President Sandy entertained us with perhaps the least mysterious “Mystery Country” of his Presidency: Ireland. Suspicious timing, given the hangover from St Patrick’s Day on Sunday. If he failed to surprise us, at least President Sandy went all in with two (2!) hats and a full Irish tweed outfit.
Announcements:
Remembering Irwin LeCoq
Steve Gray gave memorial comments in the wake of the recent passing of long-time member and chronic boat seller, Irwin LeCoq. He was an important businessman and philanthropist, cherished father and husband, and a treasured member of the Rotary Club of Bellingham for decades. He will be missed.
Major Project Update:
HELP, we are trying to close our Major Project - Galbraith Mountain Parking Lot expansion. You can go to bellinghamrotary.org to make your payment or mail a check payable to The Rotary Club of Bellingham Foundation, 2200 Vining St., Bellingham, Wa. 98229 and/or email your pledge amount to Scott at scott@salishwm.comClick here to watch a video of our project https://vimeo.com/297997121
Bob Morse- Rise Against Hunger - April 27th
Bob Morse made an impassioned announcement about this year’s Rise Against Hunger food packaging event on April 27th. More urgent is a fundraising deadline in early April, which means that member donations need to be gathered very soon. Next week’s meeting on March 25th will be the last chance to give in a regular meetingand the Club is expected to match those donations. Volunteers of time and money are being sought, whether club members, their families (including grandchildren) and friends who want to make a difference in the lives of many. According to Bob, RCOB is the lead club in Whatcom County for RAH, and we have established a target of preparing 88,000 meal packages. When successful, this will constitute an 8-fold increase in support from when Lisa Saar brought Rise Against Hunger to our club four years ago. Please step up to this important cause where you can personally make a big impact for some of the World’s neediest. Or bring your check book and pen to our next meeting on March 25th. To register or donate here is the link
Guests of Rotarians:
Del VandeKerk introduced Connor Herman with SSK Insurance
Austin Huang introduced his wife Nina
Presentations:
New Member Presentation
New blue badge member, Kirsten Hunt, gave her new member talk. Kirsten is a 4th generation Whatcom County resident, daughter to our own Lynda Hinton, and Mom herself. She is engaged to be married in June down in sunny Malibu, and then she and her fiancée, Abel, will take their honeymoon in September to Italy and Greece. Kirsten loves to travel to place both domestic and international, including the British Isles, St Kitts in the Carribean, a safari trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe, and the Happy-Dirty-Rich long weekend in Southern California that included Disneyland, Tijuana and Beverly Hills.In her younger days, Kirsten rode horses for 10 years, graduated from Bellingham HS in 2002 and went on to the Art Institute of Seattle. Finding that Art as a living wasn’t for her, she tried her hand at various sales positions (real estate for 5 years, medical devices) but found her calling back in real estate at Chicago Title. She wears multiple hats there – much like Irishman President Sandy – and is passionate about her work. Within her industry, Kirsten is very active and serves on 5 committees of the Whatcom Association of Realtors.
Program:
Our Club’s own Austin Huang gave a presentation about his work as a classical music composer. In Austin’s words, though he is Chinese and is strongly influenced by Chinese musical traditions, all of his compositions were developed in Bellingham. He is a Bellingham-Grown Composer. Austin got his PHD in Engineering from University of Wisconsin – Madison and became an environmental engineer with significant accomplishments and recognition, including being named Geotechnical Enginee of the Year in 2017 by the ASCE. According to Austin that this the left side of his brain, while the right side is dedicated to composing music.
For that career, he studied under Roger Briggs (of the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra and WWU) for 11 years from 2005 to 2016 to develop his composition skills and study Western musical theory. He was trained as a violinist in his youth before moving to composing later in life. His musical philosophy is grounded in modern classical music with a twist of Chinese musical philosophy. It follows his “Windows Theory” that combines classical music traditions – which represent a milestone of human achievement – with modern musical composition and techniques.
As a composer, Austin’s success is measured by the reach of his work to various symphonies, including:
2012 by the WSO at the Mt Baker Theatre
2013 by the Bellevue Youth Sympony at Beneroya Hall in Seattle
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