We had a successful first-ever Carbondale Rotary Fireball Drop fundraiser event on the First Friday in May. Congratulations to our top prize winner, Christy Maron, and to our secondary prize winners, Janet Colleran, Matthew Moore, Jan Schubert and Cindy and David Miller. We look forward to this becoming an annual event, so, until the First Friday in May, 2022! Check out some more photos below.

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Rotarians sort ping-pong balls to get ready for the ball drop.

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Announcing the Fireball Drop 2021!

The Rotary Club of Carbondale has created a one-of-a-kind event this spring and we'd like to invite you to participate in the first ever Fireball Drop on May 7^th,First Friday in May at Sopris Park in Carbondale!

We’re going to drop up to 1,000 ping pong balls from a Fire Ladder Truck onto a field of targets! The ball that lands closest to the center target wins the Grand Prize of $5000 Cash!!!! Other prizes are including $500 cash are available too!

You can help support local scholarships, local community projects, non-profits and international relief efforts all by purchasing 1 ping pong ball for $20 or 3 for $50 by going here: www.paybee.io/@fireballdrop@1!

Here's our shiny new QR code too!

You can also contact any Carbondale Rotarian if you’d like to buy a ball (or three or more) and pay by check or cash.

The drop happens this May 7^th at 5pm and you can watch from a distance at the park or online on Facebook Live! Don’t miss out on something this unique! Huge thanks to our title sponsor Ace Hardware and featured sponsor Alpine Bank!

All the proceeds are tax deductible and the more money we raise the more we can help our high schoolers, first-responders and others during this time!

Join us virtually

If you can't join us in person, please consider joining virtually at 6:45 a.m. each Wednesday via Zoom for our weekly club meetings and to hear special guest speakers and presentations. To receive the meeting link, please contact John Stroud at jtstroud@comcast.net

Support the Carbondale Emergency Task Force

The Town of Carbondale has established the Carbondale Emergency Task Force (CETF), a group of volunteer and organizational expertise from across the community, to provide support and guidance to the town in key areas of the potential impact from COVID-19. The CETF will be overseen by Mayor Dan Richardson, along with Town Manager Jay Harrington.

Running of the Balls 2019

We had our second Running of the Balls fundraiser on Sept. 6, 2019, as part of the Carbondale First Friday festivities downtown.

The evening began with our Running of the Kids race, where children ages 3-8 were invited to be chased by large rubber balls down Main Street in a just-for-fun event.

Then, ticket holders and other spectators lined the street to watch as members of the Roaring Fork Youth Soccer Club kick-shuffled the big, bouncy balls down the street to see which ones would enter the finish chute first to determine the winner.

Congratulations to Kevin Lundy of Carbondale, who held the winning ticket and won the $5,000 grand prize! This event raises needed funds for our student scholarships, community grants and support for global Rotary projects.

Running of the Balls 2018

Posted by Alan Cole on Sep 10, 2018

Carbondale Rotary’s first-ever Running of the Balls last Friday was even better than we imagined. Locals of all ages came out for First Friday and lined Main Street to watch. We had a kids fun run for ages 3-6, a great parade and lastly the main event when 89 of our big rubber balls got blown down the street by giant fans and leaf blowers.

Jack Brendlinger (on the ATV)

We had perfect weather and amazing, crews of volunteers to make it all happen. The vision of our hard-working event architect, planner and chairman Jack Brendlinger truly became a reality.

Congratulations to our 2018/2019 Scholarship Recipients

Posted on May 18, 2018

Carbondale Rotary 2019 Scholarship recipients

Carbondale Rotary Awards 2018 Scholarships

to Local High School Students

RFHS and BHS Seniors Receive $1,000 each for College

Jim Kenney (third from left) passes the mic to the 2018 Carbondale Rotary Scholarship recipients

The Carbondale Rotary Club proudly presented ten outstanding local high school seniors with $1,000 scholarships to put towards their college tuition at the weekly Club meeting this past Wednesday morning, May 14th at the Carbondale Fire Station. The students were chosen out of a field of 38 applicants based on their academic record, their demonstrated need and their commitment to Rotary’s Four Way Test and motto of Service Above Self. Seven recipients currently attend Basalt High School and three go to Roaring Fork High School.

