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Welcome, Boisetarians!
President Elect Sean Wall opened the meeting by welcoming everyone. Members sang My Country 'Tis of Thee, the Idaho State Song, and recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
Announcements
May 27th, 4:30PM: Sip N' Frolic Fundraiser (Lost Grove)
May 29-30: District Conference (Idaho Falls)
June 4th: Jim Wallman, Meteorologist
June 6th, 9:00AM: Trail Talks
June 25th, 5:00-7:00PM: Summer Soiree, Changing of the Guards
Guests & Visiting Rotarians
Tim Gard is new to Boise from Buffalo, NY. He was a Rotarian in Buffalo.
Red Badgers
Both Fabiola Urena-Boeck & Brennain van der Hoeven were presented with their Red Badges last week.
Carly Kyle was presented with her Red Badge a few weeks ago.
Boise School Partnership
Fred Reed shared that we collected about 200 pounds of lithium batteries this past weekend in partnership with Boise Schools.
Todd and Stephanie did a session on lasers for Friday Focus at Whitney. Jeff Leedy also continues to teach art lessons there
Sleep in Heavenly Peace
Our EPIC Day of Service was a huge success! We had an amazing time giving back and making a meaningful impact in our community. Together with Sleep in Heavenly Peace (SHP), we built 20 beds for children who otherwise would not have one of their own.
Thank you to everyone who volunteered and helped make the day so special!
Rotary Shirts
Our club is going to purchase a Rotary shirt for every member who would like one! These shirts are a great way to represent Rotary in the community, market our club, and inspire conversations and questions about what Rotary does. Glenn is modeling the shirt we will be purchasing.
If you would like a shirt, please email Jenny your:
Sip ‘n Frolic will be held May 27 at the Lost Grove Brewery on Lusk Street. Pizza has been added this year to the 5 beer or wine tastings and is included with the purchase of an entry ticket. We will have a promotional spot on Idaho Matters on May 18th.
Andrea and Todd and someone from Engineers without Borders will participate in the interview. Jenny encouraged us to invite our friends and coworkers. Sponsors should get their list of attendees to Glenn or Dwight.
Join the Rotary NamiWalks team in a 5K walk along the Boise Greenbelt. The walk will be Saturday, May 23 from 11:00 am - 1:30 pm. The walk will start at the Ann Morison Park - Old Timer’s Shelter. Those unable to join the walk were encouraged to give a donation
District Raffle
It is time for the Rotary District Raffle. The grand prize is a $8,000 gift card with $2,000 paid to the IRS. The seller of the winning ticket and the club of the seller receive $5,000 gift cards. Second prize is $2,000 and third is $1,000. Booklets of 5 tickets are $100. Booklets of 12 tickets are $200. Do not remove the staple from the booklets. Each ticket stub must show the buyer’s name and phone number and seller's name and club. The SunRisers have sold about $7,000 more than us, let's increase those numbers!
Keep the staples in for credit.
Trail Talks
June 6th at 9:00AM– Trail Talks, join Jenny for a casual morning hike for all ability levels. Bring water, coffee, a friend or your pup! It will be about a 1-hour stroll. Location TBD.
Happy Dollars
Ryan Erstad is happy because a friend of Ryan’s from elementary school has been deployed to Kenya with the Peace Corps. He recently circulated a link for a grant through the Peace Corps to install solar panels at the school where he was teaching. They currently are on the Kenyan power grid and it is unreliable. Reach out to Ryan if interested in supporting the cause.
Chuck Lojek is happy to be with such fine people on a fine day and to watch John majestically walk through our club with the microphone!
Rob Onnen is happy because he joined this club 41 years ago! Back then the room was packed because we had 250 members and a mandatory attendance policy. They were mostly older men. Rob was one of 3 in the club under the age of 40. Jim Massey was his sponsor.
Don Lojek is happy because he flew to be with his kid to celebrate him becoming a pilot!
Bruce Mills is happy for Marcia Wing. Almost immediately after the Boisetarian went out, Marcia corrected him and he sent out a new one, so thanks for the good editing!
Speakers!
This Week's Speaker
Jim Steele's journey with StoryWorth as he created a legacy book telling the story of his life for his children, grandchildren, and the generations to follow.
