|
The weather once again prevented us from gathering in-person, so all involved attended virtually. Keith Olson offered our invocation, sandwiched between the Pledge of Allegiance and the reciting of the Four Way Test. Zack Stach announced we would be looking for volunteers to help at the United Way on April 25th and 28th and that we will participate in a riverside clean-up on May 8th. Kathy Austvold bragged about her trip to Spain (more on that later), while Keith Olson talked about befriending a rough grouse that has been a regular visitor to his property, even picking him up the day before our meeting. Ken Harty told us he would be on vacation in Mexico the week of April 9th so Zack will preside at our meeting on the 12th. We were also told that tomorrow is B.Y.O.L. Day -- Bring Your Own Lunch Day, since the Salvation Army's cook is taking a well-deserved break. This writer bragged about a week just spent in Washington D.C. and being at his younger daughter and her husband's home in Michigan, returning to Fergus Falls the day after the meeting. Buzz Lundeen finished off the brags, telling us he saw his first robin so knew that spring had arrived. We then had a discussion about whether to proceed with a spring raffle or not. It was indicated that if we jettison it, our club will fall short of what we had hoped to do in donations this year but that shortfall should only affect the discretionary donations the Board has yet to make, not any for which we have a specific line item budgeted donation. It would be fair to say no one expressed a keen interest in proceeding with a spring raffle but a final decision in that regard will await the Board meeting scheduled for March 18th. Our scheduled speaker could not be resent because of an illness so Kathy Austvold told us about her just completed trip to Spain. Her interest in Spain started when she was a junior in high school in Pennsylvania when a teacher took a group of students, including Kathy, to Madrid. She fell in love with the city, the surrounding communities and all they had to offer, including flamingo dancing, garlic-infused foods, the opportunities to meet one's spiritual needs, etc. She vowed to return some day. After getting her teaching degree Kathy spent 10 months as a caregiver to a Spanish family. She then found out about a school for children of missionaries that taught in English and spent ten years working for it, teaching for the first eight years and as its administrator the last two. This trip was to participate in the celebration of the school's 50th anniversary, which just recently achieved an enrollment of 100 and over 50 years has educated 1133 students, They visited the village where Miguel de Cervantes lived and wrote the novel, Don Quixote, first published in 1605. (I agree with Kathy that The Impossible Dream is a great song -- we should try to sing it sometime if we reinstitute singing on occasion.) While in Spain, Kathy dusted off her Spanish speaking skills, saw preparations for the processions during Holy Week, including floats under construction, and visited the summer palace that belonged to Spanish royalty -- they had one palace for each season. Kathy told us Spain is currently suffering a 27% unemployment rate, with a huge number of immigrants from Romania and Latin America. Kathy brought back great memories and mementos that include Spanish olives. Boy they sound good! |
.png)
