EXPERIENCE 218 | Rotary Field of Honor and Rotary Peach Festival with Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary Club Members Teres Lambert & David Haase

In today’s episode of The LoCo Experience, I was joined by Teres Lambert and David Haase - fellow members of the Breakfast Rotary Club in Fort Collins - which meets every Thursday morning at 7 am at Ginger & Baker!  They were here in part to talk about a pair of significant Rotary events upcoming this spring and summer - the Field of Honor  - May 23 - 26 - spearheaded by Teres, and talk with David about The Peach Festival - which will be held August 16th this year at Civic Center Park in Old Town Fort Collins - one of the few remaining downtown festivals!  

The Field of Honor is a service to the community, to honor heroes of all stripes on Memorial Day Weekend.  With 500 flags flying adjacent to the Veterans Plaza and Travelling Memorial Wall, this project allows community members to honor a veteran, a first responder, a foster parent, a teacher - or any other hero of their lives with medallions attached to each flag.  The Peach Festival is all things peachy and community and Rotary - with peach beers, live music, peach pie eating contests - and much much more.  

And - we get to learn about what makes a great Rotarian, and what inspires a career professional to take the plunge into community service.  Teres is a gifted writer, and a topical expert in anything beef or dairy! - and David is a veteran financial planner, who gives dozens of hours each year to the cause of building community.  This episode is all about service, career, and community, and I loved sharing a bit of the journey with Teres Lambert and David Haase.

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In today's episode of The Loco Experience, I was joined by Therese Lambert and David Haass, fellow members of the Rotary Breakfast Club in Fort Collins, which means every Thursday morning at 7:00 AM at Ginger and Baker. They were here in part to talk about a pair of significant rotary events coming up this spring and summer. The field of honor, May 23rd through the 26th, spearheaded by Therese and talk with David about the Peach Festival, which will be held August 16th this year at Civic Center Park in Old Town Fort Collins, one of the few remaining downtown festivals. The Field of Honor is a service to the community to honor heroes of all stripes on Memorial Day weekend. With 500 flags flying adjacent to the Veteran's Plaza and traveling Memorial Wall. This project allows community members to honor a veteran, a first responder, a foster parent, a teacher, or any other hero of their lives, with medallions attached to each flag. The Peach Festival is all things peachy and community and rotary with peach beers, live music, peach pie, eating contests, and much, much more. And we get to learn about what makes a great Rotarian. And what inspires a career professional to take the plunge into community service? Therese is a gifted writer and a topical expert in anything beef or dairy. And David is a veteran financial planner who gives dozens of hours each year to the cause of building community. This episode is all about service, career, and community, and I love sharing a bit of the journey with Therese Lambert and David hath. Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guests today are David Haas and Therese Lambert. Uh, David is the chair of the Quad Club Peach Festival in Fort Collins, as well as a member of our, uh, rotary Breakfast Club. And there is a board member as well as kind of communications and marketing lead for a number of events, including the Peach Sale and the, um, field water. So, uh, let's start with the more immediate, uh, event coming up. We're, we're just six weeks away or something from the field? We are, we are, yeah. Can you, uh, set the stage, Therese and just kind of tell a little bit about the history of this event for Rotary and, and what we're planning specifically here at the end of May? Okay. The field of honor is. Brought to Fort Collins by Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary, and the field of honor is 500 American flags that fly in formation at Spring Canyon Community Park. And these flags have a medallion attached that the community is welcome to purchase. But each medallion tells a story. It honors a person. It indicates who the donor is, and a little story about why that person's being honored by the donor. Yeah. And it's just a way of honoring our heroes. And heroes. We count as active military, retired military, first responders, community leaders, personal heroes. Yeah. I mean, if a person's done something tremendous in your life and is your hero, for example, one, he, one person selected their hero was a person at their local. Grocery store who always had a smile for him and a pleasant comment whenever they walked in. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, one of the first years of Field of Honor, I sadly, my, my mother-in-law passed from a, from a fall fell down the stairs. But she was just a beautiful person and it was meaningful for me to declare her a hero. Mm-hmm. Um, and so, uh, I can see how the variety of honorees, uh, is such an important thing. Yeah. And it's, it's fun for Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary to bring this to the community, particularly on Memorial Day weekend. Yeah. And it's always set up so that it starts about three o'clock on a Friday of Memorial Day weekend and close us down about three o'clock on Memorial Day. Okay. And it's also kind of associated with the, the War Memorial there, is that right? We have the Traveling War Memorial this year. That'd be great. We do, that's the Veterans Plaza is bringing the traveling Vietnam Memorial Wall again this year. Wow. It was there two years ago. And it's gonna be there again this year. They're gonna be at the same time. So there, it's about a five minute walk between the two. Cool. Um, and in addition to just the, the medallions, there's also a number of like community sponsorships and different things as well. Yeah. About three years ago we decided Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary is the sponsor. Okay. And we thought, you know what? I bet there's a lot of businesses within the Fort Collins community who would like to support this. So we started a campaign called Community Supporters, and there are five different levels. There's a$5,000 level, a$2,500. I think the next one is a thousand, then 502 50. Mm-hmm. And the$250 level is reserved for individuals and nonprofits, but all the others, typically we raise anywhere from 30 to$45,000. Wow. I know. It's so exciting because that money's returned to our community. It's awesome. Um, Dave, why don't I get you on the stage a little bit. Why don't you sketch out the, the Peach Festival? Well, this is gonna be my sixth year as the chair. We had a couple of covid interruptions. Uh, we were limited, but, uh, we were back in full swing down in Civic Center Park in, in, uh, old Town Fort Collins. And, uh, the last couple years, the, the momentum is building again. Um, we are looking forward to the vendors who are, we've got a fantastic response already. Vendors are, and, and for both food, retail, everybody else are quite. Quite anxious to be back part of it. Okay. And, uh, our bands are all set. You can go to Fort Collins Pizza also.com to check that all out. But, uh, we'll have a full day right down the Pacific Center Park and, uh, a great enjoyable community event. Um, we're the, you know, after the taste of Fort Collins, we're the only other major, uh, festival downtown. Yeah. That's wild, isn't it? How there used to be a festival every other weekend it seemed like. And is it just the, the cost of managing all the traffic and things, or is it just not profitable like the old stuff? All, all those things are part of it. There is quite a lot to do. I, I, I have to give shout outs to, I've got three very able assistants, Carrie Loganville at o Old, old Town Media. Yeah. Yeah. Um, also with, uh, Steve Lane and Neil Harrison, fellow Rotarians as he carries too. And, uh, they do a tremendous amount of work. I kind of get to be the coordinator on that, uh, center point that everything goes through. But we have city contacts and uh, uh, private industry contracts, like you said, we've gotta mitigate traffic, we've gotta mitigate security. There's, there's a lot of things that required by the city to put on a festival. It is. So much work well before the day ever comes. When, when the day comes as as, as it looks easy if you, right, exactly. As, as Therese was talking about with the, uh, field of honor, the day of the event is actually the, the least busy day you're gonna have, because by then your problem should be, you know, if they're not resolved Exactly. So, no, we'll have, we'll have another, uh, great year. We've, uh, uh, benefited Habit Humanity, um, uh, boys and Girls clubs, many other local charities. We've divvied it up in, uh, the participating clubs too. Mm-hmm. And, uh, um, 50 to$60,000 each of the last couple years have been handed back. And, and some of that goes to the local, uh, things that we all do and as Rotarians, and then others go to international events that we all sponsor. So, you know, rotary has ways to help out people all across the world and locally. For somebody that hasn't been to the Peach Festival at all, can you kind of set the stage? It is an all day mm-hmm. Event. Do you know the date? Yes, I do. It's August 16th. Okay. Uh, it starts at 11 o'clock. It'll go till seven. Um, we have, uh, uh, the first band starting right after 11 o'clock. That's gonna be the last Waltz All Stars if, uh, okay. They're, they're, they're a local band of, uh, uh, many different musicians that, uh, put together a time to, to reenact the last waltz from the band. The band. And, uh, oh, nice. So those that, uh, know their, their, their music, uh, uh, made that a big, big event for us last year. Uh, second band is gonna be a, um, a ska band called 12 cents for Marvin. Oh. And Sweet. And they played a couple years ago. Good crush. Yeah. And yeah, exactly. And then, uh, our headliners this year for 2016, or excuse me, since, since we've had'em before for, for the headliner is gonna be the Boroughs Oh, sweet. Which, which are a national performing group now, but they're based outta Greeley. Yeah. And we do, uh, basically just stick with Northern Colorado and front range, uh, music groups. Okay. And I'd like to also thank the, uh, um, Bohemian Foundation. We get a sponsorship from them. Yep. And as with other. Uh, things that we talked about, uh, our, our sponsors are, are great help. We already have sponsors that lined up this year. Um, and, and you can see them on our website, many returning sponsors and, and the growth in that area has been very good for us too. Yeah. Uh, it offsets our costs and the things we have to do to put this event on. And now this is a, what we call a quad club. Mm-hmm. Event. So all four rotary clubs in Fort Collins get together to pull volunteers and brain power and do it stuff Yep. Together to, to make this happen. Yeah. That's correct. And, and as I said, I go, uh, Neil and Steve and Kerry are all for different clubs in mine for, I'm also the Breakfast club with, uh, Therese. And, um. And yourself. And so we reach out, we try to have, uh, additional individuals that volunteer within each of those clubs to kind of make sure that we're all spread out across the uh, yeah, yeah. The spectrum. And, and it doesn't become a, you know, we're, we're kind of that unadopted, you know, person for the, by any one clubs.'cause we all have our things we're doing. Every club does and, and do wonderful things. But