Northwind July 30, 2009
Posted by Sharon Robinson
MEETING TO ORDER: It the absence of President Chuck President-Elect Marlene called the meeting to order at 12:30.
INVOCATION: Was given by Pete Kremen who reflected on some of the events of this day in history. Somehow he managed to miss the important milestone of Ken Richardson's birthday.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Georg Tsakumis from Vancouver, Randy Bode from Mt. Baker, and our program presenters Carl Garrison and Mark Maudin from Sedro Wooley.
GUESTS: Ken "Birthday Boy" Richardson brought his lovely wife Sue.
BIRTHDAYS: Um, were there any birthdays? Hmmm. It was our server Susie's birthday!
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Josh is back from 13 days in Pueto Vallarta.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: (1). Jerry Landcastle announced that our club's nominee for Ambassadorial Scholar, Kyler Randall was awarded a one-year scholarship! Let's all keep our eyes out for another nominee next year. This is a great program for our club to be involved in with no monetary cost to us at all. (2) Larry Pollett reminded everyone to keep the afternoon/evening of September 17 open for the club Visioning process. It's very important that we get the majority of the members there to participate.
HAPPY BUCKS: Marlene was happy (?) for her first chance to run a meeting. Greg T. was happy for an anniversary weekend with the Finnegans and Carrs. Sounds romantic! Brian was happy to be taking care of baby K, while his wife is shoe shopping in Las Vegas. Doug T. for a trip to D.C. Maureen was happy for the hot weather. just the way she likes it, and a backpacking trip over the weekend. George T. was happy for a trip with his family. Larry Pollett for a trip to DC and a week on the beach in North Carolina.
FINEMASTER: Ken. "Uh Oh" Richardson. Pete was fined for not noting Ken's birthday in the invocation. Anyone with air conditioning was fined, as well as anyone who bought an air conditioner or a fan. Anyone wearing shorts, including the finemaster, was fined. Scott Piper was fined in absentia for not recognizing the banners, last week, which were in honor of Jim McKellar. Jake was fined for being the last one in.
BANNERS: Your editor thought for sure she had the answer. All banners featured the sun. Stan's message was, "It's like, HOT, man!"
PROGRAM: We had a very good program from Carl and Mark, who traveled to Burkina Faso, in Africa, a country previously known as Upper Volta. This country is near the very bottom of the Human Development Index. Their club partnered with a Denver club and a local club in Burkina on a matching grant that resulted in a total of $60,000, which was used to provide five deepwater wells. These wells were drilled over 145 feet through granite to reach clean water.
Some of the statistics provided: over 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and over 1.8 million die from diseases related to this every year. Over one half of all hospital beds are occupied by patients with water-born disease issues.
Carl and Mark talked about the Rotarians and other officials they met on the trip, and their visit to the remote area of Zabra, where not many white people have visited. The presentation was a very interesting mixture of Engineering facts and figures, and real life experiences. Our club had many questions about the project, and learned a good deal about the process of putting together a project like this. Carl finished the presentation with information on the terrible lack of schools and books for children in Burkina. He said that for $4.00 US a student can go to school for a year. He gave some figures on how other contributions could help Burkina:
A garden to support multiple families can be provided for $4,000.
A new will would cost about $12,000.
A latrine building: $3,000.
A new school: $30,000.
Many members of our club were intrigued and motivated by the program and the possibility of partnering with the Sedro Woolley club on a future endeavor.
DRAWING: Ken "It's my Lucky Day" Richardson had the winning number, but drew the Queen of Clubs.
INVOCATION: Was given by Pete Kremen who reflected on some of the events of this day in history. Somehow he managed to miss the important milestone of Ken Richardson's birthday.
VISITING ROTARIANS: Georg Tsakumis from Vancouver, Randy Bode from Mt. Baker, and our program presenters Carl Garrison and Mark Maudin from Sedro Wooley.
GUESTS: Ken "Birthday Boy" Richardson brought his lovely wife Sue.
BIRTHDAYS: Um, were there any birthdays? Hmmm. It was our server Susie's birthday!
RETURNING ROTARIANS: Josh is back from 13 days in Pueto Vallarta.
ANNOUNCEMENTS: (1). Jerry Landcastle announced that our club's nominee for Ambassadorial Scholar, Kyler Randall was awarded a one-year scholarship! Let's all keep our eyes out for another nominee next year. This is a great program for our club to be involved in with no monetary cost to us at all. (2) Larry Pollett reminded everyone to keep the afternoon/evening of September 17 open for the club Visioning process. It's very important that we get the majority of the members there to participate.
HAPPY BUCKS: Marlene was happy (?) for her first chance to run a meeting. Greg T. was happy for an anniversary weekend with the Finnegans and Carrs. Sounds romantic! Brian was happy to be taking care of baby K, while his wife is shoe shopping in Las Vegas. Doug T. for a trip to D.C. Maureen was happy for the hot weather. just the way she likes it, and a backpacking trip over the weekend. George T. was happy for a trip with his family. Larry Pollett for a trip to DC and a week on the beach in North Carolina.
FINEMASTER: Ken. "Uh Oh" Richardson. Pete was fined for not noting Ken's birthday in the invocation. Anyone with air conditioning was fined, as well as anyone who bought an air conditioner or a fan. Anyone wearing shorts, including the finemaster, was fined. Scott Piper was fined in absentia for not recognizing the banners, last week, which were in honor of Jim McKellar. Jake was fined for being the last one in.
BANNERS: Your editor thought for sure she had the answer. All banners featured the sun. Stan's message was, "It's like, HOT, man!"
PROGRAM: We had a very good program from Carl and Mark, who traveled to Burkina Faso, in Africa, a country previously known as Upper Volta. This country is near the very bottom of the Human Development Index. Their club partnered with a Denver club and a local club in Burkina on a matching grant that resulted in a total of $60,000, which was used to provide five deepwater wells. These wells were drilled over 145 feet through granite to reach clean water.
Some of the statistics provided: over 1.1 billion people do not have access to clean drinking water, and over 1.8 million die from diseases related to this every year. Over one half of all hospital beds are occupied by patients with water-born disease issues.
Carl and Mark talked about the Rotarians and other officials they met on the trip, and their visit to the remote area of Zabra, where not many white people have visited. The presentation was a very interesting mixture of Engineering facts and figures, and real life experiences. Our club had many questions about the project, and learned a good deal about the process of putting together a project like this. Carl finished the presentation with information on the terrible lack of schools and books for children in Burkina. He said that for $4.00 US a student can go to school for a year. He gave some figures on how other contributions could help Burkina:
A garden to support multiple families can be provided for $4,000.
A new will would cost about $12,000.
A latrine building: $3,000.
A new school: $30,000.
Many members of our club were intrigued and motivated by the program and the possibility of partnering with the Sedro Woolley club on a future endeavor.
DRAWING: Ken "It's my Lucky Day" Richardson had the winning number, but drew the Queen of Clubs.