Next week Kurt Baltrusch and Art Taft will be our featured presenters, telling us all about the Emigrant Peak Bomber Craft Site Memorial. Join us at noon on Zoom or at the Meadow Lark Country Club!
Time to Howl!
Harvest Howl is just a month away! Time to rev up our engines. Have you given to the silent auction yet? Our first donor was Art Taft, who donated a Sara Boston portrait of Charlie Russell. Consider what you could donate to the silent auction that would bring in the kinds of revenues generated in the past.
There is also the dessert auction to consider, posters to put up and tables to buy. Mainly, though, let's get the buzz volume turned up. One month away!
Membership Committee on the Move!
"105 for our 105th!" That's the big, hairy, audacious goal set by the Membership Committee for this year: a total of 105 members by the time we end our 105th year as a club. Led by the go-getter Jesse Mahugh, whose recruitment efforts for Big Brothers Big Sisters is a wonder in itself, the Membership Committee is studying our classification categories for areas where we should be recruiting and asking all of us to reach out and invite a friend or colleague to become part of Rotary.
Jesse started an exciting new innovation at last week's meeting: "the member moment." Kicking off the short talk on "Why I am a Rotarian," Mark Finnicum described his journey from a visit to a noon meeting with friends to District Governor. His take-away: "Jump in with both feet. Rotary asks you to give your time, your talent, and your treasure in service above self. If you don't have much of one, make the most of the others. And jump into membership with both feet." It was a great talk, made more so by the fact that if you know Mark, he walks that talk.
"105 for the 105th!" Becoming a Rotarian starts with an invitation. Invite a friend or colleague to a Rotary meeting or social soon. Jump in with both feet.
Last Week at Rotary
Last week our featured speaker was Joan Redeen. As the community outreach coordinator for the Great Falls Downtown Business Improvement District, Joan has been actively involved in the development and updating of the Downtown Safety Plan for many years now. The plan was first developed and adopted by the Downtown Safety Alliance and the Downtown Development Partnership and endorsed by the Great Falls City Police in 2013. It was recently updated by a committee including Carol Bronson of NeighborWorks, Susie McIntyre of the Great Falls Public Library, Sandy Rice of Neighborhood Council 7, and concerned citizens David Saslav and Melissa Smith.
The 2021 Downtown Safety Plan makes several recommendations for improving both the actual and perceived safety of the downtown area. They include:
Education through community-building and partnership
Supporting the Great Falls Police Department
Addressing problem properties
Developing and strengthening innovative, effective systems
Supporting Coins for a Cause
Encouraging responsible use
Encouraging the community to be proud to be downtown
Joan gave an overview of the plan, as well as a history of the Downtown Safety Alliance, with a particular focus on Coins for a Cause, which has provided an effective answer to panhandling that has done much to educate Great Falls citizens about the most effective way to respond to panhandling.
Happy birthday today to Channing Hartelius and on Wednesday to Jim Humphrey. The first week of October has been very good to Rotary Club of Great Falls!
Channing not only celebrates his 75th birthday today, but also received his pin for 50 years as an attorney in Montana last week. Such an accomplishment! Congratulations, Channing.
Weekly Warmth: Paying It Forward
President Lacey Gallagher had a delightful experience recently. A group of HOSA (Health Occupation Student Association) students were helping out a a clinic and one of them stared at Lacey, pondered, and finally asked, "Are you a Rotarian?"
You know Lacey ... not one to hide Rotary's light under a bushel. "I sure am!" she beamed.
The young man introduced himself as the current President of the Senior Class at CMR. "I was a RYLA student," he told her. "The skills and experience that I was introduced to there made all the difference in my high school experience."
How wonderful to know that the work we are doing is actually making a difference! Isn't that why we are Rotarians? Congratulations to all who help with RYLA, especially Sydney Blair, who has headed up the RYLA project for many years.
