September 3 Meeting Update

Pete opened the meeting with asking our guest speaker Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister to lead us in the pledge.

Then for our invocation we had a moment of silence to remember those who put themselves in harms way to serve and protect us.

Visitors: Rob Sackerson with Wedbush Securities was a guest of Jim Palmer, and Dr. Steve Parker was a guest of Brad's.

President Martin was back for today's meeting! He had a great sabbatical and what sounds like some wonderful adventure and travel. He and I will work on planning a fireside soon so that we can welcome him back with a party.

Martin spent some time in Germany and visited Silke. She is coming here for a month around Christmas time.

Kate Frederick sent the club an email saying that she is having a fantastic time in Denmark and can't believe that she only has 10 months left.

Jim Palmer rolled out a challenge to the club regarding foundation giving. The club goal is to reach 100% sustaining membership. That means that every club member contributes at least $100 to the Rotary Foundation during July 2009 - June 2010. Last year our club's percentage was 46% so we have lots of room for improvement. Jim will track our progress monthly and let us know how we are doing.

Annoucements:

• September 12 will be road clean-up at UAA at 10am. Doug will head it up. I will work on organizing breakfast at Johann's at 8:30am that morning.
• Our annual garage sale will be September 18 & 19. Karla still has openings on Thursday the 17th to help with set-up and lots of openings on Saturday. If everyone helps a little, then no one has to do too much. Email Karla Huntington at joe@alaska.net if you still need to sign up.

We had another great program today.  Lt. Col. Marc Hoffmeister told a great story about his ascent of Denali with other wounded soldiers. The website is http://www.theveteranscoalition.org/operation_denali/ and you can view the slide show and watch a video at the website. The 4 soldiers who were on this trip had all been wounded in Iraq. One was missing a leg, one was missing an arm, and the others had suffered serious injuries. We saw footage of their brigade in Iraq and then he showed us pictures of the climb. An able bodied person has a 40-60% chance of a successful ascent. These soldiers experienced the same percentages, only half of them made it to the top, the others experienced altitude problems that required them to stop.   What an amazing feat for all of them. 

Next week: District Governor Bill Hopper visits and then there will be a short board meeting afterwords.