We are having a very important International Service Committee (ISC) meeting Thursday, May 14, at 11:00 AM in the main floor Lone Tree Conference Room. I am inviting the entire noon club membership to attend, not just the ISC members. We are brainstorming what the ISC wants to do in the coming fiscal year, 2026-2027. We encourage new members to participate.
Topic: Call for Information/Ideas and Involvement in our International Service Committee.
Purpose: Identify potential hands-on projects as well as international service projects to support financially.
Sunrise Club
Sunrise Club member Guy Hopkins (above) spoke to the club on the topic: AI UNLOCKED…Discover what you didn't know!
Meeting notes from Coleen Hepp:
In addition to the usual housekeeping (Foundation updates, Happy Bucks, Ray’s Dad Jokes, volunteer opportunities, etc.):
Rebecca Hu volunteered to be the Sunrise Club representative to work with Noon Club to coordinate peach sales. Thank you, Rebecca! Jan Keyton will mentor Rebecca on the role.
Zig Berzins joined us to update us and offer three invitations: 1) sign up for the Epic Day of Service solar panel event on May 16, 10 am – Noon, at the Highlands Ranch Senior Center; 2) join the Rotary committee to support Ukraine; and 3) purchase solar chargers (buy one/give one) through the Unite to Light/Rotary Highlands Ranch partnership.
Ray updated us that our grant requests were approved, leaving us with a surplus of $2,700 for this Rotary year. We discussed sponsoring 2 more RYLA participants for $1,600, and are floating ideas for granting the remaining funds.
Guy will send out a poll for us to vote on the Sunrise Rotarian of the Year 2025-2026. Year-end is coming fast! (We’re still looking for a chair-elect for 2027-2028.)
We were reminded that the Highlands Ranch Rotary Club Changing of the Guard is on June 27 (all HR clubs) and the Sunrise Changing of the Guard/social will be held July 11.
Gary let us know that another Epic Day of Service opportunity is Volunteer Day at the Colorado Freedom Memorial. They need lots of help in cleaning up the grounds and preparing the Memorial for the annual Memorial Day event. They would love our support! If interested, please visithttps://volunteersignup.org/9PWDQ
Guy Hopkins was our Sunrise member/speaker. Guy is the President of CMIT Solutions of South Denver, an IT solutions, services, and support company. He gave a fascinating presentation on how AI isused in business vs. our everyday lives, and how it is evolving. While it can be super helpful with tasks (Guy will use it for taking minutes as Club Secretary next year!), it can also be a bit finicky with data and information. Bottom line – don’t count on it providing 100% reliable information. Always double-check the results!
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Also from Connie Golas regarding Hope Ignites:
Here is the invite for our End of Year Celebration on May 21st, 5:00pm, at CommonGround Golf Course. It’s a big family graduation party with all our high school and college graduates. We are celebrating 17 high school graduations and 12 college graduations. Our seniors will be attending Colorado Mesa University, Colorado State University, Community College of Aurora, Emory University, George Washington University, Regis University, University of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Pennsylvania, and Washington University next year. Thank you so much to the Highlands Ranch Rotary for underwriting the travel expenses to EnvisionU!
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A Warrior Saber was presented to both Connie Golas and Tom Keyton (below). Very well deserved for decades of service while in the military and for serving our community (and beyond!) afterwards!
Photo: Jan Keyton
We also got to hear from a 102-year-old WWII veteran (below with Mike Foss) who told us a couple of well delivered jokes!
Our outgoing Children's Hospital Psychiatric Fellow, Dr. Carly Kawanishi (below).
Our Rotary Children's Hospital Psychiatric Fellow, Dr. Carly Kawanishi, recounted her professional experiences from this past year.
"It was so lovely to meet more of the folks from the Rotary Club!
I wanted to share a few resources to send out to the other Rotary members during today's session:
General resources for self-compassion practices for those interesting in learning more:
For people specifically interested in attending a self-compassion for caregivers' session, Dr. Neff is actually leading a workshop at the end of this month and registration is still open:
Thank you again for inviting me, and for all of your warmth and support of the trainees in our fellowship program!"
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Family of Rotary
Mary Kay Hasz is recovering from her surgery. Her new address is now in Club Runner.
Terre Cone's knee surgery seems successful. She plans to be at our meeting on Thursday!
From Ann and Ron Lester:
Hi Everyone,
I just wanted to give you a brief update on Ann. As you know, we did stop treatment in March and moved Ann to hospice care. In early April her health continued to deteriorate and we had to move Ann to a skilled nursing facility. We are lucky to have found Vi, a very nice facility in Highlands Ranch and close to the condo. They are taking great care of Ann.
Over the last week, Ann caught a respiratory virus and it has really set her back. She is comfortable but sleeping almost all the time right now. No one knows when things will happen, but we are close to the end now.
All along the way, all of you have been great at supporting us with your thoughts, prayers and positive comments and thoughts. We need them now more than ever. Please pray for peace and comfort for Ann and strength and wisdom for me to support her.
There really aren’t words to express our gratitude to all our friends and family for the support you have provided. Thank you so much.
We love you all,
Ann & Ron
Please send submissions to philipbclarke@gmail.com and put Wheel Spinner in the subject line.
Shameless plug:
The Elderly Brothers have a “public” show on 6/7 at Farro Italian Restaurant. Call Farro's for reservations.
Thanks to Kari Brown for tech support and to Beth Clarke for proofreading.
Thanks to you for being a Rotarian!
“…and in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”
