Meeting Re-Cap July 30, 2020

Mike Sellers, President, Zoom Meister and Club Whip

Bob Ricks, Humble Scribe, Zoom Follower and Fauci Fan

John Mlnarik, Zoom Controller, Chat Room monitor

 

Note: This entire meeting can be viewed on Club Runner. Just log in to Club Runner and select. We had 34 members online this week. There should be more.

 

In Memoriam: Nicholas, Alisa, Christopher and Tyler Streit. Our entire club mourns their untimely death.  President Mike, PP Dan Holder and Watana Heang had cogent comments on this tragedy to open this week’s meeting. Please keep PP Nick Streit and his family in your prayers and thoughts.

 

Greeting and Inspiration: The king of Kalamazoo, Ed Bouwhuis, had a tough assignment in light of the tragedy from last week. His comments were well taken regarding a year that will be recorded as one of the worst, outside of war, in our history. In Ed’s words: “We must all continue to focus on the positive in life”.

 

Visitors:  We had three special guests at our meeting today.  Anna Holder, Lizzy Barron, and Harbir’s father from Austin Texas.  A special “thank you” to Lizzy for helping Nick during a time of need.  You are an Angel. 

 

Betty Carmody celebrated her birthday with family on July 29.

 

Roy Truitt has now been an active member of the club for 16 years. Gerry Kosko has been with us 9 years. Christian Pellechia joined 4 years ago. Justin Citti and Kelly Carr just passed 1 year in TGRCITW. Congratulations to all.

 

PP Anton “Thrifty” Morec announced that his Jeep broke down in the Nevada desert as he was avoiding all human contact to escape Covid 19. The problem may have occurred as Anton changes his own oil, rotates his own tires and does all maintenance to avoid professional dealerships. Unfortunately he bought a discount filter from a street vendor this time. Then he took too long to figure out how to get to a fast food store and is now 30 pounds lighter. Anton will take any gifts of jeans or shirts from skinny members until he beefs up again. He is selling before and after photos on eBay.

 

Thanks: Dan Winter logged into the ZOOM with a mask on. Thanks, but unnecessary. Good to see you in the group.

 

Club Historian: Our official historian is Ed Bouwhuis. Please contact Ed if you have any items from our club that should be retained as part of our history. Phil Auger offered the life vest that Paul Harris wore when Phil took Paul sailing in 1922.

 

We Care: Good news from President Mike. Denise’s hip surgery went well and she is home once more cracking the whip on Mike. Her old police whistle works well.

 

The food distribution program continues.

 

We continue to help with school supplies for the Santa Clara School District. If you want to make a financial contribution for this program just let Club Treasurer CJ Grewal know and he can handle it through your club account.

 

Club Survey- Important:   The survey has been emailed to all members. It is quick and easy to complete. Please find it on your computer and submit your thoughts. Your input is important. We need all surveys completed by August 6. The club member coordinating this survey is Dr. Stella Kemp. Direct any questions to Stella.

 

Happy Hour: Our next Zoom Happy Hour will be on Tuesday, August 4 at 5:30 pm. Tune in and have some fun! President Mike has a great program planned, “Are you smarter than a Red Badger?”  See you on the Zoom.

 

Speaker:  Our legal Eagle, EZ Perez, introduced our speaker this week: Andra Watkins. Ms. Watkins is an active Rotarian (Past President of the East Cooper Rotary Club), NY Times Best Selling author and lives with husband Michael Maher in Charleston, South Carolina.

 

Her talk was interesting and upbeat as she described how the book : UNDAUNTED COURAGE (the story of the Lewis and Clark expedition) by Stephen Ambrose opened her eyes to how history is so much more exciting than the average student learns in high school. This discovery led Andra to write the fiction book: TO LIVE FOREVER: AN AFTERLIFE JOURNEY OF MERIWEATHER LEWIS. She then wanted to promote the book by walking the entire 444 mile length of the Natchez Trace with her father that was mentioned in TO LIVE FOREVER. This journey led to another book, NOT WITHOUT MY FATHER: ONE WOMAN’S 444-MILE WALK OF THE NATCHEZ TRACE. All in all it was a great session for our club. Andra left us with a worthy quote:  Change “I wish I had” to “I am glad I did” in your life. Time is short. Go do it!

 

Andra’s books are available on Amazon. Plus Andy Ratermann has a link where you can order copies direct from the author. Andy has read all her books and highly recommends them as good reads. They are also available on Audible.

 

Humble Scribe comment:  Ms. Watkins made a large point about the boredom of learning history in high school. All dates. All dull. I was fortunate. I would be remiss here if I did not mention my high school history teacher, Bob Wyche. Mr. Wyche made every American history class an adventure. It was like watching a movie. The effort he put into his lectures was amazing to watch. He was strict, had high expectations for his class and made you want to return each day. He instilled a love of history in me that I still enjoy today. And he was correct: History, taught well, is never boring.

 

Final Thought: Social Distancing if you dare to leave your castle: This seems to work in Texas, but do not leave your house unless going to Holder’s. Rumor has it that Sweeney is working on a TGRCITW mask. Stay tuned to this communication.