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BERKSHIRE HILL ISSUE SEPTEMBER 7, 2024
VOL. 5 NO. 8
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR
NEWS-NOTES-NONSENSE
On Thursday MarkSm presented our Business of the Year award to the Werts family, owners of Werts Welding & Tank Services. Dwight accepted the award and expressed his deep appreciation.He then went on to provide of brief history of the company that has eight locations from Billings, MT to Tampa, FL. Dwight's father started the business in 1957, across the street from the present building. The business grossed $3,500 in the first year. The big break came when his dad was asked to help repair/weld an aluminum tanker. His quality work performance spread by word of mouth amongst the tanker owners/operators serving the local refineries. The business now focuses on servicing the truck/tanker industry with repair services and parts.
Early arrivals included MarkSm, BillP and JoeS.
Birthday wishes go out to DarrenC on the 9th.
JoeS told everyone that golfers are notorious slow to prepay for a tournament. That being noted, if you know of a team that plans to play let Joe know ASAP so he can reserve the correct number of tee times and order the right amount of grub. He also encouraged everyone to get busy encouraging your golfing/duffer friends to get a team(s) together and recruit sponsors. The end of October is not that far off.
Here are the details about our upcoming club foundation golf scramble on October 25th. Registration starts @ 11 with a shotgun start @ noon. A foursome will cost $400 and include a BBQ lunch and steak dinner. There are five sponsorship levels available from $100 to $1000. He then distributed flyers and encouraged everyone to share them with the golfers you know, friends, family and social media. It's going to be a fun day on a beautiful late October Friday. All proceeds will be used for community enhancement with a goal of making a $15,000 contribution every other year. Make checks payable to our legal name East Alton Rotary Club Foundation. All checks need to go through JoeS so that all sponsorships and teams are correctly recognized. Thanks in advance for your support.
Post-nooners included BradP, LoriP and AllenH There is an asterisk associated with their late arrival. They were all attending the grand opening ceremony at the newly relocated Piasa Armory. It's new digs are inside the old Eastgate theater building.
Today is the Soapbox Race. Did you sign-up? Don't forget to show up. Thanks to BradP for coordinating and the dayglow clad crosswalk workers.
The slide right in crowed featured PaulH, SherryT and CoryG.
AllenH entered the room @ 12:19 to shouts of "Norm".
Look from an email from MarkSm about envelope stuffing on Monday/Tuesday.
JoeS announced that our Trivia Night will be held on February 8th. MarkSm will servie as the trivia master.
SAA Patti fined everyone who has not watched any of the Paralympics.
We had 17 members dining on twisty noodles in cheese and micro meat, mixed veggies, rolls, salad and cookies.
61% of Eastender subscribers opened the last newsletter.
PP RESENTS AFRICAN CLUB BANNER TO P
POST-MEETING SHUFFLE
ALL THINGS TRIVIAL
Who just topped a $1 trillion valuation for the first time?
A-Tesla
B-Berkshire Hathaway
C-Eli Lilly
D-Taylor Swift
(The answer is found near the end of the newsletter)
Today is National Salami Day
Puerto Rico is home to America's only official what?
Volcano
Tide pool
Tropical rainforest
Coral reef
More than 110 years ago, El Yunque National Forest was protected as a federal reserve, and it remains the only tropical rainforest in the United States. Each year, approximately 1.2 million visitors travel to the rainforest in northern Puerto Rico, where they find endangered parrots, fruit bats, and tree frogs called coquí.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
Sourced from the Make-Up and Banner newsletters
September 2018
District Governor Brian Barstead visited the WR club.
VirgilM welcomed the newest EA club member.
DonnaK gave everyone their Cash Raffle tickets. Get busy selling!
Prez PattyW read a thank you note from one of the scholarship students.
EA-WR Junior Rotarians Shawn McKee and Sydney Slayden visited with the WR members.
The sign-up sheet for the Soap Box race was making the rounds.
TommieM paid a Happy Fine.
Post-nooners included BradP and CoryG.
MikeK missed his opportunity to claim the $334 WR jackpot, AllenH and LoriP met the same fate with the $39 EA jackpot.
MarkA introduced brother Winn.
SAA DaveA levied fines based on the current issue of the Rotarian magazine.
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
BEHIND THE BADGE
MEMBER PROFILE
BILL PYATT
Born in Noblesville, IN where I lived through January 1963 when our family moved to Lafayette, IN. Attended public schools through 7th grade when our family moved to Godfrey, IL in the summer of 1966.
Graduated from Alton HS in 1971.
Graduated from Monmouth College, Monmouth, IL in 1975 with topical major in Environmental Management.
Worked for 2 years at the Peavey Flour Mills (1975-77).
Responded to a call to Ordained Ministry in the United Methodist Church. Attended seminary at Eden Theological School in Webster Groves, MO then transferred to the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and graduated in 1981 with a Masters of Divinity and a Masters of Arts in Christian Education.
Married Brenda Gorrell of Convoy, OH on 7/19/80 in Delaware, OH. Our daughter Lauren and her partner live in St Louis. Our son, Scott lives in Creve Coeur, MO.
Served as an active United Methodist Church pastor from 1977-2020. Served full time in UMC congregations in Carbondale, Belleville, Carterville, Mt Vernon, Carthage, Decatur/Mt Zion, East Alton and Bethalto, IL.
Retired in 2020 and moved to Godfrey, IL.
Joined the East Alton Rotary Club in December of 2013. Served as the President of the East Alton Club in 2017-18.
Serving as the President of the Riverbend East Rotary Club in 2024-25.
Avid fan of St Louis Cardinals. Enjoys hiking, book reading and telling corny jokes and silly stories.
AND I QUOTE
"Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try just one more time."-Thomas Edison
"I'll stop the world and melt with you / You've seen the difference / And it's getting better all the time."-
“I Melt with You,” Modern English, 1981
"We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard."-
John F. Kennedy
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible."Jonathan Swift
SMILE
The Roman emperor's wife hates playing hide and seek because wherever she goes, Julius Caesar.
If you are being chased by a pack of taxidermists, do not play dead.
My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him, “Don't be Sicily.”
My grandfather invented the cold air balloon but it never really took off.
When she saw her first strands of gray hair, she thought she’d dye.
A boiled egg is hard to beat.
I'm a big fan of whiteboards. I find them quite remarkable.
Yesterday, a clown held the door open for me. It was such a nice jester.
The other day she tried to make a chemistry joke, but got no reaction.
It’s funny — England doesn’t have a kidney bank, but has a Liverpool.
When a clock is hungry, it goes back four seconds.
BY THE NUMBERS
44% of students who graduated high school in 2000 took a keyboarding course, by 2019 that figure had dropped to 2.5%-U.S. Department of Education
There are 11.2 million RV-owning US households as of 2021, a 62% increase in the past 20 years. More than a fifth of the market is now made up of 18- to 34-year-olds-National RV Dealers Association
Over 500 private, nonprofit four-year higher education institutions have closed in the last 10 years-State Higher Education Executive Officers Association
Sales of outdoor cooking appliances and accessories reached $1.9 billion in 2022, a 23% increase over the previous year-Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association
The number of U.S. hotels with an average daily rate of $1,000-plus in the first half of this year was 80, compared with 22 in 2019- CoStar Group
Since the pandemic’s onset through the second quarter of 2023, Americans collectively pocketed about $280 billion from tapping the equity in their homes and saved about $120 billion from refinancings-Federal Reserve Bank of New York
(Trivia answer B)
ROTARY'S AREAS OF FOCUS
These have been identified to help build international relationships, improve lives and create a better world to support our peace efforts and end polio forever
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