JULY 2018 BULLETIN

Greetings fellow Exchangites;

This is my last official message to you as your Exchange Club President.

We had a pretty good year all in all. I had set several goals which I did not achieve. One is recruiting 20 new members. From the beginning of my term, I realized that this was a rather lofty goal but truly wanted to bring us up to 100 members. We did bring in a total of 8 new members; however, we also lost about the same.

The second goal I did not achieve was starting a Collegiate Excel Club. Insofar as the Excel Club goes, I am pledging to you that, I will work extra hard this fall in getting an Excel Club started at Tech. I am much more familiar with what it takes to begin the process of organizing a new Club.

We had some excellent speakers thanks to Noah, Cory and many other Club members getting informative speakers. My sincere thanks to all of you who have participated in bringing our great Club such a wonderful variety of speakers and topics.

Our November Club Social, Membership Drive and, New Member Orientation was a success story for our club thanks to Leo and Lauren getting the social all set up. A special thanks to Liza and Chuck of the Quarry Brewery for the use of their Grand Ballroom. Thanks also are extended to John Chioutsis for his generous and kind offer to pay for the food at the November Social.

The Carousel crew has donated 1000’s of hours of volunteer time to bring this community wide project to fruition. Jim Stilwell and Brad Rixford, along with many other Club members put forth an over the top effort to help with this project.

Marie and her FunRaiser Committee did such a fantastic job in planning and, bringing a new and different approach to raising monies for us to give away to other needy non-profit organizations.

Julie Cernich and Chris Rosa spearheaded our Youth of the Year and ACE awards candidates. We had some brilliant young men and women tell us what our future may look like. They also shared some difficult personal stories about themselves which took a lot of courage and extremely hard work on their part(s).

The Daniel brothers (Tom and Steve) went above and beyond to support our great Club in so many ways. Being 3rd / 4th generation Exchangites, they never let the Club down.

Our new members have become involved in our projects and are such a joy to talk and work with.

Our long-time members have also contributed so much to the success of our Club and come out of the woodwork to lend a helping hand when called upon.

Our Board of Directors was such a great support to the Club and me personally. I can’t thank each of you enough for all you have done to insure the future success of the Butte Exchange Club. Please thank them for their time and dedication.

The officers I had the privilege to serve with are nothing short of amazing. From Marie as our President Elect, Shane as our Vice President (and now our President Elect), Brad our fantastic Secretary and, Andy, our Treasurer who works extremely long hours to insure we are on sound financial ground, writing checks balancing the books, giving advice as to the Club’s financial responsibilities. What an amazing team of officers. I am truly and, seriously grateful to each of these officers for their advice, friendship and, dedication to our Great Club and our community.

A hearty thanks to Elyse and Penny for taking care of Public Relations and Club news.

WE did succeed in getting the Field of Honor approved and the committee is charging forward to make this event another community success story. A sincere thanks to all the committee members for their hard work and personal time they have committed to give to this wonderful project.

We were also successful in achieving one of my goals of getting another Freedom Shrine. We have been approved by the Airport manager to put a Freedom Shrine at the new Airport. We just need to meet with Pam Chamberlin and decide where these historic documents will be placed.

If I left anyone out, please forgive me. Each of you has been so great to me and I cherish our friendships.

I know that Shane is going to be a great President for our Club. He will need your support to help him accomplish his goals. So, as I go out and Shane comes in, please show him the same support and friendship you have blessed me with.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time serving you and our community and I wish each of you the very best in all you do.

One last thing, it is super critical that we all stay involved with the different committee’s the Exchange Club has to offer as, there is something for each of us and we have a duty to ourselves and our GREAT CLUB to stay active and involved to insure the continued success of the Butte Exchange Club.

May God bless you all and provide you with His guidance as we grow as individuals and has a whole (Club).

My very Best wishes to all,
Doug Rotondi

UPCOMING EVENTS

The Butte Exchange Club meets every Tuesday at noon in the second floor conference room of the Resodyn Headquarters (Old Hennessy Building) using the entrance at 16 East Granite Street.

Speakers

August 7, 2018                     Matt Stepan – Montana Tech Athletic Director

Events

Garbage Guys continue regular cleanup. They will meet Thursdays at Perkins at 8:30. Contact Pat Cooney (patrick0049@charter.net) with questions.

There will be a short Board of Directors Meeting at 1:00 after our regular Tuesday meeting on August 7th.

The annual BEC bus trip to the Philipsburg Theater is set for August 16th. The trip includes dinner, beverages, a showing of “Hope”, ice cream, and prizes. Please RSVP to Steve Daniel (steve@danielfinancial.com).

The 2018 Field of Honor is set for August 23rd – 26th. Contact Lauren Kippen (lkippen@thespringsliving.com) or Cindy Farrar (farrarck@aol.com) if you would like to help out. See below for further details.

2018 Field of Honor Additional Information (updated)

For information on the 2018 Field of Honor go to: www.ButteFieldofHonor.org. This website is available for Club members and anyone in the community to:

· Volunteer online for various work activities.

