Club History

 
The Club was chartered on April 13, 1985 with thirty members. The Lakewood Foothills Rotary Club was its sponsor.
 
 
Charter Members
 
Bill Brazeal
Bradford Bolton
William Bremer
John Brown
Paul Eighmey
Frank Geng
James Gobel, Jr.
Edward Hasse
Jeffrey Hecker
Ralph Hutchinson
Tom Johnson*
Dave Kellogg
Jack Kellogg
Vince Mok
Terry Obrey
Richard Pricket
Don Quinn
W. Glenn Roe
William Rourke
Ted Schmidt
Jeff Speilman
Edward Starr
Terry Stokes
William Strait
Glen Stroeher
Leon Thygesen
Jim Vaughn
Byron Webb
John Zabawa
 
*Denotes still active in the Evergreen Rotary Club
 
 
Past Presidents
 
1985-1986
1986-1987
1987-1988
1988-1989
1989-1990
1990-1991
1991-1992
1992-1993
1993-1994
1994-1995
1995-1996
1996-1997
1997-1998
1998-1999
1999-2000
2000-2001
2001-2001
Ed Starr
Terry Stokes
Don Quinn
Jim Vaughn
Bob Zavodsky
Bob Ytterberg
John Zabawa
Wil Swart
Gary Matson
Steve Feldman
John Furjanic
Marion Patterson
Tom Johnson*
Cortland Brown
Makey Towne
Curt Harris*
Mark Williams
2002-2003
2003-2004
2004-2005
2005-2006
2006-2007
2007-2008
2008-2009
2009-2010
2010-2011
2011-2012
2012-2013
2013-2014
2014-2015
2015-2016
2016-2017
2017-2018
2018-2019
Kimra Perkins*
Jim Davis*
Nancy Dykeman
Bill Manning*
Dick Mund
Mark Vickstrom
Diane Rising
Dave Rommelman*
Todd Bastian*
Gretchen MacArthur*
Casey Sacks
Barb Scripps*
Sam Smith
Bob Bradley*
Linda Lovin*
Larry Caine*
Robert Wallace*
*Denotes still active in the Evergreen Rotary Club
 
 
Our Story
 
The Rotary Club of Evergreen, Colorado, has a luminous history, starting with the Charter Night on April 13, 1985. Thirty charter members were privileged to hear Cliff Dochterman, President of the University Hills Rotary club (and later RI President) deliver the keynote speech. The Lakewood Foothills Rotary was recognized as our sponsoring club.
 
We met downstairs at El Rancho restaurant for the first five years. It is ironic that 20 years and five locations later, the club began meeting once again at El Rancho in 2004. We moved to our current location, the Evergreen Country Day School in 2012, at the closing of the El Rancho restaurant.
 
In 1990 the club moved to Mount Vernon Country Club on Lookout Mountain. Strong leadership prevailed, and by the mid-1990s the club began to appear often and predominately on the District 5450 and RI Rotary maps. The club achieved District awards, the most prestigious being the Paul Harris Award for Excellence that recognized that the membership was heading in the right direction.
 
The goal was to make a wider and longer path. In 1997 the club found itself in a quandary. Club membership had not grown and was slowly declining. Growth in membership was paramount. The leadership decided that changing the location, time, and place of our meetings would be most beneficial to the club mission, "to be the premier service club in the surrounding community”.
 
The gauntlet was thrown and many determined members began actively recruiting new business and professional people from the local community. During the same period, the Evergreen club sponsored the Rotary Club or Conifer (1996), the Rotary Club of Clear Creek (2000), and the Mountain Foothills of Evergreen Rotary Club (2003). All of these clubs have attracted Evergreen residents. Our club has continued steady growth as well.
 
By 2008, the Rotary Club of Evergreen was the premier service organization in the Colorado foothills and determined to illuminate, in high beam, the road to success within Rotary.  As of the end of 2017-2018, 100 members are active at the club and district levels.
 
Over the years, our membership has produced:
  • At least three District Assistant Governors, District Governor's Aide, and a District Trainer
  • An overwhelming proportion of RYLA and Young RYLA staff members
  • Two GSE team leaders
  • A World Peace Scholar sponsored by our club to represent RI
  • An award-winning Interact Club of 60 high school youth at Evergreen High School
  • International grants and projects in Russia, Vietnam, Haiti, Kenya, Tanzania, The Philippines, Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic
  • An outstanding Red Badge New Member and Retention Program that has been adopted by several clubs within District 5450
  • Two major annual fundraising events - (1) Foothills Home, Garden and Lifestyle Show and (2) Mardi Gras - which provide The Evergreen Rotary Foundation with significant funds to disperse for projects within our community, our District and internationally
  • As of June 2018, the club has 65 active Paul Harris Fellows (PHF).   Since the Club was founded in 1985, we have had over 100 PHFs and 10 Benefactors
  • A second Paul Harris Award from District 5450 for Club Excellence
Important Dates in our Club History
 
  • November 15, 1985 - The club sponsored a banner design contest. The winning entry was submitted by Kevin Bachman of Evergreen Senior High School.
  • February 1, 1986 - Ralph Reiner was elected as Rotary Club of Evergreen's first honorary member because of his outstanding contributions:
    • The "Jeremiah Johnson of Mt. Evans"
    • Former bomber pilot
    • Montana actor
    • Served in two World Wars as a Reserve Lt Colonel
    • Entrusted with expensive instruments and life support
      equipment in the second highest altitude laboratory in
      North America, including a telescope donated by NASA,
      which is the fifth largest in the world
    • A true friend of Rotary who provided a picnic at the top of Mt. Evans in the early years and who "guarded" the Rotary International emblem emblazoned on the rock at the peak
  • April, 1988 - The first woman was inducted as a member of the Rotary Club of Evergreen, Ann Brady, Superintendent of the Jefferson County School System
  • January 25, 1989  - The second community project by the club began as an "Adopt a Highway Program" through the Colorado Highway Department to take responsibility for clean-up maintenance of Highway 70 from the Buffalo Overlook to El Rancho Restaurant and from there on Highway 74 to Bergen Park. Prior to this project, the first club community project was the remodeling of part of the Senior Resource Center Yellow House and the procurement of cut wood for the stove in the house to keep residents warm in the winter months.
 
This club history was compiled by Club Historian Steve Feldman, July 1, 2004.
 
See the Canyon Courier article from April 27, 1985 "Evergreen Rotary Club is Chartered"