Welcome to our New Rotary Exchange Students

Posted by Alan Cole on Sep 04, 2017

Carbondale Rotary Club welcomed this year's Rotary Exchange Students at the Aspen Airport in late August.

Both Stefan Platzer from Austria and Thunyakrit "Ou" Chutiphornphongchai from Thailand arrived to spend the year living with local families and attending High School through the Carbondale Rotary Mountain and Plains District 5470 Rotary Youth Exchange!

Stefan's Carbondale Rotary Greeting Committee at the Aspen Airport!

Thunyakrit "Ou" Chutiphornphongchai is welcomed to Aspen by his host family the Mitchells and Carbondale Rotary members!

Both students will be running cross-country for their respective schools. Ou has already visited the top of Aspen Mountain and Stefan spent his first weekend fly fishing. They're certainly wasting no time settling in to life in the valley!

Special thanks to our very own John Stroud for the countless hours organizing the Rotary Exchange program here and making these life-changing experiences possible!

The Time Travelers - Free Screening

Posted on Jul 12, 2017

On Wednesday, July 19th at noon the Carbondale Rotary Club proudly presents a free screening of "The Time Travelers" a documentary film by director Forest Woodward and Brendan Leonard.The event will be at the Carbondale Fire Station and includes a presentation by crew member Ian Anderson.

In January 2017, the USA Men’s Rafting Team set their sights on making history by attempting to break a legendary speed record down 277 miles of the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Their goal was 34 hours. 34 hours…straight.

Throughout 2016, the filmmakers sporadically followed these scrappy, determined guys on their quest…training hard, designing their custom boat, and gaining perspective on what it means to attempt something extraordinary on one of the world’s most breathtaking stages.

Our New Rotary Exchange Students

We held a very special meeting two weeks ago as we welcomed our two new foreign exchange students, Sophie Hofmann from Germany and Nithin Prakash from India. We also heard from returning local student Megan Webber about her amazing experience in Argentina and met with outbound student Jaden Stryker who is headed to the Netherlands this fall! Sophie is attending Roaring Fork High School and just joined the cheerleading squad and Nithin attends Basalt High School and is on the golf team!

Jaden Stryker, Megan Webber, Sophie Hoffmann, Nithin Prakash

Megan Webber Details her Argentina Experience

Congratulations to our Paul Harris Fellow Award Winners

Congratulations to our new Paul Harris Fellow Award Winners Duke Jones and Ed Queenan! Thank you for your outstanding service to Rotary!

Paul Harris Fellow Award Winner Duke Jones

Paul Harris Fellow Award Winner Ed Queenan

Happy Birthday to Mark von Hagke & Art Ackerman!

Great Weather, Great All-Valley Rotary Ride on July 9th

Rotary Club of Carbondale Fighting Proverty in Africa

Posted by Ted Miller on Apr 12, 2013

Carbondale Rotary Club partners to Fund a Women’s Tree Nursery in Niger

The Rotary Club of Carbondale is helping to tackle poverty, hunger and malnutrition through its support of the Farmers of the Future program. The goal of Farmers of the Future is to help impoverished farmers of Niger, one of the poorest countries in the world, escape the poverty trap of subsistence farming. It teaches modern agricultural practice to primary school children and creates profitable farming businesses for their mothers. The project, now in its pilot phase in three villages in Niger, is being implemented through the non-profit organization, Eliminate Poverty Now, which was founded by Carbondale Rotarians John and Judy Craig to promote economic opportunity in Africa, especially for women.

Covid-19 Community Support Project honors frontline workers, first responders

When Rotary District 5470 offered up a Covid-19 Community Support challenge grant (2 rounds worth!), the Rotary Club of Carbondale was up to the challenge. Our club matched the $1,000 grant, and raised more than $4,500 in additional club member and outside donations to support the purchase of local restaurant gift cards.

Past President John Stroud (2019-20) makes a card purchase at The Landmark.

President-Elect Heather Hicks makes a card purchase at Allegria.

These were then distributed to our frontline grocery and retail workers at City Market and Ace Hardware, as well as to our local postal workers and our community Police and Fire Department First Responders.

Each gift card was accompanied by a special greeting card from our friends at Tom's Door, an inter-faith nonprofit organization in the Roaring Fork Valley that assists those in need. Many thanks to all who made this project possible!