Other than an outstanding program, nothing was normal at last week’s AIR meeting.  Due to the Coast having every meeting room committed for a large event, we were in a different building 🏨.  We met in Carl’s Room ✈️ (for aviator Carl Ben Eielson perhaps) on the ground floor of the parking structure next door. Assuming the room’s linage was for an aviator, 👨‍✈️ Tryg Erickson’s thought-for-the-day was appropriate. Tryg honored Alaska aviation legend Orin Seybert who died Thursday. Sgt@Arms Jess Snider was missing but he recruited Al Biss to fill in 💰. On top of that President Becky Erickson is golfing 🏌️ in Hilton Head.  That gave soon-to-be-president Mark Cosby another chance to practice his meeting running skills 👏.  Good news is that Mark has it nailed!  Due to the small size and layout of the room happy buck announcements were fewer than usual.  Shari Showalter had materiel on the tables to assist us in gathering sponsorships for our Field-of-Honor 🇺🇸 event during the 4th of July holiday.  Kris Shippen introduced his wife, ASD kindergarten teacher Lindsey Shippen 👏. Acting Sgt Al Biss levied fines for no rotary pin, enlarging the fine proceeds by a goodly sum.  

The Program was introduced by a particularly proud and happy Joe Zimmerman.  He got to introduce Captain Brian Quinn and Senior Chief Eric Zimmerman.  Capt. Quinn visited us some years ago when he served as the first commanding officer of the USS Anchorage 🚢. Chief Zimmerman is Joe’s son and the previous day had made Joe a grandfather 🍼 for the first time!

Regrettably the program was fascinating to the degree that your editor forgot to take notes! 😂 

Capt. Quinn and Sr. Chief Zimmerman spoke in about equal amounts on the mission of the ship, the USNS Mercy 🛳️.  Because the Mercy is not  combat ship it is crewed by a mix of navy as well as civilian mariners 🛟.  Were it fully staffed and outfitted the Mercy would be a functioning 1000 bed hospital 🏥, which is  mind-boggling.  That would be nearly all the hospital beds 🛌 in Alaska!  This mission was in the South Seas/Marshall Islands/Indo-Pacific 🌍 to provide medical and civil assistance to those islands.  The US national benefit is the military of the US and allies are usually the responders to disasters in those areas and it gives our personnel and allied forces firsthand experience in working together. Zimmerman recounted an anecdote about how New Zealand Military 🇳🇿 was able to provide heavy lift helicopters 🚁 on short notice when the C130 transports they were expecting became unavailable.  The mission was accomplished, and the New Zealand pilots gained shipboard experience on a US v
essel.  

The humanitarian and disaster relief mission 🛟 succeeded in, as Capt. Quinn recounted.  “The lame walked, and the blind could see.” 👏. Click the image below to see the full story...

The meeting came to order at the customary time with 34 folks in the room and 2 on Zoom.  Jay Tung led the pledge.  We had a abundance of members with thoughts-for-the-day.  First Jeanne Brady offered one from Robin Williams. “You’re only given a spark of madness.  You mustn’t lose it.”  Penny May offered “Life is not a fairy tale.  If you lose your shoe at midnight you are probably drunk” Visiting South Rotary President Denise Kipke’s husband Carl suggested that “ If you’re not an asset to society you are a liability.”

Ric Schmidt knew the meaning of the weeks word, snollygoster.  I’s a slippery, untrustworthy politician. Bruce Erickson had thoughts on that. Kris Shippen has retired his snow machines for the season so he’s glad to see the snow departing. President Elect Mark Cosby introduced his wife as well as his 11-year-old son who has just exceeded six feet in height!  Mark also claims to be happy and proud to see his older son Paul as part of the UAA debate Team, our program for the day. It was suggested by Tryg Erickson that no parent is really that happy to see their child hone their skills at arguing. Shari Showalter directed our attention to leaflets on our tables appropriate for distributing to potential sponsors for our Field of Honor event July 4. Joe Zimmerman encourages us to attend next weeks meeting.  The program is US Navy Captain Brian Quinn on his recent tour with the naval ship USS Mercy, a hospital ship doing relief work.  Capt. Quinn previously commanded the USS Anchorage.  Bill Pearson was happy to be by himself at a back table.  President Becky Erickson, along with husband Bruce will be missing next week to volunteer at a golf tournament at Hilton Head, SC. Ray Ellis remains happy about his newest great grandchild.   Each of those speaking gave Sgt @ Arms Jess Snider at lest $5.

