David Durham points to the team that gets to "Name That Tune" for the Salvation Army. Photo by Lynn Lickers.
The Grand Junction Rotary and Kiwanis clubs held a joint meeting today at Two Rivers Convention Center to kick off their annual Salvation Army bell-ringing competition. In what has become an annual tradition, the clubs squared off to win the right to choose which club’s membership got the coveted early morning bell-ringing shift this Saturday.
Rotary song leader David Durham and Kiwanian Stuart Cruickshank staged a “Name that Tune” competition with both teams having to guess the names and singers of arguably popular tunes from the 1950s and 1960s.
True to form, the clubs good-naturedly poked fun at each other. One Kiwanis member remarked that the competition was unfair because most Kiwanians weren’t born in the 50s and 60s when the Rotary membership was already well into adulthood.
The Rotarians countered that jibe by winning the competition, fair and square. However, due to a technical mishap on the part of Rotary President Joe Warner, the early morning spot was awarded to the Kiwanis Club and the Kiwanis Club had to add $100 to the red kettle of the Rotary Club for the Salvation Army.
Joe Warner said that each year “it’s a spirited competition between the clubs. We’re confident that this year Rotary will once again collect the most money for the Salvation Army. But the real bottom line is that it’s all for the betterment of our community.”
Salvation Army Captain Dan Wilson said that the two clubs collected more than $62,000 last year on their designated bell-ringing day. “It’s so important to what we do,” he said. “We have so many programs that need funding on the Western Slope and even into Utah.”
To prove his point, Rose, a graduate of the adult rehab program, spoke to the clubs and said, “The Salvation Army saved my life. I had lost my kids. I had lost my house. I lost my will to live. I’m 14 months clean and sober now. I couldn’t have done it without the Salvation Army.”
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