We got a call from The Village Preschool at North, a school we have supported for about 25 years with a lunch with Santa and gifts of toys and winter clothes. Because of the pandemic, we couldn't do that this year, or last. But a call for help came.
Could we provide winters coats and boots for 60 children? Yes, we could, and did.
Thank yous go to our members Josh Staller, who coordinated the effort, and to Bruce Spear, who was a chief Schlepper. 60 sets of kids' coats and boots is a haul.
Thank you also to Kristine Wallen of Englewood Walmart. Kristine is amazing. For many years she "shopped" for the kids' clothes and aided our members in selecting toys. This year, she found 60 sets of coats and boots in the exact sizes those 60 children needed. Thank you, Kristine!
We also had the help of the Girls Basketball Team at Englewood High School. The girls sorted all the stuff into large red gift bags for us.
Thank you, everyone. It was a merry Christmas in Englewood.
For the umpteenth year, Englewood Rotary was out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, ringing the bell (it seems to get tinier every year -- ding ding!) Thank you, Marco, Gary, Spencer and Patty. Read all the ways the Salvation Army is helping people in the Centennial, Littleton and Englewood communities here: https://centennial.salvationarmy.org/centennial_corps/overcome-poverty/
We volunteered on a food distribution day at Integrated Family Community Services, which we supported with $4,060 in contributions from members. Rotary volunteers also served at COVID-19 vaccination sites.
Report by Club Treasurer Don Schneider
Our usual Englewood Rotary activities and projects came to a screeching halt in March 2020 when the full brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic hit our country and our state.
Once our club was able to regroup by scheduling Zoom meetings in place of our regular in-person Wednesday meetings, an immediate topic of conversation was what could we as a club due to help those in the Englewood community more adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic with all its disruptions to schools, jobs, and the community in general.
The club soon reached a consensus to seek voluntary contributions from our Rotary Club members to help fund a COVID Relief Fund to be run through the Englewood Rotary Foundation. The stated goal of the fund was to find agencies or organizations that would be providing pandemic related services and relief efforts in the greater Englewood community.
During the remainder of the 2019-2020 Rotary fiscal year the club members contributed $1,450 to the relief fund. This was through June 30, 2020. Then, in Rotary fiscal year 2020-2021, through June 30, 2021, the club members donated an additional $2,610 to the relief fund. In all, a total of $4,060 was contributed by a total of 15 club members.
From time to time during the16 months the project has been active the board of directors gave direction as to what community groups were to receive donations from the fund. We found IFCS, Integrated Family Community Services organization (formerly Inter-Faith), to be the ideal partner for our COVID-19 project, and for that reason all $4,060 was directed to IFCS and paid out through the Englewood Rotary Foundation.
During the pandemic, IFCS focused its energies on alleviating hunger, not just in the area it historically served (Englewood, Littleton, Sheridan, northern Douglas County), but beyond. Club volunteers Josh Staller, Dawn Shepherd, Gary Sears and Patty Burnett helped with a drive-through distribution of food in May. This coincided with the Day of Service initiated by Rotary District Governor Bob Kemp.
In other service, club members Linda and Bruce Spear, Josh Staller, Gary Sears and Scott Koland answered a Rotary district call for volunteers to assist at the 9Health COVID vaccination sites.
(Apologies if I've overlooked anyone. Let me hear. PB)
From Foundation funds prior to the designation of donations to COVID causes, we also provided about $800 in school supplies to Englewood Middle School, $1,000 for camp chairs for outdoor classrooms at Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice (the Englewood alternative school) and $500 for its lending closet. Vee and John Sabel and Patty Burnett were instrumental in the school supplies project. Josh Staller directed the efforts for Colorado’s Finest.
We lived Service Above Self in a pandemic.
Englewood Rotarians and spouses, plus a Rotarian from Iran!, celebrated our freedom from Covid and masks at at backyard barbecue at the home of Linda and Peter Jeschofnig.
The Rotary Club of Englewood received the Lifetime Business Achievement Award from the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce May 27.
At the Chamber’s 35th Annual Business Awards Banquet Club President Susan Van Dyke and President-Elect Patty Burnett accepted the award, which was for the year 2019. Because of the pandemic, last year’s awards banquet was cancelled.
Van Dyke said, “We are very honored to be recognized by the Chamber, which has just come through a difficult year, but one distinguished by amazing, supportive connections with members and the City of Englewood.”
Also at the Chamber event Englewood City Manager Shawn Lewis was named Chamber Member of the Year (2020). Lewis is a member of Englewood Rotary, making the evening doubly special for the club.
