Northwind 8/28/08

Whatcom CountyNorth Rotary

Northwind

August 28, 20008

MEETING TO ORDER:  President Tim Villhauer called the meeting to order at 12:30 and led us in the pledge of allegiance followed by Gary Snyder who provided the invocation.

VISITING ROTARIANS: Elisabeth Bernardannounced our visiting Rotarians: Jeanne McGee from Mexico, Rook Van Halm and Jeff Price from the Mt. Baker Club and in his last appearance this year, Graham Harris from Pukekohe, NZ.

GUESTS:  Many guests were present, among them: Scott Wallace's brother Mark and wife Marge, Ken Richardson's wife Sue, Winton Smith's daughter Shannon, Tim Villhauer's wife Pati, and Anna Walters, reporter, and Matt Bidder, photographer, from the BellinghamHerald.

BIRTHDAYS:  None

RETURNING ROTARIANS:  None

ANNOUNCMENTS:       

• Golf fun raised about $130,000 which went to the polio cause. 
• Club Assembly on September 25th, hopefully all members will attend.  We will discuss issues facing the club such as fundraising, projects, membership.
• The Ferndale Boys and Girls Club groundbreaking ceremony for the new Ferndale Clubhouse will be held in PioneerPark, Downtown Ferndale, on Tuesday, September 23^rd at 4:00 p.m.
• Bill Grace, in an environmental spirit, started recycling old badges and presented the first one to Brian Finnegan for Kayleigh Lane with occupation of  "daddy's little girl"

HAPPY BUCKS:  Tim Villhauer was thankful for the golf fun event and to Tim Carpenter for carrying the team, Bill Grace was happy for Kris' successful surgery and her good appetite, Mel Hollinger was happy that Bob Bowman was happy because of a new car wash within walking distance of his house, Brian Finnegan was happy that Janet joined us and tired because of sleepless nights, not due to newborn Kayleigh but a neighbor cat that sneaked into his house and noisily fought all night with his dog. Tim Carpenter had 13 happy bucks (10% of the take for golf fun) a great time was had by all.  Graham Harris was happy that his club's name was finally pronounced correctly (thanks, Elizabeth) and wanted to be the first to wish us all a Merry Christmas.  Maureen McCarthy was very happy that she will not only make her goal of only using 3 tanks of gas all summer, but still has  ¼ tank left with only 3 days left in August.  Greg Thulin was very happy for his "sun" vacation in Portland and Sun River where he missed all our rain.  Winton Smith was happy about his daughter's 4.0 grades.   Jake Smith had 40 happy dollars for his anniversary and noted that he never had an argument that he remembers winning.  Addie Brown was also happy for her anniversary: 34 happy dollars and a bit sad at the closing of her office.  Bob Bowman was happy that his sponsor Graham was here and also happy (but he wondered why) to be part of band of republicans.  Dick Donahue was sorry that the bike ride did not occur but was happy he did not have to ride in the rain.  Scott Wallace was happy that his 2 best friends joined him and Chuck Tull was very excited to listen to Barack Obama later that night.

FINEMASTER:  Our Finemaster, Lex Ludtke did an admirable job of coming up with some productive fine ideas even though he only learned about this job upon his arrival at the meeting that day.  He immediately invoked the Wallace rule and started right in on a series of group fines.yikes!  Fines for all wearing neckties, if not wearing sneakers, and if not traveling out of town for the Labor Day holiday.  Scott Wallace was fined for his brother taking some of our local crab in a recent fishing trip, Phil Bratt was fined for his smart remark about Lex not looking at the calendar and knowing he was Finemaster, and Brian Finnegan was fined twice for having his speaker write her own bio and for a zinger to Lex critiquing his group fund raising efforts.

BANNERS: This was a hard one that no one guessed:  one banner with the shortest club names (all four letters) and the other with the longest club names, sometimes 5 words long.

PROGRAM:   The guest speaker was Miss Washington, Janet Harding, a 21 year old WWU student working toward her teaching degree in elementary and special education.  She is the youngest member on the board of the Big Brothers and Sisters organization and has been a member for many years.  As Miss Washington she is the state and national level representative for Washington and often speaks highly about Bellingham and WWU.  Ms. Harding was raised in a large, close knit family and is the first in her family to attend college.  She plays the piano (her talent) and learned her service orientation from her father who impressed upon her that service and volunteerism will help shape who she is and that it should always be a priority.  She has a large support system in her family, community and Miss Washington staff.  Ms. Harding, who also won MissWhatcomCounty, will be competing in the upcoming Miss America pageant, a 7-day event that is very stressful.  She started pursuing this goal in 2006, but unfortunately had to put her further pageant work on hold due to a bout with bacterial meningitis.  This life threatening illness was a life altering event that allowed her the opportunity to examine who she was and what she believed in.  She is devoted to service.  Eight years ago she founded a mentor program and is very active with the Big Brother and Big Sisters organization where her latest project is a "Big Night Out" the first week in December an event where many restaurants and other businesses donate a % of their revenue to the Big Brothers and Sisters organization.  Ms. Harding has also been active in fund raising for the Children's Miracle Network and spends many hours visiting sick children. She encouraged us to say "yes" to the request for a dollar donation.  Ms. Harding has been involved in pageants since she was eleven and her Miss Washington activities will culminate with the Miss America Pageant in January.    She has taken the past year off from school to focus on personal, non-profit and charity fundraising and meets with 3-4 sponsors a day on her journey to the Miss America pageant.  She explained the difference between the Miss USA pageant (owned by Donald Trump with modeling/acting focus) and the Miss America pageant which focuses on providing educational scholarships, awarding $45 million of scholarships annually.  She ended her presentation by telling us that she is looking forward to getting back to school and starting her teaching career.  Her big goal is to be a national spokesperson for the Big Brothers and Sisters organization.  Janet Harding is warm, engaging, charming and very articulate.  Watch her compete for Miss America on January 24 on TLC.  We wish her well.

DRAWING :  Erick Nelson drew the 10 of Spades.