February 24, 2010

Pikes Peak Rotary Club of Woodland Park, CO

The Pikes Peak Rotary Club

The Pikes Peak Rotary Club Pikes is a rather small club in membership but one that has long provided help for the local, national and international community. Our club was organized in 1992 and has provided ring-the-bell services for the Salvation Army helping to provide over $200,000. We have assisted in the development of our new library. We actively participated in the successful efforts to bring the Pikes Peak Regional Hospital to our community and with the assistance of a grant from Rotary International assisted in bringing the Pikes Peak Rotary Wellness Project to the Teller County Schools. Other efforts include support for the Community Cupboard and the Care & Share Organization.

What’s Going On?

We also provide scholarship funds to deserving college students and are working to provide a dictionary to every third grader in the county (1,400 thus far). We have provided funds through Rotary for international projects such projects as physical therapy equipment for a hospital in South Korea and Braille typewriters to a trade school in Argentina, micro-lending projects to women in third world countries, and the PolioPlus Program dedicated to the world-wide eradication of polio along with other international projects such as milk cows for poor families in India. We plan to use the funds raised from the house raffle to meet these and other pressing community needs, and to address new needs arising from the current economy. We believe we have done well, but there is so much more to do with the Salvation Army running short of funds and our local animal shelters being overwhelmed with dogs, cats and horses that their owners can no longer afford to care for.

What have we accomplished in our Teller County Community? Through the Community Service Committee:

  • In our founding year (1992/1993) we led the construction of the Play Park Above the Clouds located at Gateway Elementary School.
  • We have rung the bell for the Salvation Army at Christmas since 1992.  Christmas 2008 was our 17th year at this most fulfilling (and cold) task.  With our efforts; and the contribution from Safeway we were able to gift the SA a total of $23,661 in 2008.  Total 16 year contributions are over $208,000.
  • We’ve built trails at Mueller State Park, Manitou Lake and at Green Mountain Falls.
  • Planted trees with the S.O.S. (Save Our Society) club at Woodland Park High School.
  • We have had golf tournaments to benefit local organizations.  For three years our efforts raised $15,000 to furnish Room 114 (the children’s room) in the Rampart Library in Woodland Park.  Past recipients have included the Teen Center and the Literacy Coalition.  In 2004/2005 our efforts built our Centennial Gift to the community at a cost of $35,500:  With a partnership with the City of Woodland Park and the Rampart Library District the Rotary Terrace at The Woodland Park Library is a reality.
  • To date $17,000 has been raised and contributed to help bring the Pikes Peak Regional Hospital to Teller County.  Currently we have a Matching Grant from The Rotary Foundation for the Pikes Peak Rotary Wellness Project in our Teller County Schools in the amount of $30,551.
  • In 2004 we contributed new refrigeration equipment to our local Care & Share organization; the Community Cupboard.  In 2005 we assisted in the purchase of a copy machine for the Aspen Mine Center.

Both made possible by a District 5470 Simplified Grant; another exciting component of Rotary.

Through the Vocational Service Committee:

  • Sponsor students to the Rotary Youth Leadership Academy each summer.
  • Recognize a Most Improved and an Outstanding Student each month during the school year.
  • Provide second semester college Service Above Self Awards to two students from Teller County each year in varied amounts.
  • We are a major contributor to the Rotary Champions program in Colorado Springs, which recognizes high school students for their academic and athletic achievements as well as their contribution to our community.
  • We are committed to giving a Children’s Scholastic Dictionary to every third grader of Teller County each year.  This project began in 2004.  With the 2008 school year 1,700 dictionaries will have been distributed.
  • In 2009 we partnered with Junior Achievement to bring JA in a day to Cresson Elementary in Cripple Creek.

Through the International Service Committee:

  • The Pikes Peak Rotary Club has invested in excess of $33,000 to The Rotary Foundation that serves the world in many needed projects.
  • We have matched international grants to provide physical therapy equipment to a youth hospital in South Korea and Braille typewriters to a trade school in Argentina.
  • We have contributed funds to “Friendship Bridge” a project that provides micro-lending to women start up businesses in third world countries and to “Morningstar” an organization that provides leadership training to young people in Afghanistan.
  • We have dedicated our efforts on funds to Rotary International’s PolioPlus Program, with our goal of fulfilling our promise to the children of the world: the eradication of polio throughout the world.
  • In 2008 we obtained a “Matching Grant” from Rotary International and a club in India to provide 30 milk cows to families in India and in turn they are helping us sponsor a well child medical screening and immunization through the Teller County Health Department and the Pikes Peak Regional Hospital (mentioned above, in the amount of $30,551).

Is there something in your community that you would like to see different?  You can have influence on those issues through membership in your local Rotary Club.  Our Creed is “Service Above Self”, so appropriate for citizens who live in the “City Above the Clouds”. Come join us!