Rotary Club of Great Falls, Montana

Highway Cleanup 2019

Rescue Mission Dinner

Rotary Youth Leadership Academy Students

Camp Rotary Helping National Guard Military Kids

July Social

NeighborWorks Dream Street 2019

Turning Rivalry to Profit

In anticipation of yesterday’s Cat-Griz game, Art Taft decided to use the annual rivalry to raise some funds for Camp Rotary. He brought two pies to the noon meeting and auctioned them off by the slide, with the pie bringing in the most money for Camp Rotary indicating the true winner of the Brawl of the Wild. Griz dominated, 50.

Spotlight on ... Ken Munski

At its November meeting, the board of Rotary Club of Great Falls bestowed an honorary membership to Ken Munski. It is a distinction well-deserved.

Ken joined Rotary in 1988 and to say he has been an active member ever since is an understatement. Highway clean-up? He's there. Centennial celebration? "How can I help?" From Harvest Howl to Rotary socials, you could count on Ken to show up with his sleeves rolled up.

Ken was particularly active on all things Camp Rotary, from the camp clean-ups to cabin construction to equipment installation. Even after his relocation meant he had to leave the club, he has been instrumental in providing a pair of Rotary eyes on the camp and in helping us work through the bridge challenge. It is a sign of great leadership to leave your work in good hands. In selecting and preparing John Juras to take over the oversight of Camp Rotary, Ken has done just that.

For those of us who aren't engineers and consider "heavy lifting" to be raising a 16-ounce stein instead of our usual 8-ouncer, the qualities of Ken's we'll most miss are his eternal pleasantness and his humor, especially when it came to "Rotary math." He should have been a teacher. He made learning new things fun.

But life moves on and so did Ken. Our thanks to the board for giving him the recognition he is due ... and to Ken for year after year of service beyond the call of duty.

Harvest Howl 2019

What do you do when life throws you lemons? You make cocktails!

We’ve got bad news and good news, folks. Harvest Howl booked two bands for the 2019 show but, with three weeks to go, we were notified that both bands had to cancel. That’s the bad news.

The good news? Event planners immediately got to work and lined up an evening we think is even more exciting. Opening the night will be World Classic Rockers, a group comprised of past members of some of the greatest bands in rock-n-roll history – Steppenwolf, Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Boston, and Santana. The Great Falls Rotary Club sponsors Harvest Howl and all proceeds go to the improvement, maintenance and operation of Camp Rotary.

Tickets are available at harvesthowl.com

September Social

September's social with the noon and evening members at Boston's.

Service Above Self- Judge Holter

Rotarian Bob Holter has been retired from the bench for many years now, but he always welcomes a service-above-self opportunity to return and naturalize new citizens. Today he oversaw the ceremony making 25 people of varied ages, ethnicities, and histories citizens of this land of the free and home of the brave.

"This courtroom usually deals with a lot of unhappy people," Judge Holter told the new Americans. "But not today. Today every single person here is happy."

And nobody was happier than the Judge himself. Thanks for offering such a warm welcome to our newest fellows citizens, Judge.

Camp Sky Child

At this week's meeting, Deb Kottel once again pulled at our heartstrings with stories from Camp Sky Child, which provides an opportunity for children of an incarcerated parents to experience solitude, nature, relationships with caring adults, camping, hiking, fishing ...

... And this year, gold mining. Two campers were sure that the digging they did at Camp Rotary paid off: They struck gold! They had Deb bring Rotary President Cari Yturri a couple of sizable chunks because Rotary opens up its camp for Camp Sky Children.

Camp Rotary ... worth its weight in gold.

Face the State - Camp Rotary

Thanks to Club members Lacey Gallagher and John Juras along with the US Forest Service’s Sara Mayben. They were interviewed by KRTV’s Tim McGonigal, also a Rotarian about Camp Rotary, including an update on the bridge project. The interview will air in its entirety on Sunday morning at 6:30 and again at 9:30 on KRTV AND 8:00 am on KTGF.

Planting Dreams on Dream Street

Rotarians were much in evidence at NeighborWorks "Dream Street" event last week, celebration the completion of 10 owner-built on 39th Avenue NE. There were many reasons for that.