July 30 Meeting

We had two lovely guests attend our club meeting today.  Past member and past Assistant District Governor Sandra Delucia and Mary Ann Paul's granddaughter, Nadia. 

I will not mention that worn out joke that Al Bowler was a visiting Rotarian today because he is a member of our club.  Pete, our acting President, thanked Al for his generous donation of our 2nd place prize in the I-did-a-duck raffle.  Having such a great prize definitely helped sell tickets. 

Al was back from his European travels and picked up a beautiful crystal filled pen from a famous crystal company in Vienna.  He donated it to be auctioned off for youth exchange.  Brad was the auctioneer and despite mentioning the lovely felt case until after it was sold, it still went for $40 to Ruth. 

Happy Buck Highlights: Today is Pete & Deb Mulcahy's 21st wedding anniversary.  Congratulations and good job Deb!

Announcements: 

• Jim Palmer is still working on organizing a golf outing for all club members.  Let him know if you are interested.  It will be a best ball so don't feel like you have to be a pro like me.
• Karla is heading up our annual garage sale again this year.  Thanks Karla!  Keep saving your stuff and plan on it being in September.  A confirmed date will be announced soon.

Jim Palmer, our Foundation Chair, layed out the foundation goals for the year.  They are as follows:

• Have every member of the ER Rotary Club become a Sustaining Member by donating at least $100 between July 1, 2009 and June 30, 2010 to the Rotary Foundation.
• Increase the ER Rotary Club's number of Paul Harris Fellows by at least 3.
• Increase the awareness of the Foundation's activities and goals within the club.
• Increase the recognition of Sustaining Members and Paul Harris Fellows with the club.

Currently our club has 13 Sustaining Members and 17 Paul Harris Fellows.  That is a pretty good Paul Harris number for a club our size.

Lastly, for our main topic, Pete introduced our international project for March 2011, when he will be President.  Our club has committed to joining with the Susitna Club and going down to Colima, Mexico for a Project Amigo literacy work week.  This will be a fantastic trip.  Our club will raise about $2100 and along with the Susitna Club's $2100, it will turn into $15,000 using matching grants from the Rotary Foundation.   With that money we will build and buy libraries for needy schools in the state of Colima.  The trip will be the week of March 4-13, 2011.  The cost is $1200/person and airfare is not included.  We will stay on the Project Amigo grounds and be well cared for.  Project Amigo requests a maximum of 32 people for the week.  Based on the number of interested people at today's meeting, I don't think we will have a problem filling our slots and some of Susitna Clubs, if they don't fill theirs.

You will hear more about this trip throughout the coming year.

Meg won split the pot this week! 

See you next week when Pete Risse from the Chugiak Eagle River UAA Campus is our guest speaker. -Tonya