Our speaker this week will be Sara Arkle, Foothills and Open Space Superintendent for the City's Parks and Rec Department. Boise's efforts to acquire and protect foothills lands has been remarkable! She is a long-time natural resources advocate and Idaho Conservation League community conservation associate.  As the Foothills Open Space Senior Manager, Arkle will manage public lands and trails in the Foothills and leverage serial levy funds for the protection of open space. She will also oversee the environmental educators at the Jim Hall Foothills Learning Center and Ridge to Rivers staff members.

Denise Pimental, our Youth Exchange student from Brazil, has arrived and is getting settled with her first host family. We are all encouraged to invite Denise to join our families in our various adventures. Please remember: in order to have Denise join you, you must complete a Background Check with the State Department.  You'll find the form on our website under "Club documents". Even if you don't have any plans yet, its best to get this out of the way so its not a problem.  (Note" her name is pronounced oddly - maybe Brazilian? Maybe Portugese?  I can't write the phonetic example here!) 

Our macho-man Bret Vaterlaus is embarking on quite the adventure later this month. He's going to ride his mountainbike for about 400 miles over a 3 or 4 day period staring Sept 14th in the rugged wilderness of central Idaho. Its the third annual event called the "Smoke and Fire 400".  "There is no registration fee, no support and no prize money"  https://smokenfire420.wordpress.com/

 

 

Last week we were honored to host our District Governor and his wife, Jim and Carla Hogge. In addition to telling us about goings in the Rotary world, Jim presented his daughter and son-in-law, Will and Kate Fowler, who were visiting, with Paul Harris Awards!  He also did the honors of inducting Dave Wilson into membership. Meanwhile, Allison Dunn presented us with the flag of the Rotary Club of Rustenburg, South Africa who helped with her shoe delivery. 

Cornelia has done a ton of legwork to make sure our Open World program is awesome! On October 7, at 5:00 PM, our 8 Russians will arrive in Boise after spending a few days in Washington DC. You'll recall that they are all affiliated with the Siberia State Medical Agency in Tomsk. They are researchers interested in adaptive technology for people with disabilities. Ages of the members range from 23 to 37. We think at least some of them are fluent in English (they will have a translator with them). Our responsibility is to provide housing, a comfortable environment, and a series of programs both educational and recreational. They will leave us at noon on the following Saturday. Cornelia explains that we have to have a tentative calendar submitted to them next week. She's got a good list going, but if you have a program you'd like to suggest, let her know. Also, even though these folks have a connection to Rotary in their town, this is not a Rotary International program. Rather, its a program sponsored by the US State Department which Rotary participates in. It is an honor that our club was selected to host!

Mark your calendar: the Mayor's office has let us know that the official ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Greenbelt section will be at noon on Sept 16th. Details to be announced. We have offered to participate. Maybe join the Mayor on a bike ride?