Burnett told the Chamber group that the club’s major outreach is scholarships. In April the club, through its foundation, awarded a total of $8,000 to six students from Englewood High School and two students from Colorado’s Finest High School of Choice.
Since the year 2000, the Englewood Rotary Foundation has funded over $150,000 in college or trade school scholarships and provided more than 100 students with scholarships of $1,000 or more.
“We also recently received a bequest from a former member, C. Charles Buchler,” Burnett said. Mr. Buchler was a prominent Englewood attorney and mayor pro tem of Greenwood Village when it was founded in 1950. He joined Englewood Rotary in 1947 and served 60 years. He died in 2008.
His bequest, funded after the death of Mr. Buchler’s wife in 2020, was for $250,000. The money has been invested by the club’s foundation. Earnings will fund scholarships, including a new one, the C. Charles Buchler Scholarship.
Englewood Rotary, chartered in 1937, continues its service to the community, especially Englewood Schools and its students. Anyone interested in participating may contact Burnett at paburnett@aol.com.
On Nov. 18 Englewood Rotary presented a Zoom tribute to Dr. Frank Sargent, our member who joined out club in 1970 and has faithfully served for 50 years.
Rotary dignitaries attending:
District Governor Bob Kemp, Past District Governors Mike Oldham, Jim Halderman, Diane Kessel Knight; former Rotary International Director and Vice President Greg Podd
Narrated and directed by Englewood Rotarian Patty Burnett
Click on READ MORE to access the script for the day and some of the tributes posted or read by those of us who have served alongside Frank.
We hadn't met in person since March, and we were suffering from that odd affliction called Zoom Fatigue. But, hooray! In late September Josh and Jane Staller invited us to a backyard happy hour. We wore masks, we socially distanced and socially had a great time. Thanks, Josh and Jane.
For a photo album of this fun event, go to the tab WHAT WE DO and click on Photo Albums. Photos by Jane Staller and Peter Jefschofnig.
Englewood Rotary to the rescue
\It was a rough start for the school year, with lots of unknowns and some of the usual channels of support closed. We asked how we could help Englewood Middle School. The answer: about $800 worth of backpacks and notebooks. Vee Sabel was the key volunteer, with help from Dawn Shepherd, Patty Burnett and John Sabel. Good work, folks!
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We hosted 67 preschoolers from The Village for Early Childhood Education for a holiday lunch, with benefits. These Head Start kids got Santa's attention and went home with bags of winter clothing and toys.
This project is the passion of our member Dr. Frank Sargent, who started it on a smaller scale more than 20 years ago. He had heard that some of the children were coming to school without coats or shoes. And so he fixed that.
The school gives us detailed lists of kids' sizes, and we partner with the Englewood Walmart to load up the clothing and gifts. This year Walmart's Kristine Wallen pre-shopped and packed up all the clothes -- huge boxes of parkas and gloves and hats and pajamas. Our volunteers shopped for the toys.
And then there was the party! We were at the Douglas H. Buck Community Recreation Center, across the street from the school. Our member Josh Staller was Organizer in Chief this year. We had strong member support, too -- shoppers, schleppers, Santa, assorted "elves" and Cheryl Saborsky on the piano.
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Air Force first sergeants joined us in assembling Thanksgiving
food boxes for 65 Air Force families in need.
What a year! Our small club helped hundreds of families in many ways, here and in Senegal.
Here's our track record for the Rotary year that began July 1:
In July we bought and filled the backpacks of first graders at Bishop School with all the required supplies. This is a project that we've done for more than 10 years. Each year, it seems, the backpacks and their contents get more technological and more expensive. Families in Englewood really need our help. Members Vee Sabel and Dawn Shepherd did the shopping, assembling and delivering.
In August our former member Judy Beggs was in Gueoul, Senegal, carrying out two grant projects -- a district grant secured by our club with contributing partner clubs of Highlands Ranch, Wheat Ridge and DTC. This project was to teach English as a Second Language to girls who are part of a Friends of Gueoul program, founded and directed by Judy, and others in the community. The second, smaller grant was from the Society of Professional Journalists Colorado Pro Chapter to obtain software and produce an online news report about happenings in Gueoul. Shy girls found the courage to ask strangers questions about soccer and changes in their community. The grant was secured by our member Bob Burdick.
September rolled around, and we were all about wine and raising money. We held the 2nd Annual Harvest Wine-tasting fund-raiser at The Guild in Englewood. President Ed Koerperich and his family get the lion's share of credit. We raised about $10,000 mostly from the auction that featured vacation getaways to Provence, Santa Barbara and Winter Park.
