Yeehah cowgirls!

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to go horseback riding.For Hollie it was first time on a horse and she did really well, even though there were complaints about sore knees, and not just from Hollie.

Parker Rotary Club

It was another early start but we were all there, including Brenda who had a tooth extracted the day before. I have been very impressed with the "Happy Bucks" system where Rotarians make a donation because they are happy about an issue. A number donated to say they were happy to have our team there which was a lovely gesture, while others wanted to share good news with the club. After the meeting we joined those members who could stay for a Roundtable.

Our next post will be from the District Conference in Colorado Springs.

Great T shirt, Steve

After the hat yesterday! It has been lovely to see the variety of ways we have been made to feel welcome. New Zealand seems to be a popular destination for Colorado people. We have seen several New Zealand T shirts. Steve tells us that he has a whole new career as a pin up boy!!

Douglas County Victims' Assistance Programme

We were at the Douglas County Justice Centre this morning. There were a number of presentations that were inter linked and gave us a good view of how the sheriff's department, District Attorney's office and community agencies work together.
The security entering the building was state of the art and we stood in a security screening area on foot prints with our hands in the air, surrender style, while we were scanned.

Rotary Club of Cherry Creek Valley

The club must have had almost a full turnout and several guests as well to welcome us. In Colorado clubs start with an Inspirational spot and oath of allegiance. It's a great positive start to the meeting and Cherry Creek was no exception.

Prairie Canyon Ranch

Annie, Hollie and Judith, together with Rotarians Sue and Brian Gardner, Irv Buck and Irv's daughter, Courtney and grandchildren, Elias and Isabella visited a ranch (20 acres for 1 cattle beast) The country is very dry and barren but with a beauty. It was great to get out into the fresh air and walk over the hills and rocks.

Parker

Steve Watson and his wife Nancy are hosting Judith. We love the hat Steve!

We spent the morning at the Women's Crisis and Family Outreach Centre in Castle Rock where we had a great exchange of information.

Lunch was at the Old Stone Church, followed by shopping at an outlet mall and then some free time.

The Continental Divide

We travelled from Grand Lake to Parker today, crossing the Continental Divide. It was beautiful and covered in snow most of the way. Tonight the Parker and Cherry Creek clubs had a lovely casual dinner where we met a number of Rotarians.

Grand Lake

We looked outside on our first morning in Grand Lake and the deck, table and chairs were covered in snow. Beautiful but freezing. We were not deterred so after a fabulous breakfast from the cafe owned by a Kiwi we went for a short, literally breath taking walk. Not kidding the altitude is so high that breathing becomes difficult, especially with exercise. However it was worth it as the first picture shows.

Popcorn snow

We had drinks and dinner with Rotarians from the Granby and Grand Lakes clubs.
As we were ready to leave there was thunder and lightning followed by popcorn snow. Popcorn snow looks like hail, but is soft like snow. Another first for the team.

We think you are out there following us. How about posting a comment or two so we know you are still there!!!

Grand Lake

We have been looking forward to a couple of days of R and R at Grand Lake. It feels good to be here. At 8396 feet above sea level (2550 m) we are feeling the effects of altitude. We are all knocking back the pain killers and drinking lots of water to counteract the altitude. We're constantly on the lookout for restrooms!!
The lake is the largest in Colorado and is still frozen, though starting to thaw. The surrounding mountains are covered in snow, a very beautiful and peaceful place.

Take me out to the Ball Game

Here we are at the ball game between The Rockies and LA Dodgers. Armed with big hands, and cheer leader pom poms we entered into the spirit of the occasion, and even learned when to wave and cheer! What a great experience and thanks to our hosts for a great night. We learned that they don't streak at baseball games. No wonder, its freezing!

Evergreen Club

Evergreen is a club that has around 120 members and is a breakfast club. For some of us the early start was a real test of commitment. We all passed! The meeting was warm and friendly and we were impressed with the variety and number of club projects.

Tree Planting in Evergreen

The Tree Committee of the Evergreen Club arranged for a new community tree to be planted. Joan's son Doug used his specialised truck to lift a large tree to the new site and then it was time for Rotarians to use their shovels. You can see the Judith in the photo mucking in. It was lovely to be invited to participate in a club project.

Snow Shoeing

Hollie, Brenda, Annie and Judith got active today with the new experience of snow shoeing. The setting was idyllic and the snow was so beautiful amongst the trees. The frozen lake looked lovely but we were wary of getting too close. We had the most wonderful time thanks to Joan, Mary and Mark who escorted us and provided the gear. You can see we had a great time, a real highlight of the trip.

Ain't she cute

We had a great time building a snow lady, especially for Amardin, Aoife and Tea. In the photo you can see Judith, Mark, Brenda, Annie, Hollie and Mary.

Golden and Evergreen Clubs

The Evergreen club graciously shared us with the Golden Club; our first visit with the Golden Club was to red Rocks, an amazing place of natural beauty, where there is a huge ampitheatre where performances take place, then on to the National Renewable energy lab to see their display and a trip to Coor's Brewery where we were able to taste the sponsor's fine products.

