The meeting was called to order at 6:45 pm by President Joanne Primavera. John Overleese led us in the pledge to the flag.
Visiting Rotarians and Guests: Sarah Lalond, Bellevue Rotary; Duncan Sutherland, previously from Carmel, CA; Linda Montgomery, Emerald City Rotary; John Keithly, Ballard Rotary; Andrew Reusch, student at Mt. Rainier High School ; Kennen Yilmaz introduced his wife Lynn and his mother; Julian Hoisington, a repeat visiting guest.
Announcements:
- Elizabeth Ruznak reminded us that our exchange student will be arriving soon and a welcome party will be held on September 25th. More information to follow.
- Craig Neal reminded everyone about the Salmon Bake, which will be next Monday evening August 29, at the Norman's home. Address: 1050 Waverly Way, Kirkland. Craig still needs some helpers for setting up, tearing down, etc. Please call him if you can help!
Directions: go to the very end of Waverly Way â¿¢ home is on the left side
- Don Dicks mentioned the KPC Auction. He is looking for a table to be filled with Kirkland Rotarians. The deadline for reservations is September 14th.
- Bob Auslander passed along greetings from the Bruners and Sturgells who are out boating in the San Juans.
- Rick Ostrander reminded everyone to send in their checks for their yearly dues and also announced that he is a new grandfather of baby Julia. Congratulations, Rick!
New member induction: Gary Schuster introduced Don McIntosh to Kirkland Rotary as our newest member. His sponsor is John Overleese and his mentor will be Steve Shinstrom. Don is from Winnepeg, Manitoba (that's another Canadian for our club!) Don moved here 15 years ago to work with Microsoft. 9 years ago he left Microsoft to start his own company and currently produces badges and awards. Welcome Don!!!
Reclassification Speech: Scott Becker gave his Re-classification talk. Scott is a 3rd generation Rotarian and has been a member of our club for 6 years. He was born in California, grew up in Virginia and attended the University of Utah. He began a banking career in Idaho in the early 80's and has since been in banking in San Francisco, and Kirkland. He spent some time managing the Strawberry Lodge at Lake Tahoe and then came to Kirkland where he worked for the Kirkland Bank of Commerce in 1998. Scott currently works for a computer consulting firm called Digital Force (hope I got that name right). Scott is married to Molly and they have a 3-year-old daughter.
Program: Our program was on the Computers for the World (C4W) efforts in Fiji. Kennen Yilmaz shared the background of the program and told how Kirkland Rotary had been involved. He showed a power point presentation that allowed us to see how the work was progressing in Fiji on Taveuni Island. The group who went was comprised of students from Ballard High School and Mt. Rainier H.S. C4W began in 1998 with the Emerald City Club. In 1999 it became a non-profit organization and in 2000 C4W became a District 5030 project. C4W takes donated, used computers and upgrades them with the aid of C4W volunteers, most of whom are local high school students. The original plan had been to send 33 computers but that number grew to 160 in the final count. The project cost was $17,000 and the project came in on time and within the allotted budget. John Keithly shared his experience as a project leader, followed by Andrew Reusch who presented the student's perspective. Linda Montgomery, a librarian, also accompanied the group and finished the presentation with her experiences. Kirkland Rotary is proud to be a part of this wonderful project. Many thanks to Kennen for all his work in putting this together for our club. Certificates of appreciation were presented by President Joanne to Kennen, John, Andrew and Linda.
Elizabeth Ruznak had the lucky number and she won the Honeypot. Congratulations!
FYI â¿¢ for those of you who may wish to donate used computers to be used by C4W and other charitable groups, go to www.interconnection.org.
Respectfully submitted: Pat Dye