We also participated in a golf tournament-fund-raiser organized by the United Service Clubs of Englewood, of which we and the Greater Englewood Chamber of Commerce are members. That brought us about $1,800 for our charitable work.
In October and November it was all hands on deck for our program helping Air Force families in need with Thanksgiving food and holiday gifts. The families were screened for need by commanders or designees at Peterson and Schriever Air Force Bases and at the Air Force Academy. We filled huge carts at Costco with turkeys and all the fixings for Thanksgiving dinner for families of four. And we filled wish lists of toys and clothing for 65 families that included more than 100 children. Whew! This was a $15,000 project, with a matching grant from the district and some financial and volunteer support from the North Colorado Springs Rotary, and East Colorado Springs Rotary and Castle Rock High Noon -- all ably led by our club President Ed Koerperich. Many members shopped and helped on the distribution day.
We also rang the bell for the Salvation Army, a club tradition of many years.
If it's December, it's another party with Santa for Head Start kids at the Center for Early Childhood Education in Littleton. With a grant from the Englewood Walmart and funds from our foundation, we invited 65 kids for lunch, a spot on Santa's knee and a bag full of winter clothes and toys. This is Dr. Frank Sargent's project, possibly the 20th year. Special thanks to Vee and John Sabel, as well as volunteer shoppers and wrappers.
January and February are usually quiet times for our club. We did get creative, though. We selected not just one president for the next Rotary year, but three. We're calling it the Team of 3. Linda Spear, Gary Sears and Susan VanDyke each will take a four-month tour of duty.
Because of software issues in Rotary, Linda Spear will be the name on Rotary records, but in our reality, the three will have equal responsibility and authority.
Every month we enjoy three lunch meetings with fabulous speakers. On the fourth Wednesday we dine out! We call this "happy hour," but it has morphed into dinner. We've been to Zane's, Bar Louie, One Barrel, Volcano. . . . We usually have 15-20 participants -- wives, husbands, guests all invited.
In March and April we are interviewing seventh graders and high school sophomores and juniors for the fabulous Rotary camps known as the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. We are sending two high school students this summer -- at no cost to the families. Every RYLArian returns and says the experience change his or her life.
May: Our signature project is scholarships to graduates of Englewood High School and Colorado's Finest School of Choice (the alternative school). We have given more than $120,000 over the last 15 years. Again, we were able to help 12 students with tuition to a wide range of schools, from MINES to Johnson & Wales. Our Englewood Rotary Foundation provides the bulk of the scholarship money, though some comes from current-year fund-raising.
June: Our Englewood club has a long tradition of giving an annual award to a club with an outstanding role in literacy. This year we gave two: One to Castle Rock High Noon for at least six projects, three of them new this year with new Champions. We have decided that in some years we will give two because of how different the clubs might be in size. For a club of under 30, Castle Rock High Noon rocked!
But we also awarded Boulder Rotary, a large club, for its extensive work in the greater Boulder Community.
Our Last Blast for the Rotary year was a New Presidents Party, a lovely evening in which we recognized the good work of the year, including by our president Ed Koerperich, who has been living in Europe on a grand adventure for the last several months. We hailed our new presidents, Gary Sears, Linda Spear and Susan Van Dyke. Each co-president will preside over four months, lessening the individual load. Thank you, Linda and Bruce Spear, for hosting the party in the Three Fountains Community Room.
Here's to the Rotary New Year!
--Patty Burnett
How long have we been ringing the bell for the Salvation Army? Maybe 20 years? This year we had lots of volunteers filling two Saturdays. We hope our friendly faces encouraged shoppers at the King Soopers at Belleview and Yosemite to give generously.
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Wow! We did it!
On the Saturday before Thanksgiving we staged a massive sorting of gifts and food for 64 families in need at Schriever and Peterson Air Force Bases and the Air Force Academy.
Thanks to all Rotarians and friends who shopped for the gift wish lists of the families -- 110 children included! Thanks to the members of the Rotary Clubs of North Colorado Springs, East Colorado Springs, Castle Rock High Noon and the now-disbanded InterQuest club. This project took a village!
And thanks to volunteers Friday (shopping at Park Meadows Costco) and Saturday (sorting at an American Legion Hall in Colorado Springs):
Josh, Gary, Bob B., Mike and Katherine Dow, Don, Patty.
And of course ED! Ed, our esteemed president and Champion of this $10,500 project. It's a good thing he isn't paid by the hour.
