The Roswell Rotary Club’s program to collect plastic bottle caps for conversion into park benches has received special mention in a Rotary International online publication.
Last summer a writer for the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (ESRAG) interviewed club president-elect Bianca Cheney for the article.
To read the article, click on this link: https://www.esragplastics.org/a-bench-grows-in-new-mexico/
By BIANCA CHENEY
JP and I recently attended the winter South Central Rotary Youth Exchange conference in Tulsa.
The SCRYE is our multi-district organization for the youth exchange program.
Some 100 people attended the conference from 34 districts. The Board meeting was on Friday afternoon and many wonderful breakout sessions were held on Saturday, covering all topics relating to the program.
JP was prepared to make one breakout presentation and, after we arrived found out another presenter was not able to attend, JP happily agreed to lead a second presentation. He does a great job and always receives good feedback from attendees.
I am on the Management Committee and a member of the Training Committee, responsible for selecting topics for each conference, as well as confirming speakers.
SCRYE conferences are held twice a year — winter in Tulsa and the summer conference at various locations throughout the SCRYE member districts. The July conference will be in Albuquerque. You are welcome to join us to learn more about this fabulous program.
District 5520 had seven representatives at the SCRYE Conference in Tulsa.
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Attending conference are (from left) Richard Haas, Las Cruces; Melissa Metcalf, Los Alamos; Rob Metcalf, Los Alamos; Laura Gonzales, Los Alamos; Cassidy Gardner, past exchange student to the Netherlands from Los Alamos; Bianca Cheney, Roswell; and JP Cheney, Roswell.
Historian Dale Ek will speak on “If they could only talk — some can!” at this week’s Rotary Club meeting at the Roswell Civic Center.
He said his presentation “will feature selected items from my collection that enlighten the beholder of its place in history.”
Ek, who was raised in Orchard Park, graduated from Dexter High School. He is a Marine Corps veteran and is a graduate of Texas Christian University and the University of Texas School of Law in Austin.
History — specifically military and New Mexico history — has been Ek’s lifelong interest and for more than 45 years he has collected historical items. He is a member of the Historical Society of New Mexico, the Albuquerque Historical Society, and the Historical Society for Southeast New Mexico.
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Rotarian Steve Henderson (left) and Dale Ek attend earlier dedication of historic sign marking the World War II “Roswell Prisoner of War Camp” at Orchard Park near Roswell.
Mike Espiritu, president of the Roswell-Chaves County Economic Development Corp., will be featured speaker at this week’s Rotary Club meeting. The meeting begins at noon at the Roswell Civic Center.
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| Espiritu |
Before moving to Roswell, Espiritu served as F-16 assistant site manager and safety, health and environmental manager at AECOM, Holloman Air Force Base. Prior to that, he was president and CEO of the Otero County Economic Development Council and the Alamogordo Chamber of Commerce
He served in the Air Force for more than 27 years, retiring in 2001 as command chief master sergeant of the 49th Fighter Wing.
Espiritu serves on the Eastern New Mexico Medical Center Board of Directors, as vice-chair of the Roswell City Airport Advisory Commission, and on the Eastern Area Workforce Development Board of Directors.
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| Kurt Taufa’asau, New Mexico Military Institute head football coach, addresses the Roswell Rotary Club on Thursday. He and athletic director Jose Barron (right) gave an overview of NMMI athletics during the meeting at the Roswell Civic Center. |
Top New Mexico Military Institute athletic officials will speak at this week’s Rotary Club meeting.
Athletic director Jose Barron and head football coach Kurt Taufa’asau will give an overview of NMMI athletics during the meeting, which begins at noon Thursday in the Roswell Civic Center.
Barron, who was named athletic director in 2014, has been employed at NMMI since 2003 when he was hired as an athletic trainer. He was given additional duties as an associate director of athletics while he oversaw the evolution and growth of the sports medicine program.
Prior to NMMI, Barron worked in a number of sports medicine and rehabilitation clinics and spent some time working as an athletic trainer in player development for a professional baseball team.
Barron holds an undergraduate degree from New Mexico State University and a graduate degree from New Mexico Highlands University.
Taufa’asau, a native of American Samoa, played for NMMI in 2009 under former head coach Jeff Lynn. He returned to his alma mater in 2016 as a defensive line coach.
As a Bronco, Taufa’asau earned first-team All-Western States Football League honors as a defensive lineman. NMMI posted a 7-4 record to earn an appearance in the Central Bank Salt City Bowl where it lost 22-14 to Hutchinson Community College. In the bowl game, Taufa’asau was credited with four tackles.
The Broncos concluded the 2009 season ranked 20th in the final NJCAA national poll.
Taufa’asau then went to the University of Wyoming where he played for coach Dave Christensen while earning a bachelor’s in sociology in 2012.
After graduation, he spent time in the NFL, signing with the Oakland Raiders in 2013. He also spent time on the Tennessee Titans practice squad that same year and the Indianapolis Colts practice squad from 2014-15.
He was the defensive line coach at Westlake High School in Saratoga Springs, Utah in 2015.
Taufa’asau was named 2021 American Community College Football Coaches Association Coach of the Year.
As a joint four-year high school and two-year junior college, the NMMI Athletic Department oversees 24 sanctioned sports teams — 8 at the junior college level and 16 at the high school level — as well as the corps physical training program and the Health Physical Education and recreation academic division.
