Spotlight 05-05-15, Vol. 77, No. 18

Posted by Donna Craig 
on May 06, 2015
 
 PROGRAM/CLUB ASSEMBLY:
Program Host Maribeth Regnier presented “Oh You Beautiful Doll”, a showcase of her handmade knitted fashions for dolls.
 
GUESTS:    Joe Regnier. 
 
MEET, GREET & LEARN: This week Karen Gill (Boy Scout Leader) and Dennis Kallio (ZZ Top Band Member look alike) presented.  They have the following in common: like booze, like to shop (they are thrifty people), and their grandparents were their role models.  Karen has been married to Terry for 24 years.  Before marrying Terry, Karen was “this close” to becoming a nun.  Yes, you heard me right, a nun.  Terry what did you do to change her mind?  Dennis was also thinking of a religious life and studied at a pre-seminary school. 
 
Both Karen and Dennis come from Ford Motor Company families.    Dennis has been married to Eunice for 43 years. Dennis and Eunice have two sons, who were both eagle scouts.  Imagine that!! Dennis started working with Cub and Boy Scouts after retiring from Ford Motor Company. Dennis took the scouting program from 25 to 102 eagle scouts.  Dennis is also involved in the Optimist Club.  He dreams of cruising the Russian River and China, and also traveling to Hawaii.  Through scouting he was fortunate to meet President Lyndon Johnson who was at one of the scouting camps.  Dennis loves the oldies, like the Beach Boys, and Earth, Wind & Fire.  He serves as the adopted grandparent to neighborhood children.
 
Karen has four children, three sons and one daughter.  Both Karen and Dennis like to camp and plan great family outings.  Believe it or not growing up, Karen was a very shy girl.  That was pre-Terry Gill.  She is now a take charge person and goes out of her way to make her employees feel part of the team and a true benefit to their real estate company.  Her grandmothers gave her very good values.  Her one grandmother lived in town and was outspoken and liked a lot of bling.  Her other grandmother lived in the country and taught Karen to enjoy the simple things in life.  Hence the significance of their real estate business, “Town & Country Real Estate”.  She is loyal to her employees, family and her husband.    Dennis and Karen enjoyed just beginning to learn about each other so much that they plan on meeting on other occasions to learn even more about each other.
 
Next week:  Terry Gill and Reggie Osborn will present.
 
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Birthdays –   Today is Melanie Moses, Jeff Toole and Mitch Zoldowski’s birthdays.
Wedding Anniversaries –   Lori and Mark Lalama will be married 26 years tomorrow
Rotary Anniversaries -  Jim Barnas 12 years with Rotary, and Jerry Hardesty has been in Rotary 8 years.
 
NOTE - June 30th is President’s night.  It will be held at Mt. Brighton, Ore Creek Restaurant at 6:00 pm. Therefore there will be no afternoon Rotary meeting on June 30th.
 
March of Dimes – Bill Anderson thanked numerous individuals for their donations and contributions to the March of Dimes walk, including three Rotary Interactors (from the same family) who helped with passing out ice cream.
 
Dash or Crash – Last Saturday volunteers built the climbing wall and the finish gate.    The next  build day is May 16th, where there are plans to build the starting gate, tube bridge, and the tire obstacles.  Also we will focus on cleaning out under the bridge (need weed whackers, etc.). 
 
Stan Schafer thanked everyone who worked at Gleaners last Saturday.
 
Peggi welcomed back Piet Lindhout, Mark Cook and Tom Coates from the rainforest of Peru.  Tom shared his story of the “bats in the outhouse”. Thanks for sharing Tom. 
 
Nancy Johnson sold the book “Imperfect” by the pitcher Jim Abbott at the meeting today and raised $60 for Polio Plus.
 
Frank Mancuso thanked everyone who donated to the May 2nd walk to raise funds for pancreatic research.  He raised $1,505 for pancreatic research. 
 
Upcoming Events:
05/16/15                            Dash or Crash build day at Mt. Brighton
06/20/15                          Top of the Mountain Dash or Crash 5K run at Mt. Brighton
06/30/15                           President’s night at Mt. Brighton (6 pm). No Rotary lunch meeting.
 
PROGRAM:  Maribeth Regnier presented her doll collection.  She started this hobby when she made her granddaughter a dress for her Barbie doll.  The granddaughter grew out of Barbie dolls but Maribeth didn’t.  Maribeth has been a knitter for 50 years.  She has many themed collections including: He”Marilyn”, “Gala”, “Girls of the American West”, “The Art of Filling a Sweater (the Sweater Collection)”, “Love and Marriage”, “The Girls of Summer”, “Club  Scene”, “Child Factor – The Coat Collection”, “Artistic License”, “Day Trippers”, “Dinner at Eight”, “Parks and Recreation”, and “Well Suited – The Suit Collection”. 
 
Maribeth  featured some of her fashions from the “Sweater Collection”.  She has knitted an Olympic sweater, and sweaters from the Bergdorf Goodman and Burberry collections.  For her “Coach” doll, Maribeth purchased an expensive doll just to get the Coach purse, then designed the fashion around the purse.  She also designed and knitted a to-scale Kate Middleton fashion, which is a replica of the wedding dress she wore for their second wedding reception (for family and friends). 
 
Maribeth freely admits the process of knitting outfits is not an exact science, and sometimes dresses have to be re-done several times. She has made 150 fashion designs.  Joe, her husband, is very supportive of her unique and time-consuming (requiring great patience) design career.    She has been contacted by the Detroit News, which is planning an exposé on her unique and beautiful designs.  The article should appear in the Lifestyle section in a couple of weeks. 
 
50/50 Progressive Drawing:  Carole Bullion-Mincy, Nancy Johnson, and Catherine Lawrence-Copp  were unsuccessful in locating the Ace of Spades. 
 
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