Northwind December 2, 2010

NORTHWIND

 

December 2, 2010

 

MEETING TO ORDER:

          President Marlene called the meeting to order and led us in the pledge of allegiance. Winton Smith provided the invocation.

 

VISITING ROTARIANS:

          As is normal, George Tsukamis from Vancouver, BC joined our meeting. Orphalie from the Sunrise Club and Jeanne from Melaqu, Mexico also was in attendance.

 

GUESTS:

Rollo Van Slyke was the guest of Tim Villhauer. Leah brought her daughter, Willa to today's meeting. Welcome all!

 

BIRTHDAYS:

          Scott Wallace recently celebrated his birthday - happy birthday Scott!

 

RETURNING ROTARIANS:

          No one is adventurous enough to have visited and returned.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Julie J. won a bottle of wine for recruiting the most volunteers to give blood during the month of November. Congratulations, Julie.

There is a Rotary Cruise out of Surry, BC (really? a cruise out of Surrey?). Cost is $45. Come along and sing Christmas carols, drink and enjoy the "sights" of Surrey - from a boat.

The Club received the resignation of membership from Tony Cubellis for health reasons. We will miss Tony and his efforts. Tony hopes to re-up his membership when his health improves.

There are still bell ringing slots available; please review the sign-up sheet and volunteer if you have the time.

Leah announced that on Friday, February 4, 2011, there will be a Junior Achievement date at Kendall Elementary. More information will be provided as the date gets closer. If interested in volunteering, talk with Leah.

Ray announced that at 5:30pm tonight (12/2) there will be the festival of trees at the Leopold. Our Club has donated and decorated a tree. On Saturday, 12/4, all the trees will be up for auction (6:30pm - 9:30pm).

Maureen announced that on January 10, 2011, the Club will have a bowling night at Park Bowl. Put it on your calendars and plan on attending.

Rocky reminded everyone that there are 13 days left to sell the Hawaii raffle tickets.

Norm V. disclosed that at the first meeting of the month he will be able to pick-up large auction items, so bring them at that meeting. Also, bring beer and wine donation to be auctioned off.

Orphalie announced that next year's District Foundation Dinner will be held at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. She is hoping that our local clubs will have a larger presence than in the past. Orphalie also provided our club with the award presented by the District for a $2,000 contribution to Polio Plus.

 

 

HAPPY BUCKS

          Greg T. - broke arm; thought would make it through a year without injury, but somehow fell short. Bill G. - ornaments for the Christmas tree donated to the festival of trees at Leopold. Laurie Lloyd - Oregon Duck football success and an "in your face" buck to Randy Carr. Brian F. - guest speaker and recent back surgery success. Pete R. - $116; $48 year anniversary and $68 years old. Rome S. - returned from a successful hunting trip in Wisconsin where he got an 8 pt. buck - with his rifle, not his car. Randy C. - happy for Finnegan's surgery success, now if the doctors could take away his being a pain in the ass. Paul C. - parachute jumps in Florida with 130 people and sharing hookah with Qatar military. Tim V. - items donated for auction thus far. Dan P. - Apple Cup finally has some meaning this year. Norm V. - items brought for auction (Tyler bringing bicycle0. Stan B. - has banner from Reykjavik; broke rules and wrote to club president and exchanged banners by mail. Banner represents the Icelandic connection Blaine has to Iceland. Ray - attending first Husky basketball game.

 

 

FINES:

 Scott Wallace was the designated finemaster and upon reaching the podium, took it upon himself to fine everyone $1 for the banner, since Stan already disclosed the meaning behind it. All members who took more than one chocolate chip cookie, fined $1 for each one over the first. All members wearing a tie - $1. Anyone who has texted while driving the last 2 weeks - $20 (ouch, that's should be a deterrent). Driving while talking on the cell phone without blue tooth - $5 (why do I keep seeing Carr reaching for his wallet?). Finnegan - $1 for the Husky tie. If you haven't signed up for bell ringing - $2. If you are a Husky fan who didn't put in a happy buck - $1. If you are wearing purple - $5. Sharon Robinson - last one in, so $1. Jake S. - actually made it to the meeting on time and don't punish for good behavior, but since you already have your wallet out, $2. Randy C. - $1 for the nice "almost beard". Ken R. - if haven't put in at least $5 for fines, make sure you do. Ray G. - make sure you have put in at least $5 total for fines. Lex L. - $1 for not remembering to attend meeting. All guys without a beard or mustache - $1.

Recognition of Rotarians doing good: Ray, Jim and Bill for Christmas tree ornament.

 

RAFFLE:

          Today's raffle prizes: spiral cut ham and a turkey. Ray G. pulled his own raffle ticket (surprise) and picked the ham, which he immediately donated to the Kelly family. Laurie Lloyd had her ticket picked; she donated the turkey to the Kelly family as well.

 

PROGRAM:

          Brian Finnegan introduced today's speaker, Mike Cohen. Mike is the director of the Bellingham Food Bank. He is from New Hampshire, is married and moved out here 6 years ago. He has been running the Bellingham Food Bank ever since.

          Mike indicated that the Bellingham Food Bank has been in its new facility for just over 2 years. Its 3 busiest days experienced, were those just prior to Thanksgiving. The Food Bank serviced approximately 5% of all the Bellingham households. It was able to provide a turkey for every family that showed up. All the turkeys were donated (approximately 1500) from the community; none were purchased.

          Mike discussed that since 2008, the need really started to grow in Whatcom County; in fact, it grew by about 40%. The Bellingham Food Bank experiences 8,500 visits every month and distributes 180,000 pounds of food per month. It has a paid staff of 6 and approximately 160 volunteers. Each day the Bellingham Food Bank has volunteers that drive a truck owned by the Food Bank to numerous local businesses to pick up food donations. The donated food is then unloaded by volunteers.

          Contrary to popular belief, the food provided to the customers is not mostly canned food; in fact 70% of the food is perishable. The Food Bank is trying to provide more healthy food options. It spends $120,000/year on purchasing rich, nutritional, perishable food. It also contracts with local farms to grow food for the Food Bank. Further, the Food Bank has 3 acres of land that it farms itself that produced 25,000 pounds of food last year.

          In an effort to continue to receive perishable food, the Food Bank also has the "gleaning" project. This project allows the Food Bank to harvest food from trees that would've normally gone to waste. Last year it obtained 130,000 pounds.

          There are currently about 12 food banks in Whatcom County. Bellingham is the largest. Bellingham Food Bank sets aside 50% of its warehouse space to store food for the County food banks. Last year the Bellingham Food Bank distributed approximately one million pounds of food to the county food banks.

          Mike indicates that due to cuts at the state and federal level, there will likely be more families forced to visit the Food Bank in the next few years. Presently the Food Bank receives about 35-40% of its funds from the government. Next year it will likely receive approximately 28% of its funding from the government. The rest of the funding is provided by the community.

          Thanks Mike for an interesting program.

 

DRAWING:

Tyler's ticket was called but he didn't draw the ace of spades. The pot grows in size.

 

This Week's Editor: Greg Thulin