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Are you an established professional who wants to make positive changes in your community and the world? Our club members are dedicated people who share a passion for community service and friendship. Becoming a Rotarian connects you with a diverse group who share your drive to give back.

Rotary Is Thankful for its Sponsors

The Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs would like to thank the following individuals and businesses for their unwavering support of Rotary’s community efforts and scholarships for 2021.

Without our donors, Rotary would not be able to do the community outreach that we are committed to doing. While most are not Rotarians, they truly understand the Rotary motto of “Service Above Self.”

Platinum

Jack Threet

Pagosa Springs Medical Center

Gold

A Affordable Storage

Pagosa Springs Sun

TBK Bank

Ears to You Hearing Aid Center LLC.

Wolf Creek Run

Silver

Bank of Colorado

1^st Southwest Bank

Jann C. Pitcher Real Estate

KWUF 1400 AM 102.5 & KWUF Radio

La Plata Electric Association

Mike & Renee Vanover

Rhonda & Bill Webb

Silver Dollar Liquors

Terry’s Colorado Home Supply / Ace

Two Old Crows

Tennyson Event Center

Sherpa Real Estate

Pagosa Office & Storage

Salvation Army

Bronze

Bank San Juans

Brown Insurance Agency Inc.

Choke Cherry Tree, Inc.

Colorado Dream Homes

Devo Capital Management

Durango Dermatology & Surgery

Elite Recycling

Jim Garrett, Attorney

Kim Moore – Exit Realty

Morehart Murphy Regional Auto Center

Pat Love

Rocky Mountain Physical Therapy

Scott Strategic Investments

Timothy Miller Custom Homes

Bee Hive Homes of Pagosa Springs

Colorado Title and Closing Services

General

Anthony & Veronica Doctor

Backwoods Enterprises

Brian Butzen MD

Davis Engineering Services

Elk Park Animal Hospital

Goodman’s Department Store

Jim Smith Realty

King Campbell DDS

Lee Riley – I sell Pagosa LLC

Mountain Eye Care

Pagosa Chiropractic

RG Bank

Subway Pagosa

The Tile & Carpet Store

The UPS Store

Village Interiors Carpet One

Michael C. Branch CPA

High Country Title

Bryan & Jane Wetzel

Gary & Claudia Weger

Alfons & Stephany Bouchier

Pick'in Up the Trash

Posted by Jann Pitcher

Nine brave souls tackled Putt Hill on Saturday morning of the Memorial Day Weekend!

Meg Wempe, Cindi and Kareena Galabota, Renee Vanover, Elaine Feeney, Paula Tennant, Elsa Lindner, Kim Moore and Jann Pitcher were not for the faint of heart no matter how busy the highway was!! The Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs is proud of our community and one of the ways we show it is by cleaning up trash along the highway. It is always great fun and super rewarding. Sometimes we have found some pretty interesting items to boot!

June is Fellowship Month

Posted by Shellie Peterson

RI PRESIDENT-ELECT ANNOUNCES 2021-22 PRESIDENTIAL THEME

Incoming Rotary International President Shekhar Mehta urged members to become more involved in service projects, saying that caring for and serving others is the best way to live because it changes not only other people’s lives, but also our own.

Mehta, a member of the Rotary Club of Calcutta-Mahanagar, West Bengal, India, revealed the 2021-22 presidential theme, Serve to Change Lives, to incoming district governors on 1 February during the Rotary International Assembly. The assembly, a yearly training event for district governors-elect, was originally set to take place in Orlando, Florida, USA, but was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rotary Supports our Teachers

Congratulations to Jillian Cram, Kelly Vining, Heather Rose, Katrina Thomas, Malinda Burnett, Dale Scrivener, Linda Lutomski, Kelle Bruno, Rachael Christiansen, and Karla Parker Choat!

The Pagosa Springs Rotary Club Teacher Mini Grant Program is a long-standing annual program for our club and this year was no different. The mini grant program awards a limited number of grants with a maximum award of $400 for special classroom projects to individual teachers in kindergarten through twelfth grade in Archuleta County. The mini grant provides working capital to innovative teachers who want to develop new ideas to enrich the student classroom experience. The mini grants also provide funds to teachers for materials or projects that would not otherwise be available through the school district or for teachers that would otherwise have to use their own money to fund them.

Thirteen applications were received from six different schools and ten teachers were selected. We are so fortunate to have such innovative and creative teachers with the desire to inspire and expand the learning opportunities for our children.

