Northwind January 19, 2017

Posted by Sharon Robinson on Jan 19, 2017
 
 
 
Call to Order:  President Dale called the meeting to order and led us in the flag salute. 
 
Invocation:  Deb gave the invocation. 
 
Visiting Rotarians: none
 
Guests:  none
 
Anniversaries/Birthdays:  Bill's Birthday was yesterday.  Lex's anniversary was 1996.
 
Returning Rotarians: Deb has again returned from many travels. 
 
Announcements/discussion: 
  • Duck Sponsors:  The thermometer shows that we have $7,750.00 in prize sponsorships so far.  We can’t print tickets until we have enough sponsors to cover the prize costs.  Our new goal is $20,000 by the end of February.  Rollo is working on getting a sponsorship from Silver Reef.
  • January 19th Ferndale Chamber Awards Event.  Our club is nominated for non-profit of the year.  Dale, Tim, Pati, Julie, Bob, Rollo, Rebecca, Greg and Deb will attend.
  • January 25th, Board Meeting: 4 pm Zervas office
  • January 26th Meeting Sherriff Bill Elfo. 
  • February 16 WWU president Sabah Randhawa 
  • March 30, 2017 -  Career Choices Career Fair:  Guy Frances has been confirmed as keynote speaker.  Dale is working with either Subway or Little Caesars for food.
  • May ??, 2017 - Youth Service Awards
  • August 26, 2017 -  Duck Race
  • Sharon noted that she supplied the graphics to the City of Ferndale for our commemorative mention at Star Park but we still don't have any agreement on what to do with identifying the Tree House specifically as donated by Whatcom County North.
  • We also have purchased the signs to go up on the "Welcome to Ferndale" sign, we just have to figure out how to attach them.
  • Greg gave information about the Y.E.S. (Youth Engaging in Service) program, that he and Jill are working with.  They are doing fundraisers for their travel to Copan, Honduras,  where they will be distributing high-efficiency stoves to families in need of them. The fundraiser is a Luck of the Irish event on March 4th.   Our club has awarded $2,000 to sponsor one Y.E.S. student.
 
Happy Bucks:   Ken happy the cold weather is over. Greg and Jill are happy for their son's engagement.  Laurie's happy that we're back to the "normal" Pacific Northwest weather.   Bill happy for something that happened on this date in 1944.  (Birthday!) Pati was happy for the experience of walking on the frozen over Lake Padden, something you don't get the chance for very often. 
Deb was happy to be back, happy for the healing of her new knees, happy for the opportunity to volunteer at the Star Wars marathon, and hopeful to be entered in the Disney 1/2 marathon in September.  She expressed gratitude for the many friends who helped her through her recovery, particularly including Julie.
Jake was just generally happy.  Dale was happy that his dad is doing very well, and also happy for a safe outcome for his brother after a very scary semi-trailer accident.
 
Finemaster:  Fines for missing pins and badges, anyone who didn't bring in a new member this year, anyone who didn't bring a guest, Deb for her phone ringing, Laurie received the Jake Smith award.  Dale's fines were doubled for non-payment. The Rotary magazine cover: Boco Haram refugees.  What happened on this date in 1977: Ford pardoned Tokyo Rose.  
 
Banners:  Represent the farthest places from which we have banners.
 
Program:  Windward High School Interact Club, also known as We Are Active. 
 
Five members attended,
  •          Madison Pfeifer
  •          Amber Hughen-Coiro
  •          Celine Caiteaux
  •          Aslinn Whitemon
  •          Alexis Bartok
The girls are the officers of the Interact Club - also called “We are Active”
 Celine is an exchange student here from Belgium.  She noted that nothing like this club exists in her high school back home, - people are too busy studying to do community service.
Some activities the group has been involved with include the food packaging project with Stop Hunger Now, supporting Amy's Place, a drop-in center for homeless teens, including those with infants.  Baby food is one of the most needed supplies there.   They also did a sock drive for homeless, and cooked and served meals at the Light house Mission.   They have picked up litter, conducted blood drives, supported NSEA and Star park. 
Future plans are fundraising for an herb garden at the school, anti-drug awareness days, and attending a We Day, which is a gathering of Interact clubs throughout the district.  Clubs must be invited to attend this event.
They like to do international as well as local community projects, and they have worked on collecting books by black authors to send to school children in Africa.  One of the more interesting activities they talked about was a "Day of Silence" in support of LGBTQ+ students in their school who often feel silenced either by fear or discrimination.
 
Drawing: No winner.