Rotary Log 08-10-21

 

President Greg Lineberry returned from a wonderful trip to Zion National Park where his wife guided him on some harrowing hikes.  He was glad to have missed the terrible weather and flooding that proceeded their arrival to the park by several days.  Zeb Cobbs wasn’t so lucky; on his visit to Texas, he was greeted with the heavy rain, thunder and lightning that President Greg had missed. 

 

Deborah Wright, PP, was informed that she was, unbeknownst to her, to provide the Music of the Day. Her ZOOM picture showed us that she was in the driver’s seat of her car, her husband Bob was in the passenger seat and their dog was on the way to the spa. Smiling into her phone camera (was she driving?) she said she will come up with a song to sing to us at the appropriate time but because she was driving she would not attempt to accompany herself on the ukulele (good plan).

 

President Greg Lineberry began his 6th meeting of the year and our 5,409th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett.

 

President Greg delivered the Pledge of Allegiance and led us at 12:01 pm into the meeting.

 

Kelli Thode shared a story about the blood shortage, blood donors, Rotary connections and their impact on saving lives in our community. Jim Staniford recently suffered an abdominal aortic aneurysm and needed 6 pints of blood.  Warmer weather and an almost 18-month pandemic lockdown has meant fewer people are donating blood.  The supply in our community is critically low. To maintain a reliable blood supply for our region’s needs; around 1,000 donors are needed each day.  Jim was very fortunate that in his emergency situation someone had donated and supplied the blood he required to survive.  Please be like that person and join the other 999 people a day required to keep our regions blood supply flowing.

 

Contact the following to find out more about donating blood.

 

Deborah Wright, PP, having been informed just prior to the meeting that she was to perform, (see pre-meeting above) was very composed and upbeat as she sang “When You’re Smiling” as she was “driving” her car and the whole club was smiling with her.  

 

Erik Samuelson introduced his guests Ryan Brown and Marel Gonzales from Linc NW and Pastor Charis Weathers’.

 

Deborah Wright, PP, introduced her guest, her husband, Bob Wright.

 

Rich Toyer introduced his wife Karen Shearer.

 

 

President Greg announced the passing of Larry O’Donnell’s wife Joyce and Ron Jacobson, PP.  Please see President Greg’s email dated August 10^th that outlines how to send condolence cards along with information on memorial service times, dates, and locations. There is also a memorial service scheduled for Gail Larson who passed away last year. That service will be on September 12^th at 2:00 pm at Happy Hallow Farm in Stanwood.

 

President Greg told us that Wick Temple will be resigning from the club for health reasons. (Hopefully he will take a leave of absence and re-connect with the club once he is feeling better.)

 

Kay Fantin announced that the Everett Public Schools Foundation needs volunteers to help “Stuff the Bus”.  She’ll send out a link on how and when to get involved.

 

George Bowden announced that there will be a World Community Service meeting today at 5:30 pm to get an update from Ed Petersen, PP, about his July trip to Dajabon, Dominican Republic and to discuss planning for the upcoming  November 10^th through 17^th trip to Dajabon.

  

Past President Steve Miller sat straight up in his chair with no signs of broken bones of aches and pains and told us that he had just won a National Title in Trick Skiing, came in 2^nd  in Jumping and 4^th in the Slalom and that all added up to him winning the National Title in his age bracket. This was worth a $100.00 bell ringer.

 

Past President Will McMahon was $50.00 happy that he was able to take three young grandsons on their first commercial airplane flight to a six day family reunion.

 

Erik Samuelson was $65.00 happy for his 43^rd birthday and his 20^th wedding anniversary and $2.00 happy for the lesson his 13 year old daughter is learning, while grounded, for getting hurt because she wasn’t wearing a helmet (while biking, scootering, skate boarding - I wasn’t sure which one).

 

Tom Lane was sad but happy to give $100.00 in the memory of his mother Rosemary who was a wonderful mother, grandmother and great grandmother and a terrific contributor to our community.

 

Julie Herber gave $25.00 to announce that she is signed up to donate blood in Arlington on Wednesday and that there are more slots available to sign up for.  See other donation contacts under Thought of the Day above.

 

President Greg was $25.00 happy for his vacation to Zion National Park.

 

Rich Toyer had birthday dollars and happy dollars for his wife joining him today. Thank you for the $100.00 bell ringer.

 

 

President Greg introduced Amy King, the president of Pallet.  She and her husband started Pallet as a way to provide safe, dignified, and personal shelter for people experiencing homelessness.

 

Most of us are aware of the new pallet shelter project located off of Smith Street in Everett but what is a pallet shelter, what is a pallet shelter community and how do they work?

 

Pallet is a company with their manufacturing headquarters here in Everett. The shelters are designed and built by people with lived experience in homelessness. A typical shelter has a fold up bunk system, lockable door and windows, secure ventilation system, structural floor with aluminum framing,  a 120 mph wind rating, a CO monitor, fire extinguisher, smoke detector and 8+ foot tall ceilings.

 

These shelters are made of durable materials and built modular so that they can be erected by 3 people in less than an hour.

 

Factors for success.

Individuals - Privacy, security and dignity of a personnel space.

 

Service Providers - Known nightly location of shelter residents for continuity of care and services.

 

Communities - More cost effective than traditional sheltering models and communities can be erected in 1 day.

 

The Pallet communities have a success rate of 89% of the sheltered residents finding permanent housing compared to the national average of 12+/-%. 

 

A Pallet community was erected in California across the street from an established neighborhood whose home owners voiced opposition to the community being erected.  The Pallet community organizers agreed with the homeowners that in 90 days after the Pallet community was erected the homeowners would have a vote to either let the pallet community stay or leave. The result was the neighborhood community voted to let the Pallet community stay as they could see that the the preconceived issues they thought they would experience did not materialize.

 

Questions from Rotarians:

President Greg said he toured the site and met some interesting personalities; they were happy to have a secure space and a roof over their head.  The “gated community” also restricts who can come and go which they liked.  The residents need to use the restrooms located in the Everett Gospel Mission, next door.  (Pallet does build restrooms as an option to the communities).

    

David Chan asked if their employees are loyal (many had been prior criminals, homeless, etc.). Amy said they are very loyal as they are grateful for the opportunity to re-establish themselves and have a job.  She said they do have some issues just like with other employee’s.  David also asked if an individual can buy one of the pallet shelters.  Amy said for now they only sell shelters in groups of 10 or more for the intended use for housing the homeless. 

 

Kirby Duncan asked what the cost of a shelters is.  Amy said a 64 square foot shelter costs between $5,500.00 and $7,500.00 and a 100 square foot shelter costs between $7,500.00 and $ 10,000.00.  Restrooms cost between $35,000.00 and $50,000.00.

 

Erik Samuelson asked what we can do be a part of the solution in helping our communities accept the Pallet communities?  Amy said to have programs that tell the story and is inspirational like the California community mentioned above, Los Guilicos Village.  Amy said every one of their sites had community resistance at the beginning but not one has been taken down.

 

President Greg thanked Amy and explained in lieu of a speaker gift the club will recognize her with a donation to Domestic Violence Services, our chosen charity for the 2021-2022 Rotary year. President Greg adjourned the meeting at 1:03 pm.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Photos submitted,