The Evergreen club then hosted us for dinner and a trip to see Evita.

A very busy and enjoyable day. We have been overwhelmed by the generosity of our host clubs who have gone out of their way to give us truly memorable experiences.

Evergreen and Golden Clubs

We spent the morning at Family Tree, a large organisation that provides a range of services, including a safe shelter, supervised exchanges and access, parenting and counselling for families where ther has been abuse. It was a worthwhile morning.

Goodbye LoDo we will miss you.

We have had a wonderful time with the LoDo club. The photos from top to bottom show Jan and John (bff), Hollie with her hosts, Cathy and Jeff and President Marie with Judith. Thanks for giving us a fabulous experience.

The LoDo club has 38 members, and growing, with more than half of the members women.

Judith maybe you should have stayed?

Well...what can we say? It was the piano sing sing bar!

Judith retired early with her host family and then the LODO rotary members coerced the four of us to go on to the sing sing bar...it would have been rude not to...and as you can see we were a little shy but eventually got into the spirit of things! We had an awesome night with a lot of laughs, bad dance moves and even worse singing!

It's hard life being the perfect girl...

...well after a hard day at the office boss!

Media mega stars

We made it into the Fort Morgan Times, with photos!! The link is http://www.fortmorgantimes.com/news/2009/apr/17/nz-crew-studies-local-family-violence-issues/

Even more learning

Monday 20th
The team are shown here with Tennyson Centre staff. The Centre has both residential and school facilities for children with behaviour issues caused by abuse. We were impressed by the exemplary practice.
We also visited the Colorado Coalition against Domestic Violence and had great discussion.
Tuesday 21st
After a great breakfast at Snooze we visited the Colorado University Masters Programme on Domestic Violence. It was good to discusssome of the underpinnings of our work. In the afternoon we visited the Denver Centre for Crime Victims. Their programmes are truly impressive and comprehensive.

Crime scene

Mo's house became a crime scene when she hosted us for cocktails!!! Detective Sergeant Kelly told us it was the dachshund. Is it the truth???

From snow to hot

Friday was below freezing with snow and by today we were so hot that we bought a short sleeved shirt. Looks great on Jess. The extremes of temperature are very new for us.

Out and about in Downtown Denver

Today was a day to spend at leisure with our hosts. I have spent time walking in Downtown Denver. I enjoyed the public art. The first photo is near the Denver Art Museum and has political statements dating back to conflict between settlers and the First Nation People. I enjoyed the whimsy of the dancers outside the Performing Arts Centre in the second photo.

Looking forward to hear what others in the team have done.

Crazy Kiwis out in the snow

While Denver residents were retreating indoors out of the snow Hollie, Annie and Judith were in Peg's backyard enjoying the new experience!!

Denver Rotary Club

Thursday 16th April saw the team presenting to the Denver Rotary Club. What an experience to be hosted by the 31st Rotary Club. Formed in 1911. They received a presentation from the State recognising their upcoming century.
The Denver Club has around 400 members. They have been wonderful and generous hosts who have looked after us very well.

Snow storm doesn't stop kiwis having a good time!

We have been treated to a couple of fabulous nights out during our stay in Denver. On Thursday we had an extrordinary evening at the Zang mansion owned by one of our hosts Rod Greiner. This amazing home is over a 100 years old! On Friday, despite well over a foot of snow on the roads, we all made it for a fabulous mexican evening at Ron and Joanne Katz home. There was a lot of laughter...some pretty tall story telling and fantastic company. Thank you to you all they are nights that wont be forgotten!

photo 1 is us arriving and Ron and Joanne's house for dinner on Friday

Photo 2 is us a little warmer inside Ron and Joanne's house for dinner on Friday

Photo 3 is us seated for dinner at the Zang mansion Thursday night

There's a new sheriff in town

Brenda's been out early this morning recruiting numbers for the police .. it's a kind of skinny cowboy sheriff! Not sure how well he'd go in New Zealand...

snow snow and more snow

Wow! we have been treated to an amazing snow storm...the locals arent quite as excited about it as we are!!!! Expectations of two foot of snow are not out the question! I wonder which member of the team has been most distracted ??? Some interesting versions of snow men have been built!

Fantastic sharing of information

We decided that our line dancing careers weren't looking to promising so we best concentrate on the vocational activities today.

We have had two very intensive informative days in Denver. There has been some fantastic two way sharing of ideas, existing models and progressive initiatives.

A huge thanks to our fabulous drivers who have transported us around the city. If we were relying on Brenda to navigate we could have ended up anywhere...depending on which way up she had the map.

We presented to the Denver Rotary Club at lunchtime today and were again received with an incredible welcoming and freindly reception.

just wait 15 minutes...

