November 20, 2012

A very special and entertaining meeting today.  Before we get to our speaker the big news of the day, other than John Peters Birthday, is that chaos is breaking out in The Imperious Leaders club.  First Mike Peterson announced his impending retirement from RYLA and then to compound matters Tom Sawyer said he is on his last year for the swim program.  Next thing you know Steve Ellis will retire as chair of the sign committee and then we will be in some real trouble.  All seriousness aside, we are looking for some people to step and replace both Mike and Tom (we have an early entrant in Mike Kaplan to take over the swim program).  Please let Al know if you are interested.

We have a new sponsor for the wine tasting - Gateway Liquors in Bellingham will be supplying the wine this year.  Pop n Kork was unable to give us a firm commitment, so the decision was made to go with Gateway.  Tony Khouri, the owner, is a big supporter of the local community and will be a great addition to this event.

Bell Ringing time is upon us.  We will be ringing bells on both December 15 and December 22 this year.  Please try to be available one of these dates as this is always a great event. Sign up sheets will be available next week.

Finally onto our speaker, Marilyn DelMonte from Healthy Outcomes spoke to us today about topic many of us have personal and extensive knowledge, teenage drinking.  Although it brought back a lot of memories for some Rotarians in the room, this is a very serious issue these days, as substance abuse in general is being to be understood.  The biggest takeaway is that from the age of about 13 to 22 the brain is actually going through a great development period and alcohol and drugs are the last thing you want to do at those ages.  Marilyn also mentioned that lectures do not work, but rather short, repetitive statements are best.  Keep repeating the same thing in 30 second segments several times per week and it will sink in.

For those of you who missed the meeting you also missed some the best Whoopie Pies I have ever had from Ray Dick's Bakery compliments of the lovely Mrs Peters and our own Paul Tamagni.  No rumors getting started here, but didn't they up together?

Lastly, I just wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Just remember how fortunate we all are to live where we are and have the friends around us that we do.