March 21, 2011 Spokesman
The March 21, 2011 Kirkalnd Rotary meeting began at approximately 6:25 PM by President Pat Dye. Joanne Primavera led us in the pledge to the flag of the United States which reminds us that from the many we are one.
Steve Shinstrom reported the remarkable result of his son Eric's skiing in a 24 hr marathon event called Hope On The Slopes. It took place at Stevens Pass and all donations were for the American Cancer Society and he is doing this as the start of his senior project. He thanked those that helped contribute to the cause. Eric skied 71,000 vertical feet, over 63 runs, in a mere 14 hours, and raised $1485 with the entire event raising $165,000 for cancer research. He will be captain of a team next year with the goal of raising even more for this worthy cause.
The included photo is of the group that helped with Rotary First Harvest ealier this month. Thanks again to all who participated!!!
Guests included, Barbara Hagstrom back again checking us out, Rick Rendell who is an accountant in Kirkland, Vickie Cooley of Cobalt Kirkland and Stan and Valerie Dickson with Shannon Sum a GSE student. Shannon shared her experiences while studying abroad in Japan as an Ambassadorial Scholar and will be at the UW next fall. Rachel Knight gave a report on the upcoming “Texas Hold Um” night for the
Kirkland Rotary Foundation with the proceeds to go for Cascadia College and Lake Washington Technical College scholarships. We were reminded that the District Conference registration for April 29 to May 1st deadline is April 1st. A sad announcement was that our good friend and Kirkland business leader Bill Petter died suddenly today from a heart attack. His service to the community will be long remembered. Bill Woods recalled how when he saw Bill Petter on the street he would always say as a greeting, Hello Brother”. He was a brother in service to our community. Pat Swenson reminded us that April 2nd is Rotarians at Work day when books will be donated and packaged for sending to Texas for shipping to Africa. Doug Carter made his red to blue status and was recognized. Way to go Doug.
Our Program on the health care reform act (the PPACA) was introduced by Patti Smith in the person of Sally Pres (sounded like) and our own Patty Sims from Connover Insurance. This very complex piece of legislation was explained to some extent from a “grandfathering feature” (you get to keep doing what you were already doing to some extent); the anti discrimination policies (health conditions pre-existing); effects on ERISA plans. Patty Sims explained how we have a broken system to some extent in America and that this law is designed to remedy parts of it. Whether it succeeds or not remains to be seen. The problems inherent now such as Medicare with an unfunded $89 trillion in unfunded liability won’t just go away. Although the explanations were well stated, the eyes tend to glaze over by the enormity and complexity of it all.
Jim Going held his Poker Pool drawing again and mystery of mysteries, David Tucker won the pool by actually drawing the joker. About $1300 to lucky Dave.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:50 PM