Rotary Club of Niwot   
Niwot, Colorado, USA
Est. 2008

 Rotary Club of Niwot

Our Director for Projects and Chairperson is Matt Dolan

It's a glorious job! (But it earned him 'Rookie of the Year')--Bring your own shovel.

(Matt was the tail-gunner for the 4th of July parade and tasked with assuring that the road was clear and safe afterwards.)

Matt has surveyed the membership he and his committee are currently building the schedule of projects through June 2010. These projects are appearing on the Club Calendar (link to right). New projects may be proposed at any time, but we are doing the advanced planning to assure sufficient resources for the projects.

Projects generally fall into the categories below. Under each category are shown the projects we have and are performing at this time.

Give Matt a call to join in as a leader or participant for these projects. His email is mdolan@niwotrotary.org.

Community Projects

• Annual Oktoberfest (October 3, 2009). Proceeds to benefit Polio Day (Oct 24)

• Rotarians At Work Day {April 24, 2010, this year and always in late April--Whistle Stop Caboose restoration work this year*}

• Niwot Clean-Up Day, May 16, at Niwot High School

• 2008 and 2009 4th of July Parades

• Nostalgia Days Participation

• Enchanted Evening and Niwot Christmas activities

• Grange Restoration Support - Used book sales, plant sale, etc.

• Habitat for Humanity and Community Food Share - (chair: Ron Bernal)

• *Restoration of the Caboose in Whistle Stop Park--in conjunction with the Niwot Community Arts Association (NCAA)

Educational/Vocational

• Dictionary distribution at Niwot High and Elementary Schools 2009 and 2010 Distribution to 3rd Graders at Niwot Elementary School

• Student of the Month - Niwot High School (Chair is Julie Webster). See previous Students of the Month.

International Projects

• ShelterBox USA support--We sent 3 $1000 Shelter Boxes to Haiti

• Crutches4Africa (Chair is Kirk Stewart)

• Empowerment International

• Open for suggestions appropriate to a small club

Fund Raising

• Oktoberfest (Chair is Margaret Hix) What a Job! This is going to be a biggie for our club

• Pancake Breakfasts in Niwot (see Bert Steele)

• Boulder Creek Festival Beer Tent (in conjunction with Boulder Rotary Clubs)

• Western Slope Peaches

• Fall Citrus Sales (2009 and 2010)

Projects Summary
Community Projects

1. We want to focus on support for the Niwot Grange #9 and will soon be proposing a package of support to encourage our use of the upstairs as the regular venue for our weekly meetings.

2. We have contributed to the purchase of the railroad car in Whistle Stop Park and will be scrapping, painting, and restoring in support of the Niwot Community Association in August, 2009.

3. The 4th of July Parade was our first high-visibility community project and is now an annual responsibility.

4. We participated in Niwot Nostalgia Days and will continue to do so in the future. (Aug. 12, 2009, is the date for this year.)

5. Our Rotarians at Work Day project is Cleaning up the Niwot Loop Trail by removing old barbed wire fence near the trail head parking area on 79th St. It also includes clean-up and weeding the 100 block of downtown Niwot.

6. We are continuing our support for community clean-up--May 16, was the latest clean-up day on our schedule. A few snaps of Rotarians at the event:

   Dawn Buckingham and Jo Kirkenaer recycle electronics	Eric Ottem with scrap metal	David Page shows his metal	David and Kirk Stewart at the electronics area

Educational/Vocational Projects

1. Two educational projects are dictionaries for Niwot Elementary School and translation dictionaries for ELL classes at Niwot High School. See our dictionary project page.

2. Student of the Month project to recognize outstanding students at Niwot High School and their contributions to the school and the community. Student of the Month page.

International Projects

1. Our most spectacular project so far was the response to the Earthquake disaster in Haiti. In one meeting, the Thursday meeting after the quake, we raised the funds to immediately send 3 Shelter Boxes to Haiti. Amazing; and it beat Jo's old club in Carlsbad, CA. www.ShelterBoxUSA.org.

2. One of the prime objectives is the eradication of polio worldwide. The Niwot Rotary  club is fully participating in the effort having contributed $75 per member  on our Charter Day to Rotary International's fund raising effort. That money is matched 100% by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. On Oct 24, 2009 we will be participating in RI's final push to raise funds to stop polio.

3. Crutches 4 Africa--See our C4A project page under Service Pages.

4. We are continually looking at several international projects for polio eradication, clean water, green computers, and education in South America and Africa. We frequently have very interesting speakers in those areas and the club is continually considering projects where we can help.

Fund Raising Projects

1. Our pancake breakfasts at the Niwot Market allowed us to help contribute over $500 to the purchase of the railroad car in Whistle Stop Park.

2. The manpower provided at the Boulder Creek Festival to man and monitor the beer tent have provide project funds that mostly went to the purchase of dictionaries for Niwot Elementary School third graders.

3. The sales of western slope peaches and Florida Grapefruit and oranges also raised several hundred dollars that helped the dictionary project and will help future projects.