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Articles in this issue
President's MessageCurtis Carlson
Membership update and challengeMike Hohl
2017 Christmas BasketsPete Thomas
Ale Trail updateBruce Hottman
Holiday turkeysBud Frick
New member!Mike Forney
New member!Jan McKenzie
New member!Linda Crum
New member!Matt Sayers
Membership updateKaren Morgan
President's Message

Man, we have accomplished some amazing things during the first half of my Presidency, and by we, I mean all of you. I know our schedule has been a little erratic but regardless of where we meet I know we all enjoy the fellowship we have whenever we get together.

Here are some of the amazing things we have done over the last 3 months:
  • We had our Annual Family Picnic at Mark Goldrich’s house. We had a great turnout and some fantastic new additions were made by Jennifer Cuningham, including an ice cream food truck, face painting, and karaoke.
  • Our club provided $2,500 to Book Trust, a program that allows low income children to pick out their own books to encourage them to read, which will sponsor an entire classroom for a year.
  • The 2nd Annual Rise Against Hunger event was once again an incredible success as we increased the number of meals we packaged from 10,000 to 12,000 and over 90 participants.
  • The joint social event we had with our Evening Group members was a blast and that group continues to grow and do some amazing things. Most recently they participated in a Coats & Boots distribution that provides winter coats & boots to under privileged youth in Poudre School District.
  • Our Fort Collins Ale Trail distributed their first batch of checks to the following beneficiaries on November 14th:
    • $920 – SAVA (Sexual Assault and Victim Advocate Center)
    • $960 – Food Bank for Larimer County
    • $1000 – Coalition for Poudre River Watershed
    • $1120 – Rotary International Foundation – Polio Eradication – with 2:1 match from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $3360 will be donated to Polio Plus.
    • $400 – Foothills Education & Scholarship fund – donating 10% of net proceeds each year until we fund one scholarship for Project-Self Sufficiency scholar.
  • Mike Hohl and the Membership committee’s continued efforts have resulted in 4 new individuals applying for membership into our club. Please take Mike up on his challenge on bringing at least one guest who you think would be a good fit for our club to an upcoming meeting or service project.

Just like the rest of you, I forget all of the incredible things we do not only for our community but our world, so I enjoy this opportunity to look back and see what we have done.

Anyways, thanks so much to all of you for your help & support in accomplishing all of these great things. More great things to come in the future I’m sure.

President Curtis

Membership update and challenge

First and foremost I want to thank the members of the membership committee for their willingness to step up and be part of the effort to grow and retain members in the our club - Chris Coley, John Davis, Dale Gorsky, Dave Armstrong and Pete Bullard thanks for your efforts!

We started our club year on July 1st with 107 members and after 3 new members, 3 transfers in, 6 resignations and 1 transfer out, we will be at 106 members at the end of the calendar year. Job changes, relocations and life changes in today’s busy world lead to members needing to transfer or resign - this is expected. Consequently, we have to actively seek out friends, colleagues, neighbors and family members who will make good Rotarians. We all know and talk to these prospective members every day! We just don’t think about inviting them to a Rotary meeting and one of JD’s terrific programs. We have a lot of fun and our meetings are great - share them with a prospective member. My challenge to every Foothills member is bring just ONE prospective member to a meeting before June 1st! I am positive that each of us has multiple people in our sphere of influence who would be great Foothills Rotarians - all I ask is that you bring just one to a meeting! Share our good time!

I wish all of you a joyous Holiday Season with friends and family.

Mike Hohl, PEN & Membership Chair

2017 Christmas Baskets

Fort Collins Foothills Rotary Club will again be distributing Christmas Baskets this year on December 16th.  We will be needing 2 things:

1 - Donations to offset the costs.  We're looking to raise around $3000, this will allow us to provide a Christmas Basket for 50 needy families.  We will be asking for donations each meeting through December 12th.  So please bring your checkbook.

2 -  We also need volunteers to deliver these Christmas Baskets the morning of December 16th.  This usually goes pretty quick, so we're usually done in a couple of hours.  This is a great family activity so bring your kids and grandkids.

Contact me if you have questions!

Pete Thomas

 

Ale Trail update!

We are honored to present our first quarterly proceeds from the Ale Trail project!

$920SAVA (Sexual Assault and Victim Advocate Center)
$960Food Bank for Larimer County
$1000Coalition for Poudre River Watershed
$1120Rotary International Foundation – Polio Eradication – with 2:1 match from Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, $3360 will be donated to Polio Plus.
$400Foothills Education & Scholarship fund – donating 10% of net proceeds each year until we fund one scholarship for Project-Self Sufficiency scholar.

This is the first donations we’ve made to the 1st set of beneficiaries.  Given FCAT is in its infancy, we have chosen to keep these beneficiaries for the foreseeable future so we hope to award them with more donations.  We are encouraging the beneficiaries to promote FCAT to their donor base.

Holiday turkeys!

We are honored to support the Larimer County Food Bank with 41 turkeys this year, not counting the two who are pushing the cart!  Thank you to all who helped the project this year.

We've been doing this for several years now, and the Food Bank is running quite short. If you'd like to add to the contribution, please contact them directly!

Welcome our new member, Mike Forney!

