President Teri opened the meeting with her usual cheery welcome and this time, with the help of an imagined “sticky note” on her forehead, remembered to welcome visiting Rotarians. Alas, there was none.
Don Anderson provided rousing accompaniment for singing the Star Spangled Banner.
Announcements:
Teri announced a board of directors meeting this Thursday, Oct. 12, at 4:30 p.m. at the Dorothy Haggen Building, 3rd floor.
Lisa Saar is announcing The Rise against Hunger, the third annual meal packing event is scheduled for Sunday November 5, 2017 at St. Luke's Health Education bldg. 3333 Squalicum Pkwy. The Committee is desperately fund raising for the event and would appreciate your donation. Click here to donate and register to attend. To date, they have raised $7550.00 and need at least another $20,000 to reach their goal of packing 75,000+ meals.
Nathan Twining reminded us of a fun event cooked up by the Social Committee. A wine social to be held in the Encore Room of the Mt Baker Theater after the Simon and Garfunkel performance on Sunday, Oct. 29, from 5:00-7:00 pm You don’t have to attend the show to enjoy the social event, but you will get a 20% discount on the show ticket if you mention “Rotary” as you reserve your seats. If you don’t like Simon and Garfunkel but like wine and conversation, just bring a favorite bottle of wine or an appetizer to the Encore Room. The fun continues there when the show ends. See our website for additional information at Bellinghamrotary.org under Events.
Monty McAllister made a plea for more host families for the foreign student exchange. It seems that his committee has found three outstanding students they would like to send abroad, but that requires that we host three incoming students, and that requires lots of host families. Please let Monty know if you can host a foreign student. It can be a wonderful experience.
Guests of Rotarians:
Paula McCandlis introduced Eric Richey, Whatcom County Deputy Prosecutor
Lynda Hinton brought her daughter Kistin Hunt, marketing rep with Chicago Title
Bruce MacCormack introduced James Pyles with Wells Fargo
John Harris brought his Brother-In-Law, Steve Knight with ATI in Salt Lake City, Utah
Presentations:
Joe Coons presented a heartfelt and meaningful eulogy for Roger Barnhart who passed away last week. A saddened membership bowed our heads in a moment of silence as we reflected on Roger’s remarkable life. Roger joined the club in 1979 and was president in 2001-2002. Click here to view he eulogy.
Dominique Zervas distributed colorful shirts left by our recent guests from Africa. The shirts were given in gratitude to those seven or eight of our members who worked so hard to accomplish the water project in Eastern Uganda, Butalejja District.
Paul Hanson arrived from his Orcas Island home to charm us with a couple of stories. First he related his most embarrassing Rotary moment. Its telling brought the house down. If you missed the meeting, ask someone who was there to tell you the story. Then he finished with one of his classic Ole and Lena stories, “Boat for Sale”.
Program:
Cathy Buckley’s scheduled program disappeared and so she turned to the Old Guard for help.
J.C. Hickman and Brian Griffin stepped forward to talk a bit about the RCOB history available by simply Googling the Rotary Club of Bellingham and accessing the VIDEO section that appears on our home page. That will provide access to about 50 historic Rotary photos from the Whatcom Museum and the 1940 Rotary picnic movie found in our archives recently. That video section also contains the wonderful Centennial Video recently produced by Josh Burdick that so proudly illustrates what Rotary has accomplished in its 100 years in Whatcom County.
The Centennial Video was played, and then J.C. and Brian pointed out several inaccuracies that need editing. They cautioned that we must be clear about what we have accomplished, differentiating between those projects we envisioned, created and carried out, and those to which we simply contributed financial assistance. For example they noted that the video depicts the Fairhaven Village Green and Depot Market Square, yet those were not Rotary projects. We contributed generously to both, $10,000 to the Green and $25,000 to Depot Market, but in each case our contribution was less than 5% of the private money raised for those City of Bellingham projects. The video will be corrected and the history section of the roster will be amended for clarification. Click here to get to the website and view the photos and videos under Club News on the left hand side.
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