And then there were the First Sergeants. We had about 20 First Sergeants looking out for the people they lead. These men and women were the muscle. About 1,000 pounds of potatoes. About 1,000 pounds of turkeys. Not to mention canned goods and heavy gifts like the child car seat one family needed. And, boy, were they fast. All that food went into boxes and got carted out to SUVs for delivery to the families.
Wow! We did it!
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Several years ago we sponsored Natalie for a Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA), meaning she attended a five-day camp learning about leadership, teamwork and Rotary values such as Service Above Self. When she reported back to the club, our member Larry Matten asked if she knew about youth exchange, and that's where her adventure began.
Natalie applied and asked for a South American country, even though she did not speak any Spanish. She's fluent in German, but she had lived in Europe and she wanted "different." Different was Lima, Peru.
Natalie's sister Audrey attended Young RYLA the same summer. She's now a student at Cherry Creek High School. In August Natalie will be off to Washington University in D.C.
Their parents also have dived into the Rotary world. Mike became a member of our club, and Katherine sometimes comes in his place when he's traveling. As a family, they will host a Rotary Exchange Student from Switzerland, beginning in August. He will attend Cherry Creek. The Dows will host him for the first part of the year, then two other families will take over. We are co-sponsoring Raphael with the Centennial Rotary Club.
Rotary: It's all in the family!
We had a Changing of the Guard party, celebrating Patty Burnett's two years as president of our wonderful club and Ed Koerperich's ascent to the top. Our club enjoys a good party! We meet three Wednesdays a month at the Brookdale Meridian Englewood for lunch, and then on the fourth Wednesday we do an evening happy hour at rotating restaurants. We socialize well.
Our Englewood Rotary Foundation gives $10,000 a year to graduates of Englewood High School or Colorado's Finest School of Choice as they pursue college or trade school paths. These are some of this year's recipients, from left:
Brayden Espinosa, Sofia Montoya, Lauryn Williams, Paige Langley, Alexandra Foster, Isabel Montanez and Emma Hubbard.
We are very proud of these young people.
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This is the Englewood Rotary Pizza and Teddy Bear team. We served pizza and other goodies to preschoolers at the Early Childhood Education Program at Maddox School in May. We sent $50 gift cards home to parents to help with buying summer clothing. Lunch with 60 3- and 4-year-olds!
RYLA: Our club is a big believer in the Rotary Youth Leadership Awards, which is a long name for a fabulous opportunity for middle school and high school students. We award them five days at an extraordinary camp where they learn about teamwork, about civic responsibility, about our core Rotary ethic, the Four-Way Test.
This summer we have three students will be attending: Logan Hilzer, Cherry Creek High School; Anina Qazar, Campus Middle School, and Rocky Grajek from Merrill Middle School. Every student who attends returns to say, "It changed my life." So we look forward to hearing from these young people later this summer.
College and trade school scholarships: Our club has a history of supporting the graduates of Englewood High School and Colorado's Finest School of Choice. We have awarded at least $90,000 in scholarships over the last 10 years. We just selected a new group: Jade Barela, Alonzo Cobos, Manuela Berisa, Jakob Garcia, Isabel Montanez, Tatum Newman and Lauryn Williams. They each will receive $1,000 scholarships sent to their schools of choice. Congratulations, scholars!
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Our District Governor Abbas Rajabi reminds us that Rotary began in 1905 as a networking group, long before that term arose. Chicago attorney Paul Harris created a club in which professionals with diverse backgrounds could exchange ideas, form meaningful, lifelong friendships and give back to their communities. Rotary's name came from the group's early practice of rotating meetings among the offices of its members.
That's Rotary today, as well. Somehow, along our history, the networking function got a bad name in Rotary, and we were told, It's NOT a networking group. It's Service, Service, Service Above Self. But the reality was that my dentist and my insurance agent, and, time was, my travel agent were all Rotarians. It's only natural that you seek the professional help of people you know and trust through Rotary.
District Govenor Rajabi encourages us to deepen our networking connections. So I am planning a program in March in which we will have a structured networking exercise. Now, a great many of us are retired, so you won't be needing the services of, say, a retired urologist! But this is also a way for us to know each other better. Some of our best programs have been from our own members. Susan on recycling. Peter on his amazing life all over the world. And next week, we'll have Diane Arave, who has had a career in health education, advising us on how to live more healthily.
So, this is the bottom line for this story: Networking is good. Let's do it!
Patty
Englewood, CO 80110
United States of America