Our default introducer, Bruce Erickson brought UAA Debate Team faculty advisor Steve Johnson to the podium.  Johnson who has held this faculty position for 28 years was, until COVID interrupted everything, welcomed as a annual presenter to our club.  He introduced the 4 UAA students who were to debate the days issue.  “Consumers should refuse to participate in the tipping culture.”  The arguments on the positive side generally ran that tipping is demeaning to the employees and it allows employers to unlawfully pay less than minimum wage.  The negative arguments were it’s a free market, eliminating tips will cause a severe hardship on servers while the economy adjusts and it ultimately will cost jobs.  A crowd favorite comment from a debater was “when you’re offered the choice to tip in the self-service line you should know things are out of hand.” 

At the conclusion the audience was given the opportunity to vote, via the approved method of pounding the table, to chose the winner,  Although Johnson declared theteam advocating for the status quo the winner many , if not most, felt the vote was a tie.

The meeting was brought to order by President Becky Erickson shortly after noon 🔔.  New member Pat May led us in the pledge 🇺🇸.  Monika Fair offered a thought-for-the-day: “A wise man was asked what is anger?  He gave a beautiful answer.  It is a punishment we give to ourself, for somebody else’s mistake.” 🤔 President Becky asked the definition of the week’s word, winklepicker.  It is a pointed shoe popular in the 1950’s 👠.  Named for a sharp tool used to pick the meat out of snail shells 🐌.  Rotary Foundation champion Ted Trueblood had the happy task in presenting Paul Harris Fellow  membership certificates to two relatively new members.  Olina Fanualelei and Monika Fair received standing ovations for accomplishing this significant milestone 👏 .  Happy Friday $5’s were proffered by Monika Fair, Boyd Morgenthaler,  Angie Rush, Tryg Erickson, Mark Cosby, Pat May, Nelson Defendorf, Bruce Erickson, and Chera Boom added her last $4 to the pot 💰.  Ted Trueblood is reminding us again that this year/month marks 50 years since the endof the Vietnam war 🫡.  Shari Showalter gave a update on work in progress for this coming July’s second annual flag celebration/fund raiser on the Park Strip 🇺🇸.  Penny May returned from a trip to warmer places with a couple bottles of liquor to auction 🥃.  We did the first or two this week, a bottle of Gorilla vodka.  Auctioneer Tryg wondered if there is any connection to Gorilla Fireworks 😆.  Rick Goodfellow was successful with a $50 bid.  Ben Schulman gave Sgt@Arms Jess Snider $ to commemorate the opening of his daughter’s first IRA 👏.  This editor guesses she would have preferred a new truck, a horse or a snow machine.  Jules Tileston recounted his and wife Peg’s reaction when one of their children announced they would marry their long-time sweetie 💒.  Both said, independently, I’ll believe it when I see it. Those children just celebrated their 41st wedding anniversary 💐.  Treasurer  Debra Maso was happy to report that the chorus of which she is a part passed an audition 👏.   

Monika Fair won $41 in the weekly raffle draw, with perhaps a bit of help from Boyd Morgenthaler.  It was Monika’s birthday 🥳.

Dr. Jake Rammel, a chiropractor since 2021 was introduced by Program Chair Rick Goodfellow.  They met at a social event and Jake asked Rick “is Rotary good?”

Jake is a relatively recent transplant from Jackson Hole Wyoming.  He spent his formative years on the family farm where his father, a veterinarian raised elk.  He’s enjoying the relative absence of wind here as compared to Wyoming.  Jake is a weightlifter among other strength related sports and looking at him it is easy to see why.  He looks a bit like a shorter version of Andre the Giant, best known for playing Fezzik in the 1987 movie The Princess Bride.  His favorite type of competition is called a strawman competition that is made requires various feats of strength.  One example he gave was pulling a semi-truck and trailer.  The winner is the one who can pull it over a given distance in the shortest time.  Dr Rammel recounted that he comes from a strong family.  Story told was that farm hands knew when a hay bale exceeded a thousand pounds because his grandfather could no longer move it.  One of Jake’s favorite events is called the crucifix hold where you hold two 40 pound bags on outstretched arms.  The winner holds them the longest time.  In his first strawman competition, without training he won 4 of 5 events.  

