Regular Meerting, January 20, 2009

(Brian Tiura, our guest speaker, is cahirman of the Copper Dog Sled Race in March.)

We walked into the meeting room to see round tables. A nice change!

Eighteen Rotarians and 1 guest attended this meeting. The guest, Brian Tiura, is the chairperson of the Copper Dog 150 sled dog race.
Brian gave the Club a briefing on the plans for the Copper Dog 150. The event is scheduled for Friday march 12 – Sunday March 14. This is the same weekend as the Great Bear Chase. Calumet –Laurium will be very busy that weekend.

Mushers (drivers of the dog sled) driving 10-dog sleds will leave Calumet Friday evening and race up to Phoenix and then to Gay. After a 5 hour rest stop at Gay, sled teams head north to Copper Harbor where they will spend Saturday evening. Sunday morning the racers head back to Calumet to finish on the snow covered streets!

Racers who want a shorter course for teams with 6 dogs will find a race from Calumet to Hancock and back.

The race route will use existing snowmobile trails. Organizers are working with the trail groups to warn snowmobiles to keep away from the trails for that weekend. Brian suggested Rotarians look at the www.copperdog 150.com web site for more details including a route map. He did say the Race needs volunteers – both skilled and unskilled. So…if we have Rotarians who want to help with the race, please go to the web site mentioned above to register as a volunteer.

(Brian answers a question.)

A question was asked about prize money- first prize for the Pro division is $3500 with the top 10 finishers all receiving some sort of payout. Brian clarified that registration fees are paying the prize money while donations and contributions from the local community are staying here – not being used for prize money.

This was a very interesting program delivered by a highly energetic individual with a ton of enthusiasm.

Prior to the program, the members had a brief discussion about supporting the Haiti relief process by either buying a Shelter box (est cost $1000) or partnering with the Hancock & Houghton clubs to buy shelter boxes. The matter was directed to the board.



(After his presentation, Brian receives the coveted Rotary mug from Jim.)