To celebrate the twentieth-year anniversary of the Centennial Rotary Club and in support of Rotary District 5450's regional-wide Day of Service, the Club had chosen to celebrate by doing what it does best: serve the community. On May 8th the Club served the community in five different ways: a drug take-back program, an electronics recycling program, a blood drive, a Shred-Athon, and the awarding of their Club-sponsored brand-new community diversity award, as well as other exciting presentations. Read on ...
Centennial Rotarians celebrated this year's Day of Service by hosting four projects, plus announcing the first recipient of our Diversity Award.
We can take great pride in the four projects we hosted as part of this year's Day of Service. The first of these was a Shred -a-Thon that was held at the Centennial airport and hosted by Rotarian Roxy Hahn. It is estimated that nearly 40 people showed up to take advantage of the event. Shown here.
Centennial Rotary names first recipient of Community Diversity Award...
Rotary Club president, Diana Wye, presents Award and check to Alan Jackson (far right) and George Stowers (third from right) of the Tutoring Center – Centennial, the initial recipient of the Rotary Has a Dream Community diversity award.
Fellow Rotarians:As the Rotary year wraps up on 6/30, I wanted to use this written opportunity to say thank you! How do I thank you? Let me count the ways ...
Thanks first to the most amazing group of board members I have ever had the privilege of working with. Your collective guidance, counsel, and support over the past 12 months kept me uplifted and focused on our Rotary true north for the past 12 months. You were my “ride or die” board.
Thank you to our talented and insightful Foundation board of directors whose formidable knowledge and diligence kept the “i’s” dotted and “t’s” crossed through what could be gently described as an “unusual” year.Thanks to all of our Club members for always showing up, ready, willing, and able to undertake whatever the project du jour.
Thanks to all our service project imaginers and leaders; your creativity, passion, and commitment to service provided forward momentum to our Club at a time when our external environment was throwing up endless roadblocks.Thank you to our often-unsung group of Satellite club members, who continued to provide service to our community in a challenging year. We see you!
Thank you to our Club fundraisers, who saw opportunities rather than challenges and transformed those opportunities into funding for the Club coffers.
Thanks to the many new members who joined our Club over the past year. The trust that you displayed in joining our band of merry men and women is heartwarming. You all jumped right in and made things happen in true Rotarian fashion.
And finally, thank you all for the opportunity to lead the Club over the past year. In what I believe has been one of the most challenging years in our Club’s 20-year history, I grew as a leader as much as I hope we did as a Club.
In closing, I hope that you will join us in celebrating the end of the Rotary year and ushering in a new year at our annual Changing of the Guard at the home of Ken & Cindy Hope, 5941 S. Eudora Way in Centennial on Saturday, June 26th.
In recent weeks, the Rotary Club of Centennial has introduced a "20 for 20” initiative as part of our celebration of 20 years of "service above self". The goal, 20 Paul Harris Fellows will receive their Paul Harris Fellow pin on or before our 20th Anniversary celebration on September 11, 2021...
This effort is the brainchild of Katherine Hauff as a salute to the impact our Club has made to our community, as well as a tribute to the inspirational contributions of her parents, Honorable member Jeanne Henschen and her late father, former member and Past President, Hank Henschen. The Paul Harris Fellow recognition acknowledges individuals who contribute, or who have contributions made in their name, of $1,000 to the Rotary Foundation. Although this is not a topic that has been top of mind during the last 14 months, it is hard to overstate how crucial the Paul Harris Society is to the mission of the Rotary Foundation and its support of our six areas of focus.
As John McCarty, our resident Paul Harris Society expert has explained, our initial focus will be on that first recognition. Many of our members are in the hunt for their first pin and you will be our priority for the remainder of June. And unless you have specifically directed our treasurer otherwise, Barbara Medina has already been making a contribution in your name to the Paul Harris Society from every single quarterly dues payment you've made since your installment as a Club member. John McCarty has a current list of every member's account and the points they have accumulated. Of course, any additional contributions over the years are accounted for on the same document.
As John explained, in order to assist and accelerate members to their first Paul Harris Fellow pin, our Club proposes to use the points we have accumulated as a club to match the points earned by the member. For example, Member X has 200 points in the bank. 200 points equate to $200 contributed. Since it takes 1000 points for a member to reach the recognition level, Member X still needs 800 more points for their first pin. Our Club is offering to match 1:1 any contributions made between now and August 15 towards that 1000-point goal. In this case, a new contribution of $400 to the Paul Harris Society, will earn an additional 400-point bonus for a total of 800 points. Along with the 200 points in the bank, Member X will earn that first pin and recognition for a level of giving that is vital to the Foundation.
