2007-08 Awards
The following awards and recognition
were announced at the annual installation banquet on June 21, 2008.
Congratulations and thanks to these people for their on-going support
of the ideals of Rotary.
Board of Directors Recognition
This recognition is provided to anyone who has served on the Board of Directors of the Rotary Club of Boulder Valley for a standard 2-year term. The recipients of this recognition for the 2007-2008 Rotary year are:
W. Rex Van Gordon
Vocational Service Committee Chair
TRF Fundraising Chair
International Service Committee Member — Nurses for Africa Project
Coordinated the Coat pick-up at CU
BCATH Volunteer Work
Jane Engel
Membership Committee Work
BCATH Project Coordinator
Community Service Volunteer
Work
Bill Farrow
Coordinates Coat Distribution to Local Charities
Community Foundation Trustee
Foundation Fundraising Chair
Community Service Volunteer
Work
Pacesetter Award
This award seeks to recognize the Rotarian who joined the club within the past Rotary year and has "Hit the Ground Running" in terms of interest, activity and contribution to club projects and goals. The recipients of this award for the 2007-2008 Rotary year are:
Tim Conarro
Recruited RYLA Candidates
Organized RSVP Volunteer Day
Front Desk Attendance Work
Hosted the Club's Youth
Exchange Student - Alice
Tom DeBie
Newsletter Editor
Community Service Committee
Work
Service above Self Award
This is awarded for exceptional service by a Rotary member in any endeavor, not necessarily in a Rotary function. The recipients of this award for the 2007-2008 Rotary year are:
India Hart Wood
In has been an extraordinarily
active Rotarian ever since she was recognized with the Pacesetter Award
as a new member during the 2003-2004 Rotary year. Almost immediately
she took on a leadership role with the club as Community Service Committee
Chair. She has worked to develop the committee and the process for awarding
the annual community service grants. Her enthusiasm and energy are contagious
as evidenced by the number of people involved with and activity of the
community service committee.
In addition to her Rotary
work, India has been very active in the non-profit Intercambio de Comunidades
- an organization that teaches English as a second language to adults
and whose mission is to build respectful communities and broaden opportunities
for immigrants through language education, cultural exchange and friendship.
She recently organized the special evening
meeting with Latino Entrepreneurs when the club hosted small business
entrepreneurs who are currently taking business English classes with
Intercambio de Communidades.
India has also been involved
with the Association for Community Living — an organization whose
mission is to promote the full participation in community life of people
with mental retardation and other developmental disabilities.
She and Paul recently hosted
our Youth Exchange Student — Alice and helped Alice develop her English
language skills by coordinating a tutor through Intercambio.
She has also been active
in the Yamagata Exchange Program. She was one of our club's delegates
to Yamagata several years ago and last year organized the club's hosting
of the Yamagata delegation that came to Boulder to celebrate the sister
city relationship with the planting of cherry (or Sakura in Japanese)
trees.
Paul Orzech
Paul began his commitment
to community involvement very early in his professional career. In the
1980, he participated in the Big Brothers Big Sisters of America program
in Illinois. Paul served as a mentor and a friend to young men who needed
guidance and support.
Paul continued his community
involvement when he joined Rotary in Colorado in 1987. Paul has remained
active with the service organization over the past two decades, hosting
a total of 10 youth exchange students. Paul and Cindi began hosting
exchange students in 1997 and most recently hosted our club's exchange
student for this year — Alice from Brazil.
Paul has also served as
the head of the Boulder Rotary College Scholarship Fund committee for
over seven years. Paul organizes an annual football contest at work
to raise additional money for the College Scholarship Fund, and in the
past seven years he has raised approximately $30,000. Additional charities
supported by the football contest include Freedom Service Dogs and The
Medicine Horse Program.
Paul is also involved in
the Innovation Quotient Awards and Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur
of the Year Awards that recognize entrepreneurship and local leadership.
In addition, Paul is very
active at his church, the Sacred Heart of Mary in Boulder, frequently
serving as the Eucharist reader and Liturgical minister.
For these and other achievements
Paul was recently honored by the Colorado Society of CPAs as a CPA Making
a Difference.
