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ALL SMILES ISSUE
DECEMBER 14, 2019
NEWS-NOTES-NONSENSE
REANDALYNN, ASHONNA, REGAN
Our guest presenter was none other than Rotary fave Melissa Erker, Phillips 66 refinery Government and Community Relations Director. She gave us an overview of the 900 well-paying jobs the refinery offers and the challenges of filling the positions. The refinery has a $7 billion regional impact. The refinery recently established a Facebook (@WoodRiverRefinery) presence and Melissa is actively involved in taking the refinery story to the public at large. Fun fact, the refinery capacity ranks somewhere around 10th place in U.S.
Lori recruited several members to help distribute 15 Christmas flowers to the community.
Bill thanked everyone who assisted with the Winter Wonderland event this past Tuesday. Other than Santa's "three dog night" experience and problematic elves, all went well. Thanks to Bill for coordinating.
Alex introduced three of the four scholarship students from Roxana.
What did one snowman say to another? Do you smell carrots?-credit Virgil for this one.
The lunch buffet featured well-sauced spaghetti, well-cheesed shells, mexicorn, torpedo rolls, salad, cookies, pudding and fruit salad in syrup.
Early arrivals included, Allen, MarkA, Lori and BradL. Last in were BradP, ChrisL and Emily, who brought the head count to 21.
Lori reminded everyone to hit the tip box a wee bit harder next week, our last meeting before the holiday break.
Happy birthday to Ty and ChrisH.
Member anniversaries include Joe with 20 years, Bill with 6 and Randy with 4
Bill shared some Christmas season thoughts.
Rodney was looking dapper.
Sandy promised to photobomb every shot Rick took.
Thursday was the last day to contribute for our adopted Christmas family. Thanks to all contributed and to ChrisH for coordinating.
Wendell is off to Columbia for a month, hopefully to close on his new home away from home. Feliz Navidad!
Thanks to all who participated in the Salvation Army bell ringing last Saturday. Thanks to MarkV for running point on the event
Opening duties were performed by Wendell, ChrisH, and Dave.
ChrisL is seeking a new date for our basketball tournament.
Anyone else, besides Wendell, like the term "9th street twins" for Sherry and Sandy.
SAA Chris had our favorite Trailblazer, Alex, handling the $$. Not here last week? Pay a $. We got 4 out 5 five Christmas trivia Q's correct.
BradP and Rick each took a turn ignoring the $156 jackpot. 6 cards remain, who will win?? Wendell did some scratching.
That's it, have a fine and dry weekend. Ciao!
FRIENDLY REMINDED-
SHOP AMAZON AND BENEFIT OUR
EAST ALTON ROTARY FOUNDATION
TRIVIA
Americans cut down some 15 million Christmas trees in 2017. How much land did it take to grow them?
A-Nearly as much as the island of Manhattan
B-About the same as the state of Rhode Island
C-A bit more than Yellowstone National Park
D-Equal to the U.K minus Scotland
Today is National Bouillabaisse (soup) Day
How many countries have coastlines on both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans?
9
11
20
32
11 countries have coastlines with both of these bodies of water (including the Caribbean Sea, a marginal sea of the Atlantic). The list includes Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Russia, Canada, United States, Panama, Honduras, and Chile, which touches the Atlantic all the way down at its southeastern tip.
On This Date-
1542 – Princess Mary Stuart becomes Queen of Scots at the age of one week on the death of her father, James V of Scotland.
1780 – Founding Father Alexander Hamilton marries Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton at the Schuyler Mansion in Albany, New York
1782 – The Montgolfier brothers first test fly an unmanned hot air balloon in France; it floats nearly 1.2 mi.
1902 – The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from San Francisco to Honolulu.
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1948 – Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann are granted a patent for their cathode-ray tube amusement device, the earliest known interactive electronic game.
1962 – NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus.
1972 – Apollo program: Eugene Cernan is the last person to walk on the moon, after he and Harrison Schmitt complete the third and final extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo 17 mission.
2004 – The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.
2008 – Muntadhar al-Zaidi throws his shoes at then-U.S. President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraq.