This program will expand to include anyone interested in reaching additional recognition levels beginning on the first meeting in July.
Take a few minutes to get acquainted with Mary Alice, a former Centennial Rotary Club President and one of the true mainstays of our Club. Whenever there is a job to be done, you can bet Mary Alice will raise her hand. Here's what you should know about her…
Mary Alice was born and raised in Topeka, KS and received her bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University. She taught for Jefferson County Schools in Arvada for 3 years, married Charlie Jackson, and moved to Waianae, Hawaii, living there for only 4 months before the 25th Division left for Viet Nam. She returned to Topeka and taught for the second half of the year.
She and Charlie then had 3 years at Fort Sill, OK where their son Wayne was born before Charlie left for his second tour in Viet Nam. Mary Alice & Wayne went to Topeka until Charlie returned and they all moved to Colorado for one year. During their next tour of duty in New Jersey, their daughter Jill was born. and for those next 14 years, they had 4 more changes of station.
During the 5 year stay at Ft. Leavenworth Mary Alice found her passion for volunteer work. She directed the year-long craft making and sale to benefit the Ft. Leavenworth Museum, coached the swim team, taught an aerobic dance class, and worked part-time for the Command and General Staff School as a lecturer and facilitator for Command Team Training. This was a class all officers, taking command of a Battalion or above, had to attend with their wives. Charlie retired in 1984 and the family moved to Duncanville, TX.
Mary Alice taught ESL for 1 year and 2nd grade for the next 11 years. She continued her life of volunteering, serving as president of the Duncanville Women’s League, The Duncanville Regional Arts Association, & the ESA service club. She was on the Duncanville Board of Adjustments, chairing it for one term, chaired the fundraiser for the Duncanville School District Foundation, and was a charter member of the Dallas County Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club. to play golf and pickleball, hike, train her dog, and read. A favorite teaching memory was taking her class to the zoo. They had just walked a short way when one little girl ran up terrified and buried her head in Mary Alice’s skirt saying, “Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. Jackson, there’s a dinosaur in here!” The dinosaur turned out to be a rhinoceros.
Late one night a burglar broke into a house and while he was sneaking around he heard a voice say, "Jesús is watching you." He looked around and saw nothing. He kept on creeping and again heard, "Jesús is watching you." In a dark corner, he saw a cage with a parrot inside. The burglar asked the parrot, "Was it you who said Jesús is watching me" The parrot replied, "Yes." Relieved, the burglar asked, "What is your name?" The parrot said, "Clarence." The burglar said, "That's a stupid name for a parrot. What idiot named you Clarence?" The parrot answered, "The same idiot that named the rottweiler Jesús."
When the club launched a food drive to help disadvantaged Crawford Elementary School families, we hoped to gather up enough food to feed 75 families. Well, thanks to the generosity of Centennial families, they gathered more than enough food to feed the 75 families. In fact, we had to spend almost an hour gathering up the excess food and putting it in bags and boxes so it could be transferred to Crawford's pantry and to a food bank. Matt McLaurin spearheaded the food drive. His committee members were Audra Dill, Rob Johnston, John Mc Carthy, Jean Henry, Cathy Smith, and Randy Ernst. Big props to this committee for a job well done. It was just another example of the power of Centennial Rotary at work.
April showers bring May flowers and, for Rotary Club of Centennial, April showers have brought with them the hope of a reblooming of the flowers of fellowship, friendship, and service.
We kick off the month of May with seeds planted by the Food Scarcity Team, fertilized with funds from our Club Foundation, and blossoming into a full-fledged Food Drive on May 1st to support the Crawford Elementary School community in Aurora with food collected by Club members from friends and neighbors to restock the school’s on-site food pantry.
Our Day of Service on May 8th, in celebration of our 20th Anniversary as a Club, represents 20 years of planting seeds, tending the soil, weeding and pruning where necessary, and celebrating what we know will be an abundant harvest of shade trees under which residents of our community can find ample shelter throughout the City.
New seeds were also planted by the Club earlier this year with the establishment of the Rotary Has a Dream Diversity Award. As we recognize and honor the inaugural recipient of the Community Award at our Day of Service, we will continue to fertilize this empowering concept in anticipation of an entire community garden of shared hopes and dreams for all.
Finally, the seeds of fellowship and friendship will once again begin to sprout as we move into hosting hybrid meetings again at Embassy Suites on May 18th. Additional information around the logistics of our first meeting back will be shared with the Club as they become available.
