The Rotary Club of Kirkland held a meeting online on February 22, 2021.

It is Valentine’s Day Sweetheart Night, with unfortunately, no real socializing.

Attending were James & Jessica Nevers, Dave and Anna Aubry, Dave & Christine DeBois, Joanne Primavera, Steve and Patty Shinstrom, John Pruitt, Rick & Peggy Ostrander, Scott Becker, Russ and Tricia Stromberg, Rick & Stephanie Walter, Amy and Dave Mutal, Brandon Honcoop, Bella Chaffey and her fiancé, Nikola, Mike & Sharon Hunter, and Monica Fratita.  Let me know if I missed anyone.

Russ and Trisha Stromberg are leaders in the Rotary Club of Kirkland Scholarship Program.  Last year the Strombergs funded the Kirkland Rotary Step Scholarship for a student attending Lake Washington High School.  The scholarship is aimed at a student who demonstrates financial need, academic promise, and a record of community service, especially leadership, and the promise of societal contribution. The first recipient of the Step Scholarship was Karla Pastrana.  For 2021, the Strombergs continued the Step Scholarship, and generously added a second year opportunity for the prior year scholarship recipient.  Thank you to Russ and Trisha Stromberg for exemplary support of the Rotary Club of Kirkland Scholarship Program.

Several of the Rotary Club of Kirkland's 2020 scholarship recipients have written to share something of their first year after high school.  In this edition of the Spokesman, Rotarians hear from Karla Santiago Pastrana, recipient of last year’s STEP scholarship, which was sponsored by Russ & Tricia Stromberg.  Here is her message to the club's membership:

 

 

 

During March, our Rotary Club of Kirkland members will have the pleasure of meeting two more students of the month from Lake Washington School District high schools.  On March 1, the club's guest will be Makena Weber, a senior at Lake Washington High School. On March 8, the club's guest will be Kathleen Pham, a senior at Juanita High School.  Please plan on joining their hosts, Mike Hunter and James Nevers, respectively, to welcome these young people to the club.

Rotarians, the 2020-21 scholarship program is now underway!  The Rotary Club of Kirkland is offering 18 scholarships totaling $24,000!  If you’d like to see the scholarships for this year, visit the Scholarships webpages.

Again this year, individual Rotarians better than matched the club’s $7,000 scholarship allocation to boost our scholarship program by $4,000 over last year.  Thank you to Rotarians who have committed to scholarship sponsorships again this year!

 

The club’s board of directors met on February 18.  Highlights included preparations for the upcoming Valentine's Day Sweetheart Night; accounting and designation challenges presented when members use the Dues & Billing system instead of the Donations page for donations; progress of plans for the Duck Dash as the annual fund-raiser next year; progress of the president-elect in forming a new board for 2021-22.