"It Was a Good Year"

Posted by Isabel Waddell 
on Jun 26, 2012
 
My, the year went by so fast!  I remember a year ago in May, standing around talking to Past-Presidents Jim Schulz and Bob Heneage, when Jim remarked, "Just think, Isabel, in another 13 months, you'll be a part of the Past-Presidents club." I must say there have been times during the year that I remembered what he said and thought, "Just think, soon I'll be a member of the Past-Presidents club."  I join a list of some great club members, both present and past, including John Hansford, Sandy Sites, Bob Heneage, Jennifer Brannen, Melissa Moyer, Pat Butts, Maren Erickson, Brian Gibson, and Jim Schulz.  In another year or two, we will add new members Wayne Maness and Aaron Jenkins.  Bob Heneage will be turning his hat around to take over the presidency again in 2014 (it will be here before you know it, Bob!).
 

Rotary International encourages us to elect a new President every year.  I was told that this is to prevent any one person from being too dominant or from messing things up too badly.  I like the idea, because it frees me from being too megalomaniacal (this one is for you, Aaron J.!) and frees you from doing too much clean-up when I'm done. The temptation after serving in an administrative capacity for the last three years (Vice President, President-Elect, and President) is to go hide for a bit.  I certainly understand why.  However, the Club can't get rid of me that easily!

I consider the Club Service that I've been involved in to be the dues I pay in time to enable me to have some "street cred" when it comes to service.  Jen Brannen and I are co-chairing the Membership committee, so if you know of anyone who would like to consider membership in our Club, let either of us know and we'll be sure to let you know the process.  Just start by inviting them to lunch.

As for last year, we did a lot, even if we don't realize it.  I have some great memories.  You really missed out by not seeing Virgil Boss and Carrie Gorgacz call Bingo (total raised though all Bingo efforts this year:  approximately $500.00).  If you knew how much effort Pat Butts and Aaron Jenkins put into Harlem Ambassadors, you would be amazed.  I wonder how Pat negotiated the extra long beds for the players? (total raised by Harlam Ambassadors: approximately $2500.00).  we actually started the year with 2 fundraisers, including Tin Cup and the Golf Tournament.  Jon Pinardi, Aaron Buckalew, and others made the golf tournament a big success.  Combined, these fundraisers brought in over $10,000.  The money from these two fundraisers mostly went to our scholarship fund.  Harley, I hope that we can do the Cow Pie Bingo again this year; that was so fun.  We had it all figured out how we would determine the winner if the pie landed on an unclaimed square or in between squares.  Thankfully, the cow pie landed right in the middle of a paid-for square!

Two of our members spend most of their time holding down the fort.  Lyn Christian and Darla Neeley have been the Secretary and Financial Officer for several combined terms.  Without them, we would definitely be flailing.  

Talk about youth missions, man did we excel!  We had the best little scholarship committee this year, thanks to Aaron Jenkins, Pat Butts, Wayne Maness, Darin Herzoff, and Cassandra Sanchez.  Bob Copyak, Pat Butts, and Jeff Naylor have been the guardians of our current youth exchange student, Rosie from Australia.  I can't remember the number of times either Pat or I have shuttled Youth Exchange students across Wyoming and Colorado.  Darin Herzoff wrangled quite a number of us to administer hearing and vision tests to local grade school kids, in cooperation with the Lions Club.  As I write this, we have finalized arrangements to send three kids to RYLA in Montana.  Abbie Oakley is coming back from Turkey this weekend from her 9-month youth exchange.  She was such a fabulous ambassador for us.  I can't begin to understand the impact her visit had on her and the people she lived with and got to know.  Peace through service!  Our Interact club is still going.  With Cassandra's help, I predict they will have an even stronger year this year.

We still have a big part of the Rotary Food Bank mission  Besides the name, we volunteered as board members (Brian Gibson), helped them to establish as an independent nonprofit entity (Carrie Gorgacz), and even volunteered through Rotary, our churches, and the Boy Scouts (Ryan Kearsley, Jim Schulz, Josh Wach, Wayne Maness, et al).  Speaking of missions, we supported the Trailblazers efforts in Cambodia and Polio Plus through monetary donations, as well.

For those of you who have not been able to participate as much as you would like, no worries!  Don't forget us though.  Please try to come to meetings as often as you can, volunteer for short-term efforts, and be sure to keep paying your dues.  Our club is only as strong as its weakest member.

Thanks to everyone this year, I look forward to many years of being a "do-gooder" through Rotary.

Isabel