I’ll close with a reminder that as Rotarians we are constant gardeners and have an obligation to ourselves and our communities to ensure that the seeds we are planting and sowing will help create a vibrant and lush garden of peace and prosperity that all can enjoy!
Article by Ellis Arnold earnold@coloradocommunitymedia.com
After Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in September 2017 and widely knocked out water service on the island, residents were left without safe water to drink — a problem that continued long after the storm ended.
So the Rotary Club of Centennial decided to lend a hand with its “WaterRico” project to provide in-home water filters to residents in need, focusing on the area of Moca in the island's northwest corner. Rotary clubs focus on community service abroad and in local areas.
Recently, the Centennial club worked on its fifth WaterRico phase to provide 120 filters. The move “in addition to targeting those below the poverty line will help supply clean water to those most affected by the COVID-19 virus,” the club said in a news release.
So far, the effort has provided nearly 1,500 filters, said Marc Garfinkel, a member of the club's board of directors.
To assemble the filter systems, club members use nano filter technology from a company called AguaClara, according to Garfinkel. The club also purchases buckets, which are among the parts that make up the filter systems for families.
“In 2019, we actually went to Puerto Rico and worked with, partnered with, two clubs in Puerto Rico and assembled and distributed and did the complete project,” Garfinkel said.
Now, club members take care of part of the drilling of the buckets and places stickers on them, and then send the parts to Puerto Rico for people to assemble them there, Garfinkel said.
Stickers include handwashing instructions — part of Rotary's goal is to promote good hygiene, Garfinkel said — translated into Spanish. The stickers also explain how to maintain the buckets properly and list whom to call if families need spare parts.
Funding for the filters, buckets, and stickers comes from the club's foundation — Centennial Rotary Club is a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Other Rotary organizations, including the Denver Southeast Rotary Club, contributed funding as well, Garfinkel said.
The club has carried out the project in phases. First, three Rotary members embarked on an exploratory trip in May 2018 to evaluate the need and resources for the project in Puerto Rico, according to the project's website. Next, in November 2018, the club accomplished the installation of 100 filters.
Third, in 2019, Rotary International approved an “International Global Grant,” and the Centennial club increased the scope of the project to 1,200 in-home water filters and a larger water filter for a school in Moca. At the time, the impact of the filters meant that more than 3,600 Moca residents had safe water to drink, according to the project website.
Phase 4 involved building 120 additional filters, and the fifth phase also entailed 120 filters. See more information on the project's website here. Garfinkel and club member John Peterson are co-chairs for the project.
Garfinkel, 59, a chiropractor in Centennial, is one of the founding members of the Rotary Club of Centennial and a past president of the group. Former Centennial Mayor Randy Pye is also a founding member.
The club's local focus includes projects such as buying clothes for kids during Christmastime and purchasing backpacks and school supplies in a collaboration with Integrated Family Community Services, a nonprofit that serves a swath of the south Denver metro area.
Prime Timers, a group that meets several times each month for luncheons, board games, pickleball, and more activities in the Centennial area, is also part of the Rotary Club of Centennial. Prime Timers started in September 2016.
Ken was born and raised in North Denver. He obtained his bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University and his law degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.
He began practicing law as a sole practitioner in the Englewood/DTC areas, He later became a member of a boutique downtown law firm with multiple Colorado offices. Finally, Ken served as in-house counsel and vice president for a regional specialty wood products company located in Wheat Ridge,
Ken retired in 2015. He still maintains a part-time mediation practice that he launched in 2010 which involves acting as a neutral in assisting in the resolution of a wide variety of legal disputes. He also acts as an arbitrator.
He and his wife, Cindy, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary this summer. They like to travel in their motor home and have visited more than 40 states.
Ken enjoys reading (especially presidential biographies and American history) gardening, golf, woodworking projects, cycling (when the knees say “yes”) and spending time with his two grandchildren, now four and six. He also takes time to visit his son, still unattached, who is in the process of relocating from North Dakota to Texas as the result of a job-related promotion.He says another benefit of retirement is that he has much more time to devote to Rotary. His favorite projects include the Little Free Libraries, Christmas Tree Giveaway, and the soon-to-be-launched Imagination Libraries affiliation.
Ken has done more than 400 mediations. He says that one, in particular, stands out in his mind. It involved a very contentious commercial dispute between two Iraqis, one a Shiite and the other Sunni. He chose to keep them in separate conference rooms for obvious reasons. There was a lot of yelling, swearing, and pounding of fists on their respective conference tables. On more than one occasion, each party threatened to end the mediation and to go to court and “let the Judge decide” The tension was thick. However, after shuttling between the conference rooms conveying messages back and forth including verbal threats and insults, they somehow ended up with an agreement. Once it was reduced to writing and signed, the two parties left their respective conference room. As Ken left the attorney’s office, both men standing next to the elevator, joking, laughing and talking about another business deal.
