February 26, 2007 Spokesman
Pledge Ken Hollingsworth
Rotary Minute Gary Bruner An inspiring report of an elementary student who was encouraged by one teacher to sing and now making it to the finals of a nationwide singing contest.
GUESTS Student of the Month from BEST Breanna Langenby will graduate this year and hopes to go to a community college with a strong food service program and then into the restaurant business.
Roger Martindill, previous assistant governor who shepherded us for several years was introduced by current assistant governor, our own Bill Taylor. Mary Jo O'Neill is a friend of Jeanne MacRea. Bill Wescott, Cheryl Huldell, and Phil Wescott also visited this evening.
President Steve commented on the "Leave of Absence" policy in Rotary allows persons to become inactive when events in their life demand and then return. Val Gurin, Kevin Ritola, and Craig & Michelle Neal. are in this status.
Steve also plugged the District Conference, which will be I Coer de'Alene on April 20-23. So far there are 9 Kirkland Rotarians and their guests going. There will be two buses from the Seattle area; one will have a wine tour diversion on the way; the other will get to the Conference sooner.
Storage areas were recently inventoried and organized. T shirts from at least 7 years have been purged from storage areas and are available gratis for anyone who wants them before they are given to people in need. There were also booklets made up for the 60th Anniversary of the founding of Kirkland Rotary in 1937. 2007 is our 80th year.
ANNOUNCEMENTS Kirkland Rotary Auction will occur on April 14. Gifts from Rotarians are being solicited. Contact Dave Aubrey if you have such an item for the auction.
The Kirkland Adult Spelling Bee will occur this Wednesday, February 28. Alice Volpe, Dave Aubrey, and John Woodberry are our team. President Steve will help as able as a judge.
Bob Auslander will be hosting a St. Patrick's Day party at his home on the 17th. For information contact him.
This year our district's "Service Above Self Day" will be on March 10. Workers will be labeling books at John Muir Elementary School for which we have purchased tests evaluating children's comprehension after reading them. Hours are 10 AM to 1 PM
Joanne Primavera announced the 2nd walk for "World Water Day" will occur at 11AM at Green Lake to commemorate the distance great numbers of women have to walk to obtain drinking water. If interested see Joanne.
Karen Quirt is on the Boy's and Girl's Club board and is heading up their annual fundraising auction. The event is looking for sponsors; please contact Karen.
Mike Hunter announced we have 35 applications for college scholarships. Interviews will be on March 1. Mike thanked all those involved for making this annual effort another success.
CHANCELLOR Our chancellor, Chuck Brockway, who we learned from the 1997 history publication is "bountiful", extracted money from those present with his usual good cheer.
PROGRAM Our scheduled program had to be cancelled at the last minute so yours truly was enlisted to give an orientation and status report on the 2007 Duck Race. The highlights of this high tech extravaganza were that this year's fundraiser NEEDS EVERYBODY'S HELP!!! There are several new aspects including a more robust effort to sell tickets at the 4th of July Parade, revitalizing opportunities for food purchase at the Picnic, and the possibility of a major partner to raise visibility of the Duck Race regionally.
Sergeant at Arms Steve Shinstrom made a plea for all of us to use ClubRunner to send messages to club members rather than using him to do so. He emphasized it is easy to do and offered to give any of us a step-by-step tutorial. Our using the email capacity in ClubRunner directly would take a lot of effort off Steve.
THE DRAWING Jeanne MacRea's guest, Mary Jo O'Neill, was the lucky ticket holder and pulled the much-loved blue marble from the bag netting $75. Mary Jo observed our Rotary recruiting program was very impressive; however, she was concerned that doing this for all guests might be rather expensive.
ALSO We also had a Loser's Prize awarded. (Steve, your scribe-for-the-day finds this designation for such a lofty project somewhat awkward) Anyway Barb Seaton was one of those not so lucky people who had the right ticket number but didn't draw the blue marble. There was a drawing this evening for a Loser's Prize (Oh! That still hurts) and Barb Seaton won a very nice wind breaking Rotary vest for being the luckiest recent ticket holder to pull a white marble from the bag.
STEVE'S THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK President Steve's parting teasing shot for this meeting was, "Since Donald Duck only wears a shirt & hat all day, why does he wrap a towel around himself when he comes out of the shower?"
ADJORNMENT With that bit of encouragement for our mental health in the forthcoming week we were adjourned about 7:40 PM.