Every year Rotary Club of Great Falls helps the Salvation Army by ringing bells for red-kettle donations. The event is organized by Virginia Stacey and staffed by Rotary volunteers.
We are grateful this year to the following Rotarians who volunteered for bell-ringing duty at the west side ShopKo: Todd Neighbor, Carey Gray, Bill Harp (and descendants), Bill Bronson, Brian Hoven, Kathy Mora, and Jim Humphrey.
We are grateful as well for these folks, who rang bells at Scheels on Saturday: Patrick Sullivan, Bill Salina, Tracy Houck, Nicole Michelotti, and Jim McCormick.
This Week in Rotary
This week we have our annual holiday luncheon upstairs at the country club. We'll be entertained by the East Middle School Orchestra. Join us to celebrate the warmth of the holidays and one another's company!
Last Week at Rotary
Last week we heard from Dusti Zimmer and Deanna McCulloch on the Youth Crisis Diversion House project. Dusti is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker employed by the Center for Mental Health and Deanna works for the Great Falls Public Schools. Both women have been active in helping young people avert crisis through focused intervention.
Last year, with the support of Rotarian Sydney Blair and the Center for Mental Health, the project received funding to address the unmet needs of youth and families in crisis. In the 10-month grant period, they assisted 108 young people, 3 times more than other Montana grantees. They were able to divert 82% of these young people from going on to higher levels of care. A significant percentage of these kids were at risk for suicide.
The Center for Mental Health has provided the project with a house for kids going through crisis, but there are still many needs to be met, ranging from additional funding and mentorships to providing furniture and games to make the house more homey. Contact Dusti at the Center for Mental Health if you're interested in helping local kids stay local and stay healthy!
Helping Leaders Grow
If you want to feel good about "kids these days," go no further than the Great Falls High School's invitation speech meet last weekend.
Hundreds of kids competed in dozens of events, from policy debate to humorous interpretation. They were polished in every way: professional in appearance, gracious in interactions, organized to a fare-thee-well, and incredibly poised as they took on the #1 fear most of us have: public speaking.
This event that does so much to help kids become the leaders they will one day be would not be possible without literally hundreds of Great Falls volunteers. Among them last weekend were countless Rotarians.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to help this garden grow.
Milestones
Wow, December is a lucky month for generating future Rotarians! Today is the birthday of Susan Wolff and tomorrow is the big 9-0 for Bob Oakland. Just think of all the lives just these two Rotarians have touched ... warm wishes and much love to both of you!
Weekly Wit
As my sister and her son were putting out cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve, she accidentally dropped one.
"No problem," she said, picking it up and dusting it off before placing it back on the plate.
"You can't do that," argued her four-year-old.
"Don't worry," she assured him. "Santa will never know."
He shot her a look. "So he knows if I've been bad or good, but he doesn't know you dropped his cookie?"
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Every year Rotary Club of Great Falls helps the Salvation Army by ringing bells for red-kettle donations. The event is organized by Virginia Stacey and staffed by Rotary volunteers.
Last week we heard from Dusti Zimmer and Deanna McCulloch on the Youth Crisis Diversion House project. Dusti is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker employed by the Center for Mental Health and Deanna works for the Great Falls Public Schools. Both women have been active in helping young people avert crisis through focused intervention.