Ken is one of our best and most valuable members. We thank him for all the many things he has done for our club.
Walter took his wife Ethel to the state fair every year, and every time he would say to her, “Ethel, you know that I’d love to go for a ride in that helicopter.” But Ethel would always reply, “I know that Walter, but that helicopter ride is 50 dollars and 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
Finally, they went to the fair, and Walter said to Ethel, “Ethel, you know I’m 87 years old now. If I don’t ride that helicopter this year, I may never get another chance.” Once again Ethel replied, “Walter, you know that helicopter is 50 dollars and 50 dollars is 50 dollars.”
This time the helicopter pilot overheard the couple’s conversation and said, “Listen folks, I’ll make a deal with you. I’ll take both of you for a ride; if you can both stay quiet for the entire ride and not say a word I won’t charge you! But if you say just one word, it’s 50 dollars.”
Walter and Ethel agreed and up they went in the helicopter. The pilot performed all kinds of fancy moves and tricks, but not a word was said by either Walter or Ethel.
The pilot did his death-defying tricks over and over again, but still, there wasn’t so much as one word said.
When they finally landed, the pilot turned to Walter and said, “Wow! I’ve got to hand it to you. I did everything I could to get you to scream or shout out, but you didn’t. I’m really impressed!”
Walter replied, “Well to be honest I almost said something when Ethel fell out but, you know, 50 dollars is 50 dollars!”
To celebrate the twentieth-year anniversary of the Centennial Rotary Club and in support of Rotary District 5450's regional-wide Day of Service, the Club had chosen to celebrate by doing what it does best: serve the community. On May 8th the Club will serve the community in five different ways: a drug take-back program, an electronics recycling program, a blood drive, a Shred-Athon, and the awarding of their Club-sponsored brand-new community diversity award, as well as other exciting presentations.
Read more about the four events we will be holding ...
Here are the four events we will be holding:
Drug Take-Back Program (Centennial Hospital, 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM)
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office will be partnering with our Club to accept those outdated and unused prescriptions and over-the-counter drugs that may be taking up space in your medicine cabinet. Get rid of these items in a safe and controlled environment!
This event will take place at Centennial Hospital located at 14200 E. Arapahoe Rd. on May 8th from 10:00 AM to noon. An easy drive-through drop-off will be set up for easy convenience and social distancing. We will be accepting: unused prescription and over-the-counter medications as well as vitamins and pet medications. Not accepted are illicit drugs, needles, and medical tools.
Electronics RecyclingProgram (Chery Creek Innovation Campus, 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM)
Our electronics recycling program, in partnership with Genesis Recycling, will occur on May 8th from 10 AM to 1:00 PM. The recycling will be located at the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus (8000 S. Chambers Road, Centennial). For more information and to see what items require a fee go to Genisis Recycling Fees or click here to see the brochure.
Blood Drive (DTC Embassy Suites, 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM to 2:00 pm, appointment required)
Our blood drive in partnership with Vitalant will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on May 8th. A donation point will be operating within the Arapahoe Room at the DTC Embassy Suites, 10250 E. Costilla Dive. Appointments are required. To schedule your appointment in advance, call 303.363.2300 or visit donors.vitalant.org to select an available time slot by using Drive Code 10361.
Shred-Athon (Centennial Airport, 10:00 AM-\ to 12:00 PM) Our Shred-A Thon event will be held on May 8th from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM. All-American Records Management will have their mobile shred truck parked at Centennial Airport, 7565 S. Peoria, Englewood. AARM accepts copy machine paper, letterhead, white tablet paper, computer printout paper, laser print paper, typing paper, miscellaneous white paper, and staples. *We do not take the empty boxes, No VHS Tapes or CDs! No Binders Please! *This event is limited to 2-3 bankers’ boxes. Shredding at AARM it is very important to protect your records but it is equally important to dispose of them safely and securely.
Community Diversity Award (May 8, Centennial Municipal Building, 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM)
The Rotary Club of Centennial in partnership with the City of Centennial will have an award ceremony on May 8th from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM. at the City of Centennial municipal building, 13133 E. Arapahoe Road, Centennial. This event will include the awarding of the Club-sponsored brand-new community diversity award, as well as other exciting presentations.
