After President Steve Ban rang the bell, I sat in wonder at the sustain (ask a musician) that lasted it seemed for minutes. The quote of the week from the 12 Rules of Life, “The better ambitions have to do with the development of character and ability rather than status and power. Status you can lose, you carry character wherever you go, and it allows you to prevail against adversity.”
Guests:
Doug Cole introduced Susan Hutton with Whatcom Million Trees
Nathan Twining introduced our speaker, Ray Deck III with Skookum Kids
Visiting Rotarian: John Bosch from Bellingham Bay
Zoom Rotarians: Pete Kirkman
Club Events and Committee Announcements
THERE IS NO FOOD AVAILABLE NEXT WEEK, JUNE 23RD AT THE MEETING.
President-Elect, John Moffat announced that we need a couple additional members to be Minister of Fun. Contact Sandee or Larry Halgren, Chairman
We are looking for Website sponsors for the next Rotary year starting July 1st. It is a great opportunity to advertise your business and support Rotary - $350 for the year. Check out the current sponsors on our table tents and website by going to bellinghamrotary.org. Contact Sandee if interested.
Meeting Updates:
June 30
Changing of the Guard
5:30
Holiday Inn at the Airport
Evening meeting in lieu of the Regular noon meeting
Come try the venue as a potential location for future meetings. We will start at 5:30 for socializing, followed by a buffet for $30 and program. Spouses and guests will be invited. PLEASE REGISTER AHEAD AS WE NEED TO TURN MEAL NUMBERS IN BY JUNE 16TH. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
July 28th noon meeting is cancelled and we will be holding a noon general meeting Thursday July 31st at the Bellingham Golf & Country Club. We will be served a buffet for $29 so again stay tuned for online signups.This will be another opportunity to try a potential venue for meetings, although we would have to change our meeting days to Thursday as it is not available on Mondays. After trying all the locations, we will put it to a vote to the membership. Stay tuned for sign-up information closer to the event.
Social's planned:
Monday Evening - August 25th Potluck at Bookers', 2612 Park St., B'ham 98225 from 5:30-8:00. Aaron & Kelly will provide pulled pork from Aaron's smoker as well as grilled chicken. Everything else is potluck.
We are planning to have some live music from Bellingham High School Musicians and some BHS Show Stopper choir members.
Book Review by Rob Olson: Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
Rob began with the etymology of the word, orthogonian, a coined term derived from the Greek meaning “straight shooter”. Imagine the Alone Ranger being described as such. Who is that masked man? This slipped us into the Orthogonian Society, founded at Whittier College in 1929, by one Richard M. Nixon. Who from then on seemed to shoot with a crooked rifle.
The book is titled, Nixonland, the Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America by Richard Perlstein. Rob apparently liked the book. It portrayed that the history of that time is no exception, it seems to be reoccurring now. There were stark divisions in society then and now. It seemed that we were at each other’s throats. We survived then, and Rob hopes we can again. He strongly recommends the book for anyone with an interest in recent history.
Whatcom Million Trees service grant presentation to Susan Hutton:
Introduced by Doug Cole. She was, previous to this the executive director of the Lummi Island Trust, and the City of Ann Arbor’s team where she helped write their carbon neutrality aims. She was gracious in the award acceptance, noting that she joined Whatcom Million Trees in February.
She mentioned two pillars of their mission: 1. Plant the right kind of trees in the right places 2. Protecting trees is another goal.
The project we are helping to fund is protecting trees from ivy, mostly English Ivy. This program will help educate volunteers and private property owners on identifying and rescuing trees under attack by ivy. It will also track the removal on a map, to document and plan for the future. Essentially, the aim is to separate the ivy plant from the ground. Thus, putting an end to the plant. The emphasis will be on the York Neighborhood in the coming year.
Nathan Twining introduced Ray Deck III, head of Skookum Kids. Ray gave a brief history of Skookum, which started as a group discussing how to improve the state’s foster care system. This grew to the foster care agency known as Skookum Kids. It’s now 11 years old. They have enough volunteers to run an emergency shelter, the Landing, by volunteering once monthly. The Landing is a place where kids can be safe and well-cared for no matter the day and time. It is where they land while the adults figure out the adult stuff (how to deal with this kid).
In the next month or so they will celebrate (?) the 1,000th child coming through the door. That’s about four kids a week that the Landing assists. Ray said they get kids not just from Whatcom County, but down I-5 as far as Snohomish, King and Pierce Counties. The Landing is predominately staffed by volunteers, similar to a volunteer fire department. They are given training and put into the schedule. The average is about one shift a month. Always at least two volunteers at the Landing, and it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What has been found is that often folks volunteer as they’re considering becoming foster parents. And often the best volunteers go become foster parents.
Another aspect of Skookum is the training and licensing of foster parents. It supports about 75 foster homes within a one-hour drive of Bellingham, from the Canadian border to +/- Marysville to the south. They support foster families, making sure they have what is needed for their success: skills, tools and resources. More recently Skookum has gotten into foster-care alternatives, like abuse prevention activities. Think of it as family therapy making house calls. They assist families to figure out what kind of parents and family they would like to be, and how to achieve this. They get three months and a budget to accomplish these goals. Maybe teaching how to parent.
Ray stated that Washington is trying to wean off the foster care system, replacing it with this keeping families together program, which seems to be more effective than just dumping kids into the foster care system. Foster care alternatives will become more common.
The last half of the time was devoted to questions. And Ray enthusiastically answered all… This reporter is not going to report all. But let it be known that he tried to respond to all, in depth. As a consequence, we ran over time by nearly seven minutes.
Closing:
Another stroke to the bell left another sustain to signify the end of the meeting.
Rotary Brass - John Bosch, Doug Cole, John Dunne & Del VandeKerk
RCOB apparel, including polo shirts, dress shirts, vests and hats is now available. These are items that every Club member simply must have in his/her wardrobe! Besides looking great, Club members will be contributing to branding for the RCOB as well as supporting our Club's Foundation, which will receive part of the proceeds.
Click on the button below for the the clothing catalogue, with the Order Form on the last page. Fill out the order form, turn it into Vinson Latimore at a meeting or email a scanned copy to embroidery@choicesscrubs.com.
