January 8, 2018 Spokesman

Posted by Elizabeth "DeeDee" Rusnak on Jan 10, 2018
Meeting Date: Monday, January 8, 2018
 
The meeting was called to order by Club president, Steve Shinstrom at 6:30 p.m.  The flag salute was led by Bill Taylor.  Front desk: Rick Ostrander and Rick Walter.
 
Inspirational Moment: Steve Shinstrom presented a Club flag to our guest, Jak Cleveland from the Saginaw, MI Rotary Club.
 
Introduction of Visitors:
Student of the Month: Kendall Stern of Juanita High School
Other Visitors: Camille Cleveland (with Jak Cleveland). Other visitors include Joe Getzendonner, Kay Griffith and Ambareen Jaddi (all three will be inducted as new members on January 22, 2018).
Club Announcements:
  1. John Woodbery announced that he and Bill Taylor will be the co-head-ducks for the 2018 Duck Dash. All Rotarians are encouraged to sign up to help with the Duck Dash and to support John and Bill.
  2. Dan Bartel announced our first Rotary First Harvest for 2018 will be this Saturday, January 13th at the First Harvest warehouse in Kent. Carpoolers will meet at the 70th Street park & ride at 8:00 am Saturday. Start-time is 8:30 at RFH and wrap-up time is generally 11:00. All are invited to join the group for lunch afterward.
  3. President Steve announced (on behalf of Joanne Primavera and Teri Ebert) that our club is participating in collecting food for the Nourishing Network to help fee low-income children during the upcoming Winter Break in February.  All are encouraged to purchase items from the food list that was on our tables and bring the food to Steve Shinstrom’s office.
  4. Dave Aubry announced he will be presenting the Cross Kirkland Corridor plans to the City Council. He will send an email to the Club to let us know the date. All are encouraged to attend to show their support.
  5. President Steve announced the upcoming District Conference that will be held at the Tulalip Casino and encouraged all to attend.
  6. Patty Dougherty thanked Rick Walter for submitting an article about the Children’s Christmas Party to various publications: 425 Magazine, Kirkland Views and Kirkland Reporter.
  7. President Steve announced the Board meeting will be held January 11th at Rich Bergdahl’s office. Light dinner starts at 5:30 and the meeting starts at 6:00 pm.
     
    Happy Dollars:  Lots of Christmas and New Year’s stories of thankfulness. In addition, we all sang Happy Birthday to Rick Ostrander.
     
     
    Program Speaker: Dave DeBois, Cops & Cards
     
    Program Topic: A non-profit organization developed to rebuild trust between the local police and the public by starting with children.
     
     About the program:
    Dave and other colleagues started a non-profit organization called Cops & Cards.  The program is still in the design stage / beta testing stage, but it has received a favorable response from local authorities as well as the Department of Justice. Once the testing is complete, they plan to launch this program in Bothell first. Once refined, they will launch it to other local communities, then state wide, and then nationally. The purpose of the program is to help humanize the local police by showing the good they do in the communities they serve. This will be accomplished by the police officers handing out cards to children (age 5 to 17 years old) that display a national sports athlete. The card will have a website, Pro Deck, where they go to register the card and input (or scan) a code that is specific to the card. The kids will have the opportunity to receive prizes for collecting cards, and local schools will have the opportunity to compete against other schools for collecting cards. The plan is to reach 59 million kids nation-wide to help re-establish the trust and respect for law enforcement. Partners in this program include Boys & Girls Clubs, church groups, and civic groups. Dave is continuously presenting this program to other groups and partners (such as the PTSA’s). The overall purpose of the discussion was to create awareness of this program and to receive input from club members. Also, Dave asked if we know any political officials directly, to make the introduction to him so he can present the program to them.
     
    President Steve thanked our guests and SOM, and closed with his funny joke about having a tooth pulled without anesthesia due to limited available time (as a golf game was waiting).
     
    The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m.
    Submitted by Scribe:
    Elizabeth “DeeDee” Rusnak