The Rotary Club of Denver Stapleton

Our world traveler and hiking expert Ed Cole yesterday showed us a slide presentation of his recent trip to Bhutan.

Bhutan is a small mountainous country on the southern slopes of the eastern Himalayas, bordered on three sides by India and by China to the north. Bhutan is a primarily Buddhist country, called “Druk” by its residents.There is just one airport in the country – in order to land at the airport, the pilot has to fly a curving flight path thru valleys in order to reach the airport.

Ed and Kay were with a group of nine tourists, visiting Bhutan during a three-day festival where the residents wore colorful costumes and performed many ritual type dances. The highest point in Bhutan is Gangkhar Puensum at 24,840 ft, which is also the highest unclimbed mountain in the world. The highest point Ed and Kay hiked was 13,000 feet.

One striking featuer as Ed and Kay traveled the country were the prayer flags. It is believed by many Bhutanese Buddhists that the ideal number of prayer flags for deceased people is 108, preferably made from freshly cut trees.

The farms are very small plots. Oxen or very small tillers work best on the small plots. Farm houses in Bhutan are built with three levels. The bottom level housed the animals. The second level is where the family lived. The third level was for storing the crops. There was usually a small temple inside each house.

The scheduled Denver Stapleton Rotary meeting for Tuesday November 15, 2011 is canceled – see you at the Evening Social at Gregg’s house on Friday!

The Denver Stapleton Rotary Club welcomed Kathy Underhill as its guest speaker on November 8.  Kathy is the Executive Director of Hunger Free Colorado, the state’s leading anti-hunger organization dedicated to ensuring that all Coloradans have sustainable access to nutritious, affordable food.

She told us that children ages 0-5 years are the most likely to suffer to from hunger and that 23% of Colorado residents have a food hardship.  The incidence rate is  increasing; the severity is increasing.  Hunger is a solvable problem.  The School Lunch Program offers free and low cost lunches and many offer breakfast programs, but the programs are not well utilized.

In  Colorado we have an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) system as a successor to the old “food stamps.” This program provides a card that can only be used to purchase food (not household goods or incidentals), and it actually serves as an economic stimulus program since the purchases help support markets, food service workers, farms, etc. Colorado is ahead of only Guam in participation. HFC is trying to raise awareness of the problem, and they are getting more sites approved to distribute food.  With help from HFC, the number of sites in Colorado has increased by 90% in two years.

HFC also has a Hunger Free Hotline at 720-382-2920 or toll free at 855-855-4626.  People can call to see what programs are available to them, with information customized to their individual needs, and receive help in applying for food assistance programs. Information is available in both English and Spanish.

For more inormation about Hunger Free Colorado, please visit their website at www.HungerFreeColorado.org

Here’s a message we received from Jeanne Fischetti, Volunteer Program Manager for Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver:

I am reaching out because Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver is building 6 homes in Commerce City this winter and we’re in need of volunteer support. With the Stapleton neighborhood just south of Commerce City I thought this might be a great volunteer opportunity the Rotary Club. Volunteer opportunities are available Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays starting in January and running through March. Volunteers must be at least 16 years old and willing to work from 9-4:30 p.m. Thank you in advance for your help.

For more information, please visit Habitat for Humanity of Metro Denver’s website at www.habitatmetrodenver.org

Here’s a message we received from Margaret Pauls of the USGBC Colorado Green Schools Initiative:

This might be a little unconventional, but I volunteer with the non-profit USGBC Colorado Green Schools Initiative. We host a Green Schools Summit every year. This year ours is on October 28. We were thinking about ways to get participants to the event via carpool or other, and we don’t have the additional volunteer power this year to spearhead much in this vein. Do you have any folks interested in assisting? we are certainly open to ideas. The event will be held at the Evie Garrett Dennis Campus, a Denver Public School facility. Any ideas or help you can offer would be great to talk about.

Feel free to call Margaret at 303 250 8450 for more information.