The Rotary Club of Kirkland held its regular weekly meeting online on June 15, 2020.
The meeting began a bit after 6:12 p.m., as arranged by James Nevers, using his Zoom account. We waited a few minutes before starting to give everyone a chance to ‘arrive’.
Attending were James Nevers, Dave Aubry, Steve Shinstrom, Margie Glenn, Mike Hunter, George Anderson, Gary Cohn, Dan Bartel, Joanne Primavera, Kristin Olson, Rick Ostrander, Stefan Landvogt, John Pruitt, Bob & Gail Auslander, Brandon Honcoop, Cheryl Guenther, Rich Bergdahl, Patti Smith, Rick Walter, Don Dicks, Amy & David Mutal, Bill Taylor, Joe Getzendanner, Jim Meniketti, Dave DeBois, Brian Tucker, Elizabeth Rusnak, John Woodbery.
Let me know if I missed anyone.
President John Woodbery rang the bell.
Elizabeth Rusnak led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
There were no guests or Visiting Rotarians.
We will do the break-out rooms at the end so there are no artificial time limits.
Many people discussed what they have been doing for the past few days, both personally and on community or Club activities.
Dave DeBois reported that so far the Chamber of Commerce has distributed $194,000 of the second tranche to local small businesses. More is still coming in. The plan is to use a ‘lottery’ to determine which applicants get money, in order to avoid unseemly debates about which business is more ‘deserving’.
Total amount of the two distributions should total about $450,000.
The Lee Johnson Auto Family has recently sent in $2,000 as a Duck Dash Sponsor. We currently have about $17,000 from sponsors this year, even with the understanding that there may be no Duck Dash. This at least gives us something to work with for next year’s Rotary Club projects.
Almost all our Club Scholarship awardees have claimed their money this year.
A sign-up sheet for incoming President James Nevers’ regime next year will be coming via email.
Our speakers were the two head local ‘Railroad Geeks’, Kent Sullivan and Matt McCawley. They spoke, illustrated with historic photos, about the history of railroads in Kirkland. The emphasis was on the area on the CKC where the old station building stood, which is also the site of the Club’s Picnic Pavilion and Railroad History Project.
[Editor’s note – they have contributed to our RR History project with enthusiasm, by providing encouragement, education, and review consultations on drafts of the History Signage for the project.]
Part of their talk involved sharing a Kirkland/Railroad History website they have set up, called kirklandhistory.org. Included are before-and-after photos of the Northern Pacific Railroad Logo on the Kirkland Way bridge, recently restored by the Club as part of our project.
We then all went to break-out rooms for some socializing, before adjourning about 7:20 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted
David Aubry
Acting Scribe