Claude also reminded the club of our new web site at: www.rotarycluboffortcollins.org This web site has several new features. It contains a members only section that is password protected and a page that allows anyone to donate to the charitable ventures of the club. The donation goes through the Community Fund of Northern Colorado. The Fund takes care of all record keeping for the club and paperwork necessary for recpgnizing donors. This web page is the one site that will lead members to all of our activities, like Rotogear, Weekly Photos Club officers, Committees, etc.

Cadet Maxcey thanked us for the recognition and then told us what ROTC means to him. He said that CSU ROTC has been amazing to him and he saw that at the last leadership course he attended. Cadets from schools from all over the nation gather at the leadership camps that help to prepare them to become officers. He compared the training he received at CSU ROTC with what he saw from other schools and said that CSU's ROTC program is one of the best in the nation. Sam ended by saying that it will be a great honor to serve our country.

Jaime is from Fort Collins but went to Windsor High School. She becomes the seventh player from Fort Collins to play volleyball at Colorado State since 1982.

Jamie is a junior and had a very productive season. She played in all 30 matches and 110 games, as an outside hitter...Finished the season with a team-leading 392 kills...Hit .217 and averaged 3.56 kills per game...Set career bests in every category...Notched 24 kills against both BYU and TCU for a career high...Had a least 10 kills in 23 matches...Also had a career-attack high at BYU with 58 swings...Set her career high in digs with 22 vs. Missouri State...Had six blocks against Wyoming...Had 64 blocks for the season, averaging 0.58 per game...Finished third on the team with 284 digs...Earned 13 double-doubles...Named the Mountain West Conference Tournament MVP.

I'm Christine Chin, you know I am president of The Coloradoan.

Who am I beyond that? I'm a 3rd generation Chinese-American. My grandparents immigrated here illegally decades ago. The Chinese have been the only group in US history to be federally barred from entering the United States - unless they were already a US citizen. My grandparents bought birth certificates and citizenship papers and assumed new identities to immigrate to the US in the late 1920s. In 1972, as many of you know, Nixon changed the law and my grandparents became true citizens. Having visited one of my ancestral villages in 1988, I am eternally grateful that they endured what they did to come to California.

Christine Chin

I am a wife and mother. My eight-year old daughter is a source of wonder, consternation, and joy. My husband and I celebrated 19 years together last month. I enjoy cooking and baking, reading, and family time. I spend some of my free time in at race-tracks while my husband races his vintage race car. I enjoy Fort Collins…I'm learning to enjoy the outdoors. Until I moved, enjoying the outdoors meant a glass of wine on the deck…now it's a bit more energetic than that.

I also enjoy making a difference and I do that through my work at the Coloradoan.

Michael Stradt

1. Merit Badge University occurs on the first two Saturdays of January, 8:00 to 12:00 am.
2. Rotarians volunteer to teach or assist in a class room setting in one of 20-24 merit badges being offered. The list of badges is distributed in November along with a merit badge book and computer codes to help the instructors plan their presentation.
3. Other Rotarians may volunteer to work the second Saturday by reviewing and checking off homework boys need to do for some badge requirements.
4. Rotarians may determine if the boys may follow up with the Rotarian to complete any remaining requirements after the two one hour sessions or just continue through Boy Scout channels.

Members can find information about all committees by visiting the online list of all of the club's committees on the web at: FC Rotary Club Committees

Marianne thanked the club for honoring her with the opportunity to be the Rotary Read visiting children's author. As a former teacher, she said that she loves going to schools and talking to kids about books and writing. It is her favorite part of being an author and because, once a teacher you never stop being a teacher. She started her presentation by reciting a poem by another children's book author, the late Linda Smith. She said that this poem is appropriate for Rotary because of our program of giving each 3rd grader a dictionary. The poem is, "Word Delicious".

I think words are just delectable, a lovely literary treat,
From bubbling bowls of alphabet soup to syllables so sweet.
I nibble novels late at night; I love a good lyric for lunch,
Suffixes for supper, exclamations in my punch,
French fried fables, pickled poems, Oh! I just cannot eat one,
A rotisserie of A to Z awaits my buttered bun.
I've mixed devils food with antonyms and put them in to bake,
Assimilated in heaven, it became an angle cake.
That's of vowels, verbs, vinaigrette and paragraphs divine,
I've marinated mysteries and munched them line by line.
But if I had my way I'd eat everyday,
The greatest, gluttonest grand buffet,
The heroes hoard, the smorgasbord, the brimingest book on the shelf,
Oh, belly make merry a whole dictionary and I'd eat it all by myself.

Marianne's dad was a Rotarian and she said he would be proud of her today. He lived his last twelve years in Fort Collins and she visited here often. When she and her husband moved here, it was just like being home. She obtained most of her story material from her own family. She encouraged all of to write down family stories as these are our family treasures that need to be passed on to later generations. Maybe a grandchild or great grandchild or other relative will be an author and use those precious anecdotes like she has.

Her dad was a construction worker who routinely brought home all kinds of stuff, "junk". He also was a good story teller. When asked why he kept all of the stuff he would routinely say, "some rainy day I'll be needing that". Her book "Gullywasher Gulch", is about a combination of her dads saying with western gully washer rain storms. Another of her books, "Over the Waves", came from stories from a cousin's diary about her grandmother's trip to Sweden, her homeland, in 1914. When WW I broke out it was difficult to return to the US, and the stories led to the book. "Windows of Gold", another of her books is a collection of family stories and fairy tales.

Marianne answered many questions from the audience about her writing career. She started with the usual questions from children. What happens when you are stuck? How do you make a book? How do you pick the title? And from our club she got, where do you find a good agent? How do you approach a new book? How do you determine the age group for a book? What is the relationship between you and the illustrator? And last, do you use a pencil or computer? Marianne was very entertaining speaker, it is easy to see why she is a good author.

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 Warren Garst, Lannie Boyd and Alan Ashbaugh for the Rotary Club of Fort Collins, Colorado, December 12, 2007