averages about 9-12 active scouts meeting 2x a month and 1x a month for leadership meetings. 
  • The troop is a boy led troop, they are developing skills to be leaders. Planning camp outs, planning activities for younger scouts to participate in.
  • They are very grateful for the Rotary grant and intend to use funds towards replacing some worn out tents. They Camp about six times a year with one longer camp every summer. 
  • Funds leftover are going to go towards uniforms for new scouts. Scouting can be expensive including registration fees, costs for the uniforms, etc.
  • Generally, people like to feel a part of the team and the uniform helps you look part of the team. 
 
Guests: Michael Demko Platte Canyon HS cross country, Kate Broyles with West Jeff Middle School PTA, Amy Carman with the Boys & Girls Club, Arleen Long with Platte Canyon Boy Scouts. Welcome!