Some of the interesting and fun projects we were able to fund included purchasing microscopes for science classes, reading intervention materials for phonics skills, 3-D wooden puzzles for Art class incorporating science, technology, math, and language, and yes, boomwhackers! Three teachers in the Middle and Family School joined together to apply for this purchase to expand their collection of boonwhackers to teach different aspects of music theory to over 200 students. Add to that, cameras for learning about digital photography and creating digital portfolios, and an egg incubator to give the students the opportunity to learn about the life cycle of a chicken!

Rotary Once Again Supports Rise Above Violence

Posted on Feb 28, 2021

Local Rotary Responds to Victims

Rise Above Violence would like to recognize the generous contributions of the Pagosa Springs Rotary Club for their continued recognition and support for survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Rotary members have been especially cognizant of the effects COVID-19 has had on survivors, where victims were further isolated from supportive friends, families and systems, many having job loss due to closures and workplace restrictions. This has required Rise to provide higher than anticipated levels of support, including financial help for rent, emergency shelter and food, utilities, and legal representation. The Pagosa Springs Rotary Club has invested in our vital services and support programs, ensuring survivors are fully assisted when the need arises. Thank you Pagosa Springs Rotary, your progressive and immediate response has been especially timely and impactful.

Rotary Provides Clean Water for African Village

Posted by David Smith on Jan 05, 2021

The Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs, working with Rotary Clubs in Vienna, Austria and Niamey, Niger, has completed a project that provides both drinking and irrigation water for a village located in the Sub-Sahara desert of Africa. Drilling of this 350 foot deep well and management of distribution of the water was organized by the Catholic organization, Fraternité des Servantes du Christ à Maradi. This region, like most of Niger, is primarily Muslim.

This organization seeks to educate and generally improve the lives of the 7,500 residents living in the village of Saé Saboua. Because most of the water in this region comes from the July/August rainy season, water is scarce throughout much of the year. Most residents use contaminated surface water for drinking and bathing.

Rotary Completes Third-Grade Dictionary Project

Posted by Jo Ann Laird on Dec 30, 2020

While a pandemic may shut down, close up and change our habits, it didn’t stop your local Rotary club from delivering their annual gift of colorful dictionaries to the elementary school third grade classes.

It was different to be sure. Typically, Rotarians have the joy of handing out the books to over 100 children and teaching them the benefits a dictionary can provide. The students find words and their meaning they never knew before, travel the world thru displays of international flags and learn our country’s history thru Presidential biographies. Though Rotarians were not able to enter the school this year, there is comfort in knowing the children received these books, once again.

This year has been a tough one for Rotary, as it has for most non-profits. The annual fund raisers Rotary has, such as the Casino Night and Barn Dance could not be held.

The funds derived from these events go toward local endeavors of not only the 3^rd Grade Dictionary Project but also gifting $20,000 plus annually for high school scholarships, provide manpower and resources for the needed Backpack Program, pick up highway trash, place benches for those awaiting public transportation, endow teacher mini-grants to defray their expenses, donate monies and items to the Food Pantry, help fund the GGP Greenhouse Project, host foreign students for the Student Exchange Program plus send local students to study abroad, fund expenses for high school students to attend RYLA, a leadership training program and assist the town with the 4th of July Parade. Rewarding, fun and in some cases, life changers.

Virtual Alumni Event for Kyrgyzstan

A very special event happened this past Tuesday! Some of our Rotary Club members, presenters, and host families were able to reconnect with our delegates from 2018!

Theme: Tourism Destination Management

Original Travel to Pagosa Springs: May 31, 2018

9:00 – 9:05AM

Overview of Participation Procedures

Alexa King, Program Manager at the Open World Leadership Center

Opening Remarks

Jane Sargus, Executive Director of the Open World Leadership Center

9:05 – 9:15 AM

9:15 – 9:50 AM

9:50 – 9:55 AM

9:55 – 10:25 AM

10:25 – 10:50 AM

Welcome Back to Pagosa Springs

David Smith, Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs

Host Families:

Jo Bridges
Kim Moore

Alumni Updates from Kyrgyzstan: Presentation on what they have been up to since they participated on the Open World program and the effect of COVID-19 on the tourism industry in Kyrgyzstan.

Begimai Mukasheva
Aman Zhanserkeev
Nazira Makenova
Beksultan Abdisalamov
Talantbek Toksonbaev
Zeinep Isakova

Break

The Effect of COVID-19 on Tourism in Pagosa Springs

Mary Jo Coulehan Director of Tourism in Pagosa Springs

Questions & Answers

Brian Sandy, Park Manager V, Arboles, Navajo State Park, Colorado

Questions & Answers

Ringing the Bell for the Salvation Army

Jonnae and Art Benzel lucked out with a darn nice day to 'ring the bell!'

