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President's message - John Davis
 
Community Giving - Gordan Thibedeau
 
Holiday Food Basket Project - Gordan Thibedeau
 
Purple Pins for Polio - Dave Robinson
 
New Member Profile - Mike Hohl
 
New Member Profile - Dave Armstrong
 
New Member Profile - Michael Shirazi
 
District Governor Phil Murphy's presentation to our Club
 
The Rotary year, as well as the calendar year, are flying by.  We are almost half way through the Rotary year and the Thanksgiving, Hanukah & Christmas holidays are upon us.  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  I hope everyone is able to take time and enjoy precious moments with our family and friends and reflect upon how truly blessed each of us is in life. 
 
As we push into the next quarter of the Rotary year, we’ll be announcing the President Elect Nominee for our 2016-2017 year, our exchange student will be arriving, and Purple Pins for Polio will raise more money than ever before to End Polio Now.  Please remember to invite someone you know to have lunch with us.  It might lead to a new member, but more importantly it lets people know about the good Rotary does in Northern Colorado and around the world.  Rotary always needs good members, but it also needs friends.
 
Don’t forget we’ll be having our Christmas Party on December 16th during our regular club meeting.  As always, family is invited to join us that day and Santa will be coming to see the kids.  Yes, you big kids can visit with Santa too…after the little kids are done.  I want to wish all of you and your family’s the very best this Christmas and Hanukah season.
 
The Community Service Committee has a long tradition in the club beginning in January 2001. The mission states that the “Foothills Rotary Community Service Committee represents the Foothills Rotary Club membership by pursuing the Club’s goals to support organizations committed to helping those in need in Northern Colorado with an emphasis on youth”. Over the years of existence, the committee received 223 requests for funding form community nonprofits and other youth serving organizations. The total amount invested to serve youth in Northern Colorado over 13 years to date is $200,000.
 
The committee consists of 8 members and meets once a quarter on the second Tuesday of the second month of the quarter to consider funding requests. Committee members receive copies of the requests prior to the meeting and during the meeting discuss the merits of each request. Typically approved grants are funded in the range of $500 - $1,500. Organizations can only make one request in each fiscal year. During the last 12 months, the committee reviewed 17 requests and funded 12 in the amount of $8,850, with 5 additional requests to be reviewed in November.
 
In addition to reviewing funding requests, the committee also organizes community service projects. There have been many, many projects over the years, the most prominent being the Holiday Food Basket Project. The project timing has evolved over the years but today is scheduled to occur Christmas 2014. Food baskets are prepared on Friday night and club members pick up the baskets to deliver to families on Saturday. The delivery this year will occur, Saturday, December 20.
 
Foothills Rotary has a long standing tradition of delivering holiday meals to up to 50 families in need. The event this year will be on Saturday morning, December 20th. This is a very family friendly event with pickups starting at 8:00 A.M. from the Overland Grocery in LaPorte. Each food basket will have a map and Rotarians can delivery 1 or more boxes. We are also collecting donations to fund the food baskets. While we get a good discount on the food, it is not free. Please plan to support the effort at the next two Rotary Club meetings by signing up to deliver and / or donating to the cause. If you cannot attend one of the next two meetings (12/2 or 12/9) contact me at gthibedeau@uwaylc.org or 970-402-5456.
 
January 25, 2015 will mark the date of the 5th Annual “Purple Pins for Polio” Event put on by the four Rotary Clubs in Fort Collins. This two hour bowling event has raised over $45,000 in support of Rotary International’s world-wide fight to eradicate polio. Since 1985, Rotary International has raised $1.2 billion to help reduce the number of cases of polio in the world from 350,000 annually in 1985, to fewer than 250 annually today. There remain three countries that have not stopped transmission of the disease; Afganistan, Nigeria and Pakistan. We are this close!
 
As someone who has been deeply affected by polio in my life, this event is a very personal one for me. At age 25, my father, Bryan Robinson, contracted polio in the North American epidemic of 1950-52, one year before Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for polio. After a year in the hospital, my Dad spent the rest of his life confined to a wheelchair. In his later years, he suffered from the effects of Post-Polio Syndrome and finally passed away in 2012 at the age of 85. Although he lived a full life, there was not a moment of his life, and the lives of his family, that was not seriously altered because of polio.
 
When I joined Rotary in the fall of 1999, I was interested in getting involved in Rotary International’s “End Polio Now” campaign which is now the “This Close” campaign. The four Fort Collins Clubs were planning a bowling fundraising event that coming spring which was called “Purple Pins for Polio”. The first year was an immediate success raising over $10,000 and bringing the four clubs together for a few hours of fellowship and competition.
 
The event is pretty simple; there are 32 lanes at Chipper’s Lanes. We sell a lane sponsorship for $250 and then recruit teams of six from each club to participate. The teams pay $60 each to bowl two games which is $10 per person. Each club has their own competitions within the club or against teams from other clubs. Everyone has fun and the event takes 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon. This basic format raises $8,000 per year.
 
The next three years, with this basic format, were equally successful in raising over $10,000 for the campaign each year as well as providing a fun, competitive, fellowship event for the 4 clubs. Our club had one of our teams each year that had taken the basic fundraising format and run with it, raising an additional $2500 - $3000 each year. This got us thinking about what the potential for the event could be if all 32 teams did the same thing.
 
With that thought, we took the idea to our club last year and got traction for the idea of what would happen if all of our teams raised additional funds inside AND outside of the club. It was a resounding success! Our club raised over $11,000 ourselves and when combined with what the other clubs raised, the event brought in over $16,000 for the fight against polio. The wonderful thing is that these funds are matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation 2-1 so we triple the amount raised!
 
So this year, we are trying to get the other three clubs excited about leveraging their efforts and raising more money. Ultimately, our goal is to raise over $30,000 each year between the four clubs. With over 150 Rotarians and their friends from Fort Collins involved each year, this is very achievable. The Foothills Club double what they raised last year when compared to the first three years of the event. What can we do if the other clubs do the same?
 
 
 
 
Did you have a chance to see Phil Murphy's great presentation to our club?  Here's the video:
Russell Hampton
Sage