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SPRINGING FORWARD ISSUE MARCH 9, 2024
VOL. 4 NO.23
PAUL HARRIS GANG
NEWS-NOTES-NONSENSE
Since you will lose an hour of sleep tonight, let's get you caught up quickly, just in time for your nap.
A belated welcome to our newest member Kendra Green. She and hubby Troy are the owners of Gumbo 2 Geaux restaurant in Upper Alton. Kendra was a former scholarship student. Welcome Kendra!
On Thursday we heard an energetic presentation by Big Brothers/Big Sisters Executive Director Brianna Andersen. She joined the local chapter in 2022. HQ is based in Belleville and covers four Illinois counties.. She opened her presentation by asking " Who was in your corner when you were growing up?" Boys and girls ages 6-14 are eligible for the program which pairs a young person with a willing adult. Brianna pointed out that finding kids who want to be mentored is easy, finding adult mentors is more challenging. 80% of the kids involved with the program come from single family homes. Mentors are asked spend at least four hours a month with mentoring duties, doing whatever activity that you and the young person find enriching. Need more info or thinking about mentoring, reach out by calling 618.398.3162 or visiting http://bbbsil.org
Birthday wishes to Prez Rodney on the 11th.
BillP served as our super-sub bell ringer.
Speaking of bell ringing, MarkV pointed out that the Madison County Salvation Army significantly exceeded their Christmas fund raising goals. Thanks to all our ringers who helped make that happen.
Early arrivals included BillP, LoriP and AllenH.
BillP introduced his son Scott and announced that they were heading to STL to watch SIUC play in the Missouri Valley Mens Basketball Tournament. (They didn't win.)
Opening duties were handled by SherryT, BradP and MarkV.
Post-nooners included PattiA, GeorgeM, MarkV and ChrisH.
15 members dined on beef 'n noodles, radiated corn, rolls, salad and cookies.
SherryT reminded everyone that early primary voting has begun.
BillP read a thank you note from Meagan Nelson regarding our donation in Randy's honor.
LeonardB was so early he may have already been running on daylight saving time.
LoriP reminded everyone that our district conference is this coming Saturday.
Dorthy's restaurant is now open in the space adjacent to Julia's. WendellR thinks the biscuits and gravy are the bomb. Check their Facebook page for operating days/hours.
SAA Patti challenged the crowd with Q's about animals, the United Nation and the solar system.
50-50 jackpot.opportunities were afforded table mates KendraG and LoriP. Each found a 3 card in the dwindling deck. LeonardB was the reluctant scratchie winner.
REACHING FOR THE STARS
POST MEETING CHAT FEST
ALL THINGS TRIVIAL
Who emerged in 2023 as Tesla's biggest rivals in the U.S. market for electric vehicles?
A-Ford and GM
B-Honda and Nissan
C-Hyundai and Kia
D-Volkswagen and Stellantis
(Answer is found near the end of the newsletter)
Today is National Barbie Day
Mount Hood is the highest point in what state?
Oregon
Vermont
California
Ohio
Located 90 minutes southeast of Portland, Mount Hood rises 11,239 feet above the Oregon landscape in the Cascade Range. Mount Hood is one of Oregon's most popular tourist attractions, bringing skiers, hikers, and naturalists to the area from near and far. The peak is actually a dormant stratovolcano which last erupted in September 1865. Due to its accessibility, temperate climate, and relative ease to summit, Mount Hood is the second-most climbed mountain in the world, behind Japan's Mount Fuji.
FROM OUR ARCHIVES
Sourced from the Make-Up and Banner newsletters
march 2013
The WR club heard a presentation about the proposed expansion of the police department. The EA club found out about the proposed development in the Defense Area.
RHS Junior Rotarians Jennie Woodward and Jennifer Kamp broke brea with the WR members.
AllenH served as the sub-SAA while PaulH pondered the fine du jour.
The recent WR Trivia Night was a success. JeanK, TommieM and JohnP were among the folks who assisted.
The basketball tournament netted out at close to $1,000. Proceeds went to our foundation.
PaulG paid a Happy Fine and led the singing.
CoryG won the $185 jackpot.
JohnP announced that the EA-WR Interact Club hosted a Valentine's Day event at VIP manor.
GeorgeT was the meeting greeter.