The talk was well received and brought forth many questions from the group.  Boyd Morgenthaler asked how often he trains.  4 times a week, maximum.  Ben Schulman wanted to know if the extreme lifting wasn’t hard on his spinal discs? Not if you work your way up to the big numbers gradually.  Nelson Defendorf asked how he keeps from hurting patients given his exceptional strength.  The answer was that he is trained to access each patient individually and to commence treatment cautiously and work up.  

President Becky brought the group to order at 12:04 🔔. Pledge was led by Dodie  🇺🇸.  President Becky offered several thought-for-the-day 🧐.  Three visiting Rotarians were introduced, Girdwood Rotarians, soon to transfer to our club George Stewart, Russian Jack member Jerry Wolfe and from South Adam Hayes 👏.  Adam spoke of upcoming  service and travel opportunities participating in a water project in India.  Sgt@Arms Jess Snider 💰 collected happy Friday $5 contributions from himself, Pat May, Dodie Pruessner, Jules Tileston, Steve Strait, Ted Trueblood, Ginger George-Smith, George Stewart, Becky Erickson, Al Biss, Bruce Erickson and Rick Goodfellow.  Al Biss advised of the recent passing of long-time member Dave Hillemeyer.  Becky is especially happy in taste testing the cocktails 🍹 to be served this summer at the Anchorage Golf Course ⛳️. Bruce Erickson has hope for our future after reviewing the scholarship applications for this year’s AIR Memorial Scholarship fund grants 👏.  Rick Goodfellow needed movers and as usual the Wakefield’s AAA Moving & Storage performed admirably. Kris Shippen is bewildered but thankful for the positive response to the program he presented a few weeks ago on concrete 🙌.  Dodie is pleased to be off for yet another long international trip 🗺️.  She’s barely unpacked and this one is for 5 weeks.  Ted Trueblood noted that this is the 50th anniversary of the end of the VietNam 🇻🇳 war.  Bruce Erickson shared musings regarding if relatives are or can be friends.  Bruce also introduced our speaker, Bridget Paule whom he’d just met.  

Bridget Paule spoke of her business, The Working Body. She offers the Rolf method of structural integration 🩻.  The Rolf method as described by it’s developer is “When the body gets working appropriately the forces of gravity can flow through.  Then, spontaneously, the body heals itself.” Ms. Paule led us through some exercises involving sitting on the edge of our chair and experimenting with rocking forward and back to determine which is the most relaxing and comfortable.  The “method” holds that in ten hours of therapy the body can be trained to where the body is balanced between the outside and the inside.  Practitioners claim this type of deep tissue manipulation will relieve tension.  This will reorganize connective tissue, or fascia which will result in health benefits. We were offered no proof or studies showing these purported benefits.

Third string guest scribe here again ✍️.  We gathered in our regular Fireplace room and anxiously awaited President Becky’s promised surprise guest 😲.  Ta da! Longtime former members Nina Mann and Toni Holmes appeared on the screen from their southern abodes.  We introduced visiting Rotarian George Stewart from the Girdwood club 👋.  Turns out George is shopping for a northern venue and we haven’t scared him off, so we will probably be seeing more of him in the future 👏. Lots of Happy Bucks 💰 this go. PE Mark gave us a detailed rundown of his 🇮🇳 India Rotary experience and brought back some souvenirs.  He presented us with a banner from the 👳‍♂️ Bombay club where he heard the Consul General of 🇨🇭 Switzerland speak. Mark auctioned off a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin 🍸 (made in Britain, shipped to India, flown to AK) and rich Indian coffee ☕️.  PP Art and Rick (w/a K) got into an exchange with Art walking away with a generous $110 contribution for booze and coffee. Chera introduced her partner Chris 💕 (now a frequent visitor) and is happy to be in the home stretch of her wildly successful Rondy melodrama 🎭. PP Debra echoed those sentiments and is looking forward to step down from the stage this season and get some quality grandchild time. PP Bruce chipped in on PE Mark’s 🇮🇳 India theme and related the impactful story told by Past RI President Jennifer Jones at PETS concerning her India visit. Hard for us to imagine families living in “homes” without roofs eking out a meager wage to survive 💔 . PP Kevin gave a shout out to PP Trygve and PP Kim for hosting another wonderful 🛷 Iditarod restart extravaganza in Willow.  Pres Becky reported the Ericksons’ Polio Plus donation can contained around $2,500 with online donations still to be counted.  PP Kevin also told of his connection to visiting Rotarian George with Alaska Medical Missions 🩺.  George elaborated that he’s been with AMM since 2005 delivering gently used, serviceable medical supplies to countries 🌍 in need. They have an upcoming fundraiser in April. PP Art threw in $20 of Happy/Sad bucks 💵.  Happy to see PDG Cheryl Metiva leading her first Arctic Games ⛷️ in the Valley, sad about the passing of his 97 year old mother in law.  PP Bruce gave an update on our District Grant to Alaska Health Fairs 🏥.  Originally destined for new tables, the 6 month supply chain delay led to allocation to new medical equipment, blood pressure cuffs, stethoscopes and the like.  As a twofer, along the lines of AK Medical Missions, the serviceable used equipment will be passed on to countries in need.

