June 21, 2024
Our greeters this morning are Tom Glazier and Matt Dollarhide. A beautiful morning as summer has arrived.
President Casey Funk is away, and Bob Avery is standing in for him, and rings the bell promptly at 7. Denny Dressman reads the invocation this morning. Oh God help us always continue the fight for freedom. Thank you, God for Fathers and the lessons they teach us. Denny then leads us in the pledge of allegiance.
BOY SCOUTS
Guests this morning, John Salstrom is with Boy Scouts of America telling us about the BSA Conservation Award. The BSA Distinguished Conservation Service Awards program encourages and recognizes Scouts, Sea Scouts and Venturers who design, lead, and carry out conservation projects that are based on sound scientific principles and practices. The projects should contribute to sound conservation and environmental improvement in the local community, the region, or the nation. The applicant is expected to research potential projects and to choose, with guidance from a conservation adviser, a worthy project. The award was established in 1915 and is a very difficult achievement to earn.
Emily Reddick with Johnson & Associates, is looking for volunteers for various jobs at this Denver FAN EXPO at the Colorado Convention Center. This appears to be an iteration of the Comic Con convention. They need help checking bags, and a variety of other volunteer opportunities. FAN EXPO Denver is the ultimate go-to event for sci-fi, horror, anime, and gaming event in Denver that attracts hundreds of thousands of people at the Colorado Convention Center.
Every year, FAN EXPO Denver offers exciting family-friendly attractions, events, and world-renowned Celebrities! Previous Guests include Jason Momoa, Millie Bobby Brown, Nathan Fillion, William Shatner, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, David Tennant, Dave Bautista, Zachary Levi, and stars from hit TV shows & Film: Stranger Things, The Walking Dead, Star Trek
BIKE MS
Bob Avery is sending out email solicitations for the upcoming MS Ride coming up at the end of this month, Jun 29 and 30th. MSOC and Tamarac Optimist Club will be staffing the hydration station on Sunday, June 30 from about 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Pat Bush reports that we took in more last week than we spent for breakfast. Pat asks for budget estimates from those in charge of events, the club puts on, for next year. He needs these by the end of July please.
Phil Perington says the raffle will be awarding money to those inclined to buy a ticket. The main benefactor is the JOI club here locally. The drawing is August 16. Buy tickets! Sell tickets!
VISIT MUSIC MUSEUM
Mark Metevia asks us if we remember Gordon Close, a recent speaker. Mark asks for those interested to carpool after our regular meeting to visit the Rocky Mountain Music Museum. Mark has made arrangements with Gordon to a visit on June 28, after the Friday meeting. If you're interested, please contact Mark.
Don Thomson reports that CBS News did a half hour show on the extreme situation at McMeen with the influx of Venezuelans who have almost nothing of their own and don't speak much English. Google "McMeen Elementary Denver" to see this fascinating look at their plight. MSOC has contributed significantly to this school, which was one of the first Super Citizen participants.
SPEAKER
Michael Ramsdail is our speaker this morning. He is the Vice President of Spiritual Development for CrossPurpose. The organization was started in 2008 and is a nonprofit working with people who are low income but want to improve their situation. They offer a Career development program and wrap around services. Michael reports that for every dollar spent on training, 3 dollars are returned to the community through increased wages, and benefits. Many clients come to the program with substance abuse issues and the program helps them with those issues as well. Clients or leaders, as they are called, must have an address, and transportation to get to classes. Each leader must meet criteria to participate.
After orientation the leaders complete a Personal Development portion including monetary management, and personal behavior in the workplace. Skill Development includes finding out what career each leader is interested in, and how they match with professional development. Michael reports that over 80% of placements are still involved in the career they were placed after a year. CrossPurpose has 3 locations in the metro area, including a $50 million dollar project that will be in Aurora. Each location conducts 4 classes per year, containing 50-80 leaders per class. Making a positive impact for the individual and our community as well. A chance for upward mobility, to reconnect with family, and make a positive impact for each individual.
Giving back to the community has been a great program for the people involved for the last 10 years. The program started 10 years ago by the pastor, Jason Janz who decided he wanted to spend the next 30 years of his life helping people transform their life. This program was launched with the idea that helping people achieve a better station in life does more for them than giving them a turkey at Thanksgiving.
The program has budgeted $20,000 per student for training and education. Each leader receives a stipend during the program to help them with living expenses. Our caterer, Mike tells us about a program called Launch that works closely with CrossPurpose, giving training and education. LAUNCH is Specifically designed for Colorado SNAP recipients.
Michael came to Colorado from Wisconsin in 2018 with a background in the church, and education. The program emphasizes attendance and the complete package to personal and professional development. There are many ways to get involved,
CrossPurpose.org is the link to learn more about this program. thank you, Michael!
DRAWING
In today's drawing, the pot contains $40. The card winners include
Allen Malask,
Dick Nickoloff, while
Kevin Dempsey had no luck drawing a card. Other winners are
Ed Leuty, Phil Perington, Bob Avery, and
Vaughn Kendall also draws a card.
Allen Malask receives another cup. Bob selects
Allen Malask's name from the plastic jug, and Allen picks a card, but it's not the winning card.
We recite the Creed and go forth to promote Optimism.
Someone posted that they had just made synonym buns. I replied, "you mean just like the ones that grammar used to make?" I am now blocked.
Dr. Oz says rubbing coffee grounds on your naked body will get rid of cellulite. Apparently, you can't do this in Starbucks. And now the cops are here.
