Northwind September 8, 2016
Posted by Sharon Robinson on Sep 15, 2016
Call to order: President Dale Holt led us in the pledge of allegiance and Rick Staeb led the Moment of Reflection.
Visiting Rotarians: Scott Wallace from Bellingham RC along with his wife Marge Laidlaw. Nice to see both of them again.
Guests of Rotarians: Dale introduced his guest Jennifer Barnhart (Commercial banker; Skagit Bank). Jennifer has been proposed for membership in WCN RC and Dale will be routing her application via club runner for the two week vetting period.
Returning Rotarians: Rick Staeb, home again after his summer travels to Michigan. He and Deb drove home last week and he is happy to be back.
Birthdays: Deb Wiggs birthday is 9/13 and Marlene Sexton celebrates her birthday on 9/10. Happy Birthday ladies! There was some confusion re. Deb Wiggs anniversary of membership. Deb will need to help us sort out the actual number of years. RI thinks it is her 17th anniversary but we think that includes her “gap” years.
Announcements: Dale was happy to announce delivery of the Duck Derby race proceeds to the ticket winners.
Please, everyone read this month’s Peace Arch Journal (click on the link in the email from District) and read the Maple Ridge RC report of their Duck Race. We will use the club meeting on 10/6 to debrief the Duck Derby and begin preparations for next year. Come prepared to “contribute constructively” to the brain storming session.
Next Thursday meeting (9/15/16) will be held at FAT PIE Pizza in Fairhaven at 5:00 PM. Please remember there will not be a noon meeting on 9/15/16. Tim reserved the rooftop for our group. This is a fellowship meeting so come and visit with fellow club members.
Whatcom Community College Foundation is holding a reception on 9/15 (6-8PM) that we are all invited to attend as presidents club supporters (annual scholarship fund). This appears to be in conflict with the FAT PIE night and there is also an NSEA event at the same time. Popular night!
There are two Ferndale Chamber events that Dale would like volunteers to attend: 9/8 (4-5PM) at Ferndale WECU and 9/21 (11:30-1PM) at Silver Reef. If you can work either or both into your schedule, please attend and represent the club.
Dan is scheduling a highway clean-up crew for Saturday 10/1 from 10AM -12. Get it on your calendars and add your name to the signup list. We meet at Bob’s in BB Village Mall.
Dale announced that our Asst. District Governor, Bill Gorman will be our program on 9/22 to discuss the Rotary Foundation.
We received a thank you letter from our BTC Scholarship recipient Tara Doyle, a single mom with two kids, completing her final year in the Administrative assistant and accounting program at BTC. She greatly appreciated the scholarship funds we made available to her.
Tim announced a request from former member Scott Piper for our club to consider sponsoring an international youth exchange student and\or sponsor a high school student to the YES program. More to come with regard to this idea.
Dale asked that we keep membership recruitment on our radar screens. There are several corporate membership letters in the pipeline and hopefully some response on those will come in soon.
Happy Bucks: I totally forgot I was doing the Northwind during Happy Bucks, but what I remember is; Stan is happy the sale of his son’s house in Spokane finally closed, Greg was happy with his heart scan report indicating he is almost back to full recovery-exceptionally good news! Sharon was happy about the Ferndale Chamber event that she, Deb Wiggs and Julie attended last evening to represent WCN RC, Pati was happy for our guests and the program today, Bill was just happy and Rick was happy to have the Michigan drive behind him, Julie was happy that Bob is driving again and she is relieved of her chauffer duties (it has been a long four weeks!) and I am sorry for whatever I missed.
Fine Master: Greg Iwasaki dispatched group fines; $1 for not wearing a Rotary pin (badges do not count), $1 for not yet signing up for the trash day pick-up on 10/1/16. $2 if you failed to help with putting the ducks away at Bill Grace’s house last week. No one successfully guessed the country that had the fewest Olympic medals and in which category: United Arab Emirates with a medal in Judo. There were a number of questions from the monthly Rotarian; month of September is a focus on Basic Education. Greg shared that the Interact Club at Windward HS is now fully certified & we are their sponsors. Tested our knowledge of the 100 Centennial celebration in Atlanta next June (Tim and Pati will be attending) and the still active countries with polio (Pakistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Somalia, Syria and ?) It seems that the refugees fleeing war in their communities are bringing the polio virus with them.
Banners: The banners today spelled out Labor Day with the first letter from each club. Rollo solved the puzzle.
Program: Bruce Camblin from Futures NW a not-for-profit organization that he and his wife Sharon started to help high school students navigate their way from high school to college. The students they focus on are the low income and often marginalized student population that may not aspire to a college education because of cost or life circumstances. Futures NW has several programs that help students achieve post high school education in traditional colleges and other training programs.
They hold a Quick Start to College Summer Camp (2 ½ days) for 36 kids at the end of summer, they have after school mentoring for HS students to assist with studies and college readiness, provided by WWU seniors. They bring in “Adult Career Experts” (ACE) to meet with students to discuss career options and they hold parent seminars to assist with completing the FAFSA\WASFA applications.
They work primarily with the College Bound Scholarship program (CBS). There are 5000 students in Whatcom and Skagit counties that are enrolled in the CBS program which will pay 100% of the tuition for four years of college if the students meet minimum requirements. The student’s families first must qualify as low income; the student must maintain a minimum GPA of 2.0 and have no felony convictions. Futures NW help these students, beginning in 8th grade, to stay on track and complete their education successfully. They have a 95% graduation rate for the students in their program.
Bruce had several personal success stories to share with us and it was inspiring to hear of the impact he and his wife have made on dozens of future lives. This truly demonstrates what one person can do, if committed to a good idea that benefits the world.
Bruce came today to tell us about the program so we can help spread the word and to recruit some ACE speakers. Several folks signed up, so perhaps we will hear more about this great service to the educational community in the future.
Raffle: Dale won the door prize and Rick Staeb drew the 50/50 raffle. He did not pick the ace of spades so the pot grows. Winners take next week is $1198.50.