The Rotary Club of Pagosa Springs contributes lots of man (and woman) power to this effort every year!

District 5470's Polio Day Virtual Event

Attend the District 5470's

Polio Day Virtual Event

November 1, 2020 from 12:00PM - 1:00PM LIVE with RI President Holger Knaack

For more than 30 years, Rotary and our partners have driven the effort to eradicate polio worldwide. Our Polio Plus program was the first initiative to tackle global polio eradication by vaccinating children on a massive scale. As a core partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative, Rotary focuses on advocacy, fundraising, volunteer recruitment, and awareness-building. Rotary members have contributed more than $2.1 billion and countless volunteer hours to protect more than 2.5 billion children in 122 countries from this paralyzing disease. Rotary’s advocacy efforts have played a role in decisions by governments to contribute more than $10 billion to the effort.

Rotary District 5470 will be hosting the End Polio Now Virtual Event on November 1, 2020. To attend this event, please make a $25 contribution to the Polio Plus Fund and a $3.00 fee to cover the costs of this event for the hosting Districts. Your $28 contribution will provide you access to the Polio Plus event on November 1st and provide $25 towards furthering our Rotary fight against polio. The District Foundation Leadership will ensure your contribution is credited to your account and your club. All you have to do is click on the link below and you help us fight polio in the last two countries where this wild virus still ravages children.

Register now!

Your $25 dollar contribution, which will be doubled by the Gates Foundation, goes to provide hundreds of children in Afghanistan and Pakistan the wild polio virus vaccination. We are almost there! There are only TWO COUNTRIES where this insidious virus still lives. Can you please help us and make a $28 contribution so we can eradicate this terrible disease, spare the lives of hundreds or children and attend this amazing virtual event.

PLEASE REGISTER NOW!

Rotary Supports Community Through Pandemic

During the COVID pandemic, the Pagosa Springs Rotary Club actively continues to serve our community and those most in need. The Rotary Club’s “Feed Our Children” program was established nine years ago by Rotarians Jo Bridges and Lassie Olin to meet the needs of children in elementary school who frequently came to school on Mondays and reported to their teachers that they were hungry over the weekend. Often these children utilized the free and reduced food program at the Pagosa Springs Elementary school during the week but were left without food support over the weekend.

When school suddenly switched to on-line this spring due to the pandemic, we had to quickly adapt our food model. For the past nine years, Rotarians have purchased large quantities of food and stored it in a food pantry, and then each week we would pack backpacks for individual families. On Fridays we would transport the backpacks to the elementary school and at the end of the school day Rotarians would hand out the backpacks to each child.

Fortunately, when the COVID related changes occurred in the local school, the school district decided to continue to provide daily breakfasts and lunches to those families in need. The Rotary Club has been able to work with the school transportation department, who agreed to deliver our weekend food via the school bus routes, as they were doing for the daily school food delivery. Rotarians have continued to serve the same families who had been in the program when the school closed.

Our communities’ economic strain continues, so when the school district received funds to be able to deliver food Monday through Friday throughout the summer, the Pagosa Springs Rotary Club jumped on board too. We reduced our volunteers to only three people working each week, two packing and one taking the bags to the bus barn. By doing this we were able to work in entirely separate areas safely. Currently, the Rotary “Feed Our Children” backpack program is serving 58 children weekly.

Africa region declared free of wild poliovirus

The World Health Organization (WHO) on 25 August announced that transmission of the wild poliovirus has officially been stopped in all 47 countries of its African region. This is a historic and vital step toward global eradication of polio, which is Rotary’s top priority.

After decades of hard won gains in the region, Rotary and its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) — WHO, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, UNICEF, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Gavi, the vaccine alliance — are proclaiming the milestone an achievement in public health. They offer it as proof that strong commitment, coordination, and perseverance can rid the world of polio.

The certification that the African region is free of wild poliovirus comes after the independent Africa Regional Certification Commission (ARCC) conducted thorough field verifications that confirmed no new cases and analyzed documentation of polio surveillance, immunization, and laboratory capacity by Cameroon, Central African Republic, Nigeria, and South Sudan. The commission had already accepted the documentation of the other 43 countries in the region.

The last cases of polio caused by the wild virus in the African region were recorded in Nigeria’s northern state of Borno in August 2016, after two years with no cases. Conflict, along with challenges in reaching mobile populations, had hampered efforts to immunize children there.