Jim has been a Rotarian for 53 years, first in Palo Alto and then in Boise. Born and raised in Nampa, Jim is a 1956 graduate of the University of Idaho with a BS in Business. Following university, he was stationed in Japan for two years as an Air Force pilot and then began a 35-year career with Merrill Lynch. His Merrill trajectory began in Denver, moved to Palo Alto, and then, at his request, Jim was allowed by the company to return to Idaho and open the first Merrill office in Idaho in 1978 starting from scratch. A few of his community activities have included teaching adult education at Denver University, serving on the Palo Alto School Board, chairing the U of I College of Business Advisory Board, lead member of the Advisors Council of the Idaho Supreme Court, the Bogus Basin Recreation Association, and he has been recognized by the Idaho Statesman as a Distinguished Citizen. Jim and his late wife, Jan, traveled extensively visiting 7 continents and over 120 countries.
Lisa Steele is the eldest of Jim Steele’s 3 children. She is a graduate of the University of Idaho with a major in Business. While there, she belonged to the Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority. During her time working in San Francisco in banking and investment management, Lisa took night courses and graduated from Golden Gate University with her MBA, with honors. She has 3 children, all graduates of the University of Idaho. Her two boys, William and Ethan, obtained their degrees in Mechanical Engineering, and her daughter, Olivia, in Civil Engineering. Lisa has had several interesting and demanding jobs and is currently a project manager for St. Lukes Health Systems. She has also served on the boards of several non-profits. Lisa lives in Boise, within a mile of her parents’ home, with her partner, Chris Halvorson, an investment manager for the Idaho State Endowment fund. She was charged by her late mother to “Take care of your father,” which she has done well.
Last Week's Speaker
Last week's speakers were Jon Wheeler and Joann at the Idaho State Veteran’s home. The existing home is over 60 years old and has lots of shared facilities, so they are building a new home with 120 skilled nursing beds. They have people from the Gulf War all the way to World War II. This isn’t just skilled nursing but allows people to remember and support and honor are veterans.
Jon medically retired from the marine corps. When he entered the reserves, he decided he wanted to be a geographer. Eventually he came to Idaho to work for the BLM. He was injured on the job and needed to figure out what else he wanted to do with his life. He transferred to the Bureau of Reclamation, which brought him to the Veteran’s home. Joann started to incorporate him into the daily activities at the home and started getting to know the residence. He discovered that veterans have a unique perspective that allows them to understand each other better. Joann shows that we can all be involved in the home – we just need to show up and ask how we can help.
Joann said that we have an abnormally high ratio of veterans in Idaho because we celebrate our veterans and make them feel welcome. Civic organizations like Rotary are a big part of that. Within the veteran's home, they try to capture veterans' stories and partner with the Warhawk Air Museum to capture and record veterans’ stories. Certainly not everyone, but a large portion of people do get their stories captured.
When a veteran comes in with a 70% disability or higher, their stay at the home is free. Everything else is Medicare, Medicaid, or private pay. The only requirement to live in the facility is to be a veteran and live in Idaho. However, they are currently full and there is a waiting list. They do have a “sister” facilities, but capacity there is also limited. So, it is important for older folks to start the process early and start having conversations with the home.
What’s the need versus capacity and how do you select people? Joann says it’s complicated. It’s a 24/7 skilled nursing facility, so people can’t live independently. The nursing team has to look at each person’s needs and how much effort it will take to care for that person. It’s very fluid and depends on whether the home can provide the care that the person needs.
This facility is different than the VA hospital, which is normally short-term stay. The home is a long-term skilled nursing facility. It is located on the campus of the VA hospital but fills a different need. The home used to have an assisted living unit, but they submitted a grant request for funding, which was denied. The facility is open to both male and female veterans. Primarily women in the facility are often spouses of veterans who also live there and need SNF.
The home would love to have volunteers come and talk and get to know veterans. It’s easy to get started – the veterans’ home is doing a car show this weekend, for example. Having visitors to go for walks with people, play cards, or just come and get to know people. When Jon started volunteering at the home, he wasn’t sure he had the capacity to volunteer at the facility, but Joann has made it easy. Joann also holds talks for the volunteers around various issues that affect the veteran population.
Joann extended the invitation for us to come to Bingo, or to come to the home and ask questions, and get involved. They need help getting 80 guys out to the car show, so that means they need 80 people to help.
Member Spotlight
This will be a small description of the Person of the Week. I would love to feature a member every week, if you want to be featured, please send me a short bio and a photo to be included in the bulletin!
Rotary Anniversaries
Join Date
Mary Monroe
May 1, 1997
29 years
William Agler
May 1, 1991
35 years
Dick Smith
May 11, 2006
20 years
Ron Gambassi
May 19, 2011
15 years
Charles Clark
May 23, 1991
35 years
Editor's Note
As you may have noticed, the edition of the Boisetarian looks a bit different! Brennain and I are excited to help shepherd the news of upcoming events, meeting details and learning more about fellow club members.
