The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a regular meeting Monday August 3, 2026, at Prosecco Restaurant in Kirkland. Rick Walter kept us all entertained before the meeting while selling raffle tickets.
The meeting was called to order by Club President, Jocelyn Ellison at 6:15 PM. Sergeant at Arms, Roger Clarke led us all in reciting the 4-Way Test.
Attendees: David Aubry, Bob Auslander, Margie Auslander, Roger Clarke, Theresa Demeter, Don Dicks, Brian Granowitz, Isabelle Kalisa, Chris Kelly-Storbeck, Shane Xinlang Li, Jim Meniketti, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Jocelyn Ellison, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, Rick Walter, and Wendy Yang.
Guests: Anna Aubry, Kari Haas, Stephanie Walter, Lauren Simison, Dick Carlsen, Ben Studley, and Patricia Chapman.
Theresa Demeter was introduced by Joanne Primavera, and shortly thereafter inducted into the Club by President, Jocelyn Ellison. The great news is that Ms. Demeter is already a Board Member! She then talked a bit about why she has joined Rotary.
Jocelyn announced that she has reached out to a Rotary Club in Spokane to see if there is a way we can assist with the response to the massive wildfires in eastern Washington. She has not heard back yet.
The Club collected quite a bit of food this evening for St John’s Church’s free food pantry.
Shane announced that he is inviting Rotarians to be his guests at Friday evening’s Mariners’ game. This will also be a birthday celebration event for his wife, Wendy. Contact him if you are interested.
Daniel Sada Caraveo announced we have only 12 Gala tickets left to sell – that means 88 have been sold!
Jocelyn announced that Sue Cohn and Rick Walter have been soliciting local businesses for items for us to auction at the Gala.
Joanne introduced our speaker for the evening – District Governor, Patricia Chapman; Ms. Chapman gave us a brief personal history, especially as it related to Rotary. She also discussed that she will be laser focused this year – all activities and decisions must encourage people to join Rotary, must strengthen our existing clubs, and must increase our positive impact in the community. Any Rotary initiatives that do not support these three items should be re-thought. She noted that we have been good at getting new members, but that too many folks drop out after 5-6 years. She noted that District 5030 is one of the top districts world-wide in per-capita giving to Rotary International. She made a number of other announcements, including that next year’s District Conference will again be in Walla Walla, as the town proved VERY popular this year. Each club will nominate a candidate to be honored for their contributions to their club and to Rotary. Our candidate will be Rick Walter.
