August 20 Meeting

Posted by Tonya Gamble 
 
Good turnout today and Tom Wilder with FEMA was a great program
 

We had lots of guests join us today: Chris Tomsen, our ambassadorial scholar's father; Mary Ann's daughter and son-in-law along with their very cute daughter, Kendra; Dr. Steve Parker with Capstone Medical; our guest speaker, Tom Wilder, with FEMA; and Bobby's guest, Tony Arant, who is a Career Guide with the ASD.

The Career Guide is a new 2 year position that is funded with stimulus money to help improve the graduation rates in Anchorage. Bobby brought Tony becuase he really felt that the purpose of the Career Guide position and the youth oriented goals of our club were quite similar.

Awards: Kathy was back from a two week stint of jury duty and Jim Palmer, our Foundation Chair, presented her with a new Paul Harris pin as a way to recognize her hard work during her year as president. Points were awarded to her to get her to her next Paul Harris level.

Announcements:

  • Chris Tomsen announced that his father, who is ex-NFL player Tiny Tomsen will donate $1000 to our club!
  • Mary Ann saw Jake last weekend at church and said he was friendly and looked good. Jake is home and recuperating.
  • Brad and Debra will be home from their Rotaplast mission on Saturday. They are ready to come home and Eric and I are ready for them to be home. All in all they saw 80 patients who received 120 surgical procedures.
  • ER Rotary Garage Sale at Joy Lutheran Church will be on September 18 & 19. Our meeting on the 17th will be held at the church.
  • We have a board meeting this coming Tuesday, August 25 at 6:30 at Garcia's.

Guest Speaker:  US Navy Commander (ret) Tom Wilder who is with FEMA gave a great presentation today on who FEMA is, what they do, and what they don't do. They offer federal support and partner with other agencies to assist, but never are the ones in charge with cleaning up a disaster. Tom was deployed this summer to the temporary joint field office near the Anchorage Airport to assist with the disaster in Eagle, Alaska and other areas along the Yukon River. He brought some great pictures of the damage and an interesting video on the damage and the impact on people and how the community is dealing with it.

Pete won split the pot and donated it to the Boy Scouts.

Next Week's Meeting will be very exciting!  Steve Stribling, host of the Big Alaska Show, a radio show on 750 AM from 9am-10am Saturday morning will be creating a show from our meeting.  What a great Rotary PR opportunity.

Hope to see you next week. -Tonya