In 1959 the state government of Queensland, Australia, invited local Rotarians to help plan a festival celebrating Queensland’s upcoming centenary. The gundoo, an aboriginal word meaning “festival” or “fun together” was a rousing success as more than 300 men and woman between the ages of 17 and 23 attended. Governor Art Brand of then District 260 approved the project and on May 2, 1960 RYLA was born.

Australian districts 258 and 260 developed the official framework of RYLA: to train youth (ages 14-30) in character, leadership, personal development and good citizenship. These guidelines helped RYLA expand to all Rotary districts and led to RYLA’s approval as an international program by the RI board at the 1971 RI Convention. The first RYLA in districts 5440 and 5450 took place July 26-31, 1987. In 2002 Districts 5440 and 5450 started a unique RYLA to bring the RYLA experience to middle school students with the development of YRYLA. In 2006 the District created Advanced RYLA to help men and woman ages 19 to 23 apply their leadership skills to the real world. Districts 5440 and 5450 annually select the best youth that apply through the 114 Rotary clubs in Northern Colorado/Denver, Western Nebraska and Wyoming to decide who will attend each year’s conference.

Brian Burck has been a financial advisor and partner of Edward Jones for the past 21 years, all in Ft Collins. In 1988 Brian and his wife, Monica, moved from Austin, Texas to open the first Edward Jones office in Ft Collins. Brian has been a Rotarian since 2003, and is past chairman of Rotary Read. He received his BS in finance from the University of Southern California, and his MBA from UC-Berkeley. He and Monica have been married 21 years and have 2 children, Rob (18, a Freshman at CU-Boulder) & Christina (17, a Jr Poudre HS).

And Melanie announced that a club garage sale will be held on September 19, with setup on September 18. Start collecting your stuff now. The sale will be at the Harmony Presbyterian Church.

When the Army wanted to send Warren to the Pentagon, he decided to pursue his second career, Golf Administration. He went from Florida to Pennsylvania and finally came back to the high country as Director of Rules and Competitions for the Colorado Golf Association. He retired from that position in 2006, but he still volunteers to officiate golf events 40 to 50 days a year.

When he retired and came to Colorado he looked around for a home business to bring in a little income. His sister introduced him to Melaleuca, The Wellness Company. He currently partners with Melaleuca as a Marketing Executive to introduce people to the company. They try out the products, and if they like them they remain customers.

There is a gospel song that asks the question, “Have you ever looked at a sunset, with the sky billowing Red?” Since moving to Fort Collins he has been blessed being able to watch the sun disappear over the Front Range many times. And that is how he feels with this transition in his life, coming to a wonderful community with great welcoming people like this club's members. He was thankful for being allowed to be a part of Rotary.

Their talk and supporting video covered four major topics. First they described the importance of what museums do for a community which included being a gathering place, destination location for visitors, education of present to past connectivity and reasons for businesses to locate here, etc. Secondly, they provided an overview of the museum/science center partnership. They gave the vision and mission, described and showed a map of the location, gave the current financial status and the focus on three basic principles. They also described how they decided what to include (a Venn Diagram) and how it will be arranged (an Adjacency Plan) in the facility. And specifically they described a little about the much anticipated “Digital Dome.” Third, they described the current state which included the project milestones from the 2005 community vote to the current ground breaking plans in 2010. And last they told us how we can help the effort, which was mainly help spread the word about this unique city facility and of course help close the gap between the current promised funding of $18.8 million to the needed $23.8 million.

To find out more about this intriguing concept and dual facility go to their web site at. FC Museum / Discovery Science Center and/or their blog at: The Blog about the FCM&DSC . Cheryl and Annette answered some interesting questions from our members.

"The historian must not try to know what is truth, if he values his honesty; for, if he cares for his truths, he is certain to falsify his facts." -- Henry Adams

Warren and Genny Garst Wildlife Collection at CSU Click here or on the "tiger."

Rotary District 5440 Home Page - We recommend browsing this page, particularly the links to other Clubs in District 5440 as your time permits.

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Copyright © by Lannie Boyd and Alan Ashbaugh for the Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Colorado, August 5, 2009