2017 – The Walt Disney Company announces that it would acquire 21st Century Fox, including the 20th Century Fox movie studio, for $52.4 billion.
FROM THE ARCHIVES
DECEMBER 16, 2010
Club officials included: Prez ChrisH, Dave, Lori, Cory, Paul, Rhonda, Rod and Rick
Virgil introduced guest presenter Ed Settles, Superintendent of the Jerseyville School District
We had 26 members in the house when the meeting began at 8:02 (accoding to the clock on the wall).
MarkV presented a make-up from Bethalto.
Erin was in the house wearing her "I don't have to be in court today" outfit.
Allen missed his shot at the 50-50.
BradL, MarkS and Joe spent time talking up the basketball tournament.
DATELINE:RI
THE SUSTAINABILITY CHALLENGE
An old piece of railroad track is laid across a pit toilet. The walls are crumbling. The stench is overwhelming. It’s the only toilet for a school in rural Ghana, and most children refuse to use it. They do their business outside instead — or quit school altogether.
This is an all-too-common experience: Half of Ghana’s population lives in rural areas, and only 10 percent of those people have access to basic sanitation. Two-thirds can obtain safe drinking water — after a 30-minute round trip.
Since 2009, Rotary has been working to fix those deficiencies through a partnership with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). The partnership combines the business skills and local community leadership of Rotarian volunteers with the technical expertise of USAID. Rotary is contributing $9 million to the $18 million partnership; outside of eradicating polio, it is Rotary’s largest partnership effort. “We wondered how these two organizations could come together and exploit the synergy between them,” says Rotarian Ron Denham, a member of the Rotary-USAID steering committee.
Ghana was one of three pilot countries when the program kicked off. Projects were implemented in two phases: Phase 1 concluded in 2013, and Phase 2 will end in 2020. “As a result of this partnership, we’ve been able to reach out to some very deprived communities,” says Emmanuel Odotei, WASH management specialist for USAID/Ghana. “If USAID had tried to do this alone, or if Rotary had done it alone, we would never have achieved as much as we have today.”
Throughout, the focus of the program has been on accomplishing three goals: improving sanitation and hygiene in schools and health facilities; increasing community access to safe drinking water; and advocating for ample government financing of WASH — that is, water, sanitation, and hygiene. To continue reading, link here https://bit.ly/38rrpmU
AND I QUOTE
"It is not the employer who pays the wages. He only handles the money. It is the product that pays the wages."-Henry Ford
"The law of love could be best understood and learned through little children."-Mahatma Gandhi
"A person starts dying when they stop dreaming."-William Blake
"Don't be humble, you're not that great."-Golda Meir
SMILE
Research has shown that laughing for 2 minutes is just as healthy as a 20 minute jog. So now I'm sitting in the park laughing at all the joggers
With all my aches and pains I'm afraid I have that Chinese disease "yung no mo"
I tell dad jokes but I have no kids. I'm a faux pa
We were doing some home renovations and, incredibly, when we knocked down a wall, we found a secret, fully furnished room. And then I remembered "we live in a duplex..."
My husband and I decided we don't want to have children. We will be telling them tonight.
This book on marriage says, "Treat your wife like you treated her on the first date." So after dinner tonight I'm dropping her off at her parents' house!
BY THE NUMBERS
The National Retail Federation surveyed shoppers the first week of November and found that 56% of shoppers had begun gift buying and had competed 24% of their shopping. Those figures from a decade ago were 48% and 16% respectively
The number of sweet potato-containing product launches world-wide increased 27% last year to more than 2,000—a near-doubling from 2014-Innova Market Insights
E-commerce is expected to account for about $170 billion of the roughly $730 billion in total holiday spending this year-National Retail Federation
2.8% of traditional public schools operated on a 12-month calendar in the 2017-18 school year, down from 5.3% in the 2003-04 school year-National Center for Educational Statistics
The five faster growing brands of 2019 are: Doordash, White Claw, Postmates, Impossible and Venmo-Morning Consult
The number of surveillance cameras in the U.S. is expected to grow to 85 million by 2021, up from 70 million in 2018. Worldwide, the number will exceed one billion by the end of 2021-IHS Markit
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