· Download a Flag Sponsor/Order Form.

· Obtain information on how to become an EVENT SPONSOR.

We need every Club Member to participate in generating interest for this event. Please sell flag sponsorships to your family and friends and provide Steve Daniel with the names of any potential Event Sponsors. Also, if you are on FACEBOOK we need your help in spreading the word about the Field of Honor. “Like” and “Share” the Field of Honor page. https://www.facebook.com/fieldofhonor/

Net proceeds of the 2018 Field of Honor will be distributed among eight Butte organizations: Butte United Veterans Council, Butte Family YMCA, Butte Rescue Mission, Butte Child Evaluation Center, Butte Family Drug Court/Butte Cares, Heart of Butte Café, Shriners Hospital (for Butte kids), and Butte Big Brothers Big Sisters. The more Flag Sponsorships that are sold the more these organizations benefit.

Your help is needed to support the 2018 Field of Honor. If we all work together this will be a very successful event for our community. Thank you. (Information provided by Brad Cederberg.)

HOURS OF OPERATION: “The field will be open August 24, and 25, 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. August 26, 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.”

OPENING CEREMONY: “The opening ceremony will be at noon on Friday, August 24 at the corner of Mercury Street and Continental Drive. Chris Grudzinski founder of Montana Veterans Meat Locker will be the guest speaker. Mr. Gudzinski, who served with the Montana Army National Guard for 14 years and is a recipient of the Purple Heart and Bronze Star, created this organization to support other veterans that are in need with frozen processed game meat. All members of the community are invited to join us at this moving ceremony which will include music and the presentation of colors by the United Veterans Council.” (Information taken from the Field of Honor Website)

PAST EVENTS

June and July were busy months for our Butte Exchange Club!

The Summer Social and Membership Drive was held at the Butte Country Club on June 26th at 5:30 p.m. Members and guests enjoyed a barbeque and fun time at the pool. A special thank you to Leo Prigge for chairing this event. Everyone from grandparents to toddlers enjoyed the evening.

The annual Exchange Club Steak Fry was held on a cold and windy July 3rd at Father Sheehan Park. This event is held in place of our regular Tuesday meeting. It is usually the first event for our new officers. Members and guests bundled up in coats and sweaters to enjoy our traditional fare of steaks, great food and friends. A special thank you to our cooks and Janet (the cookie lady) for her desserts. Thank you to those who attended and brought guests. And a big thank you to all club members who helped plan, organize and participate in the Steak Fry. (Photos provided by Elyse Lewis)

One of our signature events is the “Give a Kid a Flag” event. Family members and guests assisted the BEC in handing out flags along the parade route for the 2018 Fourth of July Parade. We would like to thank all of the Club members and guests who assisted in this effort. Special thank you to John Chioutsis for chairing this fun event and also for arranging for the flag rolling party at the Springs.

National Exchange Club Convention was held in Reno, Nevada July 11th through the 14th. A summary of the convention will be provided in our next Club bulletin.

At this time, I would like to thank our Club members who have been so busy and who have dedicated so many volunteer hours at the Butte Carousel. I had the pleasure of seeing the finished project and my grandchildren were among some of the first to ride the beautiful horses. I was so proud of all the hard work. It is a wonderful testimony to you as volunteers and to our club. Thank you for your hard work on this wonderful community project. More to come.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Please submit your Book of Golden Deeds nominations to Shane Reilly (sreilly@fcbob.com).

TO ALL:

Thanks to the efforts of Monica Cederberg our Field of Honor website is now fully functional. PLEASE take a look so that you know its capabilities; click on all the buttons, etc. PLEASE use the web address ButteFieldofHonor.org on all external and internal communications. The website is the best place for people to get complete information and to obtain flag order forms. If any information is in error please email me.

Thanks to Doug Grant for providing the volunteer information and the Flag Order Form. This allowed us to move forward. He also updated the Heart Logo. Thanks Doug.
Until July 25th please contact me using this email address for the quickest response.
Regards,

Elyse Lewis

COMMUNICATIONS

Update and Reminder

The Communications Team is currently looking for a volunteer to serve as editor of the Club newsletter. It is a fun a rewarding job. Please let us know if you have an interest.

The Communications Committee would like to remind you that we rely on committee chairmen and all club members to send us meeting announcements, stories and photos since we cannot be present at all Club events. Please use your cell phones and capture some fun photos to send us.

We are also interested in any new photos of club members. We are especially looking for high quality group shoots.

Please send all details on upcoming events & speakers to: info@butteexchangeclub.org

If you have taken photos at Club events that you want to share, please send them to:info@butteexchangeclub.org (cell phone shots are OK)

Need help? Call: Elyse Lewis –Public Relations Chairman – 565-0801

Bulletin Editor – Penny McElroy
Mobile: (406) 490-1946 Home: (406) 494-2731
E-mail: pamcelroy7@gmail.com