The Gainesville-Haymarket Rotary meets every Wednesday at 7:30 am at the Piedmont Country Club. Here's the address:

14675 Piedmont Vista Drive, Haymarket, Va 20169

Please sign on to the District Club Database and review/update your membership information.

We really, really need more volunteers for Earth Day. If you have already signed up Thank You!!. If you can and you haven't please sign up, bring your spouse, your children, your friends, your neighbors.

Here is what the Earth Day Project Team needs help with

Children's Parade - 9:30 - 10:30 - Help get it lined up and moving

Electronics Recycling - 9:00 - 1:00 if you can give an hour great. Help Best Buy do recyling they are only sending one person

Moon Bounce - 10:00 - 2:00 if you can give an hour great. We want to make sure the little ones get a chance. We will clear it our every 30 minutes.

Chalk Artistry - 11:00 - 3:00 We have purchased lots of sidewalk chalk and we need to keep the supplies flowing.

Support setup of vendors, green car show, put chairs out in front of stage 8:00 - 9:00

Monitor recyling bins throughout the day to we replace when full - 10:00 - 4:00 if you can give an hour great

Help with event shut down 4:00- fold up chairs, general walk through town and make sure we leave it clean.

There is a lot going on at Earth Day this year. Marilyn will be at the Rotary booth for the day so find her there if you can volunteer. If she is not there wait she will be back.

Hope you see you there!!!

This week, as our President begins his diplomatic initiatives in our Southern Hemisphere, it’s useful to reflect on possible outcomes of this action. Ask any diplomat, and they will tell you that diplomacy, not the U.S. Marines, is our first line of defense. In fact, it can be argued that arms control is the incentive for all diplomacy and a precursor for peace: if two potentially adversarial nations are going to make or sustain peace, it follows that they must first agree not to make or renew war upon one another. This condition can be sustainably achieved only at the negotiating table. But there are other reasons, too…

Just maybe, talking leads to increased trade and the availability of additional resources for the U.S. Maybe, our trade provides jobs abroad that lead to reduced illegal immigration here. And maybe it leads to increased trust that permits us to influence other lands with our values. Then, there is always the card player’s axiom…a peek (in this case, beyond a seldom-crossed border) is worth many finesses in reckoning the future.

World peace is an object of Rotary. While our President connects with governments, we Rotarians continue to connect with the peoples of the world. While diplomats engage in policy, mutual trust between peoples is being won in the trenches of social intercourse as a significant by-product of Rotary’s international projects. Still, it comforts my veteran’s heart to ponder…diplomacy, whether ours or the President’s, is cheap defense.

Michael Kieffer, Bull Run Mountain Conservancy

Bull Run Mountains Conservancy, Inc., (BRMC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization founded in 1995 to protect the Bull Run Mountains through education, research, and stewardship. As the most easterly chain in the Piedmont, the Bull Run Mountains protect unique ecosystems and headwaters of the Occoquan and Goose Creek watersheds. The Bull Run Mountains are also rich in Virginia and Civil War history. BRMC is headquartered on the southern 800 acres of the 2,500-acre Bull Run Mountains Natural Area Preserve just 15 minutes from Manassas, Middleburg, and Warrenton, Virginia.

BRMC offers educational programs to adults and children, a strong link to local history, and the simple pleasure of preserving and walking trails in the Piedmont. At BRMC preservation does not mean a hands-off policy, but rather a focus on drawing people to appreciate the resources at hand and the completion of research to better understand and protect those resources.

Our Youth Outdoors Program shows children that the outdoors is fun and exciting, and teaches them that we all have a responsibility to protect and to enhance our public lands and nature preserves. Through a series of seasonal events, nature camps, birthday adventures, and school and scout programs, we work with children rain or shine. This year, BRMC partnered with Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) to create a Youth Outdoors Scholarship Program to make these exceptional outdoor experiences available to more youth.

BRMC brought closure to our ongoing project to create a 500-acre Silver Lake Natural Recreation Area. While we were unable to create a publicly accessible natural area, we were able to play a substantial role in protecting 500 acres of Piedmont open space in western Prince William County.

In March 2000, Michael became Executive Director of Bull Run Mountains Conservancy (BRMC) in Broad Run, Virginia. Michael is in charge of developing and implementing public programs to all ages as well as managing a staff including a naturalist/resource manager, research director and an active volunteer core. The day to day activities include teaching children and adults of all ages, mentoring student interns, assisting ongoing research on the Bull Run Mountains, writing grants, responding to public inquiries, maintaining a database for members and contacts, creating newsletters and brochures, attending meetings with other professional organizations, managing a budget, and working with BRMC’s Board of Directors.

