On Wednesday, December 6, fellow Rotarian Eric Nachtrieb comes to our luncheon meeting at the Lincoln Center and reports how Rotarians have had a significant impact on the continent of Africa and Island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean over the years.
Kyle is from Colorado Springs and has been at CSU for seven years, obtaining his undergraduate degree and currently working on his Masters degree. Upon commissioning, he would like to be an Operations Research Analyst. “Cadet Shetler has been on fire this Fall Term as our cadet wing Public Affairs (PA) lead,” reports Detachment Commander Gregg Johnson. “He has taken previous PA processes/products and improved on them many times over.” Kyle played a critical part in the CSU ROTC Alumni Rendezvous event where he captured generations of ROTC alumni/Veteran engagements during the dedicated time with cadets and social time.
The presentation for our noon meeting on November 29 was by Dr. Diana Wall, the head of CSU’s School of Global Environmental Sustainability, who works on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning, especially in the dry valleys of Antarctica. She commented that she has spent the last 28 Christmases in Antarctica where she studies the soil of the dry valleys to increase our understanding of how climate change may affect terrestrial ecosystems with its implications for effects in more temperate settings. Specifically, she is interested in the effects of changes in temperature and precipitation on the biota, ecosystem functions, and habitat. The advantages of working with the soils of the dry valleys include that the species diversity is reduced so species relations are easier to determine, there are no non-native species with which she has to contend, and the denizens are sensitive to climate change.
At our meeting on November 22, RCFC member Dave Stewart gave us the world premiere of his video “Can Rotary’s 4-Way Test Save the Colorado River?” The video resulted from a District/Club grant of $4000 which was grown to $50,000. The video can be seen on YouTube at this link: or search for Crisis on the Colorado (the title of the video) or Dave Stewart Colorado River. Dave’s vision is that the video will be offered to the 3000 Rotary Clubs in the Colorado River Basin along with the assistance of experts (either by Zoom or on-site) to move forward with addressing the crisis.
