Rotary Club of Conifer Meeting December 17, 2019

Announcements/Business:
 
  • We will NOT meet December 24 nor 31, 2019.  Our next meeting will be Tuesday, January 7, 2020.  The program will be about a Rotary project in the Pine Ridge Reservation to provide safe water to homes.
  • Please sign up to be a Salvation Army bell ringer.  There are slots at King Soopers, the King Soopers Convenience Gas Station, and Moore Lumber in Pine Junction.  The link to sign up is on the Conifer Rotary website under the Weblinks tab, or just click HERE.
  • Rotary Leadership Institute for District 5450 is February 1st.  It is perfect for any Rotarian who wants to learn more about the larger world of Rotary.  Go to the District 5450 website to register or just click HERE.
  • February 8th is the Future of Rotary Dinner and Polio Fundraiser in Denver featuring Rotary International General Secretary and CEO John Hewko. Reservations sign up is on the District website or just click HERE.
  • The Conifer Rotary holiday party will be at Marlis McAllister’s home Saturday, January 4th.  More details to come.
  • Suzanne Barkley lost her mother last week.  Please keep her in your thoughts!
  • At the Board meeting last night, we reviewed a number of grant requests.  The Board took time to consider our priorities, since we have a number of grant requests that have come into us.  We will prioritize organizations with whom we have a relationship or connection.  More decisions in January.
  • The Board also learned how to make tamales at the meeting last night!  Thank you, Leonore!
  • Bring Rotary magazines.  We will put our Rotary information sticker in place of your address and distribute them in the community.
  • The Warren Miller film, sponsored by the CHS Interact Club raised almost $2000, which will be used for the Conifer High School Interact trip to Nepal next summer.  There were a number of donations from local businesses: Evergreen Mountain Sports—Door Prizes.  Never Summer Boards—Snowboard.  Icelandic Skis—pair of skis.  Many thanks for the support!
  • January 14 we will have our White-Elephant gift exchange.  Dr. Scott Brown of the Golden Rotary will present “The Brain and Behavioral Health” at our January 21st meeting.
  • There will be a Trivia night fundraiser March 7, at Our Lady of the Pines Church.  We need a second table of Rotarians - Be the “dark side” of the Star Wars theme for Conifer Rotary.
 
 
Program:  Foundation Grant Awards
 
  • West Jefferson Middle School PTA:  Sarah Miller and Salesa Clark:  $1000 for Teacher grants.  Teachers apply to the PTA for grant monies that have been collected by the PTA.  They gave 18 grants to teachers this year.  One was for special needs students that provide a life-skills class, including cooking classes.  They funded a vacuum pump for the science class.   The social science classes are focused on Colorado history, including an architectural focus, creating “historical” buildings.  The art department was given a bulletin board to hang student artwork.  These projects provide enrichment beyond the regular classroom teaching, and free the teachers from having to pay for materials from their personal budgets!
 
This year the counselors want support for “friends of Rachel club”, which honors the tragedy at Columbine and the focus on providing kindness awards. 
 
 
  • Conifer High School Robotics Team—TeamBlitz 2083:  The Robotics Club Students at Conifer High School, $1000.  The money will purchase a new computer for the process of designing and building their robot and to accomplish functional programming of the robot.  They are entering it into an International competition next year.
The Robotics Club provides the students with extra opportunities to learn and develop.
  • They learn electrical, mechanical, technical and marketing skills.
  • The competition they will enter gives them significant challenges to overcome.  Each year, new specifications are given.  In the past they had to complete the build in six weeks, but they will have more time to design, select and build for this next competition.
  • They have twice the number of students in Robotics Club this year compared to last year.  This is giving them more “minds” to create a more complex robot.
The students demonstrated the robot they built for this last year’s competition.
 
 
Guests: Gil Gulbrandson, Dual Schneider, and Scott Brown, Golden Rotary