Today was Rotary day. We heard from the Giving Circle committee on their first annual fundraising event October 6,2026 at 5:30pm at the Central States Fairgrounds fine arts building. This is different way to fundraise for non profits without the overhead expenses of food and entertainment so 100% of the proceeds go to the charities. There will be 3 charities and $100 buys you a ticket and one vote. You may buy as many as you like. The winner gets 80% of the proceeds and the remaining 2 get 10% each. This years non profits are:
DaCoda
South Dakota Service Dogs
Reservation Outreach @ Pine Ridge.
Come join this spectacular fundraiser.
 
 

Today we also heard from Mallory Hook, Director of Story Book Island, and our own Jean Kline on SBI’s new entrance complex. It is a beautiful welcome into this great park and provides much needed upgrades like office space a 3 rentable birthday rooms. It is a $4.5 million project with $1 million raised. See storybookisland.org for more information and to donate to this incredible project. They hope to begin construction by the end of the year if money can be raised.

Our speaker this morning was District 5610 Gov. Mike Gibson, who is a member of the Rapid City noon Rotary club. Mike gave us an update on District officials and news, as well as a preview of the Rotary District Conference to be held Oct. 22-24 at Crazy Horse Memorial. His advice for Rushmore Rotary: "Just keep doing what you're doing and keep making a difference in this community."

Rushmore Rotarians spent a busy week volunteering as ushers at the Central States Fair grandstand.

Rushmore Rotarians heard from Tammy Barrows and Caitlin Ausmann-Winn from the Humane Society of the Black Hills at today’s meeting.

Tammy, executive director, shared that the nonprofit will open its new building for cats next week. Kitty City will allow the Humane Society to better care for the cats, which can become sick and stressed when housed near barking dogs.

The Humane Society is also focusing on helping pet owners by providing education and services that will allow them to keep their pets.

Thank you, Tammy and Caitlin, for all you do for animals in our community.

Our speaker today was Mark Vargo, Asst. Attorney General for SD. 
He talked about his recent time living in Thailand while he helped establish a prosecution system, a bill of rights, prison reform and re-establish equal citizenship in The country f Myanmar. Since British rule ended in 1948 there have been several military take overs. There had not been a jury trial in Myanmar since 1948. Thank you for this very interesting and informative talk.

This morning’s speaker was our own Jennifer Rollins, DGN. She shared with us pictures and stories of her trip to Agra India to administer Polio vaccines. The trip was put together by Rotary networking. They used Polio Immunization in Agra Travel Co. the accommodations and security were excellent and they were escorted by Rotarians. The time Jennifer spent in Agra administering vaccines really impacted her and showed her the why of the trip. Fellow participant Dawn Depriest joined us from Spokane, WA by Zoom and shared the trust and meaningful relationships they had with the families. They also toured a Rotary school in Agra, Vishal Bhakti Public School where they passed along donated t-shirts they brought and spent time with the students. They also toured many cultural sights and enjoyed time with the local people. Jennifer did note that although India is polio free, they so find some wild polio in water supplies so continue to vaccinate to stay polio free.