President Arnold Oliver started the meeting at 12:01 pm. David Hartman led the invocation with a prayer for peace. Cara Sauceda and Stacie Cook led the pledge and song “Let There Be Peace on Earth”, followed by our usual “Rotary” greeting.
We had three guests. Carol Murray introduced Dr. Sandra Vergara who is a local oral surgeon. Bob Hampton introduced Dr. Mark Bender who is the Pastor at First Christian Church and David Hartman introduced Dr. Bill Smythe who is a retired pastor. We also had Larry Petrash visiting from the Iowa Park Club. There were no birthdays for the week. Nothing new to report on the Sunshine report. John Deason mentioned that he is making progress with his health concerns. Please keep John in your prayers.
On announcements, Cara Sauceda is needing volunteers for the Youth of the Month Program. If you are interested, please contact Cara. She is lining up volunteers for the next six months.
Judy Koetter was inducted into the Club as our newest member. Steve Priester is her sponsor. Judy is the President and CEO of the Beacon Lighthouse for the Blind in Wichita Falls. Welcome Judy to our club.
For the Brag Bucket, Stacie Cook bragged about our guest Dr. Sandra Vergara and how she is a big proponent for alternate pain management in lieu of using opioids. Shirley Craft mentioned that the Committee for a Vibrant Club has been working and will want input from the members next week. Cara Sauceda mentioned that our sponsored Youth of the Year did very well at the State Competition. Although he didn’t win, he did get to meet the Governor and two State Senators. David Kelly made a donation in recognition of the Youth of the Year program.
David Hartman introduced our own Colonel Bill Miller as program speaker. His topic was on the history of Russia and Ukraine. Bill provided a very informative view of how the Russian Government thinks and acts. Russia has never had a responsible government and has never been able to run the country efficiently. For hundreds of years, Russia was ruled as a kingdom. When Russia was taken over in the early 1900’s by the revolutionists, the government killed all the family members of the ruling class. The government’s goal from the beginning was to make Russia the strongest country in the world. Since World War I and II, Russia has always wanted to seize land from its adjoining countries. The people of Russia became afraid of the Government who killed those who resisted. The Russian Government still has this same type of control philosophy today and is only concerned about its power. After securing freedom from the Soviet Union, Ukraine started doing much better than Russia under Western ideology. Today, Russia wants what Ukraine has, so their method is to conquer Ukraine and take the wealth from the country. Through all these years, Russia has not learned any lessons and will probably not stop its aggression. Bill has made multiple trips to Russia and teaches Russian History. The program was very insightful.
The speaker’s gift went to City View School with Bill Miller’s name inscribed. President Arnold adjourned the meeting at 12:58 pm with the 4 Way Test and ringing of the bell.