The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a regular meeting Monday March 2, 2026 at Prosecco Restaurant in Kirkland.
Former Club President Rick Walter acted as presiding officer for the meeting.
Mr. Walter rang the bell at about 6:20 PM, after which John Pruitt led us in the 4-Way Test.
Cody Baker sold the tickets for the raffle drawing.
Food was collected from attendees for St John’s Church food pantry.
Attendees: David Aubry, Cody Baker, Roger Clarke, Rashmi Garimella, Isabelle Kalisa, Chris Kelly-Storbeck, Jim Meniketti, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, Angela Pritchett, John Pruitt, Jocelyn Reiter Ellison, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, Rick Walter.
Guests: Kari Haas, introduced by John Pruitt, and Anna Aubry, introduced by David Aubry. Ms. Haas is a Northwest Native and a Real Estate Broker, who also volunteers her time for worthy causes.
Rick Walter gave us a Rotary Minute that described the awe he feels every time he sees examples or descriptions of Rotary events and actions around the world. Examples include Rotary’s worldwide efforts at providing clean water down to District 5030’s efforts at local flood relief after last fall’s storms (included are donations from Kirkland Rotary).
Jocelyn reminded us of the Day Out for Autism event April 18, 2026. The club will have a table at the event, and she solicited volunteers to help with both the event and the table. The club will have booth posters available for members to distribute and/or display. You can sign up here https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E044CABA92BA2FC1-54820431-dayout#/.
A couple of members gave Classification Talks so that we all know a bit more about each other. First up was Cody Baker, who took us down the path to his current work life at Banner Bank in Kirkland. He is a Seattle native who grew up in Renton. He began his work life early in fast food and in car sales. He made a number of connections while working that eventually led him into banking. He did not go the traditional route through higher education. He experimented a bit with life, getting a real-world education. He did such things as living in a small town in rural Montana. There he discovered that this was not for him. He also began volunteering, doing such things as before-school personal finance class, that proved very popular. He eventually got back into banking where he has taken on additional responsibilities.
Next up was Daniel Sada-Caraveo, who began with a quick, informative tutorial on the significance of Hispanic hyphenated last names. The first name is from his father, the second from his mother. We could already tell he is a techie as his multi-media presentation was very impressive, as well as informative. He grew up in Mexico City, starting in tech while still in high school. He set up his own small business, getting into engineering tech support, etc. He learned many facets of the business, including while interning at Microsoft. He treated this process of learning and connecting like training for an Olympic sport. He had to learn a completely new corporate culture; as he put it, he came to the US to learn to play in the “Big Leagues”.