since it's like, okay, that's, we're just part of that. So I I, I've grown this to where, you know, we have people helping that, that within each club, that, uh, kind of say, okay, we're gonna do well with this. We'll have our chance to, yeah, do this. And, and really as an outdoor, a community event and bringing all the clubs together, it, it's a pretty cool deal. And you've got like. Obviously like food trucks and food vendors and sponsor tents and, you know Yep. As of yesterday, chair massagers and things like that. Yeah. As of yesterday, there are 14 food vendors more still applying. Okay. And, uh, we could have a pretty much unlimited amount of retail vendors. We want, we have a bit of a balance and, and, uh, they're all local, Northern Colorado small businesses. We wanna make that very affordable then to be part of that day because that, that's their, part of their vocation. We're giving other, you know, local businesses a chance to, to do well. Yeah. And, and, and they come and they, they, they're Saturday. They're set up bright and early and they work hard all night long. And, and we know that it's gone well for the last few years. We wanna continue that. How many, uh, how many attendees do you track that, um, are high? Is it free? Free or you gotta pay to get in? It's, it's, uh, you're getting me right there. Sorry. Um, no, it is a$10, um, event fee, uh, just for anyone in 12 and older. Okay. And then, um. It's, it's, that gets you in it out all day long. Kids are free extra. Yeah. Yeah. Under 12. Under 12 is free. So we, we will have things from face painting, a few of the things like that for the, for the younger children earlier in the day. We've, you know, we find that later in the afternoon, the, the young kids are, are kind of going away, but at, at, uh, we do have our recurring, uh, peach pie eating contest. Mm. Which is, which is a three minute, uh, um, get down and dirty. How much can you need? Three minutes. Yeah. You see, we've got these youngsters come up and they do a pretty good job. Um, again, those pies are donated by Ginger and baker every year. We thank them for that. And, uh, frankly, it's a, it's a great waste of a really great pie. I, I always have to laugh at that. So one thing, Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary, we actually sell peaches. Yeah. So we sell. Bags of peaches and boxes of peaches at the Peach Festival before that. Yeah. And also before that, so you can walk around. Yeah. Eating a big old Juicy Peach while you're listening to mu music. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. Yeah. There are, there are so many things that we can, we, we offer there. Peach Jams and Peach chili. Oh my gosh. Yeah. There, there, there are peach products. We, we have several brewers in and they all, one's gonna have one type of a, of a peach beverage that they're gonna brew up for us. Nice. Um, and, uh, Tim Cochrane from, uh, Tim and Carol from Horse and Dragon, as we all know them well, um, kinda spearhead the Brewers area for us. And Tim Tim's a club member also. Yes, he is. So we, we have. You know, it, it's all things peaches we possibly can and, and supporting, um, you know, the Rotary clubs that helps us turn around and do a lot of things locally. Yeah. And, and we're looking forward to just another good day. I, I, I would like to think we could get close to 5,000 people this year. Okay. And, which is a, it's a wonderful turnout. Yeah. And, and not too crowded. You can't turn around and enjoy yourself. But, uh, also, you know, we're, we're there to have as many people come down, have as much fun as they can. Awesome. Well mark your calendars if you're listening out there for August 16th. And, and check out, is there like a website or anything where I can get more information about the, the fields of honor there, field of Honor website will be ready in about two weeks. Okay. Our website person's been on a cruise. Okay. So we have to wait until he gets back, but it'll be going, it's, um, FC Rotary breakfast. Okay. Yeah, Google it, you'll find it and look up that part. Yep. And Peach Festival probably has its own page as well. Exactly. For Fort Collins Peach vessels.com. We've had that domain for many years now. Yeah. And uh, you can go back there, you can see the history, uh, of the Peach Festival for 16 apply to be a vendor sponsor. Yes, it's right on there. Literally Ven vendors, sponsors, and volunteers are all able to go right online, there and cool. Uh, we'll be, we welcome all. Awesome. And if somebody wants to, like a business, especially, we've got a lot of business owner listeners, Therese, if they want to potentially sponsor, be a community supporter of the, the fields of honor, without the website being up, how do they contact you Directly or, uh, me? Yes, with me. That would go to. Rotary FC breakfast. So the other one that's going to be up is FC Rotary Breakfast. Yeah. Our own website is Rotary FC Breakfast. Okay. So there is information on there. You can find it, it's there for on top end, uh, type in community supporter and you'll find it. Cool. I dig it. Um, let's get to know, one of the things I was just observing is even within this room, but also you mentioned Carrie Lugen Bill, who's probably about half of your age there or something, and she's just a puppy in town. And then you've got, you know, other old white guys and, and ladies. And we just got a large variety of people that choose to become rot Rotarians. Yeah. Yeah. I was, uh, um, brought in by, uh, John Hensman and, uh, several years back. Okay. And, and, and he knew my, I I've been on several boards and nonprofits and, and, uh, um, help fundraise in different ways all through my career. Okay. Yeah. I, I'm still working. I enjoy working, but, uh, um, rotary is a, is another give back thing. And, and I think what people don't realize is that it is, it's, it's more of a retirees kind of a group, but not entirely. Yeah. And, and the chance to do things in your community, the chance to affect things. Nationwide and worldwide. Yeah. You know, we have volunteers that, you know, you think you've done a good thing here by going out and helping cleaning up a trail. Those are all welcome things here locally. We have members that have gone to far off places and countries to help people build water systems. Yeah. Water systems and sanitation and things that eye care clearly packs. Yeah. Yeah. Impact people in their lives and for generations. Yeah. So Rotary has the depth of anything that you wanna do to volunteer for, and I, I can't I challenge anybody to say, um, I can't find anything to do in Rotary. And um, Steve, what is your, what's your career? What do you, what do you do? I've been a financial, uh, advisor now for 41 years. Oh wow. So, um. Yeah, I'm probably that category of twice carrie's age. And, uh, she's been kind, not to rub that in too much, but, uh, um, no, it, it's, it's a, you know, as a salesperson, um, you're out in the community. Yeah. And, and, and I see so many different people. And that's one of the, the best things about my career is I deal with many different kinds of people. Yeah. And when you have that kind of a community, um, experience Yeah. You, you, you can see the people that are affected by certain things. You see people that are, that are doing well, you see others that could, could use some help. Yeah. And, and you find out the ways you can do that. And, and I think everybody should be involved in something, you know, give back. We've, uh, many of us have been blessed and had the chance to do well, um,'cause of our own work and our own hard work. But, uh, um, not everybody has the same breaks. Yeah, sure enough. Therese, why don't you, uh, introduce yourself with a little bit more in depth here. I have kind of a different background, I'd say. Okay.'cause even though there's a lot of writers and people that work in marketing and public relations, my specialty was animal agriculture. Yeah. So I wrote everything from conception to consumption on the beef industry. Okay. I also worked in the dairy industry, dabbled somewhat because of working in public relations and marketing in the swine industry and poultry industry as well. Okay. Interesting. Sometimes the equine, but my real interest was the beef industry. So can you, like when you see that big map of where all the cuts come from and stuff on a cow, you can just kind of do that. Yeah. But that goes back to my four H days. Oh, okay. I was one of those four H kids that learned how to judge beef cattle, but I also learned how to judge meat. Okay. So when you're judging meat, you have to know where every cut comes from and you can tell the difference between Prime or select or Oh choice Absolutely. And that kind of stuff. Yeah. I dig it. And so you worked, are you, are you still currently working in your field or have you retired mostly your freelance little dabbler? I like to be retired. Okay. I have an agreement with one publication. If they get in a bind, if a writer can't meet deadline or if they have a topic that might be a little above the average writer's head that I would step in if they needed it. Okay. So I usually write about two articles a year for a breed publication in the beef industry. Okay. Interesting. I I, I will say this, I think Theresa's being very modest, she had her own publication. You need to talk about that. So, oh golly, gee, I can't even remember what year I started, but I was looking in the cattle industry and they only had four color magazines where it was published by a breed association and went to their members, and their members were registered cattle people. Okay. And I got to looking and said, you know what? People who sell beef bulls sell a few, the very top end to registered people, but a majority of those bulls, and as well as their probably 50% or so with their females will go to commercial breeders. Yeah. Yeah. So I decided to start a publication in a particular breed that targeted that audience of commercial cattle people. Oh, interesting. It was that. What breed was that? It was Semial. Oh, okay. I've seen ALS are coming back like, yep. 20 years ago Angus ruled the world a little bit. Mm-hmm. But now there's a lot more either Angus Al. Hybrids or even just cemental strains. Yeah. Yeah. There's one thing you had no small hand in that, well, one thing the audience probably doesn't know is that every black beef animal is not Angus. They have had such breeding programs where Yeah. They have pure black cemental, they have pure black limousine. You know, there's, every breed has black cattle. Tell me about the semial, if you don't mind, uh, tell, like why is it a, a superior breed to many or, or in what environments does it really flourish? Well, you're kind of hitting a spot back in 1970 mm-hmm. Was, we had a semial herd of cattle. Okay. All right. And so that's how I got my start writing about the semial breed. Okay. And so I worked. On a Semial ranch and then I got hired by a Semial publication to work for them. Okay. And so I spent probably 20 years in the Semial breed. Interesting. But I'm not totally aligned with Semial. I mean, if you ask me my favorite breed right now, yeah. It's gonna be Red Angus and Gulpie. Okay. And I also, I love Semial. I have some beautiful Semial friends and they got great cattle, but I don't think there's any one breed of cattle that's superior to any other breed. There's enough genetic differences within each breed that there's a really great cattle and then there's a lower end all depends on the breeding program of the people raising those cattle. I read a book a while back, gosh, probably even five or more years ago, but it was kind of about an early rancher in some canyon out in Utah or something. And um, you know, had been a lot of longhorns and things like that previous, but the Hereford was really. Taking control of the, the rancher marketplace at that time because of its relatively small size and less horniness and Yes. Stuff like that. Mm-hmm. Um, and then like, tell me, gimme, gimme a little bit of a lowdown just for fun. My sake. Really Like what are these different breeds, like good at or not good at? Is a Red Angus just the same as a Black Angus, but with red skin or red hair, things like that? I am, you're getting way beyond. Okay. What type, it's like, okay. I believe Red Angus started as a genetic. Offshoot Okay. Of Black Angus and, but you have to have pure Red Angus, they have to have the right genes to stay red. I see. Consistently. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they've got the Red Angus and they, they are such a wonderful, wonderful breed. Yeah. The reason people think Black Angus is because, oh golly, we're going way back in my brain would be when the, uh. Certified Angus beef started CAB. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And what people don't know when they see now CAB and Certified Angus beef advertised everything, the first 10 years of CAB being organized was struggled. They couldn't get going. Hmm. And I know the original people that were involved in CAB. Yeah, yeah. But once the Angus Association started with CAB, then it really boosted everything. Hmm. Interesting. So to me, there's no superior one breed. Yeah. There's a really great cattle within every breed. It just depends on what you want in your own herd. Yeah. What emphasis you want. Well, I assume some of them put on weight faster or they're more or less aggressive, but that's more stereotyping. You can't really do that. That's within any breed, they will do that. Fair enough. It all depends on the genetics that you purchase. You sound like you might have a little bit of knowledge in that space as well. You got some rancher clients or you come from ranching stock David? I, I do. I'm a small town kid from Nebraska, so being around cattle and, and, uh, horses, things like that, we're, we're pretty much growing up thing, you know, most of us on the end of the, the kid throwing the hay bales and everything else. Oh yeah. But, uh, um, learn learning that, uh, what really good, hard work is, and, uh, I, I, so we've had chats about her, her background. She's, you know, being from Kansas and she's a K State grad. So all those things that go along with, uh, our backgrounds there are, are part of it, but it, you know, it ties in here to, to Colorado State University, you know, as an ag school and the research and things like that that tie into the beef industry, the cattle industry, the swine industry. Sure. Um, that's. We're, we're a, we're a land grant university, and that's, that's been part of the, the, uh, process for everything in ag for many, many years, even though we've become kind of this tech town. Sure. You know, but, uh, there's still a very live portion of that that comes, uh, uh, attached with, uh, everything that goes along with, uh, agriculture. Well, you can't eat software and Exactly. You know? Yeah. And, and, and I, I still have some favorite ranchers that I, I get my beef from on an annual basis. So I, I get to be kind of, uh, selective about it too. You know? It, it's, it's, it just, it's an interesting thing because you see the, um, you know, you talked about from, from Longhorns, I mean, you know, the, they still do the drives every year for, for the, you know, the National Western Stock Show. They still have cattle that are part of that. Mm-hmm. You know, the CS U spur down in Denver now has become a, an amazing, um, extension of the university and making a, yeah. A metro area presence. So, um. Uh, but yeah, my back, my background is, like I say, it's, it's not just a consumer. So I, I, I grew up around a lot of farming criers in a little small town. That's where you go to work, right? Yep. And I used to come to Case, uh, to K State, to CSU Hmm. Quite often to interview different professors. Oh, is that right? I knew they were pretty robust in the grain study and stuff at CSU, but I didn't realize they had such a large, uh, animal husband Ry, I guess program. Dr. Gary Smith was mm-hmm. The guru. Okay. And he was all through the beef cattle circuit with his presentations. He was amazing. David, you mentioned that John Hensman brought you into Rotary. When was that and, and what was your like rotary origin experience? Did you jump right in? Uh, did you take a few? Coke Sings? Um, he, you know, he got off to me a few times. It was, it was, uh, it. You know, he, we knew each other well enough, so it really wasn't a surprise that he could figure out I would probably like Rotary. Yeah. So, and, and I had been on, he was serving on nonprofit boards and stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. So I've, I've done those from, um, you know, I was nine years on the local, uh, Fort Collins, uh, baseball club board. I, I've, I've done other things where, um, just being involved in, in. I'm not a sit still person, so I, I, you know, I'm a working dog. I need things to be, I need tasks, right? So, um, oh, you tar up pillows and stuff like that? Yeah. Everything you can find in a rotary, just as that is.'cause there's so many different things we do just within our club, you know, from, as an annual basis. I mean, like, you're, you're involved so much in, in the$10,000 raffle, all the things we've had over the years that we can do. So, um, he knew that, uh, uh, coming and, and getting to meet different bus, different people, some retired, some not, uh, people I did know that I, I started seeing, oh, I've actually seen you many times. I didn't don mean rotary. Yeah, yeah. So it, you, we try not to be, you know, the secret Rotarians, we wanna start telling more people about it, and that's kind of part of what the Peach Festival is about. Right? Like, it's kind of a big advertisement for hey Rotary's cooler than you think. Yeah. Yeah. That's, is that kind of the summary? That's a great way to put it. Yeah. I'll take it. Yeah. Well, and, and it's, you know, vol, volunteerism, um. Has always been around. Um, what can you do to affect somebody? What can you do to help somebody? What are the things that give you that chance to, um, make that difference? And it's hard on your own. Yeah. You know, it, it is hard to be that, you know, you know, no man's an island. Well, yeah, you can be if you're trying to, trying to affect a lot of different people. But together we found, you know, as, as the Peach Festival, it is, we, we, we have our own boost. We talk about the, uh, um, the Rotary leadership camps. We do, we have all the things we do that help local high school kids and local kids getting scholarships to go scholarships, exchange programs. Exactly. And, and things that people have no idea that Rotary does. We have, uh, uh, a young lady right now attending high school locally from Italy, you know, and we've got our own student, our sponsor, our club sponsor that I think is, no, she was in Italy now, somebody we've got, I'm not sure where our current one's at. I don't know what, I'm not sure. Yeah, we sent them somewhere. Oh yeah, I know. They're, they're, and they, the experience of their lives. So, um, there's just so many different things you can get involved in. Like I said before, if you can't find something you need to do, um, somebody will be gladly grabbing you by the elbow and saying, okay, get into that. And that's kind what John did for me. Um, he said, you know, you get involved in this, do this. I, I started as on, on the Peach Festival in 2018 when I joined Rotary. Oh, that was when you joined. You were right in there. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, I didn't, I don't show up just to attend things. I, I, I'm not that person. Never have been. And, uh, um, I'm not scared of failure. I'll, I'll get out and try. I'll learn from it and, uh, um, try to get it better and pitch in. And I take coaching quite well, so I've never had a problem with those things. Um, it, it's the, if you run any anybody's ever run something, you know, you get a lot of bench quarterbacks and, and, uh, one of my, uh, uh, committee members has got a great line, so I I appreciate that. You know, how you can, you know, make that work. Here's a whistle and here's a clipboard. Get involved. Yep. Yep. And, and, and other than that, it's like, okay, let's, let's all get together and do it, you know, and, and, uh, um, don't have time for those that, uh. Wanna stay on the sidelines. Yeah. You know, because there's so much we can do and we all have only so many years that we might wanna do it. You know, you've got your own lives, you're doing things too, but there's just great satisfaction. Um, several years ago we took a, a 10,000 check over to the Boys and Girls Club. Yeah. And that was. Amazing to see. Yeah. You know, you just don't know the parts of Fort Collins where not everybody has Yeah. That might affect a hundred different kids. Exactly. You, you, you know, you, you just, you, you grow up in your world. You grow up and your kids are doing their thing and you have a chance to, uh, on a daily basis, make a difference in somebody else's life. F and, and it's the sum of many of us doing something versus just one person alone. Yeah. Can't affect much on your own. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and we're able to make that big a difference and, and, uh, we, you know, everybody, we all know here, you know, habitat humanity, we've done some big things in Habitat. There's several other things that we've done, um, as, as a Oh, can't even make a list, you know? Yeah, yeah, exactly. There's 200 different causes that have benefited in my time with Rotary. Exactly. And, and as we see those, um, that chance to do it, but then have a great day of just out, have fun, you know, great Colorado sunshine. Yeah. You know, knock on road a survivor on the, uh, on the festival front here, where it used to be everybody had a festival. Yeah. Yeah. It is, it's, it's, there's some things to do. I mean, more and more, you know, Boian Foundation with pretty much, uh, a fair, fair amount of, uh, backing themselves that they need, that they've, you know, the New West Fest is gone. Yeah. And, and, and there's, there's just, it's the logistics of these things. Um, it, there's a lot more work. I mean, I, I, I, we were, last, last year's festival was done and a week later I had bands contact me for, for 20, 25. Yeah. And vendors start in. So we've, we've been, we really don't have a downtime. Yeah. But we have a pretty good, um. Pattern of what we need to do. Yeah. Yeah. And, and my, uh, partners that, uh, get the, all those little things that make it all happen. Done. Uh, I've been very good. Do you have a, uh, successor in mind for that chair position or, you know, you could run that for a few more years and I, I, I, I enjoy it, so I, I mean, you know, until I'm told it's like, okay, we could, somebody could do it better, you know, then I'll, I'll back off you. I know. I love it. I love it. Yeah. I, I will probably, you know, try and stop me. All right, cool. I love it. I love it because I, I, I don't, I mean, I need something to do like that. My, my wife is, is always the, the one that, uh, um, says, okay, go do something. Let me read my book. Yeah. Yeah. And she does fantastic things in, in her, her volunteerism, but to me it's, it's the, I've gotta be the person that picks up the something or other grab a ball run. Yeah. And that's just the way I've always been./Therese, you've, uh, got an interesting rotary engagement story, I guess, and it happens to involve me. Uh, would you care to