Michael, a native of Amherst, N.Y., is a summa cum laude graduate of the State University of New York College at Fredonia, with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and a minor in chemistry. As an undergrad, he conducted research on snails; tutored biology, chemistry, ecology, and physics courses for the campus Learning Center; and was a teaching assistant for biology and zoology labs. After graduating, Michael spent five years as a naturalist for the Piedmont Environmental Center (PEC) in High Point, N.C. At PEC, Michael and two naturalists led more than 12,000 students, kindergarten through twelfth grade, each year through cultural and natural history interpretation, environmental awareness and issue education, and conservation education field experiences. Michael specialized in targeting environmental education programs toward high school A.P. students and special education students of all age. He also initiated adult programming for special interest groups including the mentally challenged and the hearing and visually impaired. In addition, Michael led backpacking ecotours throughout the southern Appalachians. During his off time, he acted as the volunteer advisor of the Common Vision Self-Advocacy group for The Arc of High Point.

Debi Alexander, Rainbow Center Therapeutic Riding Center

Debi talked to us about the Rainbow Center which provides therapeutic riding opportunities for area children ages 3-19. The children that they currently work with have a variety of disabilities ranging from autism to spina bifida. The therapy provided helps these children on a physical, mental, social and emotional level. For the last 4 years, they have been operation at Frazier Stables, but this only provided ring access for 16 hours a week. They are opening a new facility at Silver Lake in August, which will give them more ring time as well as an indoor ring, allowing them to provide this service to the children year round. This will allow them to greatly increase the number of children they can serve. The new location will be on 45 acres, and has received much of the labor and materials through donations from local companies, such as Wise Guys and Vulcan. The Ritz Carlton also supports them through their "Volun-tourism" program, where hotel guests come one Saturday per month to volunteer at the center. Rainbow Center is currently in need of more volunteers for their spring session beginning on May 5. Please see the info below:

Kate Myers who is the volunteer Coordinator at the Rainbow Center Therapeutic Riding Center is in need of horse leaders and side walkers during the childrens' lessons. Horse leaders should have considerable horse handling experience as they will be leading the horse during the lesson, and this requires a steady, confident hand to make sure the horse is controlled safely for the child. The side walkers are on either side of the horse to offer any support or re-balancing if the child needs it, and they are sometimes called to aid the instructor in activities during the lesson. Lessons run from 4-6:45 on the weekdays; I could also use some people on Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well. The spring session starts on May 5th, and runs until June 6th. The summer session runs from June 23rd until July 25th. The training session for volunteers is mandatory, and is held on April 26th or May 2nd. Only one of those session is required.

Here is contact info phone : 703-754-6159 | email : rainbow@rainbowriding.org.

Last week we had several guests at our meeting, including Robert, a visiting Rotarian from the Fairfax Club. Here he is pictured with guests Scott Weible, Peggy Fargo, Bill Campbell and our guest speaker, Debi Alexander.

Please invite someone you know who might be interested in learning more about Rotary to join us at one of our breakfast meetings.

Date	Speaker	Description	Guest Of
April 29	Timothy Burtch	Aircraft Accident Investigator - National Transportation Safety Board -	Linda Marlow
May 6	Curt & Margaret Dierdorf	Volunteer Chaplains	Marti Dahl
May 13	Jan Nelson	National Wildlife Federation	Marilyn Karp
May 20	Bonaventure Gonsalves	Bonefish Grill	Jim Miller
May 27	Eric Latham	Walk Across America	Don Rusch
June 24	Congressman Gerald Connolly		Amelia Stansell

Date	Event	Time
Saturday, April 25	Earth Day, Every Day
Saturday, September 26	Childrens Wellness Festival

2008-2009 Board of Directors

Officers	Name	Directors	Name
President	Dennis Fargo	The Rotary Foundation	Russ Tuck
President Elect	Charlie Mills	Club Administration	Lori Power
Vice President	Alan Myers	Membership	Linda Marlow
Secretary	Don Rusch	Service Projects	Marilyn Karp
Treasurer	John Grzejka	Club Public Relations	Amelia Stansell
Sergeant-at-Arms	Ali Sayed	Rotary Community Corp	George Layne
Interact Club	George Layne	Past President	John Grzejka

Places to make up a meeting

If you would like to make up a meeting online, you can click here.

Excellence is the result of:

• caring more than others think wise
• risking more than others think is safe
• dreaming more than others think is practical
• and expecting more than others think is possible

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