March 23, 2009 Spokesman

Guests:  Pascal Kuntz, our Exchange Student from Switzerland, filled us in on his latest travails. Tim Kehrli was once again a guest of his wife, Katherine.  Sarah Brooks was once again visiting us as a prospective member. 

Visiting Rotarians:  Joseph Haselberry from Bellevue Breakfast Club.  A.C. Sherpa (?) and John Garberg from the Bellevue Noon Club.  John is a former Kirkland Rotarian from back in the '80's.

Announcements:  President Bob Webb reminded us to sign up for the District Conference in June.  Incidentally, he is looking for a Roommate, but that is just between you and I! 

Joanne Primavera was welcomed back from her 4 week Rotary Humanitarian trip to Nepal.  She advised us of how important Rotary International is to members of our sister clubs in third world countries who work so hard on partner projects.  More information to come in the future.  Our Duck Race Chair, Joanne, is hoping to have tickets printed before too long -- but asked that we continue to pursue sponsors.  There is consideration being given to not having a car this year to reduce our costs, and having a top prize of $5000 instead.  A quick polling of those in attendance seemed to lend some support to this alternative.

John Woodbery and Rachel Knight spoke to our upcoming Kirkland Rotary Foundation Auction, and encouraged everybody to sign up and get their auction items noted as soon as possible.  He hopes that we will continue with our support for our two primary beneficiaries, The Baby Corner and Residence 12, in these tough times -- but the level of support will be largely dependent on what we raise at this years auction.

New Member Induction:

President Elect Jim Feek led us in the induction of two  great new members to our club.  Scott Rethke, under the  category of Financial Advisor, was sponsored by Steve Shinstrom, and his mentor will be Brandon Honcoop.  David DeBois, under the category of Banking Personal, was sponsored by Carl Boruck, and his mentor will be Rachel

Knight. WELCOME TO KIRKLAND ROTARY SCOTT & DAVID!!!!!!

As a special note, Jim Feek called up our most recent new member, Roy Selvidge, and congratulated him on his incredibly quick accent from Red to Blue badge status!  Congrats, Roy!

Program - "Getting To Know You" Talks:

Chuck Brockway led us in tonight's program with two of our longer term members sharing a little about themselves!  This is a great program, and especially good in having our newer members get to know a little about their fellow Rotarians!

First was Dianne Santeford, who joined our club in 2005.  She moved to the Everett area from Washington, DC when she was 13. She has 3 daughters, Stephanie, and identical twins Sherry and Tracy! Dianne has quite an extensive business background, having done Fine Art painting and teaching art classes from home while her children were younger. Over time she expanded into an extended line of porcelain figurines and at one time had 75 employees at her manufacturing plant in the Marysville area with a distribution network of retailers throughout the US.  Times changed, and she sold this business in 2005. She still works in this field, but at a lesser pace. Dianne quickly became involved in our club, and has held various chair positions associated with the 4th of July Games and Picnic. Dianne shared with us that she is sporting some new "bling" and was congratulated on her recent engagement to Gary Moore!

Katherine Kehrli followed with her husband, Tim, in control of the video portion of the presentation!  She joined our club in 2002,  following the tradition of her father and grandfather.  Her grandfather was a member of Kirkland Rotary alongside Ev Cox and Chuck Morgan, so she has some great role models in her family and in her life!  Katherine was born in the old Kirkland Hospital, and is a very proud Kirklandite!  She went on to get a degree at the U. of Puget Sound in Biology and Economics, and worked in the Entertainment Publication and Investment fields for some years.  They have two great kids, Jack and Ben, and love to travel and do things with them!  Katherine tried being a full time mom for a year, then looked to merging her interest in food and business by founding Cuizam!  She was a great host for many great Rotary events, and always put on a first class meal and made it fun for us. With market changes, family responsibilities, and Tim's travel, they decided to sell the assets, and this then allowed her to devote her great energy and talents to Rotary including Community Service chair a few years ago, the Miracle League, John Muir School, etc. around the Celebrated Chefs Cook Book - and a Restaurant offer that allows them to elect a charity of choice and give back 5% of the meal price  to that charity. If I understood her correctly,  the Rotary Club of Kirkland  is one of those charities recently named by the Trellis Restaurant.

Honey Pot

Joanne Primavera had the lucky number, but Pascal was unsuccessful in guessing the right number to win the cash!

Meeting ended at 7:50pm

Scribe for an evening Gary Redfern.