This week preparations for Harvest Howl will be the focus of our meeting. HH Chairman Mike Wier, Tom Nelson, and other committee chairs will walk us through what needs to be done as we line up crews and take care of last-minute details before our big event. Join us at noon at the country club!
Today's winning "bulletin bucks" winner is button number #168. If that's your number, see Todd Neighbor to claim your $25 cash card!
Last Week at Rotary
Last week we heard all about the Young Parents Education Center from co-presenters Shandy Petersen and Dedra Haffner. Shandy is the Executive Director of the Center and Dedra is the parent educator of this unique program, which has been offered in Great Falls since 1969.
The unique ingredient of the YPEC is that it's located on-site at Paris Gibson Education Center, giving young parents a one-stop shop for education, childcare, and parenting lessons. At Paris, the Center assists pregnant and parenting teenagers and young adults pursue their high school diploma, develop vocational plans, learn about child development, and learn about parenting in a nurturing, supportive environment.
It's a great program with an impressive record of success as it nears its half-century mark. One of its big fund-raisers - and a just-plain-fun event - is "Breakfast with Santa" on Saturday, Dec. 1, from 8:30 - 11:30 a.m. in the Paris Gibson Education Center cafeteria. Bring your kids or grandkids to enjoy pancakes, a silent auction, a reading corner, door prizes ... and, of course, photos with Santa.
Both presenters were professional and engaging, but for the Rotarians present, the icing on the cake was the beaming face of fellow Rotarian Heidi Hockett. She's Shandy's mom ... and the apple didn't fall far from the tree.
Coming Right Up ...
Have we mentioned Harvest Howl enough? What are you signed up to do next week? All hands on deck!
Last week Susan Wolff urged the club to attend the reception for the autumn exhibit of the Urban Art Project this Monday (Oct. 29) at Electric City Coffee (319 Central). In addition to providing us an opportunity to support this beautification effort, it's a chance to say thank you to its creator and a community pillar, Jean Price.
The Duck Derby is another major fundraiser Rotary is taking on in less than two weeks. It'll be Thursday, Nov. 8, at the Holiday Inn Express. You can buy a duck for $10 and the payoff is HUGE: $1,000 for first place and $250 for second place. Be sure to mark your calendars for the event itself, which will be a ton of fun. Let's do this! Contact board member Heidi Hockett (Heidi.hockett2012@gmail.com, 868-3599) for more information.
It's a Wrap!
Last week the last box of dictionaries went out the door. By the time you read this (or very shortly thereafter), every third-grader in Great Falls and a good many third-graders throughout the Golden Triangle will have his or her very own reference book.
In the process, these students will have learned a little bit about Rotary, and Rotarians will have learned a little bit about them and the schools that help to shape their characters. For instance, what must it be like to be one of these nine third-graders in the beautiful foothills community of Augusta (where, apparently, little girls are as rare as hen's teeth)? Beth McFadden got a glimpse of that last week.
What goes through those young minds as personalities as different as those of Kelley Aline, Art Taft, Shannon Hoiland, and Jim McCormick tell the 9-year-olds in the schools they visited about the 4-way test?
Every year at least some Rotarians ask how relevant and treasured these dictionaries are in the electronic era. Judging by the kids' reactions, the answer is "very." They're also an alternative to screen time, which can only be a good thing.
If any of you have extra dictionaries, please either bring them to the meeting Tuesday or call Mary Moe (868-9427) and she'll pick them up before the meeting. We only have 7 dictionaries left and we have the schools at Power, Dutton and Brady to deliver to.
Thank you, Rotarians, for completing this project in such a timely manner. On to the Howl and after that the Duck Race and then ....
Milestones
Best wishes go out this week to Mark Macek, who celebrates his birthday on Wednesday. October is also the month that many of our members became Rotarians. Those celebrating Rotarians anniversaries this month include:
Bob Jorgensen, now an honorary Rotarian after 50 years of active membership
Beth McFadden, 24 years
Jeff Millhollin, 11 years
Kevin Eckhardt, 10 years
Thanks to all of you for all your years of service above self.
Weekly Whimsy
Last week Judge Holter and Sheila Rice tag-teamed on a happy moment. Judge Holter was thrilled to be part of the fund-raising project that resulted in 26 trees being planted on the lawns of the owner-built homes in the new Thaniel addition. Sheila was ecstatic about Rotary's help with this NeighborWorks project. To inspire the club to attend the tree-planting ceremony, Judge Holter had read Joyce Kilmer's "Trees" as a happy moment the week before. We've rewritten the poem to accompany this photograph of Rotarians at the site on a chily October day.
I think that I shall never see
A club as fine as Rotary,
Whose members on a wintry day
Will wile an afternoon away
Up on a once-bare, windblown slope,
A skinny sapling in their scope,
Relishing with summer’s verve
The friendships forged by those who serve.
Poetry comes from fools like me.
But good works come from Rotary.
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