The club delivered Flower Barrels and Flower Baskets today, and boy are they gorgeous.  We still have about 40 flower barrels and 12 flower baskets left to sell.  Flower Barrels are $115 and the baskets are $45 - both great deals.  Contact Debbie Aragon Debbie.aragon.g95b@statefarm.com or Karl Bunker karl@steamboatlakemarina.com to get your flowers today - and for club members, we can bill your account.

Rotarian Paul Hebert of our club will lead a team of five water, sanitation, and hygiene experts on a four-week trip to provide practical training to Kenyan water professionals.  Other team members include Rotarian Steve Werner from the Southeast Denver Rotary Club and non-Rotarians Dr. Mayling Simpson, from Steamboat Springs, Richard Fisher, Fort Collins and Reza Kazeminan, Denver.  The team will be in Kenya from July 8th to August 2nd.  Three Kenyan experts will visit Colorado and Wyoming in September as part of the project. 

This initiative is the first Vocational Training Team Global Grant funded by District 5440. Rotary International, Districts 5450 (Denver area) and 9200 (Kenya and East Africa) are also funding the $70,000 project. The overall goal will be to understand current water and sanitation and hygiene (WASH) practices in Kenya and apply them in training and in developing a master plan for implementation in District 9200 in Rotary partnerships. A unique feature of the program will be developing ways that unemployed youth can find employment or entrepreneurial opportunities in water and sanitation projects.  Ron Hammel of District 5440 has been working with District 5450 (Denver Area) and District 9200 (re-designated as of 1 July as District 9212 – Kenya and East Africa) to develop this project. 

The team will make field visits to Kibera slum in Nairobi and then to rural areas in Turkana, Kajaido and Kitui districts to study bore-holes, rainwater harvesting, other technologies and sanitation practices.  Development of employment of young people will involve the African Alliance of YMCAs (AAY), which will help lay the groundwork for economic programs leading to increased youth employment. One of the Kenyan team members will be a representative from AAY.

In the fall, members of the Kenya VTT team will participate in a three-week training program conducted by members of the USA team and others from local universities, municipalities, non-profits and government agencies.

Karibu!   See you in August!

The Summary Version - We Rock!  The Full (short) Story:  The Steamboat Springs Rotary Club won many awards at the District Conference - including the RI President's Citation, the District Governor's Citation, the Cecil Staver award for innovative public relations, the Interact RI President Citation, IGNITE membership award, and the award for being a large club with the highest percentage of members aged 40 and under. 

 Way to go club!!!

Thank you to every single club member who stepped up this year to volunteer for the club and community - you make this club great.

The Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs is proud to name Zoe Hart from the Soroco High School as a recipient of the Rotary Club Student of the Month award for May 2013.  Zoe is a senior this year and is planning to attend either the University of Denver or University of Colorado at Denver in the fall of 2013.  She currently has a 3.97 G.P.A. and has maintained a challenging schedule for herself throughout the last four years.  She was amongst a small group of students to start a travel club at the Soroco high school.  Her first year, she traveled to Paris and this past year, traveled to Spain.  This is an example of Zoe’s enthusiastic and adventurous nature.  She is also very creative, outgoing and has a joyous outlook on life.

Zoe’s name stood out in a competitive senior pool this year as someone very deserving of this recognition.  She has involved herself with a program called, “Live Below the Line”, to raise awareness of local and world poverty.  She is now part of a website which raises money for the World Food Organization.  In addition to this project, Zoe has hours upon hours of community service, mostly working with children in some fashion.  This is Zoe’s passion.  She describes her work with children as an opportunity to help them grow and become greater adults.  She wants them to know that there are no limits in life.  She intends on being a role model for other children and wants to help them to reach their fullest potential, as her own mentors did for her, early on.

  Zoe has worked incredibly hard to get to where she is today and to enjoy some of the privileges of travel.  She was not given these opportunities on a silver platter.  Therefore, virtues such as diligence, humility, charity and kindness are naturally a part of her repertoire.  We feel that the way that Zoe chooses to conduct her life fits well with the mission of the Rotary Club. 

The Club's board of directors met on Monday, May 13th.  The board adopted the club's budget for 2013/2014, approved Craig Koehn's application for membership, and approved Paxton Jones' request for resignation.  The board also reviewed the status of the club's strategic plan and brought the plan current.  Here are several sections of the club's strategic plan:

 Membership:

• Currently 85 active and 11 honorary members.  In 3-5 years have 85 to 100 members.
• Continue New Member program to assimilate existing members to become active members
• All members active on a committee
• Look at having one meeting per month not be a lunch - and instead be after hours social or volunteer activity
• Hold a membership recruitment event 2x per year
• Hold a new member event 2x per year

International Services:

• Agua Prieta project annually
• Agua Prieta orphanage project annually, with visit to AP by Rotarians and Interactors
• 1-3 other projects annually depending on club interest
• Youth exchange annually
• Vocational Technical Assistance Team participation as interest allows

Vocational Services:

• Interact to be a priority
• Dictionary Program
• RYLA and Young RYLA - send 4 students per year
• 4 Way Test in all 8th grade classrooms
• Support SSHS projects