Mike Forney has been Regional Public Image Coordinator for 12 of the 15 districts in Zone 27 since July, 2015.  He has an extensive management background in public relations and advertising at a Fortune 100 company, and later in numerous small business and volunteer Rotary PR positions.

He was named District Rotarian of the Year in 2009 while serving as president of the Rotary Club of Steamboat Springs.  The following year he took the last GSE team from District 5440 to Queensland, Australia.  Prior to his current Rotary assignment he led the Rocky Mountain Rotary Leadership Institute Division for two years.

Mike and his wife Janet visited Southern Brazil in 2016 as RI President Ravi Ravindran’s  representative to District 4651.  Mike is the zone 27 (part of) promotion coordinator of the upcoming Toronto International Convention and the District 5440 representative to the 2019 Council on Legislation.

Mike turned in his wings as a general aviation pilot two years ago after a 50-year career in general aviation.  He and his wife Janet Finley have relocated recently from Steamboat Springs, Colorado to Fort Collins with their two cats and dressage horse. They are Major Rotary Foundation Donors and members of the Bequest Society. 

Welcome our new member, Jan McKenzie!

I graduated from CSU with a degree in Electrical Engineering. I have worked in the Semiconductor Industry in Fort Collins over the past many years for LSI Logic and Broadcom, Inc.  After a rewarding career I transitioned to a full time volunteer position to support my passion in life.  I am the President of The Ninety-Nines, Inc., an International Organization of Women Pilots.  This organization has over 5000 members in over 44 countries around the world.

I fly my airplane around the country for business and pleasure.  My other activities are hiking, cooking and international travel.

I joined Rotary because I want to give something back to my community and think working with my fellow Rotarians is the best way to do this.  To improve lives.

Welcome our new member, Linda Crum!

I am the Executive Director of the Poudre School District Foundation. Our mission is to inspire community investment in student learning experiences in Poudre School District. Through these community resources, we can provide students with educational opportunities that may not otherwise exist. Part of my role in the PSD Foundation is to oversee the strategy, operations, events, SPIE grants, teacher externships and fundraising.

I joined the PSD Foundation from Positive Coaching Alliance-Colorado where I also served as Executive Director. I led Strategy, Partnerships, Sales, Events and Awards, Product Development, Implementation, and Fundraising. Prior to my tenure at PCA-Colorado, I served as the Director of Sports and Competition for the 2006 National Special Olympics Games held at Iowa State University. The majority of my professional career and background was in Division I Intercollegiate Athletics. From 1987-2005 having served as the Head Volleyball Coach at Butler, Duke and Iowa State Universities and as an Assistant Coach at Iowa, Iowa State and Ohio State Universities. In each coaching role, my passion and desire to ignite the potential in each student-athlete stems from her background in Education and growing up in a home where her Father was a legendary high school teacher, coach, and administrator.

Originally from Iowa, I graduated from the University of Iowa with a BS in Education and currently resides in Fort Collins with her husband David, Senior Associate for Development CSU Athletics, and her three children, Allison a 10th grader at Fort Collins High School, Abigail at 7th grader at Boltz Middle School and Adelade a 5thgrader at Kruse Elementary.

I am thrilled to work at the PSD Foundation because I believe we live in a community where there are many Foundations, Businesses and Individuals who are willing to invest in our schools, teachers and students.  They understand their investment impacts our classrooms and inside those classrooms are our future citizens, leaders, and workforce. Imagine the possibilities if teachers have all the resources they need and could create powerful learning opportunities that would not be otherwise financially available.

I joined Rotary because I believe as a citizen of our community our work together allows our community to thrive.  I wanted to be a part of an organization that put others above self and was making an impact in the lives of others.

Welcome our new member, Matt Sayers!

My name is Matt Sayers and I was born and raised in Golden, CO. My wife Stephanie and I attended CSU which is when we fell in love with Fort Collins and knew this is where we wanted to grow our roots. We are very excited to be expecting our first child in March! Other than trying to prepare for a baby on the way, we enjoy playing with all our animals, hunting, fishing, and relaxing in the mountains every chance we get.

I was in banking for about 11 years with FirstBank as a Vice President doing consumer and commercial lending. I truly enjoyed working with my customers but realized that my passion was in planning and finance. I am now a financial advisor with Northwestern Mutual doing comprehensive planning on both the consumer and business side. I enjoy planning for people just starting their families or professional careers, to doing tax efficient retirement distribution, and everything in-between. I work well with new families, business owners, medical professionals, and anybody who appreciates the planning process and want’s help in this complex financial world.

I currently serve on the Teaching Tree Early Childhood Learning Center board of directors, and the Red Carpet Committee for the Fort Collins Chamber. I wanted to join the Foothills Rotary to have a bigger impact on the community and be involved with an excellent group of leaders throughout Northern Colorado. I am excited for this opportunity and look forward to my future with Rotary.

Membership update
For the Rotary year starting July 1st 2017, we have added the following members:
  • Will Hotz
  • Mike Forney
  • Linda Crum
  • Jan McKenzie
We have lost these members:
  • Raylene Vigil
  • Aaron Rodriguez
  • Nick Christensen
  • Steve Martin
  • Ron Randle
  • Kären Siwek
  • Gordan Thibedeau
We thank you all for your service, past and future!
Russell Hampton
ClubRunner