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Rotary Club of Great Falls, Montana

Rotary Foundation donates more trees to NeighborWorks

For the third consecutive year, the Rotary Club of Great Falls has made a donation to help cover the cost of trees for the families completing the Owner Built Homes program. Set to finish in just a few months, these new neighbors are turning houses into homes as they round the corner and start the final stretch of completing 10 homes together this year.

This week, nine Rotarians including Megan Connors, President of the Rotary Club of Great Falls, visited the Owner Built Homes site to plant the final tree in honor of their donation and dedication to these families and individuals. Megan expressed her interest in continuing this partnership, stating “The Rotary Club of Great Falls is thrilled with the continued success of something that might seem small but has a lasting impact for the hardworking owners of the Owner Built Homes program and NeighborWorks. This win-win provides our Club a way to beautify the community and help NeighborWorks make affordable homeownership possible for so many well-deserving citizens of Great Falls.”

Successful Shred Event for Polio

Yes...we begged and....

everyone in Great Falls cleaned out their closets and brought their shredding!

We raised over $700 for Polio in just a few hours!

Thank you Great Falls!

Bridge Celebration

It was with much gratitude and good cheer that we celebrated the opening of the new US Forest Service bridge across Belt Creek!

A lot of hard work and donations went into making the new bridge a reality within 18 months of our original collaboration meetings.

Thank you to John Juras and Ken Munski for donating many, many engineering consulting hours. And thank you to David Peters from the US Forest Service for making this bridge a priority. Also thank you to our generous donors:

Treacy Foundation

NorthWestern Energy

Owen and Gayle Robinson

Steel Etc.

3 Rivers Communication

Steve and Carla Schnider

Charlie and Christa Mears

Gary Moler

Jim and Dee Strauss

Rotary on the River

Today we brought our meeting outside and what a beautiful day to be on the Missouri River!

Art Taft organized our river clean up that spanned from

Oddfellows Park to Elks Riverside Park with lunch in between.

The Bridge!

Can you believe it? We got it done! Our bridge is ready to ROLL - or more precisely, be rolled on.

More can and will be said. But for now, just think of where we were just a short time ago: our signature project threatened; the fix more than daunting. Yet we got it done.

There is a can-do spirit about our club that is not just contagious. It's empowering. We saw what needed to be done, we set our minds to it, and that meant it was gonna get done. This is a moment of celebration for all of us. But two Rotarians and one government agency in particular really got this done.

Our fantastic partnership with the United States Forest Service got it done, a relationship whose foundation was laid by Ken Munski's expertise, patience and charisma. Ken's contribution was matched by that of John Juras, who simply dogged this project day in and day out like it was cycling. And in a sense it is.

Congratulations, Rotarians. And thank you, thank you, Ken and John. This is one bridge that was not too far.

Rotary Team at CommUNITY Cleanup

Check out the latest Service Above Self Project from our team who participated in the CommUNITY Cleanup at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2LsmkMILUU

Just another of the many ways our club members have reached out to help Great Falls this month!

Passing of the Gavel

Last week outgoing President Cari Yturri treated us to her swan song. While some might regard her leadership year as a year of challenges, Cari described it as a year of plenty. In every aspect of her presidency, wherever she looked she found talent, generosity, and a can-do spirit. Cari recognized various Rotarians individually and then presented certificates of appreciation to the members of her board. She has made a donation to the Rotary Foundation in each of their names.

Cari emphasized that leadership doesn't come from a single person. It takes teamwork, partnerships, and friendships. Rotary is blessed to have plenty of all three. "We have shown that we are able to adapt, pivot, and sustain," Cari said as she turned the gavel over to Megan Connors.

President Connors closed the meeting expressing what everyone felt - deep gratitude to her predecessor and the promise to carry on the traditions that make our club so strong

A Fond Farewell

“When he shall die,

Take him and cut him out in little stars,

And he will make the face of heaven so fine

That all the world will be in love with night

And pay no worship to the garish sun.”

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Every town with community pride has its generational stars, those individuals whose mark on the community is so profound that it passes, like a torch, from that person’s generation to the next, something that over time we think we were born with, rather than given. Our town - and this club -- lost such a star last week.

Bob Oakland was not a Great Falls native. He chose us back in the ‘40s, met his future wife here, started his own business here, raised his children here. And what a wife and business and children they were and are. City Motors has prospered for 60 years and more because Bob knew the value of quality – quality in the product, quality in the service, and quality in community engagement.