share that? And, and what, when was that? That was three years ago or something. I think it was three years ago. Okay. So I contacted Kurt Bear, merely I wanted to pick Kurt Brain. I was the president of a nonprofit that offered horseback riding to special needs individuals. Yeah. And front range, exceptional Equestrians was really struggling financially. So I thought, well, Kurt Bearer, he knows a lot about this. Well, and you saw like a magazine interview with me or something. I did. Right. I, I did. And I thought, I don't know this gentleman, but I wanna pick his brain and I wanna know how we can get front range exceptional equestrians to get more funding. Yeah. And so, Kurt and I, you and I had a conversation and you happen to mention at one time, are you familiar with Rotary? Yeah, I did not know what Rotary was. Now I will admit, I had lived in Fort Collins area for about nine years. Okay. But I, yeah, just hadn't hit your radar yet. I just hadn't met anyone in Rotary or anyone who talked about it. Yeah. And so you invited me to a couple of meetings and I went and I thought, Ooh, I think I could like this.'cause I'm one, having been raised in a poor by a four H family, we were taught to give back to our community. Yeah. That's what you do, you, it's service above self. Yeah. And it just fit in with how I was raised and how I believe. And my husband works, or, well, he actually retires in about 10 days, but he was working full time. Yeah. And I was trying to figure out what am I gonna do with all my spare time. Yeah. So Rotary really hit it for me. I like their, I like how there's a variety of individuals. Who have their own unique personalities, but yet we come together for common causes. Yeah. And I love the fact that we give back to our community. I like giving back internationally, but I may give back to the community whether it's time, talent, money. That's why God put us on this earth as just serve others. Yeah. So that's what I, I found Rotary. What's that for me on my, uh, Rotarian of the Year application this past year or two years ago, maybe it was, I, I just wrote, uh, I recruited, uh, Therese to the Rotary Club. That was, that was my big contribution for the year. I, I'm not sure it got me the title. I don't think it did. But, uh, no, it's been a joy to just, especially what I've loved about your engagement, Therese, is that you saw kind of. A gap in that communications and marketing and, and how do we communicate and express the things that we're doing and, and get that out there. And it's been awesome to see the just evolution of that. We're so much more visible than we had been. Well, and it. This is kind of self-serving. I love to write. I mean, I love, love, love to write. And Rotary gives me an opportunity to write, to use my brain to figure out, oh, where can we look at avenues for free publicity? Or how can we get the word out better? Mm-hmm. And yes, I'm learning more and more about Facebook and creating reels and doing all that. I'm learning that this old dog, even at 75, can learn a Newt trick. And that's been fun. Awesome. But that's, it forces me to learn more. Right. And that's the other thing I really like about Rotary, and we haven't mentioned it, the speakers, we have come to our rotary meetings. Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh, I learned so much. Yeah. And I run home or drive home. And if John's home, that's one of the first things I tell him is tell him all about what you learned today. Yeah. That's what I learned today. I didn't know. So much as what they're telling us in Rotary at the different meetings. So that, I love that too. CSU extension kind of thing. Mm-hmm. For the, like the older education kind of focused stuff. I was like, dang, that's so much I'm, I'm gonna be probably this next winter I'm gonna get involved some of this. Like, I want take a class or two. Just, you know, I'm such a history nerd. It's like, okay, I can go do that. Yeah, yeah. Well, and to for a couple hundred bucks or something like that. Yeah. Well, yeah. And those are things we just didn't know. And we have such a varied group as all the four clubs in town do. Um, people bring different things they do and, and, and recruiting speakers. We've all pitched in to get somebody in there. You know, pretty much everybody I think has in our club has found somebody to come speak over the years. I've learned, and it is a way to say, okay. This is, this is kind of cool. I mean, from, from Yeah. A local, uh, uh, tax initiative that, that's gonna help keep things going. Um, yeah. For different, uh, different things the city government provides to, um, someone who, you know, the mental health facilities that just new here to town, but what can it do and who does it help? There's really not many chances to sit down and actually have somebody give you the depth that we get when we have our speakers at our clubs. Yeah. And, and that I think is, is very key. I mean, you take away something each, each morning and that's, that's, or every meeting and mm-hmm. That, that's pretty special. Yeah. For those of us that like to kind of continuously learn and, and be engaged in our communities especially. Yeah. It's great. I, uh, I've been honored a couple different times to have Gary or somebody from the programs community reach out and be like. Hey, uh, you do a lot of podcasts with some really interesting people. Uh, could you kinda look back for the last, uh, six or 12 months and see who we need to have in for the program? Well, that's, that's the thing. Your, your experience and the depth of the people that you've had for your, for your broadcast. Most of us wouldn't have the chance to cross section those people over. I mean, I've, I've, I've got a client list, but not everybody's gonna wanna come and talk about what they do, you know, or how that affects, I mean, you know, a lot of people are, you know, like most of us we're working, we're doing those things. Yeah. But, um, but, uh, saying, what do you do that, you know, that affects different parts of the community? You know, you certainly have seen that. Yeah. No, it's been, it's been a joy all across the board. Um, I guess let's describe, uh, the Rotary experience, uh, a little bit more, like you've talked about the specific things, but Rotary's a, a once a month, once a week. Thursday morning for our club. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, every Thursday morning. Well, I would, I would say it's like I get the chance to connect with people that, in my social or work groups, I generally wouldn't always get to, I, I wouldn't have had a chance to meet this, this wonderful lady and, and, and find out. We've really got a fairly common background in a lot of ways. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, the, the only, the only thing I didn't do in high school was four HI mean, it was all the things in my little school I did, but I was a farm family, so I really didn't have any. But, but we still have those common grounds. Sure. We've talked about that and, and she showed me her magazine, others that, that are either in the same industry as me or, or have done other things. You know, whether it's financials or insurance. Um, you know, we, if you look check across, we've got people that own managed card dealerships. A lot of educators. Educators. We've got attorneys, we've got retired individuals that Forest Service people. Yeah. And, you know, every stripe, you know, the backgrounds I think are amazing. Well, and the one new gal is a National Park service employee. Yes. Who comes, you know, down from Estes Park. Yeah. Yeah. I, I thought, okay, you're gonna make that dry. Okay. That's wonderful. Good on you. You know, and, and, and, Hey, we're a great group. Well, it's, it's there, there's, or maybe she lives down the hill and drives there. I, yeah, there, there we have a camaraderie though that becomes, you know, part of it.'cause we're, we're all, you know, pulling towards goals that, that yeah. We're, we're moving, like you said, before we pick up the ball and run. We're, we're doing things that help people locally and internationally and, and that common cause binds us. Yeah. And there's, there's not many organizations can do that, that give you chance to say, okay, we, you know, it, it, it can be a weekly thing and, and you can do your part and wherever you're. Talents and your, your skills can help out. We expect you and want you to pitch in. Yeah. Yeah. I tell people sometimes when describing rotary, I'm like, you know, if I was traveling abroad and somebody like stole all my stuff and. Beat me up and left me with just my underwear on in a foreign country. Like I maybe call the police, but I'd probably figure out if there's a local rotary club Exactly. So somebody could, could pick me up and clean me up and get me a change of clothes, you know, and then, then the police could investigate after that. But I'm pretty sure the Rotary Club would respond faster than the police in most places. I, I was in the Highlands of Scotland in 2019 and I was a Rotarian from here in town. Um, uh, had a friend there, he says in Rotary, look him up. And, and I emailed them beforehand and they, they said, well, we're having a meeting, come on in. And I'm, we're way up, way up north and, and I got to go to their local meeting exchange flags as, as we do, as per our custom. Yeah. But then, you know, I got to meet people I had no chance of ever meeting. Right. You know, and they were local and grew up in that area. And little towns north of Inverness and you're like. Wow. I, I just, yeah. And they're like, I'll go ahead and skip work for the afternoon so I can tour you around here. Oh, yeah. And we'll have some beers at up. Oh yeah. And we might have a pin or two, like going, okay, I'm your guy. So, but you, so chances to meet people and, and make those extended, uh, friendships that just as you said, if you're near somewhere, well, someone can help you pick, pick you up. They'll, they'll, somebody will take care of you. Yeah. You know, it's like there's a contact and, and, and if they can't physically help you, they will certainly look out to find you the direction you need to go. Yeah. That, that's, we have people visiting all the time to the club, don't we? Mm-hmm. Just, we're just in town. I wanna make a meeting. Yeah. And stay, stay committed to what we're doing. And I'm like, let's, fantastic. I just didn't know people did that. And I'm starting to say, okay, when I travel somewhere, I've done that. And, and that, that's fun. When my, my dad was in the Phoenix area for a long time and I went to some of the rotary meetings down there in the area where he was at, just when I was down seeing him. So yeah. You just, you get, you get involved and it's like, okay, this is a pretty good thing. There's, there's, it's no small coincidence that Rotary is the largest international, you know? Yeah. Organization, period. The other thing I like about Rotary is there's a variety of ages. Yes. Mm-hmm. I'd say about 60, 70% of our club are retired people. Yeah. But that leaves, you know, about 40, 30% who are not of those, yes. They work full-time and that's a great thing about breakfast. Yeah. Club we're done by eight o'clock, they can go to work. The other thing I like in Rotary, you can give as much as you want. Mm. And you can give financially, you can give of your time and talent, but you determine how much you wanna give of that time and talent and what projects you wanna be involved in. Yeah. Yeah. You don't have to be involved in every project and probably you can't be. To really give it, you couldn't what it needs, but you pick and choose and the time is yours. And the other thing I like about our rotary, and probably