PHOTOS OF THE WEEK
DATELINE:RI
Solar cell phone chargers help Ukrainians
By Jerry W. Venters, Past governor of District 6040 and member of the Rotary Club of Lander, Wyoming, USA
Four members of our Rotary Club in Lander, Wyoming, attended the 2023 District 5440 Conference in Estes Park, Colorado, USA expecting to promote our recent projects in Mexico and Rwanda. Much to our surprise, another international project found us!
Andy Lenec, a former senior Peace Corps volunteer in Ukraine, stirred the audience at the district conference with his story of a developing program to convert used solar panels into cell phone chargers for the people of Ukraine. The program, developed in coordination with a professor and students at Western Colorado University in Gunnison, Colorado, was still in its infancy and only a very few chargers had been shipped to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian power grid remains a target of Russian airstrikes and blackouts are common. Gas generators are more expensive, harder to ship, less mobile, and require fuel which is in limited supply. Solar chargers are easier to move and relatively inexpensive to replace if damaged or destroyed. With charged cell phones, the Ukrainians can receive evacuation orders, air raid warnings, and school schedules. They can also stay in touch with friends and relatives fighting on the front lines.
Our excitement for the project was instant and electric. We couldn’t wait to get back to energize our 65-member club and start converting used solar panels into cell phone chargers. Our service committee quickly endorsed the project, and Ken Schreuder (a retired engineer and current club secretary) agreed to lead it. We planned to ship the chargers to schools, medical facilities, internally displaced people’s camps, and others in desperate need of a means of communication in the war-torn country.
No special engineering is required to turn the 12-volt solar panels into a 5-volt power source to charge phones. The positive and negative wires coming from the used solar panels are wired to the respective wires in the power converter. We worked with a local solar installer to make sure the panels we purchased produced enough power to operate the four charging ports on the power converter without exceeding the input capacity. This allowed us to use the smallest and cheapest panels possible. To continue reaading, link herehttps://rb.gy/etxysf
AND I QUOTE
"Accomplishing the impossible means only that the boss will add it to your regular duties."-Doug Larson
"And now that you don't have to be perfect, you can be good."-John Steinbeck-“East of Eden”
"Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth."-Henry David Thoreau
"It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth."-John Steinbeck
2023 WORDS OF THE YEAR
(As selected by the American Dialect Society)
enshittification: worsening of a digital platform through reduction in quality of service
babygirl: older male fictional character or celebrity seen as emotionally damaged, helpless, or vulnerable
ceasefire: rallying cry for those seeking a stoppage of hostilities in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
context: word invoked by presidents of Harvard, MIT, and Penn to questions at a House hearing about prohibiting speech on campus
(derogatory): parenthetical comment humorously appended after a word that might not be expected to be derogatory
girlie: lighthearted and affectionate term of address for young women
Kenaissance: renaissance in the wake of the Barbie movie’s depiction of Ken (also Kenergy, Kenough)
stochastic parrot: large language model that can generate plausible synthetic text without having any understanding
SMILE
What’s the difference between a poorly dressed man on a tricycle and a well-dressed man on a bicycle?
Attire.
Why was the fish’s grades bad?
They were below sea level.
What do you call a fish without an eye?
Fsh.
What do you call a pig that practices karate?
A pork chop.
What did the tomato say to the other tomato during a race?
Ketchup.
Why can't you trust the king of the jungle?
Because he's always lion.
What do sea monsters eat?
Fish and ships.
What do you call a sad strawberry?
A blue berry
BY THE NUMBERS
The insurance industry is estimated to have paid out in more than 91,700 car-damage claims caused by rodents, squirrels, and rabbits nationally between July 1, 2022 and June 30, 2023-State Farm
Secondhand luxury products worth $49.3 billion were sold worldwide in 2023-Bain & Company
In 2022 U.S., tax receipts at all levels of government climbed to nearly 28% of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), up from 25% in 2019 and the highest level since at least 1965
The average standard cycle time for a dishwasher has increased from around 70 minutes in 1983 to 160 minutes this year-Competitive Enterprise Institute
Prices for services, which include things such as travel and entertainment, rose 5.5% over the past year while overall inflation rose 3.1%, according to the latest consumer-price index
More than half of the money that Americans spend on food has gone toward food prepared outside the home since 2015-U S Department of Agriculture
(Trivia answer C)
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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