Rotarian of the Year Award
This is awarded for exceptional service by a Rotary member to the Rotary Club of Boulder Valley. The recipients of this award for the 2007-2008 Rotary year are:
Geoffrey C. Wheeler
Geoffrey has done a tremendous
job of coordinating our club's weekly programs over the past year
(and has agreed to do this again in the coming Rotary year.) I am sure
everyone would agree the programs are one of the greatest benefits of
being a Rotary member and they enrich are lives tremendously. I not
going to try to match Geoffrey's speaker introduction routine, but
here are some program highlights from the past year:
Claire Levy - Last legislative session and what's in store for the next round
Ben Thompson - Dealing With Cancer
Patty Limerick Interview w Karl Kumli - Interactive interview re: Patty's Perspectives on the West and The World
Harmonia Singers
Chris Johnson - Islam Law and the Quran
Bill Mooney, One Man Play, "With a Dogs Eyes" about the introduction of seeing eye dogs in America and the blind man, Frank Morris who did it.
Frosty Wooldridge, THE OVER POPULATION TIME BOMB
Kathy Beck, The Boulder Film Festival
Dayna Himot - Ten Fringe Festival, Actor and Musician and Intro to Fringe Festival
George Stroberg DVM - Taking Care of the Dogs, A Vet's Perspective on Alaska's Iditarod Dog Sled Race
Dan Hawkins - CU Football
Coach
Williams H. Farrow
Bill has been a member
of the Board of Directors as a Trustee of the Community Foundation.
In addition, he has coordinated the annual distribution of coats to
local charities, was the Community Foundation fundraising chair and
served at the front desk taking club attendance. In all of these activities,
Bill did an excellent job, maintaining excellent communication with
other club members, following through on every detail and keeping good
records of the work and contributions when needed. There have been several
occasions over the past year when I have asked people to review meeting
notes and other records for posting on the website and I can always
count on Bill to provide his edits.
Most importantly, Bill
has volunteered for numerous community service projects, including work
on the BCATH project and the spring cleanup day with RSVP. During
these activities he is always cheerful and willing to go the extra yard
to be sure the work is completed and well done.
Award of Excellence
This is awarded to club members for generous contributions and support for the ideals of Rotary International. The recipient of this award for the 2007-2008 Rotary year is:
James S. Beckley
Jim has been involved with Rotary off and on for almost 40 years first joining his home town Warren, PA club, where his grandfather was a charter member, when he was in his late twenties. Lunches were about $1 and there was much dessert when the price was increased to $1.25. The fund raisers were hands on Pancake Breakfasts and an adventure film series. Jim thinks it was much easier to sell tickets in a town of 12,000 people and nothing else to do.
In Miami he joined the several hundred member downtown club and was sponsored by the president of the club. He still keep in contact with this Rotarian almost monthly and was able to include him in 2007 as a referring broker in the sale of the Columbia Pictures Publication Building in Miami that he had built almost 25 years ago. He is currently approaching 90 years of age.
Jim has brought in a total of 5 new members of which three are current members and very active, Rex Van Gordon, Derrick Borgman and Tim Conarro. More importantly, his business "life line" includes at least 18 current and former members of our club who have helped guide him over the past 16 years.
The coat drive was his first project when he arrived in Boulder driving a Mercedes with bald tires. He has collected coats at three Niwot area schools every year and distributed them every year except when he has journeyed to Europe.
The first Community Service Project he headed was the installation of sod on the Niwot little league ball field. He remembers that he, his son and Dick Hedges as well as inmates from the Boulder County jail on work release laying all the sod which is still there and played on almost every day in the summer.
He has been fortunate to have donated his boat and Paris apartment to Rotary and other community non profits which has raised over $50,000 in the past six years.
Working with the Namlo Foundation our club provided the funding for the school at Barrio Neuvo, Nicaragua which was constructed three years ago with a lot of effort by Burton Lee, Van Hilty and James Thomas. We are now working on a two year project to provide pure water and sanitation facilities to this village working again with Namlo and the Longmont Twin Peaks and Mead clubs. Our feasibility and design phase is scheduled for completion this summer. Jim is working on fundraising and matching grants for this project.
Tragedy struck in late 2003 when Jon Rudolph was killed while driving to school. Jon played football with Jim's son and was a fine young man. For 4 years Jim worked with Rudy Rudolph in selecting the recipient at Niwot High School of our club sponsored scholarships to graduating Student/Athletes.
Jim has also taken in one exchange student and wishes he had done more.
He has served on the board of our community foundation for three years and as president of the board in the early 2000's seeing a large increase in our endowment.