Good Morning, Rotarians! Hope everyone is doing well on this snowy Winter morning. Sometimes, a "Change-Up" is just what is needed to break the routine, spark a bit of interest, and provide an opportunity to enhance our skills. That is precisely what President Liz had in mind last evening, when "Challenge Night" replaced the regularly scheduled program"! More on that later...

There wasn't quite the turn-out of Members, as there had been last week, when we had so many Guests, but a cozy group of 21 of us was enough to have some "Teams" for the Challenge that was to follow.

We were warmly greeted by Blanche, as we arrived at The Redwood. Blanche also served as "Photographer Extraordinaire" tonight, keying in on some "stellar moments"! We joined Pres. Liz in reciting The Pledge, and we were led by Jack in singing "God Bless America". Patrice gave The Invocation, noting that Acts of Kindness, whether large or small, can make a difference (for others). There were no Guests at tonight's Meeting, nor was there a specific Rotary Moment.

There were a few announcements, and reflections this evening, beginning with Liz, who reminisced about the wonderful Noon Meeting we had had last week. We had enjoyed meeting Visitors from Indonesia, India, and Pakistan, and we appreciated hearing from some of them, as they described their homeland(s), and their Rotary endeavors. We also had enjoyed having some of our Local Dignitaries join us as Guests, also! Becky, our waitress, had been amazing, as she had served meals to so many in her usual competent, cheerful way!

Rose noted that, next week, after the Noon Meeting, we will take down the rest of the Light Up Naples decorations. Hopefully, the weather will be a bit more cooperative! 

Sue talked about the Euchre Tournament that will benefit Hospeace House. That event will be Sunday, February 18th, at Engine 14 Brewery. The Entry Fee is $25 per person, and one can register online, or call this number: 585-507-6791 if interested.

Liz also mentioned that the Program on Melanoma (scheduled for February 5th) will be a Streamed Presentation.

John stated that the Naples Open Cupboard will host an Open Meeting, this Wednesday, January 24th, at 7PM, at the Naples Fire Hall. The N.O.C. will share some exciting updates for 2024, and questions, comments, concerns, and ideas are welcome. This Meeting is open to all, and if it's not convenient to attend in-person, the Meeting will be live-streamed on Facebook.

And then, it was time for Tonight's Challenges! There were five of them, including "Uzzle", "Build a Tower", "Jenga", and "Tetra Tower", plus one more. Liz was glad that there were enough people present to form teams, and she prompted us to get into groups of two, three, and four, which we did! Each Team took a "game" and begin to "tackle" it in the best way they could! Believe me, it wasn't exactly easy, and it took some planning and teamwork to accomplish the goal of having the "challenge" completed in 10 minutes!! Blanche floated around, trying to capture these moments of "trial and error" among the Teams! For example, one might think building a tower out of marshmallows and spaghetti (uncooked) would be easy as pie, but it wasn't!! The Team of Alexis, Clyde, and Bo won with a "tower" that reached over 46 inches! The Teams of Karen and Nancy, and Laurie and Jo, and Alan, Sue, Cindy, and Pat made valiant efforts, but they didn't reach that height! Lots of laughing ensued, though, and the Challenge proved to be loads of fun! 

Afterwards, Liz asked us to share what we had learned from this experience. Members shared that teamwork, leadership, cooperation, perseverance, and a sense of humor were some of the attributes that led to success in completing the various challenges. This prompt motivated us to reflect upon how these same qualities are essential to the success of a Rotary Club also!

Fellow Member, Jack urged Members to sign up for the District Conference coming up at the end of April. The cost for the Golf Tournament, which is typically held prior to the Conference, is $65 per person. Jack hopes that we can field a fairly good number of Naples Rotarians to form some "Winning Teams"!

Due to Karen's Whopper of a Win last week, the Ace of Hearts was at $12 this week. Bo's Ticket, #610752, was selected, and Bo drew the Nine of Clubs from the pack.

The Happy Bill reasons were plenty tonight! We enjoyed the Teamwork, the Program Theme was fun and innovative, today was Skip's Birthday, and he is doing much better, we had sticky fingers from working with those marshmallows, and Rose has two Gigs coming up!

Once again, led by Jack, we sang a heartfelt "Happy Birthday" to Skip. We then joined Liz in reciting The Four-Way Test. Then we decided to "call it a night"!