all Rotaries do this, there are social events. We don't just work all the time and have fun while we're working, but they're social events too. Outside of our weekly meetings. I thought, I thought brew was actually something made up and, and, and, and I suppose somewhere, way back in the day, can I, can I So tell us about Brew David. Brew Brew. B-R-W-B-R-E-W. Beers Rotarians and enjoy Worldwide. I'm like going, okay, somebody made that up. I was like, well no, it is actually an international organization within Rotary. Yeah, it's a sub branch basically. Exactly. And, and, uh, there is monthly and, and Sarah Murphy. Um, uh, she's the, she takes that flag every month and plants it in a local brewery. And we go down there and like I said, there's more fellowship there than too. We're also supporting a local business, you know, so we're, we're pretty altruistic that way, I guess. So if we wanna give ourselves that pat on the back to go out and have a pin or two, but that, that, you know, there are there and there's so many things like that. You know, there are progressive dinners, there are, we, you know, there, there's groups that we've taken advantage every year getting together, buying tickets for something at the Lincoln Center. Yes. Senior performances there. So, um, yeah. Lot of us were able to do as like you said, as much as you wanna do, but you turn that back into. Supporting local businesses and, and, and doing it under a social event. That's awesome. I think one of the unique things about Rotary, you, you mentioned the progressive dinners, but there's also very progressive members and very conservative members. Mm-hmm. And we're still in the same room and on the same team. Uh, even if occasionally, uh, feathers get ruffled by, I think that's things that are said. Sure. Yeah. That, I think that's one of the interesting things about it we're, we're neither a religious nor a political organization. Yes. And, and, and, and so there, those, those causes everybody, it doesn't. Have anybody eliminated because of that be, but we, we are very inclusive that way. But we also say it's like, that's not what we're here for. Right. And, and, and the other things we're doing don't have, um, that, I mean, I, I, I've gotten individuals and organizations that have been disappointed that we can't be part of the Peach Festival, um, because of that in our Senate. Mm-hmm. But I say, well, we're not an advocacy group. So, um, it's not that I agree or disagree with you, I go, we're just not doing that. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and there's a place in time for all those things. But, uh, we just say it's like we're, we're here to give back and, and in our own ways as a group and, and kind of just set that part aside. Yeah. It doesn't take away from anybody. It just says That's what we're doing. Yeah. That's our focus. Oh, yeah. Well, you said there's, there's so many people that, that do things within our club. That we don't know about until we see'em go and do something else. You know, like I said, we've had the mayor come in, we've had, we've had other politicians come in. We've had, uh, local congressmen. Oh, the new football quarterback always comes in. Oh yeah, yeah. Lemme get a new one. Yeah, yeah, that's right. So have, have somebody come by and, and we've, we've got, uh, uh, we, people that do so many different things that, like I said before, I, I run into people that are members that I didn't realize are members when I was going places that we've all gone together before. It could be a, a local restaurant, it could be a a, a club, it could be whatever it is. You start seeing people that you, um. Knew before, but didn't know there were Rotarians. Yeah, I was just looking at my, uh, I've actually got the Charlie Peterson Rotarian of the Year award. I, I think 20 18, 20 19. And early in my rotary journey, maybe 2009 through 13 when I was a banker, I had a lot more time to give. Mm-hmm. And then it, you know, then I was food trucking and I had zero time to get out. Then, you know, things kind of stabilized and I gave back, and now I'm kind of in a place where I'm working a lot again at, at local think tank here. And, um, so I don't have as much to give, but I'm also in a nice slot for me, I, I love the sergeant at Arms roll and it's a easy thing to keep my attendance and my interest up. Yep. And, uh, invite guests. I've invited a lot more guests since I've been in that role. Yeah. Well, at we all different times. We can do different things. That's it. It depends on what stage of life you're in, but if anyone is listening and wants to get involved in helping your community, giving back to your community, working with people. Who all care about their community and the world internationally to give back. Hey, come check out at Fort Col Collin's breakfast rotary meeting. We meet at 6 45 and do get there early because then you get to talk to people before the meeting starts. Agreed. And the social part, to me, I love going and, and seeing people before we get our meal and sit down and have everything. Where's that meeting at? Oh, ginger and Baker every Thursday morning in the upstairs. And they do a great job supporting us too. I mean, besides another great local business, but they, they, yeah, they make, they make it a lot easier to recruit members to the club with their Oh yeah. They're, they're location. They're a great host of our meetings, that's for sure. Wonderful food. Yeah. And free parking. And free parking. Yeah, that is. Well, and, and the other clubs in town, just to, just as I've visited'em all on a, on a regular basis with the Peach Festival, I've learned, uh, that's been a highlight for me too. I know we've, we've got one club, the downtown club, they, they're, they still meet at, uh, the Lincoln Center. Yeah. We've got, um, uh, we all kind of seem to move around, but the Foothills Club now is back at the Marriott. Oh, they're, they're, they're, they're both lunch meetings. We've got a, uh, we've got raw, we've got Rotary after work. Um, they, they seem to find, they might, they've have a brewery tour actually. They're, they're a, uh, Breckenridge usually now, Breckenridge now was Sweetwater, now Breckenridge. And, and, uh, they have the back room for themselves there. And, and that fits their professional, uh, working style.'cause that's more of a working group, still working. So at five o'clock. So there's times I'm like going, there's, there's some smarts to that. Let's go have a, yeah. Have a client at five o'clock. And Yeah. So I, I, and I think that's one of the, actually the benefits for me. From with the Peach Festivals, I, I visit the other clubs fairly regularly. Yes. Mm-hmm. And, and there's an identity to each of them. For sure. For sure. You know, and, and you, we've, we've got one club that loves to sing and we've got another club that Yeah. That, not ours. I'm just like, I wouldn't join that one.'cause I, I could join the sing club. I like, I would like that actually, you, you, you would be part of that group easily there. That, that deep base. They would probably bring you in, um, just recruit you away from us, so you can't go, we don't want you to do that. All right. We're gonna keep you at Breakfast Club. So tight. Yeah. They'd probably ask me to leave if I, the singing club. Well, and, and just, and little different traditions too, within each one of them, you know? Mm-hmm. You know, everybody, you know, I, I think one of the things we all get to do on a, on a weekly basis is good news. Yeah. You know? Talk, have good news today. Just talk about that. Yeah, exactly. What it might be. It could be birth of a grandchild, it could be a, you know, just got married, kids getting married, retire, kids graduated high school, high school, college, or whatever. All those sort of things. Yeah. It's, it's a, it's a, a, a chance to kind of just say, Hey, I had something good happen. Yeah. So, coming from my four H background, what really starts me off right. For Rotary, and I'm gonna cry, but when we stand up and say the Pledge of Allegiance, I absolutely love that. Yeah. And that's followed by our four way test. Yep. Which I believe is important as well. Would you guys like to do the four way test with me right now? Oh, there's some pressure of the things we think, say or do. Is it the truth? Truth? Is it fair to all? All concerned. Concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friend friendships, beneficial to concern, all concerned and we're to apply that in our personal life and our professional life. True. I'm gonna call a short break. Uh, I got a potty break time and then we'll come back and, uh, get in the time machine. All right. All right. And we're back. So. I wanna zoom into the time machine now with you guys, uh, to small town Nebraska, small town, small town, Kansas. Yes. Um, definitely small town. Let's do, uh, let's do Therese first. Where, where did you come from in Kansas? I spent the first 18 years of my life in Hiawatha, Kansas, KHA. Okay. Which is in the northeast corner. Okay. We're about 15 miles south of the Nebraska line. Okay. And about 25, 30 miles west of the Missouri line. Okay. So you're kind of like south of Lincoln, almost pretty close. Yeah. A hundred miles or 150 miles south of Lincoln? Yes. Okay. All right. Got you. And tell me about Hiawatha just a little bit. Oh, like how big a town was it? When I was growing up, Hiawatha was about 3,500. Okay. It's, I don't think near that anymore. Yeah. Um, I try to go back to Hiawatha. My both, both my parents are deceased, but I try to go back to Hiawatha about once a year. Okay. I still have high school friends Sure. That live there and it's nice to go back and, and to see kind of traditional Kansas Farm ag oriented town. Was there a little community college or anything like that? Or was there any other industry that anchored Hiawatha? None. There is a community college about 15 miles away. Okay. And that's where, it's in Donovan County. I grew up in Brown County and part of the reason I went to community college is back in 1967 when I started that fall, we could have free tuition Oh, wow. At the community college if you were from Bro Brown County or Donovan County. Oh wow. So I went a year and a half to, yeah. Brown, uh, to, uh, Highland Col, Highland Community College or Highland Junior Community College, something like that. Interesting. It's changed and then I, after a year and a half, but I also went there because a, it was cheap, but number two, I was a four H kid who could show cattle. Yeah. Yeah. Until I was 18 and we had some, my dad was really good at feeding the steers, and that's how I paid my way through college. Oh. Was showing cattle in winning. Oh, wow. So I wanted to keep that money flowing in. So I, yeah. Finished four H at age 18, and after that, then I went, okay, move on to traditional, to Kansas State. Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about your family. Was your dad did, did he make his living ranching then and raising cattle or, or part of it? Um, and, and do you have siblings as well? Uh, that's an interesting story about my dad. My father was a very low income farm family from Nebraska. Okay. And his interest was beef cattle as he got older and he learned to artificially inseminate dairy cattle. Oh. Back in 1947. Oh wow. Okay. Yeah. And so he became an AI technician? Yeah, yeah. And then we, he and mom and my sister moved to Hiawatha. They were living in Fall City, Nebraska, moved to Hiawatha and got established there. So my dad worked as an AI technician having his own company. Interesting. So like traveling all around the region, inseminating, dairy, cattle, kinda inseminating dairy cattle, and golly, until I was probably. 