Happy Bucks 💵 concluded and Pres Becky asked for updates from Toni and Nina.  Toni is ensconced about 40 miles south of San Diego near 🇲🇽 Rosarito, Mexico.  She recently returned from a wonderful 🇻🇳 Vietnam trip with 14 other women and is keeping busy pet sitting. She’s become lead of a local performing arts group.  They put on performances for the community, sometimes at their outdoor stage on the beach 🎭.  They will next produce Little Shop of Horrors, a town favorite. PP Joe asked about a return of the Toni/Nina English Tea ☕️ event which was a staple of the AIRC Foundation Auction.  Both Toni and Nina expressed willingness to come North to host again! Nina is currently in Sparks, NV with most of her time taking care of 87 year old Mom and 89 year old Dad.  She recently spent two years in Murrieta, CA taking care of a 90 year old relative who had broken both hips.  She has bought a motor home and is looking forward to perhaps hitting the road in the future.

Pres Becky then called on PP Bruce who, inspired by Nelson’s presentation of the venerable hardcopy AIRC Directory last week, scanned some pages for a blast from the past.  We were treated to the evolution of facial/scalp hair from 20+ years ago.  As usual, some folks look exactly the same, and others, well, you know.  We got to enjoy pics of Jason (Elvis), Neil, PP Al, PP Art, Nelson, Ray, PP Tim, PP Bruce, PP Trygve, PP Jan, PP Lynn, Boyd, Jules, PP Steve, PDG Ted and bro Tim, PP Joe, and PP Greg.  A good chuckle was had by all, what a fun reminiscence.

George pulled a winning ticket 🎟️, which was of course was held by PP Angie and again, she generously gave it back to the club. We’re still looking for volunteers for setup/teardown at the Willow Crest Elementary Health Fair (Tudor/Minnesota) next weekend. Friday the 15th 4-6pm and Sat 16th 12-1:30pm. Whew, what a meeting (and writeup).  See ya next week!

President Becky Erickson brought the meeting to order at 🕰️ 12:03. Due to building repair or construction, we were in the smaller Don Sheldon Room at the Coast 🏨. Jules Tileston had a thought-for-the-day 💭 best described as to express gratitude for the opportunity to age 👴.  Sgt@Arms Jess Snider collected Friday Happy Bucks 💰 from many.  Jay Tung spoke of the memorial held for departed member 💐 John Spaulding.  In addition to AIR members, there were representatives from Dollars for Dogs which John and his late wife Jane were instrumental in founding. That organization funded the training of 👮 police dogs for law enforcement agencies statewide.  Tryg Erickson had an optimistic outlook for Sunday’s weather at our 👏 Iditarod re-start party. 

Our program, needing no introduction, was active new member Kris Shippen.  Shippen educated us on what would seem to be the most prosaic of materials, cement 🧱.  Little did we know!  

Kris wears many hats at Anchorage Sand & Gravel/Alaska Basic Industries.  Among them is managing the facility they own at the Don Young Port 🛳️ of Alaska that imports cement to Alaska.  The vast majority of the cement used here as it turns out, 7 shiploads from Korea and Vietnam last year 🚢 .

