The meeting was held at Q's Bistro because we were told that the Student Cafeteria would be closed.

 

Visiting Rotarian: Tom Carlson from Stafford, VA, whose company is doing paving work at Fort Bayard Cemetery.

 

Other Guests: Ana Caite Caperton, Linda Lowrance, Clara Khan, Maggie's daughter, Jae Lin Avena, and Vladimir's wife, Jasmine Gnilozubov.  Our guest speaker was Romeo Cruz, Executive Director of the Chamber of Commerce.

 

Sunny Kellerman presided over the meeting. Carlos Lucero led us in the Pledge of Allegiance, Steve Chavira gave the invocation, and Art Thorn led us in the Four-Way Test.

 

 

We have received one application for selection as an auction beneficiary so far.  The deadline for applications will be extended from May 31 to June 15.  

 

Lucy Falley requested volunteers to coordinate speakers for the months of July, August, and September. Steve Chavira agreed to take August and Maggie Veeder will take September. Lucy will handle July herself, since she already has a couple of speakers lined up.

 

Sunny told us that a Rotarian from Holton, KS, had asked if we could arrange for him to get a ride from Silver City to Lordsburg after he completed the portion of the Continental Divide trail from Lordsburg to Silver City. He will be doing that in October, and it was understood that we would have no problem in accommodating him.

 

Sunny announced that there would be a meeting of the Foundation board directly after lunch.

 

Sunny told us that she had further discussions with Dave Chandler at The Commons about the backpack program that had been discussed briefly the previous week.  The proposal to "adopt a school" and provide a weekend food backpack for about 125 students in the mining district seems even more do-able given that volunteer support and financial support can be offered by the Commons.   (Dave estimates that six volunteers can pack 240 bags in 90 minutes.)  We also have a potential academic partner because Steve Chavira's wife is the principal at Bayard Elementary School. 

 

The total cost of the project for the 2022-23 school year would be about $13,000 of which we could expect to get somewhere between $2,000 and $3,000 from a District Grant. The Commons could contribute as well. We discussed the challenges of raising additional funds.  Art Thorn and Sunny Kellerman both pledged to match the first $5000 raised and Rosie and Max Higgs pledged $500 to get us started.

 

We discussed the feasibility of the program in light of our plan to have the next auction in April2023 and ultimately agreed that we could manage both. A motion to adopt this backpack program as our 2022-2023 District Grant project was approved.  Sunny announced that she will convene a meeting of Rotarians who attended the grants training this spring for the purpose of planning our grant proposal.

 

Jim Callender recommended, on behalf of the Club Board, that our club donate $500 to support Silver High School students who will be participating in the National History Day Competition in Washington DC.  The club voted to approve that expenditure. (Some of the participating students will be our speakers next week!)

 

Maggie had three happy dollars, one for having her daughter Jae Lin with her, another for her own fortieth birthday, and a third for 

thanking "fellow Rotarians for not letting me put money in 

to pay for the piano tuning."

 

Rosie had a happy dollar for a decision she and Max made to take a cruise around the British Islands ending in Amsterdam to celebrate their 48th wedding anniversary.