Posted on May 22, 2018
Come enjoy the fun at the Big Laramie River next to Optimist Park for our 14th Annual Duck Race!
9:00 AM - Free Pancake Breakfast
10:00 AM - Ducks in the water
$10/Duck or 3 for $25
Presiding: Caitlin White
Professor’s Quotes:
Humor: Terry Roark
Meeting Room setup/takedown and general problem solving: Tom Mangan and Ron Van Ekeren
Introduction of Guests: Anita McLaughlin
Junior Rotarians: Ramon Gomez and Chord Worden
Foundation Drawing: Rollin Abernethy won $10 with 8 cards in the deck and $2064 in the pot.
O’Dwyers Drawing: Amelia Kelso won a $20 gift card from O’Dwyer’s.
Announcements:
• Nicole Hauser attended PETS and announced that our club earned a membership award.
• President Caitlin announced to the club that an email will go out with the updated program guidelines
• President Caitlin – also announced that an email will go out with the updated program guidelines
Rotarians of the Week: President Caitlin nominated Nicole Hauser for giving up her weekend to attend PETS.
PETS = President Elect Training Seminar
Special Presentations: Shaun Bullock was presented with his first Paul Harris Fellowship award.
Songs: Jan Lawrence - Cowboy Joe
Upcoming Programs:
- April 11 – Randy Welniak UW Athletics
- April 18 – Tony Ogden UW Global Engagement
- April 25 – Myron Allen – National Ski Patrol
- May 2 – Laurie Nichols- UW President
- May 9 – Joel Funk and Gary Loftis – Laramie Boomerang
Rotary’s Avenues of Service
• Community Service
• Club Service
• Vocational Service
• International Service
• New Generations
Rotary 4-way test
Of the things we think, say, or do
• Is it the Truth?
• Is it Fair?
• Will it build Good Will and better Friendships?
• Will it be Beneficial to All Concerned?
Response: The Rotary Club of Laramie will make a donation to the public library children’s book fund in the speaker’s name.
NOTE: We Do Not Donate a Book!
SPECIAL THANKS – to Jamie Terry for taking notes for this week’s Spoke!
Program: Mike Vercauteren, Interfaith Good Samaritan
Introduction of the Program: Paul Heimer
Interfaith Good Samaritan is celebrating 30 years of offering and providing emergency services to those in emergency situations; providing basic needs for those in need. The amount of poverty that exists in Laramie, the number of folks in our community who are so close to homelessness, and the number of people struggling in our community is impacted by the amount of generosity that is in our community – supporting programs like Interfaith.
Interfaith exists in 2 pillars: 1) food pantry, and 2) financial services.
Interfaith staff are careful, selective and thoughtful in approving requests for assistance. They consider factors such as if there are children involved, if there are family ties to the community, if the family has the capacity and likelihood to achieve sustainable success, and the family’s level of motivation to get out of their current situation. Often, the help that Interfaith provides is done in partnership with other community support programs such as Climb Wyoming and United Way to increase the effectiveness of the assistance.
Interfaith Good Samaritan financial services also support members of the community in need in a variety of other ways. The following services were provided to those in need from the Laramie community last year:
•Rent – 336 families at ave. of $375
•Utility bills – 293 families at ave of $275 each
•Lodging – 438 people in hotel rooms
•Transportation – more than 2,000 bus rides
•Gas Cards to/from work or medical appointments - ~$10,000
•Greyhound bus tickets - ~$10,000
The food pantry pillar of Interfaith provided an average of 882 pounds of food to families in Laramie each day last year, feeding almost 3,000 people. The work in both pillars of Interfaith is completed mostly by volunteers. Interfaith has only 3.5 FTE. An average of 30 volunteers donated over 17,000 hours last year.
Interfaith can always use the following donations:
•Anything with meat – tuna, spam, stew, chili, ravioli, etc
•Vegetables – green beans, peas, corn
•Tomatoes – diced, sauce, etc
•Fruit – peaches, pears, etc
•Soup, beans
•Peanut (or other nut) butter, jam, jelly
•Rice, pasta, cereal, oatmeal
•Powdered or shelf stable milk
•Baking supplies – flour, sugar, oil
•Toilet paper, baby wipes, diapers – especially sizes 4, 5,or 6
In December the Board voted to purchase a new building. Interfaith will be relocating to its new location on Canby St. around July of this year. Additional work needs to be done to remodel the building, roof, and concrete driveways before they can move in. Volunteering and donations to assist are welcome!
Responding for the Club: Nicole Hauser
President
President Elect
Treasurer
Secretary
Director 1
Director 2
Director 3
Past President
