Northwind 1-29-09

Posted by Sharon Robinson 
 

WHATCOM COUNTY NORTH ROTARY CLUB

NORTHWIND

January 29, 2009

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MEETING TO ORDER: President Timcalled the meeting to order at 12:30.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Mel Hollinger gave the invocation, asking for guidance in applying the Four Way Test.

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GUESTS:Ã'Ã'  Marlene Sexton's husband, Mark.

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VISITING ROTARIANS: Ã'Ã'  John Moles.

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RETURNING ROTARIANS:Ã'Ã'  Marlene Sexton is back from San Diego, where it was 81 degrees. Ã'Ã' Tony Cubellis went to Dallas and San Antonio to visit his older brother.

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BIRTHDAYS:Ã'Ã'  Dan Parsons' was the 28th of January and he tried to double up on last week's Birthday Recognition but was denied.Ã'Ã'  Real birthdays for this week:Ã'Ã'  Chuck Tull on 1/31, Randy Carr on 2/1 and Tim Carpenter on 2/4.Ã'Ã'  Happy Birthday!

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ANNOUNCMENTS:Ã'Ã'  Maureen: about 25 people attended the bowling night.Ã'Ã'  It was good fun, and since she collected a little extra $ it was a fundraiser as well; Career Day will be April 2.Ã'Ã'  Pete Ruese is in charge this year, and could use some help with his first time.Ã'Ã'  They are hoping to get Steve Oswald as a speaker, and if it works out, they suggest the possibility of also doing an evening event with him; There will be a Board and Foundation meeting next week, 7:30 am, Zervas Group Architects, 209 Prospect Street; Bill Grace: Working on the Roster - needs photos of new members, and new photos of "older" members.Ã'Ã'  You know who you are; A card was circulated for Brad Peterson; Dick Donahue and Tim Carpenter presented Mel Hollinger with a plaque from the La Ceiba Rotary Club thanking him for the contributions that have been made to Adelante; Memorial for John Aubert will be tomorrow (Friday) at the St. James Presbyterian Church; Brian Finnegan and the fundraising committee are organizing an auction for late April or early May.Ã'Ã'  Brian stresses that he CANNOT be in charge again, but will help; Next Thursday there will be a community projects/fund raising committee meeting at 11:00 contact Dick Donahue for info.

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HAPPY BUCKS: Ã'Ã'  President Tim was happy about bowling, as were Greg Thulin, Dan Parsons, Rick Staeb, and Josh Wilund.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Josh also was happy for a trip to Hawaii.Ã'Ã'  Brian Finnegan thanked Maureen McCarthy, who is not even on the fellowship committee for organizing the bowling event.Ã'Ã'  Brain was sad that he is not rich enough to be Phil Bratt's friend.Ã'Ã'  Phil is back from 10 days on Maui.Ã'Ã'  Greg Thulin also was happy about a long story that involved his son telling people that Greg and Kim rent hotels by the hour - or something.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Bill Grace is hoping for some Global Warming, because he's really tired of the cold.Ã'Ã'  Dan Parsons attended the production of Annie at the Mt.Baker, and also is happy about Husky Basketball. Ã'Ã' Bob Bowman is sad that Marlene's husband came to the meeting (maybe I didn't get that quite right?).Ã'Ã'  He also presented Brian with the book "Fatherhood" by Bill Cosby.Ã'Ã'  He thought Brian might benefit from the wisdom it contains.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Ray George gave a happy $20 which entitled him to tell a long sad story about his daughter and granddaughter living with them, and massive amounts of laundry that had to be done by Ray's mother.Ã'Ã'  Bill Grace noted that Rachael Vekved, the 7 year old girl who died tragically in an auto accident on Tuesday was the granddaughter of Ron Vekved, a frequent visitor to our club.Ã'Ã'  The family will be in our prayers.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Eric Nelson mentioned the Celebration of Life for Ted King, a mentor to Eric who also passed away this week.Ã'Ã'  King was a Pearl Harbor survivor who often talked to students about WWII.

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FINEMASTER:Ã'Ã'  Lex Ludtke fined all, including himself, who did not attend the bowling.Ã'Ã'  Ray George was fined for his long story.Ã'Ã'  Anyone who has not visited another club in the past month was fined, he tried to fine the member with the most years of membership, but it came out as the oldest member.Ã'Ã'  It would have probably been Mel either way, but no money was extracted from his wallet.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  IOUs' from Addie Brown, Greg Thulin, and Elizabeth Barnard were noted.Ã'Ã'  It was discovered that Brian Finnegan used Josh Wilund's card to write his own IOU.Ã'Ã' 

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BANNERS: Ã'Ã'  The banners were from wide and far, and were all ones that Mel brought back from his travels.

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PROGRAM: Ã'Ã' Penny Cistaro the Executive Director of the Whatcom Humane Society was our speaker.Ã'Ã'  She was assisted by Christy Meyers, the new Development Director.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Penny shared a video, spoke about the Society's work, and answered questions.Ã'Ã'  We learned that they cared for 5,500 animals in 2008, including everything from dogs, cats, and horses to ferrets, rats and iguanas.Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  As the economy worsens things are worse for pets.Ã'Ã'  The H.S. works to help keep pets in the home whenever possible, by offering a Pet Food Bank.Ã'Ã'  They also offer many education programs, spay/neuter assistance, and SafePets, a program for the pets of domestic violence victims.

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DRAWING: President Tim's ticket was drawn but he did not pull out the winning card.

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Editor this week:Ã'Ã' Ã'Ã'  Sharon Robinson