TORRINGTON – The Torrington Rotary Club met for their weekly Monday meeting at the Cottonwood Country Club this week. President-elect, Cristine Braddy called the meeting to order with a quote of inspiration. 

“In the words of the Rotarian Winston Churchill, ‘We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.’ This statement directly echoes the philosophy Rotary of selfless giving and service above self,” Braddy explained.  

Braddy then moved on to the Pledge of Allegiance, the four-way test and other Rotarian formalities. Braddy then introduced the guests for the afternoon, Rotary Club District Governor, Julie Haffner, her husband Gene and area governor, Dan Carter. 

During the Rotarian Formalities, Rhonda Meyer, Executive Director of Saint Joseph’s Children’s Home thanked the club for their support in the Goshen County Fair. 

“I have been doing a lot of traveling so I have missed Rotary for the last few weeks. I have quite a few things I want to say. First, I just want to thank you, everybody in this room, for all of your support for the 4H program in Goshen County,” Meyer said. “My daughter benefits tremendously but so do the kids at Saint Joseph’s Children’s Home, so we wouldn’t be able to do that without the support of the folks in this room. So, thank you for that.”

Meyer explained she had been selected to the 2025 Leadership Wyoming class which started a few weeks ago in Pinedale. She expressed a group of 40 professionals learn about the industries in the state of Wyoming during the nine-month commitment. 

Todd Peterson reminded the club of the Eastern Wyoming College golf fundraiser which takes place on Saturday.

“This weekend is the EWC Foundation annual golf tournament. It’s been going on for quite a few years,” Peterson said. “It helps the golf program and stuff at EWC.”

Up next, Braddy had the club play “Guess the Rotarian,” a short game to help members better connect with each other. 

“This person has been in Rotary for 36 years. That really narrows it down. They enjoy golfing, fishing, hunting and pickleball,” Braddy read.

Members began to chuckle and they identified Rotarian Cactus Covello as the Rotarian in question. 

Next Braddy spoke to the board on interesting Rotarian facts. 

“‘Did you know, first names are nicknames? From the early stage of rotary, members have referred to each other on a first-name basis. Since personal acquaintanceship and friendship are cornerstones of rotary it was natural that many clubs adopted the practice of setting aside formal titles in conversations among members,’” Brady recited.  

Brady explained titles such as “Doctor,” “Your Honor,” or “Professor” were transformed into first name basis conversations. 

“‘In a few areas, such as Europe, club members use a more formal style in addressing fellow members. In other parts of the world, mainly in Asian countries, the practice is to assign each new Rotarian a humorous name which relates to to some personal characteristics or which is descriptive of the members business or profession,’” Brady explained. 

Brady moved on to old business where she discussed fundraiser plans for the club. 

“We do have a fundraiser. I meant to come last week. We have a fundraiser and it is planned. When Lisa Johnson has an opportunity to be here she’s going to share what that fundraiser’s going to be,” Braddy said. “I will tell you, we did not not deviate a whole lot from what we’ve done in the past.”

Braddy expressed the new fundraiser isn’t a stretch for the club because it’s of a similar nature. 

Braddy then introduced the guest speaker, Haffner, to the club. 

Haffner gave a brief introduction to the club. 

“Thank you again for having us,” Haffner said. “Torrington is just a real special group, a real special community. So I want you to be thinking as I’m talking about what you do in Torrington, what you’d like to do in Torrington and what you have done here.”

Haffner went on to provide leadership instruction for the club members and offered an open line of communication for fellow rotary members. 

The discussion continued into the lunch hour and the meeting was adjourned shortly after 1 p.m.