Guests: Ronda Weybright, guest of Norm Batcheldor,
Keith Elder, guest of Emily Burr, John and Mary Treanor, guests of visiting Rotarian Bob Pizzitola who overslept and didn't attend.
Thought for the Day from our Sergeant of Arms Jon Kelly: Per Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, "Those who won our independence valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty."
Speaker: Nicholas Vesey, Pastor The Aspen Chapel. Pastor Vesey recently assumed his current role and moved his family of four here to the Roaring Fork valley from Norwich, England. He began his professional life in broadcasting and advertising, working with, among others Saatchi and Saatchi, a global communications and advertising organization. Following a 'significant experience' while trekking in the Himalayas, he changed direction and embarked on a spiritual life. He is the author, among other books, of 'Developing Consciousness'. He delivered his thoughts on how to live life more skillfully; on reality which continues to exist after disbelief sets in; how he finds smaller roads more interesting; how we view time, love and peace individually; and many other elements of consciousness.
Membership Committee Chairman Justin Barrow presented a Blue Badge to Jason Taets who expressed his appreciation of Rotary and how much the speakers had impressed him. He has read "Tribe' by Sebastian Junger and related the concepts in this book to the Rotary movement.
Emily Burr has received an Email from our outbound student, Annabelle Ward. This will give you a look into her Argentine experience:
"On December 3rd I went to the south of Argentina for two weeks with 38 other rotary students. There were people from the USA, India, Germany, France, Belgium, Hungary, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Italy and Poland! It was crazy, just walking down the aisle of the bus I could hear 5 or more languages in one pass! Everyone but 2 people on the trip spoke English so that was the probably the most spoken language, but there was quite a lot of German and French too. We spent time in 6 different towns, all having different attractions. My favorite was El Calafate where we spent 3 days and my favorite day by far was when we walked on the glacier. It was breathtaking! We walked for about an hour and a half and saw crevices, pools of water and towering walls of ice-- and to think it's all 400+ years old!
Throughout the trip we saw penguins, went to an ice bar, walked through parque de los alerces (around bright blue lakes and rivers) had a hamburger cookout in a campground and most importantly, we all became such good friends and I will never forget this trip or the people.
When I arrived back in Olavarria, I spent Christmas with my family, they celebrate Christmas with dinner and gifts at 12:00am. The 29th I went with my family to Córdoba, the second biggest city in Argentina where the mothers whole family lives. She has 6 siblings and every sibling has 2-6 children so I met all but one member of the family and it was really nice and really overwhelming too! We spent 2 weeks in Córdoba and I was able to get a feel for the city, surroundings and got to know the family very well too. Now I am on vacation at the beach for a week with two of my exchange student friends and my second host family (Jeanne from France and stella from Germany). At this point I can't imagine living without my friends here and I am loving my exchange more than ever! My Spanish is improving so much and the bonds with my friends and family are better than ever. I miss my family, friends, home, and snow the most but I do not want to leave! I am so thankful for this experience, and everything that comes along with exchange! "
February 9: Diane Darling, Program Chair/Roaring Fork Brain Train
February 16: Dave Ressler, Aspen Valley Hospital
Happy Bucks This months' beneficiary is The Mountain Rescue program. Heidi Hoffman is happy that the Recycle Center now accepts clothing; Steve Wickes is happy that the genius of Maurice Emmer led to a record opening rate for last week's Newsletter; Kathy Klug is happy that two Aspen High School students have received athletic scholarships to the universities they will attend; NormBatcheldor is happy that his Father in Law was rescued by the Mountain Rescue in time for him to become Norm's Father in Law; John Moore is happy to be back in the Aspen snow.
7:30 a.m. Friday, February 10 at the Mountain Chalet
World Community Service Committee: Heidi Hoffmann and Bill Small reported on the WCS committee function. It is entrusted with discussing, approving and spending 30% of the Ducky Derby proceeds annually. This money is leveraged through our District and The Rotary Foundation by way of the Global grant process in participation with other Rotary clubs. Our Club's focus is on providing assistance to our Latin American neighbors, though we are presently also supporting projects in Africa and India. This past year we distributed @ $60,000.
These projects meet Rotary's efforts in six key areas to maximize impact and address the world's most critical and widespread humanitarian needs:
1. Peace and Conflict prevention/resolution
2. Disease prevention and treatment
3. Water and sanitation
4. Maternal and child health
5. Basic education and literacy
6. Economic and community development
There are travel opportunities for our members: Guatemala Literacy Project in February 2018, in addition to this coming July, plus other areas as well.
John Moore reported on the Community Grants Committee status with 24 grant requests being considered currently.
Maurice Emmer reported that several new volunteers for the Youth Exchange Committee have come forward and discussions are ongoing.
The Weekly Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Aspen.
