Speaker:Nan Sundeen, Director, Pitkin County Human Services. Did you know? Our very-own queen of caring, Nan Sundeen, was honored by the Colorado Association of Non-Profits with their "Public Service Lifetime Achievement Award" on March 6. After hearing her presentation, it easy to see why she earned this award.
Nan has worked for Pitkin County for more than 25 years. In this time, the health and wellness services we provide to residents has grown exponentially. In fact, Nan is currently overseeing the division of the many programs she formerly supervised into two separate departments: "Public Health" and "Human Services."
Living in paradise is full of paradoxes and Nan presented data which highlighted several: cost of living/average wage, high eligibility for Medicaid/low enrollment, apparent affluence/child abuse and neglect.
Nan ended her talk by praising Rotarians for their support of local youth organizations, and encouraged us to refer persons in need to the many Emergency Assistance Programs in Pitkin County.
Guests: Warren Klug (Kathy Klug), Ann Mullins (Heidi Hoffmann)
President Craig Melville awarded two Rotary Scholarships at Basalt High School last week, and will do the same at the Aspen High School Awards ceremony next Monday at 6 PM. We hope to have photos and bios of this year's scholarship recipients in a future newsletter. Steve Seyffert are you reading this?
Llywd Ecclestone was inadvertently recognized as a guest at this week's meeting. This is understandable as Llywd spent most of the winter completing a construction project in Florida.
April 27:Don't miss this one! Sarah Nininger, Founder and current president of Action in Africa. Sarah presented at the Snowmass Rotary Club last week, and several members commented it was the most uplifting presentation of the year. May 4: A panel discussion by the owners of some of your favorite restaurants in Aspen.
May 11: Angie Callen, Executive Director of the Red Brick Center for the Arts
May 9, 2:00-4:00 PM, "EXTEMP IT UP," our Rotary Club's second annual extemporaneous speech competition. EXTEMP IT UP was featured in a front page story in the Aspen High School newspaper this week. The article indicated that the event would be in "Harris Hall." Although it is fun to imagine our event filling Harris Hall in the future, the actual location is the "Harris Seminar Room," which is in the Boettcher Building adjacent to the Music Tent's parking lot.
Happy Bucks will continue to be channeled to the Independence Pass Foundation for the rest of April, and then for the summer months, Happy Bucks will support the "Outreach Service Club" at Aspen High School.
Extreme skier Todd Shaver will fall a few days short of 100 days this year, but those last days will be spent on "4 feet of snow" atop Aspen Mountain. Kathy Klug continues to count the days (now 6 weeks) until her army officer daughter is home from Afghanistan. Peripatetic Peter Waanders is home again after celebrating his mother's 80th birthday, collecting Rotary schwag along the way.
Llwyd Ecclestone expressed gratitude to Kathy Klug, announcing that his daughter has been accepted to SMU, his son to Villanova. Daughter will be riding on the D1 Equestrian team; no mention if son will be playing basketball.
Never wanting to be one-upped by the Aspen Skiing Company, the Mountain Chalet has expanded its empire by purchasing a hotel in Crested Butte, according to Craig Melville.
Our club came close to singing with a collective "ewwwww," after Justin Barrow's vivid description of his childhood job working on a ranch wearing only moon boots and a speedo. (See what you miss when you miss Rotary?)
CORRECTION: Last weeks's newsletter incorrectly reported that the Snowmass Rotary Club will not be partnering with Aspen Rotary with Ducky Derby 2017. Snowmass Rotary would like us to know that they are delighted by the invitation and will participate fully. We regret the error.
The Weekly Newsletter of the Rotary Club of Aspen.