15. Okay. And then a company approached him and asked him to, if they could buy his company, and then he would become a district sales manager for American Breeder Service. Okay. And he did that. So then he covered several states. Interesting. But that's how I got my interest in livestock was through my dad. Oh, interesting. My dad had been a four H kid and my mom was a four H kid, so we did all that. So I was just raised all in four H and going that direction. Interesting. And I had a sister one years older and a brother, a sister, two years older, and a brother one year older. Okay. Interesting. And then basically kind of got through your K State career and kind of got right into the writing craft. It seems like. I did, when I started at Kansas State, I majored in animal science. Hmm. And that would've been in 1969. And females did not major in animal science. And I remember a gentleman I loved Dr. Miles McKee dearly. He had judged a lot of the four H fairs where I had shown, but he then was my professor and he asked me to come in and sit down with him and he said, you're a girl. What are you going to do with an animal science major? And I said, I don't know, but I like to write. Maybe I could do that. And he says, well, I'd think about it. Because females just weren't majoring in animal science. Was that like, is that like a precursor to like a veterinarian or something like that? Or what would you do with an animal science degree? Even if you were a boy, most guys would go back and ranch, or they'd work for a feed company, a feedlot. They would go work in the animal health industry. Gotcha. Or be an egg banker. Oh sure. But what does a girl do? You know, but well, what is a girl even doing, going to college in those days? But I then I, I ended up dropping outta college. I got married and I dropped outta college and two years later I had an opportunity to go back to school and I decided I would go into journalism and use my animal science background and combine that with journalism and education. Okay. So I got a degree in journalism and a degree in education. Love it. Yeah. Sounds like a really, uh, traveling your own path kind of a. I have been very blessed to get to do what all I've got to do. Yeah. Very cool. Um, David, what town in Nebraska? Like, uh, basically my hometown's a little town called Aurora. My dad was a high school principal and, uh, um, my joke is we never really lived more than an hour away from there, but he was first in Blue Hill. Um, I was actually born in Red Cloud'cause Blue Hill didn't have a hospital. Okay. So talking about small town and where, where, where is this at? That just near Hastings, grand Island area, south Central. Just about, about an hour west of Lincoln. North of the highway there. Exactly. Okay. And, and so Aurora is a, is a great little community, is about 2,900 people. When I was there going to high school and I've got two younger brothers. My dad was a school principal, my mom ran our church. All those things you do in small towns. Yep. Um. The, uh, you know, we're very active boys and all the things we did school-wise. Um, the sporty and such, you mean basketball team? Yeah. Yeah. Lot, lots, lots. Football of sports, all that sort of thing. Football team. Yep, yep, yep. Whatever. Whatever's in season. And, uh, um, I, my mom said, get outta the house. You're drive me crazy. The house. So, you know, do those things. You know, small town life is different. There's, uh, um, you could, you could, if you weren't 16, you had to be home and there's a 10 o'clock whistle. I think they probably still have it in city statute. City. You weren't 16. You're not supposed. Oh, oh, really? Oh, interesting. Oh, yeah. And, and, uh, is that way is like, could, if you, if I messed up, which occasionally happened, somebody else's parents would take care of me and then call my parents. I'd get when I get home again, you know, and, and so, but no, it was a great town to grow up in really was. Um, uh, the, uh, reason I'm in Fort Collins is that my great uncle who my, my, my mom's family and my dad graduated just, just to. Just in the next county over. Okay. Um, and they had a, uh, a, a lot of family roots. Well, then my great uncle came back World War ii. He retired here to Fort Collins. Okay. Ended up being part of the Seeds lab here in town, which most people don't, most people don't know exists. Um, is that the one that has all the specimen seeds from like the whole world? One of the way, one of the way during the post Cold War when they thought somebody was gonna pull the trigger and, and we had nuclear winter everywhere. So how are you gonna repopulate the world for food? Well, mm-hmm. One of those things is right here in Fort Collins. Yeah. Yeah. People have no idea about that. Well, my great Uncle Dale was part of that, and we come out here in the summers to get outta the heat humidity, Nebraska. So I've always liked Fort Collins and, and post college, I thought, okay, this is where I wanna live. I'm gonna Where did you go? College. College at University of Nebraska. Okay. So when I, when I came out here, um, you know, it's like, okay, I want to work live in a place that I really wanna live in. Yeah. And, and, uh, my wife now is a year behind me in school. I had to convince her to follow me out here. Of course. Okay. And, uh, to my betterment, obviously for now, for 40 years. But, um, the, uh, uh. Funny thing about that, my dad, towards the end of his career was a principal of Hiawatha, Kansas. Oh really? For, for a couple years. And then, then he retired from there. But, uh, so that, that very similar, very similar areas. You guys do kinship. Yeah. Yeah, I know. That's what she told me about that originally. I'm like, oh yeah, I know Hiawatha, we visited my dad down there. You know, because those are areas that uh, you know, from northern Kansas to east, southeastern Nebraska, pheasant hunt, duck hunt, all those things like there. So a different, very different life than my kids had here. I think when my son was like 14, I was trying to find somebody around here through square hay bales.'cause they wouldn't. I wanted to get his backside out there and said, okay, you need to know what real work is and, and, uh, getting up when it's very early and going and doing those things. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so, but been out here when we, you know, when we first moved here, Fort Collins, it was a town of 53,000 people. Right. And, and, uh, you now we're, you know, a hundred thousand plus of that number and growing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and, uh, um, and did you get like a finance degree or, yeah, I was in, I was in business college, but I had my chances of, of doing different things. I actually thought I was gonna be a coach. I, I actually was gonna coach football and I really enjoyed that. Uh, since then I've been able to do some volunteering here in town. Sure. And then, um, I'm part of Rainy McCoy and I have been broadcasting of Pooter school district sports, football and basketball and Okay. And some volleyball, uh, for, it'll be our 14th season coming up. Okay. And, and, uh, so like on the radio, you hear your voice, the radio, it's actually, it's not radio. It's either, it's, we've done different venues, but it's, um, it's gonna be on the continuing now on the, uh, uh. Pooter School district, YouTube channel. Oh, okay. The Athletics channel. Okay. So as things we've gone from where it was live streaming to on different, different, um, platforms and, and, uh, as, as Randy and anybody that knows me well knows I just show up and start kind of talking. I do my research. I leave the technical things behind. Here's, that's why you got tell me where to talk. Yeah, exactly. I was like, give, give, point me in the right direction. I'll start going. And anybody that, yeah, I, I, I can fill up the air pretty easily. So, but it's a lot of fun. It's also a chance to get to know kids, um, um, and be part of something that, uh, you know, my dad was my coach. I got to coach my, my son and daughter both in some things they did in their little Yeah. Yeah. Because the things you gotta get back as community because you're certainly not gonna get paid for it. Mm-hmm. You know, and, and, uh, as a parent, you, you know, all those years of having something in your trunk that had to do with a, a kid's sport for about seven, eight years and then, and, and, uh, people go, do you miss it? I go, I'd do it all again in heartbeat. I mean, go back to watch a kid. Mom. Mom actually, uh, founded the P Grew Buchanan High School, which was a high school of, uh, 60. Like seven through 12. There were 60 some years. 55. Yeah. Uh, but she founded the baseball team, the little league baseball team when I was eight. Mm-hmm. Uh, that she put a team together and taught us That's cool. How to play and stuff. Oh yeah. Uh, that was a very special time, you know, and she coached it for like three or four years until I got old enough. I had to go to town for fast pitch. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and, and somewhat in Kansas, Nebraska, it's always been, I've got friends here in town and professionals that went to one room schools in, in Nebraska. Yeah. And those are certainly getting lesser and lesser Yeah. Yeah. As they, as they do that. But, uh, um, and you find that little small town growth. Mm-hmm. Even though farming and, and agriculture still very big in my hometown, um, there's industry there that's have grown, um, industries. If if you're, if you're long I 80, you're along the major throughways in the, in the country that those small towns can still thrive. But the further you get away Yeah. From those areas, those little towns are, have really dried up a ton. And, and, uh, um, yeah, where there was. 200 farm families now there's 37 farm families, if you're lucky. Yeah, yeah. Uh, each one has five times as much land. Yeah. Well, machinery and the, the astounding amount of cost of those things and mm-hmm. You know, when you can, you can just get your combine in the field or put your planter in the field and then put the GPS in it and walk away and come back after, come back after lunch and it's done. It's just, it been pretty amazing to see. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But it, I, I think, you know, as we see Fort Collins, the change, this was very ag town when I first moved here. Yeah. Very much, you know, very much the, the university was, was still the biggest employer, but still there. But now with the growth of tech and, and, and, uh, you know, uh, as, as a. Retirement and, and vacation destination. You know, Fort Collins offers so many more things for people to come out here and see and do. I mean, in, in my little neighborhood, we've got more people coming here, retired buying than, than than young families because it's just a, you know, I like four, I like four seasons. I don't like them. Back in the Midwest where we grew up, uh, you know, we'd joke our kids had never seen dirty snow. And we, that's one of the challenges. I actually had an economist on just last night, and we were talking about how do you keep that vibrancy in Northern Colorado? Mm-hmm. If, I mean, frankly, if, if two thirds of the people that are moving here are semi-retired or retired and they're chasing their grandkids, that's not a positive thing for the vibrancy of the workforce, you know, or the housing prices or any of that. Yeah. Well, it's, what might help is. Fort Collins being the micro brewery capital, that doesn't hurt. Yeah. Yeah. So did you get right into financial planning kind of stuff then? Well, or how did that come? Well, it sets out, you know, you're, you started in sales and, and the financial industry, you know, there's always been around, but the complexities of it and the offerings of it have dramatically increase in the last 15, 20 years. Sure. You know, I took my series seven, I think in 1988, and, and that was still a very fledgling industry. It it when you were outside of Denver, right. Or, or you weren't one of the, part of the big firms like that. So it, it involved a lot of insurance work too, and a lot of planning. I mean, I, I, I guess I've had a career of helping people manage risk, you know, fair. You know, it, it's sometimes my job is the best when somebody retires and they've done 30, 40 years of saving and that's fantastic. Sometimes it's, if you're delivering a life insurance check that it, it's at a time when people. Are at their lowest. Devastated. Yeah, exactly. But then somebody gets to keep a house and, and kids get outta college or, or, or, or there's somebody that, uh, uh, could stay where they're at and don't have to leave and, and, and, uh, it's, it's different. Um, I enjoy it. Um, and, and I like helping people, helping people plan. I'm, I've always been that problem solver. Um, as a husband, I've learned that I don't have to solve every problem that my, that I perceive my wife to have. They're generally not. I just need to listen more. Just listen. Yeah. Yes. Exactly. I don't, I'm still working on that, the nail in my head. No, I know. Yeah, I know. I'm, I'm still listening. I'm definitely a work in progress as those that know me best. That's, that's, that's the thing. But, uh, we all are, yeah. Yeah. That's true. Well, and, and, and as you see, you know, as this town grows, just to your point where vocations and, and we, we were a very. Ag town now, the tech town, I mean, you know, Fort Collins is percentage, you know, word an anomaly. The, the amount of college graduates in, in the, in the white collar jobs in this town is, is Oh yeah. Very much different. And, and having, having children that are now looking to buy homes and, and, uh, my, my first house that my wife and I built here in town, I think we spent$79,000. And I still, I tell this story all the time as my dad goes, you're never gonna be able to pay that off. You could spend that money, you know, you know, it'd be worth 800,000. Well, oh yeah. Just silly numbers now. Oh, yeah. You know, and what, what kids have got to go into town now because people come in and buy cash.'cause it's such a great place to live. Yeah. You know, and, and as a young professional, I've got, you know, two educated kids both here, CSU, Ram grads and, uh, um, they, they've gotta put a sizable amount of money down just to get into the place here. Yeah. Well, and it's hard to catch on in the professional realm. Yep. I, I moved here with, with a job. I got a college degree and then I went through a banking training program, got my series seven and 63 and different things way back when, and a bunch of other training and licenses, and then met a bunch of people that were, you know, had better grades and a better degree than me that didn't have a job at a bank. They were serving my beer at the Trailhead. Yeah. You know, or whatever. Well, it's, and that, that's the thing. Here's a town where people wanna be and, and can you survive long enough at times to, to find your niche, to catch on and Yeah. Catch a little traction. Yeah. Because there's, I mean, there's, and to that point, you talk about breweries, but there's other people go and start small jobs and nothing to do with the educations they had. Yeah, yeah, totally. If all the time, if, if you have, have those chances, it's about your drive and, and, uh, it's like I, I've been very fortunate, but it's like, I don't think I can really retire and do nothing. I, I, well, I'm sure I can actually, I, I, I've, I'm that working dog. I need tasks on a daily basis. Well, I'm glad we have you in the club to, to work on. Yeah, me too. Yeah. Yeah. I got a lot, lot of help. We're gonna do our ping pong ball question challenge here now. So I'm gonna have you guys each ask two questions or each pull two balls, okay? Okay. These are kind of randomized questions that are tied to those. Okay. And it could be anything from silly to professional and the first listener to respond. Uh, for each, uh, there is gonna have a, uh, a free medallion for you for the field of honor. Yep. And so, um, we will let you honor one of your heroes, uh, free of obligation or cost. Mm-hmm. And come and check it out. And then Dave, for the Peach Festival's, got a admittance for four. Yep. I'll get four. I'll get four people to come down and enjoy the Peach Festival and they'll, they'll I'll, I'll, they'll take care of their passes. Awesome. And, uh, so yeah, let's get started. Therese, why don't you grab two of those. There you go. We'll go you first. Since the field of honor is first, 22, 22, I'm gonna bold it so you don't get it. If you could live anywhere for three months, a year, where would it be and why? I would live in Australia again. Oh. I lived in Australia for three years. Okay. And absolutely loved it. I would probably choose, in Australia, I would probably go to Melbourne for a year, Sydney for a year, and then I'd go to the Outback. I mean, not a year, a month. Yeah, yeah. You got three months there. One month in Melbourne, one month in Sydney, and one month in the Outback. You say Melbourne? I've always called it Melbourne, but I guess that's how Americans say it. And Aussies don't. Uh, in Australia, most of the R'S are not pronounced, but if there isn't an R there, then you put it there. Like, I have an idea. I did not understand why they do that, but they do that. So it's Melbourne. I like it. Yeah. Um, why don't we do both of your questions right away. Okay. Number four. Number four. Oh, this is a fun one. Uhoh, what, what would you estimate your burp to fart ratio to be? My what? Your burp to fart ratio. Oh, gracious Sykes. Like, uh, do you burp twice as much as you fart, or half as much? What? What a draw again. Are we talking silent farts or loud? Yeah. You gotta cut'em all. You gotta cut'em all. Oh, I thought that was your number. That's yours. I'm so glad you went twice. Oh, probably one to one. One to one. This is, it's alright. We're gonna make that the, uh, the winning answer for the medallion is, uh, one to one octopus. Time to yell at octopus, sir. Get this too flipper. Funny answer. Great. Alright. Where? I gotta put that one back up for you, Dave. No, it won't come out. I, I won't make, I won't make sure. Okay. Five. Well, this one's even worse. I'm just kidding. What's the most important lesson you've learned from failure? Oh, oh gosh. Um, two presidents have had speeches, uh, um, but, uh, president Kennedy's, uh, big one about, uh, uh, basically I, I failure's. Good. Hmm. Failure. Failure teaches you that you tried and, and, and, and it's not so much that you tried and failed, it's that, that you can do it again. Yeah. You know, I, I, I've, I've, I want the guy on my team that will try and keep getting up after getting knocked down. You know, it, it's the, I will, I will not resilience. I, I will not get that correct quote. But Dr, it's not so much the honor of the person who doesn't go into the ring and compete. It's the person who goes in the ring and competes no matter what the outcome is. And, um, I, I, I want that. I want that person and, and, and I hope I got a Teddy Roosevelt plaque on top of my Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, somewhere on my dresser or my, on my bookshelf there. Yeah. I was looking for, but it's that, yeah, the, the person that actually gets in the ring, even if he gets beat, is much more honorable than the person that stands in the sidelines. I, I have no problem with failure because, uh, I've certainly done it enough and I'd like to think I've learned from all of them. Yeah. And, and you have those chances. Um, I, I said I, I'd rather take a chance. I'd rather sit on the sidelines. I've never been that guy. Fair enough. Out there. All right. All right. See what you got. You deserve a funny one. Just, all right. Number three, we're clip for you. Uh, yeah. Therese 23. He'll be at Rotary next week. Do you have any stupid human tricks that you're willing to share or show? Yes, you do. I could tell. I don't. Uh, oh. He's getting, he's turning red. He's wondering if he should actually share this live in, in person right now. Oh my goodness. Is it something to do with your burp to heart ratio? Yeah. I, I can't even claim that. I mean, well, as, as a re, you know, reflux sufferer for many years, burping is, I, I, mine would be 50 to one, I guess so. Wow. Impressive. Um, yeah. Yeah. The golly, I, I, I, you know, other than the old man stuff standing up and making noises, I mean, does anybody else get, you know, watch those progressive commercials where you're turning into your parents and it's like, who reads books about submarines? My daughter goes, my dad and, and who, who, who can't go fill up their gas at their station without talking to the guy next to him. So I guess it won't be the, the, the, the actual question is you match the metaphor of that. Uh, I, I fit those. Completely. I, I, I, I can't get an elevator and not talk to somebody. I can't, my wife, I mean, God bless her because she's endured this forever. Um, you know, it's like, I can help you with that, or I can do that from the other, Hey, what do you got there? Yeah, I'm that guy. Yeah. Yeah. I'll own it. I've owned it. So Cool. Yeah, it's, it's, I've, I've come to where I've come to grips with, that's me. So I'm gonna call the winning question there. The, uh, the first one, and I guess the lesson you've learned from failure is that failure is a good thing. Is that the right, uh, kind of summary of that? Definitely for me. Yeah. Yeah. And nobody bats a thousand in life. And, and the, the successful people in whatever they wanna define as success are the ones that learn from failure. I mean, you gotta try. Yeah. Some people just play life too safe and don't try. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a term on, uh, the Twitter these days, the NPC uh, non-player character. Oh, yeah. So they're, they're, they're filling a slot in the world, but they're just absolutely just. Not impacting anybody's lives. They're not changing anybody's mind about anything. They're not inspiring anybody to do anything new. Standing on the sideline. Yeah, I know. Put me a don't coach that muscle always. Well, and, and, and you look at that, I think, how do you grow? Yeah. I mean, I mean, other things I've done wrong and, and not wanted to do wrong, but just did or, or didn't do well enough or learn from, I mean, that, that could be from starting out as a kid trying to hit a ball or throw it or, or, or, or hitting the right note in choir or whatever it would be, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It, it's to now, you know, professionally seeing people, you know, every, every year we, you know, I, I take attestations on ethics, you know that from your, from the Sure. Banking and the financial side of things. You know, what are the, what are the right things to do? Well, they all come down to the same things that are in the four way test. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, all those things are self-evident that you have to do things the right way. Um, but doing them. Well, is is not really part of it. Sometimes don't do everything. Well. You, you learn from it. I, uh, being in the industry that you're in, I'm, I'm guessing that your call volume over the last, uh, four weeks of tariff, not tariff, tariff, just kidding. Stock markets up 800, down 2000. Yeah. Up I think 1400. Most of my clients that I deal with, I, I talk to them all the time. It doesn't mean, you know, it's no fun. But, but you know, the market actually has an annual 10% correction. That's, that's not out of the, out of the norm at all. Yeah. You know, so as, as, uh, you know, this is, which could be typically called a manmade, um, uh, correction, which most of them are, but Covid was an incident where it wasn't. Sure. So, you know, there's people that make that even, well, that's arable. Yeah, exactly. But, you know, you, you do, you've got the next few weeks, it's, but it's about planning, you know? Yeah. It's like, okay, does your portfolio have enough? Uh, just withstand that, and if you don't like it, I mean, I've got. Clients and friends that like that kind of volatility. They don't get sleep. They don't sleep at all. I go, well then you need, you need, you gotta be away from it.'cause it's gonna come back and we're gonna, it'll happen again. Yeah. You know, can, can you weather that storm? I mean, are, are you that cattle producer that, that, that has enough hay in the barn to last all winter? You know, you know, that's, that's the thing. My, my dad, I mean, my grand, both my grandfathers farmed. It's like, you know when you can put hay in the barn, you put hay in the barn. Yeah. And if, I don't care if you're saving for your retirement or, or you're, you're trying to make sure your livestock are gonna be well fed all winter long. Yeah. Or even able to help your neighbor if he needs a little hay. Exactly. Mm-hmm. All those things happen. And that's, that's Rotarians right there. We go out and help our neighbors, don't we? We do. Well, the, uh, the final segment of our show, uh, it gets better. It gets better. You can sit down on the floor if you like, Gary. The, uh, the namesake segment is the Loco Experience. Yep. And in this Capacity Loco is stands for Crazy. So, I think we'll start with Dave this time. I've been starting with threes a lot. Okay. I know she's gonna have a good one, but, uh, I pave the way. What's the, uh, what's the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners? Uh, could be travel, could be a near death experience, could be whatever comes to mind when I say that question. You know, I think the, the, the first time, uh, when our son was born and, and, and blessed with the ignorance of not knowing, um, how incredible that's gonna be. Um, he was, he was. Yeah. Early he had some issues. Hmm. Um, um, spent a week in the nicu. None of the things that we had any clue about. Sure. You know, um, uh, certainly very lucky to have a, a, a strong partner in life and, and, uh, that to be there, but not, not knowing things, um, uh, it just, it, I ignorance scares me. And nothing you could impact Exactly. Either. Right? Like, you're such a doer or you're a working dog. Yeah. What can I do? What can I do? And the doctors are like, just stay out of our way. You know, and that's part of, that's probably part of my own OCD tendencies of saying if I need to be in control and, and I jump up and do things because it's like, okay, I want it done. What? I proceed to be the right way and. Boy, that parenting moment when you have, it's not in your hands at all, was, was to me. Um, I impactful and I had no clue at the time. None. Right? None. Zero. I mean, I've done some physically some dumb things, things like that, but I volunteered for those and I tried those, you know, and, you know, running up hit 300 pound guys when you're supposed to do that, you know, with the football helmet on. Seems to be a good idea at the time. But, uh, it, it's not, it doesn't do well for you long term, but no, it, I, I would say those moments that when you really can't affect what's going on, you just have, you have to deliver the results for me. Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay, Therese, uh, you got anything that comes to mind? Two things come to mind. All right. The first one was, I was somewhat afraid of heights. Okay. So I was living in Australia and I decided I need to conquer that fear. So I decided to go do a tandem skydive. Oh, okay. And it worked out okay. No, flat. It worked. Okay. You're still here. The first part though. You're in the plane and they have it open. And I kind of went to where the opening is and was looking and the gentleman, there were four of us in the plane in the back, but the guy I am supposed to be tandem with had me move back and he said, I forgot to attach you. Oh. So I wasn't attached. I had no shoes on that time when I was looking over and it's like, oh, thank you for noticing that. So then he attached me and then we sat up. And did it help? Uh, like did your fear of heights dissipate from that? It did. Really, it was, I just realized. Uh, you just gotta live life. Huh? Go do it. Yeah. So, yeah. Was yours a like a, one of my friends has like vertigo or something like that, so when she gets up, she can go all the way to the top of horse tooth. But to climb up those last few mountains up there, she physically can't, like, she just can't. Was was it like that for you? No, I was just scared of fights. Just scared. Okay. Just, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But now it's much less. Yeah. Still don't wanna fall from a big eye place. No, but it was a crazy thing to do. Yeah. No, for sure. That's taking a bull by the horn. We always say confront the dragon around here. Yeah. So if there's a big scary dragon that needs to be talked about, well tell'em, Hey Mr. Let's sit down and talk. Yeah, exactly. Uh, that's kinda what you did with your fear there. And then your second one. Oh, my second one was, I was in Australia. I was single at the time. And here we go. I got the opportunity to travel with two gentlemen who worked in the, uh, feed industry. Okay. And they were going on a. A producer tour for cattle producers through the Outback. Oh, fun. And there was like four different stops throughout the outback. And I mean, we did a lot of traveling. That's really cool. But we had an afternoon that was open and they were both fishermen, so they asked if I would like to go with them. Well, sure, why not? You know, if you're traveling with them, you might as well Sure do. So we, they've rented what they called a tinny, which is an aluminum Yep, yep. Aluminum boat. And one's on one end of the boat, one's on the other end of the boat. And I just decided, I mean, it's hot there. I took my shoes off, I put my feet in the water and I, you know, leaned back across the boat. Oh sure. And the one gentleman at one point looked at me and said, would you get your feet back? Yeah. And I go, why this is comfortable? And he goes, just do it. And the tone of his voice was like kind of ordering. He started polite and then it was that ordering for tone. So I got my feet back in and he told the other guy at the end, he says, start the engine. And it's like, what? And we're looking at him and he goes, there's a crock coming to under our boat. Oh, wow. So what the crocodile likes to do is to get under the boat and flip it. Mm. So he wanted my feet out the water first. So the croc didn't get it. Dang. But he didn't wanna say it from the very beginning. Could you see him? Did you spot the crock? We saw the crock. Then when we moved Wow. The boat. It came up. But it was, that's what I call crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That fits. Yeah. That checks, that checks it off pretty well. I, I glad to say I've never done anything quite like that. Well, you, there's still time, Dave. Yeah. Yeah. Um, well, I'm, I'm thankful for you guys to come spend some time here, uh, sharing some rotary stories and encouragement. Um, is there, if there's somebody out there listening right now that's like, on the fence, like they're thinking about visiting Rotary Club or learning more about it or something, what, what would tip'em? I would say give it a chance. Yeah. Check us out. Come to a meeting, let us know. You know who you are. Yeah. When you check in, we'd love to, we we got your first breakfast for free. Right? Exactly. Exactly. So, yeah. Or, or any, any of the clubs that with, I think you'll find that at all the clubs, you know, we can all brag about our own of course. But at all the clubs, you'd have a chance to find somebody with common interests. Oh, totally. Yes. And, and yeah. So it's a Tuesday lunch at the Marriott. Wednesday lunch at the Lincoln Center. Lincoln Center. And then what Tuesday Evening club. Tuesday evening is at, at, at this, um, Breckenridge. Now, I wouldn't say Sweetwater again now Breckenridge, but I, I challenge you to not, not find something to do. If you wanna be involved and you want to, you wanna give back and you want to great. Do a bunch of great bunch of people. You've got several choices here in town. We like our own obviously, but love it. There are some good choices and you can do it. What are the four names of the Bre of, of the Breakfast Club, of the Rotary Clubs in town? Well, there's a Fort Collins Breakfast Rotary. Mm-hmm. Foothills Club. Yep. Downtown club. And then, yeah. Is it called the Downtown Club? Actually we call it 1980. No, it's, it's, well it's the and it's actually the Rotary Club of Fort Collins. Collins, yeah. The og. Yeah. There's very well put. Yeah. They're the OGs. And then I don't if they just do, they just go by raw Rotary. Yeah. Rot after work, I think. Mm-hmm. So, yeah. Yep. We know where they're, we know what time they meet. Yeah. But, uh, like I say, there's a lot of ways, as you said, Google it, check it out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And there's, there's so many, so many opportunities and get involved. I mean, get off your couch, get out, get out and do some things. Give back to the community. Give back to the world. Well, even if you're not, uh, interested in be buying a medallion or being a community supporter, do come out to the Memorial Day Field of Honor.'cause it is a striking display. Oh, it's amazing that see if red, white, and blue, it just touches your heart. Yeah, I agree. Last year I met. And this is for us, but I, I, I, I met a woman there last year who brought her very elderly mom with her from Texas, and her mom wanted to come over and see it, um, came up from Loveland and her, her, her dad was part of D-Day. Oh, wow. You know, and, and, and, uh, and I'm a history nerd and I started asking a few things like this and, and it's just like I brought it. And so we, she had difficult time moving around, but we got her over there and, and, and it was really moving for them, I'm sure. And for the daughter. And the daughter sent back, took a bunch of pictures and, you know, somebody got to relive that story. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And, and that's as powerful as that gets, because like I said, there's, there's lots of heroes. Well, her husband is certainly one of those. Oh, for sure. And the Peach Festival is August 16th. August 16th. Downtown Civic Center, 11 to seven. Great time, great day. A lot of head bands. Oh yeah. There's, there's something for everybody there. All the peaches. Yeah. Peaches, peach sales going on. There's peach beer. There's gonna be. Peach desserts. There's gonna be peach. There's peach pizza there, there's, there is everything to do peach. There should be a, uh, like a, a mascot type outfit. I think, uh, like when I think about peaches, you're about, you're about six. You're about six four, I think. Yeah. But put, when I'm thinking like a Betty Boots style peaches seems like what, what with, uh, you know, strawberry blonde hair instead. Your wife. Perhaps I'll, I'll recruit Jill to be peaches this year for the festival. There you go. Yeah. Tread carefully. Love you, peaches. Yeah, that's right. Exactly. And I appreciate both of you spending some time today. Oh, thank you very much. This was a lot of fun. God's speed.