Events

Chief John Curtis was recently named Fire Chief of South Metro Fire Rescue, effective April 2025. A dedicated and accomplished leader, he has served South Metro for nearly 20 years, steadily rising through the ranks with a commitment to innovation, service, and leadership.
Chief Curtis’s career in public safety began when he became certified as a Paramedic in 2003. He gained valuable experience with the Denver Health Paramedic Division before joining South Metro in 2006. Over the years, he has held a variety of roles, including Firefighter/Paramedic, EMS Supervisor, Recruit Training Officer, Lieutenant, Incident Safety Officer, Captain, and Division Chief of EMS. In August 2022, he was promoted to Deputy Chief of Emergency Services, where he led critical operational advancements and community-focused initiatives.

Chief John Curtis was recently named Fire Chief of South Metro Fire Rescue, effective April 2025. A dedicated and accomplished leader, he has served South Metro for nearly 20 years, steadily rising through the ranks with a commitment to innovation, service, and leadership.
Chief Curtis’s career in public safety began when he became certified as a Paramedic in 2003. He gained valuable experience with the Denver Health Paramedic Division before joining South Metro in 2006. Over the years, he has held a variety of roles, including Firefighter/Paramedic, EMS Supervisor, Recruit Training Officer, Lieutenant, Incident Safety Officer, Captain, and Division Chief of EMS. In August 2022, he was promoted to Deputy Chief of Emergency Services, where he led critical operational advancements and community-focused initiatives.

Informal social at Bear Dance with the Satellite Club.

This will be a kick-off meeting for our new Rotary year.  We will be discussing our goals, projects, and fundraising for the year.  Lin Miklas from the Satellite club will join to tell us about her community mental health initiative.

Pastries: John Murphree

Discussion of Rotary Club of Castle Pines Foundation matters.

Our speaker will be talking about the Leadville Irish Memorial.  James Walsh is a Political Science professor at the University of Colorado Denver.  James's research on Irish immigrants in 19th century Leadville led to the construction of the Leadville Irish Memorial.  Walsh's forthcoming book "The Leadville Irish and the Struggle to Memorialize 19th Century Mining Camp Paupers" will be published next year.  Come to hear this very interesting and unique topic!

The social this month is at the Pines Bar in Grill in Castle Pines.  They have a good happy hour until 6pm.  Trivia starts a little after 6pm.  It's very fun and we can break up into teams and play for those who want to play.  Everyone buys there own drinks and food.

Speaker:  Douglas County Sheriff - Darren Weekly

Castle Rock Mayor Jason Gray
will be visiting us!  Come prepared with questions for him!  

Please have all your peach orders submitted by the end of day.  We have to have our orders to the Castle Rock club by end of day on August 11.

Speaker:  Nikki Brooker - YANA | Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies

My name is Nikki Brooker and I am the Founder/CEO of YANA  (You Are Not Alone), a 501c3 that is tasked with supporting moms in our communities.  In 2016 and 2017 two Colorado moms took their lives and the lives of their kids. This is when YANA was created so we could DO BETTER to support moms and make generational mental health change. Our programs support moms in whatever stage of mamahood they are experiencing. Our biggest program, Strong Mamas, Thriving Babies is a hospital program where we give every mom a full year of wrap-around support for free.  Research states that if you support the people who create the people, all the people benefit. We would LOVE to talk about our program where we are changing the world, one mama at a time. Since the beginning of our program (January 2024) we have enrolled over 3,300 mamas! You can read more about our organization here: Yanamom.com

I recently toured a Refugee Support Program called WorthMore.  I was
there a few weeks ago with 6 Young Rotarians from Nebraska.  WorthMore
is a great comprehensive program with a very wide variety of services to
help Refugees from any country.  While I was there, I saw people from
every refugee country you might be able to think of.  WorthMore has
services such as:

Food Bank
Teaching English
Dental Lab (just opening)
"Community Navigation" - Counseling on how to get around in the US (Car
registration, how to do a bank account, how to get your kids into school
etc)

They have reserved a spot on Tuesday, Aug 19 8:30 to 10:30 am for us to
hand out groceries.  You would also have a tour.  They are located in
the East Colfax side of Denver.  Parking IS secure.  They have SECURITY
staff on site.  We have 3 spots left at this event.  Who would like to
join?

We are distributing food on the East Side of Denver to Refugees

Call Steve Baroch to participate

Agenda:  Irish Miners’ Memorial in Leadville, CO

We need volunteers to help unload peaches from the truck and load them into customer's cars.

Bill Gernert from the Satellite Club will discuss his experiences and the election process from his time as an election judge.

Speaker: Bill Gernert from the Satellite Club will talk to us about his experience as a long time Douglas County Election Judge.

Speaker: Sunny Arbogast - Agriculture Education in Douglas County
Schools

Speaker:  Ryan Phillian - Denver Mountain Parks

Topic:  Bison Conservancy at Daniel's Park

Pastries:  Ruth Shoemaker