Cement is created when limestone 🪨 is mixed with silicates (sand) and heated to 2640 degrees F which removes the calcium and leaves clinkers.  Clinkers,which look a little bit like lava rock 🌋, are then pulverized to create the fine powder we know as Portland Cement, named for Portland in Great Britain 🇬🇧 not Oregon.   Cement acts as a binder holding rock and sand, aggregate, together, making concrete. While forms of cement/concrete go back to ancient Rome the modern recipe was introduced in the 1700’s.  There were 4.1 billion metric tons of cement produced worldwide last year.

Alaska Basic Industries has been in the cement and concrete business here since the 1940’s.  They constructed a 40-thousand-ton concrete dome at the port in 2015 to store the product.  They distribute the product via truck and 40 rail cars to their Anchorage and Fairbanks facilities.  Cement is transferred via pneumatics.

Numerous pertinent questions from the group proved that cement was more interesting  than we might have thought 👏!

President Becky Erickson called us to order at 12:03 🔔 . There were about 25 attending in the room as well as several via Zoom. Jay Tung led us in the pledge 🇺🇸.  Bruce Erickson had several thoughts-for-the-day 💭.  The first was from aviatrix Amelia Earhart ✈️.  “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up new 🌴 trees.” The next was from oil tycoon J. Paul Getty. “In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy.”  The last was a reminder that we are approaching the 119th birthday of Rotary.  Members of the Board of the Anchorage International Rotary Memorial Scholarship solicited volunteers to review 📂 applications for scholarships for the 2024-2025 academic year.  With that President Becky introduced the program.

Chris Bombardier is the Executive Director of Save One Life a non-profit that provides direct assistance to sufferers of hemophilia🩸.  Mr. Bombardier has suffered from the disease all his life.  Hemophilia is a malady that prevents blood from coagulating.  The result is uncontrolled bleeding from small wounds, often internally.  From an early age Chris was determined that the disease wouldn’t define his life.  He devoted himself to baseball ⚾️ in his youth and through college.  After college Chris recognized that baseball was not likely to be a full-time job.  He considered medical 🏥 school but the 8-year commitment was daunting.  Time spent with an uncle in Colorado gave him an appreciation for mountaineering 🏔️.   From that he developed a plan to climb the 7 highest peaks on everycontinent to raise money 💰 and awareness for the treatment of hemophilia. Those peaks, in order of difficulty are:  ⛰️Mt Everest, Carstensz in Oceania, Vison Massif in Anarctica, Denali, Mt. Elbrus in Europe and Mt. Kilimanjaro in Africa. In achieving that goal he raised over $250,000.

The large meeting room at the Coast International Inn was transformed into a inviting party space last Fridayevening. Through the efforts of Chera Boom, Ben Schulman, their counterparts from East Anchorage Rotary, other volunteers, and hotel staff the room was elegantly arranged for the approximately 100 attendees at the event.  Having two clubs, AIR and Anchorage East participating meant that while there were many long time Rotary friends attending there were also many folks we’d never met before which enhanced the enjoyment. Adding to the classy ambiance was live music from a three-piece band fronted by a female vocalist.

There was a buffet line with angel hair pasta, chicken parmesan marinara and peppered roast beef entreesplus salads and deserts at the back of the room. There were about 100 silent auction items arrayed in the middle of the room as well as 50 bottles of wine on offer.

Auctioneers Jen Motyka, an East member and professional auctioneer from Alaska Premier Auctions and our own Tryg Erickson, decidedly not a professional auctioneer, conducted bidding for just over a dozen items netting almost fifteen thousand dollars. One of the live auction items was karaoke party for 8 from Chilkoot Charlies.  Koot’s investor Jason Baer was brought to the microphone to describe the item.  Jason sweetened the item by agreeing to make an appearance in his Elvis persona and gave a brief but appreciated song, in character.

The entire event brought in about twenty thousand dollars for the Rotary Foundation of which $8,350. will be credited to AIR.

