June 11 Lunch

Our guests were:

Doug Heagrens’s wife Dawn, and mother-in-law Dar.  Dar is visiting from Minnesota and here for the birth of Doug and Dawn’s first child.

Russ Ables, looking to join

Jodie McCann, Highlands Ranch City Services Manager

The 50/50 money contest continues.  Purchasers of tickets have the opportunity to guess the gender, date and time for the upcoming new Heagren arrival.  Good luck contestants.

Mary Kay Hasz inducted Spencer Mueller as a new member.  Welcome Spencer. 

Lone Tree served us fettuccine topped with a crab cake.  Sorry, no pictures of the food, they turned out horrible.  Which is a shame, as the crab cake was served inside a crab shell.  Gourmet!

Mary Kay Hasz introduced our speaker: Karie Erickson.  Karie lives in Perry Park with her husband Steve of 23 years, they have 3 children and moved to Colorado from Alaska.

Karie works as the program coordinator for the Douglas County Neighbor Network, a volunteer based program set up to help the elderly and disabled in our county.  When Karie started a year ago, the program had 8 participants.  The group is now up to 200.  Karie informed us about the project.

June 4 Lunch

This week’s guests:

Joe Gregory, Denver Southeast Club

Melissa Kelly, Downtown Denver Club (and Jim Kelly’s Daughter)

Steve Johnston, a Highlands Ranch resident interested in joining our club.  Steve has been involved in Rotary in Grand Junction.

Russ Ables, looking to join

Jong Ferguson, who is transferring from the Centennial Club.  Jong is getting ready to visit Korea and will be taking our Highlands Ranch Rotary Banner with her.

Business Meeting:

Robert Hammond officiated the induction of Melinda Tyler.  Gary Dani is Melinda’s sponsor and Lea Ann Brown as been appointed as Melinda’s mentor to guide her through Red Badge Program.

Bob Martin asked for nominations from the floor for 2 upcoming Board vacancies and 1 Foundation vacancy.  Nominees to be voted on in a secret ballot at our next meeting are:

Lea Ann Brown

Douglas Heagren

Tracy Tipton

Charles Tutor

Nominations for the Foundation Board are:

Carolyn Bradish

Mark Eberly

Program:

Our speaker was Caryn West.  Caryn is the author of the book  “The Trouble with the Alphabet, Through the Eyes of Innocence , an artistic and literary journey into the heart of human rights violations and suffering of children around the world. With one country represented by each letter of the alphabet, the book addresses the many heart wrenching issues plaguing the world’s children: genocide, child labor, human trafficking, the use of child soldiers, poverty, AIDS and the devastating effects of corrupt governments to name a few. It invites the reader to consider these issues through vibrant portraits that illustrate the emotions and vulnerability of each child.

Caryn gave a powerful presentation on her journey in the creation of this book.  For every book sold at our lunch, Caryn offered to give $10 per book back to our club.

Please click on Flickr photo icon for Rotary photo highlights.

Upcoming Speakers:

Karie Erickson “Neighbor Network”

Jun 18 2009

TBD

Jun 25 2009

Bob Martin’s Last Hoorah!

May 28 Lunch

Doug Ehrlich, owner of Auto Buyer’s Pro, was our speaker for our May 28 lunch.  Doug, a local Auto Broker Professional, talked with our group about the state of our National auto makers. The information he brought was timely, expert and valuable.   So many questions from the floor demanded that Bob Martin cut the presentation short due to time.  Thanks to Debby Novotny for always bringing good speakers to our club.