President Del (at least I think it was Del – looked like a cross between Howard Stern and Slash, minus the top hat) opened our meeting in fine Halloween fashion by explaining the origins of the holiday. Halloween was one of two annual celebrations held by the “Witch/Wiccan/Wise Woman”. A big bonfire was always lit, and the origins of that word come from the fact that the bones of animals were thrown on the fire during the celebration; thus, “bone fire”, which evolved into “bonfire”.
Steve Ban gave a lovely invocation, celebrating the harvest season by comparing different types of friends to garden variety vegetables. It was a nice way to tie in the importance of different types of friends to the season.
Announcements:
Important reminder: The Club Bylaws prohibit the use of our club roster and database information for any non-rotary solicitations.
Please help with Donations! The Stop Hunger Now meal-packaging project will occur on November 19, 2016 at the St. Luke’s Community Education Center, 3333 Squalicum Parkway, Bellingham, beginning at 9:00. The goal is to pack 100,000 meals. Members may donate or volunteer by going to http://events.stophungernow.org/BellinghamNov2016.Please contact Lisa Saar with any questions at lisa.saar@lsaarlaw.com.
Salvation Army Bell Ringing Saturday, December 17th report from Jim Vos:
We have begun setting out requests for volunteers, on the table at all weekly meeting for the next 5 weeks. We are in need of 40 people to stand in pairs for a two-hour shift between the hours of 9-5, on Saturday December 17th. As in the past we have four locations: Haggen stores at Meridian and Barkley Village, Kmart, and Fred Meyer on Lakeway.
Members are reminded that the Club is seeking Major Project proposals for next year. Proposals are due by November 15th this year and the committee will conduct interviews with the applicants in January. Since this is the Club’s centennial year, we are seeking projects that will make a significant impact in our community. Major Project criteria and application procedures are available on the website and at the meetings or Click Here If members have questions, contact Peter Theisen, John Griggs, or Sandee Lindhout.
For this year's Major Project, supporting Lydia Place, President Del reminded us all to get our pledges in. Currently, we have 53% of Club members committed to a donation.
Rotation Day Chairperson Lori Leavitt reports that if anyone who wants to participate in Rotation Day from 12pm to 1:30pm on Nov 21 and has not let her know, they can look for her last email sent Oct 11 or email her directly (She's in the Directory: lori@lorimicheleleavitt.com) or text 360 303 4617 or call that # or her office 360 734 5580 and leave a message.
District 5050 Foundation Dinner is November 12th in Mount Vernon, at McIntyre Hall. Go to the District website, from our own website, for additional details and registration. PLEASE NOTIFY PRESIDENT DEL IF YOU HAVE REGISTERED AS HE WOULD LIKE TO RESERVE ONE TABLE.
Membership Reminder: President Del asked members to fill out forms on the table and name 3-to-5 people you know who would make great Rotarians. Additional forms are available from Sandee or you can email Dominique Zervas with names.
Guests of Rotarians:
Monty McAllister brought Dr. David Lynch, retired family doctor
Steve Adelstein introduced Patrick Prendiville
Al Archer brought the new Executive Director of the Light House Mission, Hans Erchinger-Davis
John Harris introduced his wife, Patricia
Presentations:
New Member Talk
The meeting began with new Rotarian Pat Hughes gave his new member talk. He is recently married (October 1), and grew up in Southern California. Went to WWU, then moved to Vegas. He is now back in Bellingham where he and his wife plan to put down roots. Pat is a grant writing consultant who works exclusively with non-profits, which is his passion. He provided interesting research into how donors donate, why they donate, and when they donate. One interesting statistic was that $1 billion a day is given to charity through public and private grants. Pat plans to bring his professional passion to Rotary, assisting with our Club’s fundraising.
All Rotarians are encouraged to use their smart phones to further the current year’s Major Project for Lydia’s House and Stop Hunger Now Project, November 19th. Here are the the steps to” like” and “share” the RCOB Facebook page posts for both.
INTERNET CONNECTION & FACEBOOK INSTRUCTIONS
1.Connect to Wi-Fi: ability to do so is in the phones' "settings", which is not an application, but a utility.
2. When you find your Wi-Fi setting, select it. You will now be connected to the internet.
3. Open your Facebook page app on your phone (and skip 4. below). If you do not have Facebook, find the App Store icon on your screen, and open it. Search for the application "Facebook". Download it.
4. Create a FB page of your own. This requires a username (can use your own name) and a password (something easy for you to remember).
5. When you log into your FB account, find the "search" bar at the top of the screen. Type in "Rotary Club of Bellingham".
6. When you get to the Club's page, "like" it (Thumbs up icon). You now will receive all Club FB posts on your own FB page.
7. Log onto your FB page every week. When you see Club posts, "like" them, and "share" them.
Program:
Today’s program was presented by Colleen Mitchell and Ross Hunnicutt from Engineers Without Borders , Northwest Washington chapter. Originally started in 2002, the NW Washington chapter started in 2012 combining all Whatcom County college’s chapters.
Currently, the EWB – NW has projects going in Axim Ghana, Kiritiri Kenya, and another in Thailand, where members are assisting with a Fish Farm & Drainage Project.
Colleen has made the trip to Ghana to work on a sanitation project. The smaller remote villages have little to now sanitation systems, or water supply protection. EWB built compostable latrines at a junior high school, a system that has no mechanical parts that might break down be unable to be fixed. In addition, the compost will be used to fertilize plants such as plaintain trees. Rain water is collected in large vessels, and used for handwashing.
Ross’ trip to Kenya was for assessing how EWB might assist the town of Kiritiri with water supply and water quality issues. The town is very rural, with only one paved street. The paved street has waterpipes beneath it, so if residents live near to this one road, they can access clean water. Unfortunately, most residents live further away from this paved road in more rural settings where there is no formal sanitation and potable water is unavailable for 60% of the town. This population gets their water from dirt dams, which do not provide quality water.
EWB’s assessment includes building above ground water kiosks that can be shared by many families, as well as underground vault wells, though the problem with these are that there are “moving parts” that break down.
The EWB-NW folks are back now from their travels, and the Kenya group’s task now is to create a recommendation report that will be submitted to the National Chapter for assessment. National will either agree or disagree on the recommendation, and then will return to create what is approved. The plan is for them to return to Kenya in the summer of 2017 for implementation.
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