President Joanne Primavera called us to order at 6:32 PM. She inspired us with how wonderful spring is and if it wasn't for winter there would be no spring! Diane Santeford led us in the Pledge.
Guests: Stu Vanderhoek from the Bellevue Club was the only visiting Rotarian. Ingrid Bruner (wife of Gary) also joined us for the evening.
Announcements:
- Craig Neal invited us all to the Rotary Foundation Auction on April 2. Signups will be coming via email (from Club Runner) and more donations are welcome. A list will be published soon of the donations received so far.
- Joanne informed us of a newsletter about the upcoming Rotary District Conference in April at Whistler. Plan on warm clothes because it will still be cool there.
- Gary Bruner (with help) held up a long receipt tape for the baby food and formula purchased from the donations in honor of Jeremy and Leah Meadows' new baby girl (Maia Grace). A total of $440 was donated, which purchased 48 cases of baby food and formula for Northwest Harvest! Thanks everyone for the kind generosity.
- Linda Julien needs help interviewing potential Students of the Month this Friday (March 24th) at 12:30 PM, Lake Washington High School. Contact Linda if you can assist.
- Everyone applauded Bob Auslander for the wonderful bossa nova party last Saturday evening at his home. Bob was awarded a Service Above Self pin by Joanne for his generosity.
Felicity Burdick, Community Service Chair, covered several items. First, a nice thank you card was received from the John Muir School, and then a sympathy card was passed around to sign for Doug and Lauren Wozeniak for the loss of their baby girl. Doug is with the Boys & Girls Club. Next, needy children from John Muir School will be provided with highly discounted shoes at Fred Meyers in Totem Lake this Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 5 to 8 PM. Signups have been good for Wednesday, but more help is needed on Thursday, March 23. Then, Felicity presented Sharon Chambers with a $500 check for her agency: Residence 12. It is in its 25th year of helping chemically dependent women and their children. Sharon explained that this money will be matched, and will help with software to coordinate their planned satellite sites. Residence 12 is having a fundraising breakfast in the Columbia Tower on April 26 from 7:30 to 9:15 AM, so contact Sharon (425-823-8844) if you are interested in attending.
Picnic Update:
Felicity presented information about the Forth of July Picnic. She had each chairperson introduce themselves and tell about their activities:
John Pruitt is in charge of entertainment and has bands & groups lined up to play at the picnic. He still needs high voltage lighting. Patti Smith is coordinating the volunteers, so plan on signing up early to get your favorite jobs. Diane Santeford is in charge of games. They will be similar to last year: cake walk, wheelbarrow race, egg toss, 3-legged race, gunny sack race, etc. with the new addition of face painting. Julien Hoisington is working with Diane and his focus is the dunk tank, and obtaining financial and volunteer help from the local churches. Sharon Chambers is setting up the Information Booth. Katherine Kehrli has the concession stand. Hot dogs and pop will be available again and this year and the Bellevue Club has agreed to loan us their ice cream carts to sell ice cream bars. Brian Tucker and his Boy Scout Troop are coordinating a flag retirement ceremony with the VFW. This is a solemn event and will include a 21 gun salute and the burning of 400 old 'retired' flags, one at a time. Don MacIntosh is in charge of signs and medallions. Dennis Newell is coordinating entertainment from the military, which includes fly overs, military aircraft demonstrations and a simulated Coast Guard helicopter rescue in the lake. He still needs bands however, so let him know if you have contacts.
Felicity added that Bob Webb will cover overall logistics: Tables, chairs, lighting, etc. and Dave Aubry will coordinate the parking again.
Evergreen Hospital is providing a First Aid tent with staff and supplies.
We still need model boats for an afternoon race and our big Duck Race will be at 5:00 PM.
RYLA Student
Patty Sims introduced Olga Rocheeva from BEST High School. Olga attended the Rotary Youth Leadership conference and thanked the Club for her chance to learn more about Rotary and leadership.
Getting to Know You
Pat Swenson introduced four Rotarians who gave us 'short' (there were some charges for going over 4 minutes, however) summaries of their lives:
Harry Cummings is an architect, and began in Kirkland in 1956. He detailed his early life, living through the depression, and being a senior in high school when Pearl Harbor was attacked. After a stint in the Air Force, the war ended, and then he attended Iowa State. He married Joyce and they honeymooned on a Montana mountain at a fire lookout station overlooking Glacier National Park. Harry was our Club President in 1980. He is still active with his work and is currently working on the remodel of a ski resort in Lake Tahoe.
Linda Julien was born in London, raised as an only child and was fairly rebellious. Her years in a Catholic School were not fun. She was deemed unemployable by Harrods, but proved them wrong when in Ireland she was successful selling vintage clothing. Her first marriage to a rock guitarist lasted 12 years. Back in London, she met Stan, her current husband and they had Marcus. The family moved to the US when Stan went to work for Microsoft. Living here proved to be a culture shock for Linda, but the process of building their new home helped her through the period of adjustment and she is now successfully selling high end homes with Windermere.
Brain Tucker has been interested in many things: ecology, forestry, chemistry, material science, electrical engineering, but finally ended up with a mechanical engineering degree from Berkeley. He obtained his MBA from the UW and after a short stint in insurance, went to work for a company in Kent that provided exotic metals for aircraft construction. He is now with Webber Metals, who make the central, large structures for Boeing planes and works from his home most of the time. He and his wife, Heidi have been married 21 years, and have a teenage son plus a daughter in fifth grade.
Chuck Brockway has just returned from a cruise with his wife Vicky. He is a Seattle native, and went to Garfield High School where he played football as a 152 pound linebacker. He then went to WSU, joined a fraternity and had too much fun. His partying days ended when his mother brought him back to Seattle and the UW. Chuck has been associated with banking most of his life and has just joined Frontier Bank in Bellevue (although the office is still in Kirkland). His wife, Vicky, is also a banker and a Rotarian.
Chuck Morgan Update
GG Getz informed us that Chuck will be coming home this Wednesday from Cascade Vista. He will have a full time caretaker and GG plans on coordinating a food supply for Chuck. More details will be forthcoming on how we might help.
Program: Mike Montgomery, incoming District Governor, and a member of the Edmonds Rotary Club, presented his view of the Katrina Hurricane and disasters in general. Mike has had lots of experience with natural disasters and has worked with FEMA through six hurricanes and their aftermath. He said we should always be prepared to be self sufficient for 3 days without help from the government or other agencies.
Katrina broke all records for a US natural disaster and overwhelmed the local governments involved and the federal government, i.e. FEMA. According to the Stafford Act, states have to request help from the federal government after a disaster, FEMA help can be requested in preparation for a disaster, especially for hurricanes. Katrina affected an area of 15,000 square miles (imagine the area from Bremerton to the Tri-Cities and Mount Vernon to Kelso). He pointed out the tremendous effect of having no electrical power has during a disaster⿦communications, food preparation and preservation, living quarters for the rescuers, and even pumping of gasoline for the vehicles, etc. FEMA provided more assistance than ever before as a result of Katrina. Some of the staggering statistics are: 45,000 calls per day to the 1-800 FEMA assistance number (normally 35-60,000 calls over an 8-10 week period are expected after a hurricane); 1,200 shelters opened for 60,000 people, some people are still in them (typically 12 to 15 shelters are needed); and 13 million MRE (prepared meals) were delivered to the affected people.
Thanks, Mike, for an insightful and informative program. Let's make sure we are prepared!
Honey Pot:
There were no tickets sold this evening, so no drawing. Members were disappointed and on that note, President Joanne adjourned the meeting at 8:00 PM. Respectfully submitted, Michael Hunter