There is a saying in Denver...if you don't like the weather just wait round for 15 minutes it will change. Here we are in 3 degrees celsius and yesterday in exactly the same spot it was 19 degrees celsius. Denver has a storm warning out and we are expecting up to a foot of snow tonight. Tomorrow's photo will be of us building snowmen!

It's a hootenanny !

We celebrated Judith's birthday in style on Wednesday night with some of the Denver Rotary Club at Stampede!

She was a fine old hootenanny with the local cowboys and gals... It was a blast!

Turns out the Kiwis have a bit of work to do on their line dancing...however there were no people or animals hurt in the making of these photos!

There was a dance off between Annie and Judith and Hollie and Brenda ... the pictures say it all! Yeehaa!

Fantastic reception in Fort Morgan

On arrival in Fort Morgan we celebrated Hollie's birthday in style with a carrot cake!

We had a great meeting and presentation at the Fort Morgan Rotary Club on Tuesday. We have been met with fantastic enthusiasim and an abundance of friendly faces throughout our stay in Fort Morgan and for a couple of the team members , Brush.
...Sharon you look so young!

Them there pets are big in Fort Morgan

Most folks just keep a cat .... sure would keep the burglars out of the house though!

Hi from the Mile High City

We spent the morning in Fort Morgan visiting Sara, a service for sexual abuse victims. The house they work from is beautiful. Lunch was at the Fort Morgan Rotary Club and we were sad to say goodbye to our hosts and come to Denver. I'm doing this from another computer and will need to find out how to load photos before too long.

Promise to do better tomorrow. We have great photos of a bear!!! A stuffed one, thank goodness

Leaving Longmont and Boulder

Here we are with Longmont Rotarian Dick Richards. As well as driving us to vocational visits during the week, Dick took us to Hudson. Thanks Dick. We had a great time with you.

Into Cowboy Country

Howdy to y'all. We found this bison head mounted on the wall of a restaurant in Hudson. They sure like a lotta meat in cowboy country. From Hudson we were met by Greg from the Fort Morgan Rotary Club. The warmth of the welcome was as big as the prairie. We had lunch, a trip through the local museum and then a stroll down Main Street with a chance to shop. Wow the price of cowboy hats and boots is something else.

Rotary Club of Boulder

Here we are at the Boulder Rotary Club doing our presentation. The Boulder Club is large with around 300 members and is an active and busy club.
While we were there two Paul Harris Fellowships were awarded. For one the woman was told that her contribution had allowed the purchase of 14 sewing machines that would allow women in Guatemala to have their own micro businesses, for the other he was bringing clean water to Africa. I was impressed with the concern for poorer countries and the use of Paul Harris contributions to care for others less fortunate.

Boulder County Justice Centre and Boulder County Ageing

It was a full day with a visit to the Boulder County Justice Centre in the morning and Boulder County Ageing in the afternoon.
Discussion in the morning centred on the apprehension, sentencing and treatment of perpetrators. We were all taken with the systematic approach to treatment, the way they screen for risk factors, and the Victim Empathy programme. The latter programme is highly dependent upon having skilled therapists. Boulder is lucky to have a number of such therapists. We were a bit green!! (envy)

The afternoon centred around the needs of elderly, especially GLBT elderly.

Voices for Children, Blue Sky Bridge

Voices for Children supplies CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates) for children who have been removed from their families, often because of abuse. Theses advocates will befriend children and are required to look out for the best interests of the children. The photograph shows the team with staff of Voices for Children.
In the Afternoon we visited Blue Sky Bridge, an organisation that does evidential interviewing of children who are alleged to have suffered abuse, often sexual abuse. Their home like facility designed to put children at ease made us a little green.
The day finished with a lovely dinner at Frasier Meadows, a retirement community where Rotarian residents attended.

St. Vrain Family Centre

The afternoon was spent at the St. Vrain Family Centre where they specialise in supervised access and exchanges and parenting programmes. We were pretty interested in the ability of the court to order parenting programmes for divorcing couples. The other interesting programme was "Boot Camp for new dads" There was also a new programme for teen dads.

Leanin Tree Museum and Celestial Seasonings

First stop of the morning was at the Leanin Tree Museum where we saw great Western art. Paintings and sculptures inside and stunning brass sculpyures outside. Some great opportunities for group photos!

We moved on to Celestial Seasonings. We had a tour through the tea factory (over a billion cups of tea every year!) and an opportunity to try flavours we don't see in Aotearoa New Zealand. The smells were something else. Really strong, especially the peppermint room that sure cleared the sinuses.

Following a great lunch at Celestial Seasonings we went to our vocational visit and then on to a social event with the Longmont Rotarians. Buffalo wings!

Longmont Rotary Club

We were made welcome by the Rotary Club of Longmont at lunchtime; the club has a warm and friendly feel. The meeting was different from the usual New Zealand meeting which means I will come back to New Zealand with new ideas for Rotary. Our presentation went well. The photo is of the team doing a waiata at the end of our presentation.