Rotary plans annual Turtle Trek fundraiser

The local Thermopolis Rotary Club will be holding its annual fundraiser on August 20 with its Turtle Trek event. Tickets are $10 each with only 1,000 tickets sold.

The event begins with 1,000 small floating plastic turtles that are poured out at the Big Spring in Hot Springs State Park and they float down a small channel of water and eventually reach the first of the cooling ponds near the terraces and The Swinging Bridge. Each turtle is marked with a number and depending upon which turtle reaches the finish line first, then that, of course, is the winner. There are also other prizes too. For those interested in purchasing a ticket, just reach out to a local Rotary club member. There are also many businesses that sell the tickets as well. 

Regarding how the Rotary Club uses its funds, Immediate Past District Governor Shurie Scheel said, “We use the money for local projects. We do scholarships for high school seniors. We do smaller financial support for things like the Master Gardeners and the County Library and other nonprofits. We do several hands-on projects a year. So this year’s project is supporting the H Diamond W Youth Camp, we’re building them a new porch to make it handicap accessible.”

The club’s history is also notable and Scheel said they have “done several projects to support the VFW who has remodeled it over the past several years. So the first one was helping us get a new roof on the building. And then also another one that mostly went to the internal remodel that’s ongoing over there. We’re hoping to continue working on that project this year and in the future. But that’s not our big project this year. This year the big project is H Diamond W.”

The Rotary Club has been in Thermopolis since around 1956. Scheel added, “it’s mostly geared toward ethical leadership and community. So anybody that wants to join is more than welcome. We meet at noon on Tuesdays at Kirby Creek Mercantile for right now. We have about 30 members currently, and are always looking for more if people are interested.”

Scheel smiled and described how a typical Rotary Club meeting operates and said, “basically, the structure of the club is you come, you have lunch, so it becomes more like having lunch with your friends because it’s like a big family because you see them every week… You learn about something that’s happening in the community… it’s kind of a cool way to learn about things that are happening in the community because you have this ongoing conversation with people that are coming in to talk about all the different activities that are happening, like how they come up with that.”