President Becky Erickson gaveled us to order at 12:10. Penny May offered several Thoughts-for-the-Day 🤔. “If we ever thousands of light years to a planet 🌏 inhabited by intelligent life, let’s just make patterns in their crops 🌽 and leave.” And “If plan “A” doesn’t work the alphabet has 25 more letters.  Stay cool.” Her final thought was a quote, often attributed to Albert Einstein. “Everyone is a genius.   But if you judge a fish 🎣 by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid.” 👏 

Chera Boom introduce her partner, Chris Pratt, and contributed $40 💰 happy bucks for her ongoing recovery from ankle surgery 🩼.  District Governor Nominee Paul Paisley was introduced as a guest 👋.  It was suggested that we enjoy Paul’s company too frequently to consider him other than AIR family.  Dodie Pruessner and Kris Shippen both gave thanks to Tryg and Kim Erickson for hosting their families last weekend at Long Lake 🌊.  Kris Shippen auctioned off an Anchorage Sand & Gravel bag of peanuts 🥜.  Nelson Defendorf advised that he and Jay Tung are making plans for a memorial service for departed member John Spaulding some time in the next months.  Penny May tells of her kids being stuck stateside with their In-laws due to the ✈️ Alaska Airlines/Boeing debacle.  Eventually the in-laws paid for passage on another airline to get the kids home, or at least out of their house 🏡.  Happy Friday $5’s 💴 were proffered by Rick Goodfellow, Boyd Morgenthaler, Angie Rush, Kris Shippen, Penny May and Tryg Erickson.  Jennette Wakefield gave $10 as did Bruce Erickson to celebrate Becky Erickson’s birthday 🥳 and promote the upcoming Sunday brunch at O’Malley’s on the Green ⛳️.

Bruce Erickson introduced the program 🇺🇸 by telling how he met the presenters at a RI convention.  Stacy Rogers is with the Colonial Flag Foundation.  The foundation grew out of her brother, a flag merchant, desire to do something to commemorate the first anniversary of the 9/11 attack. The idea has taken off, as we saw at out event last 4th of July on the Park Strip 👏.  There are now hundreds of these flag events in nearly every state.  Bruce Erickson spoke  about our experiences staging our event, solicited advice  and had a few questions.

President Becky Erickson gaveled us to order at 12:05. Nelson Defendorf led the Pledge 🇺🇸.  Kris Shippen offered two thoughts-for-the-day 🤔.  The first was from Greek philosopher Epictetus. “We have two ears and one mouth so we can hear more and talk less.”  The second, from Diogenes, another Greek philosopher was “One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quoting.”  Not too surprisingly, after those thoughts, we adjourned the meeting earlier than usual.  The plan was to have an auction but Rick Goodfellow had strategically negotiated the purchase of the pie 🥧 on offer for $100 in advance.  Nicely played.  Linda Dunegan has returned from vacation visit with her grown children.  She had the kids/grandkids piano 🎹 tuned while was visiting to insure they remember her visit.  She didn’t say if she thought that memory would be positive or other than positive. 

Sgt @ Arms Jess Snider made his rounds collecting Friday $5’s 💴, also known as Shari Bucks, from Shari Showalter, Penny May, Angie Rush, Tryg Erickson, Al Biss, Bruce Erickson, Dodie Pruessner and Nelson Defendorf.  Nelson had a story about the nearly 20 feet of snow ⛄️ he’s received at his cabin on Towhead Lake, near Shell Lake in the Skwentna area.  Ask him to show you the pricy snow ❄️ coach he’s purchased to transport his dog, Willy, over the 80-mile snow machine trip there ⛷️. Bruce Erickson had an addition to his story a few weeks ago about Alaska Airlines customer service. On a similar note, Al Biss commented in light of the recent AK Airlines ✈️ incident he predicts we will all be more conscientious at keeping our seatbelt fastened.  Steve Strait had a historical story about the famed Bird Man of Alcatraz who was imprisoned for a murder he committed in Juneau. In a rare turn Jess fined a table for being exclusively female.  We learned that alone among us President nominee Shari Showalter has substituted a digital subscription rather than print for the Rotarian Magazine.

Bruce Erickson, as Membership chair presided over the induction of Pat May, son of Penny, into the club.   Bruce read a several page charge to Rotary membership for Pat.  

As the final step to exchange his red new-member badge for a blue badge , Kris Shippen gave a classification talk.  Kris wears several hats at Anchorage Sand and Gravel and Alaska Basic Industries. He serves as safety director, environmental products and services sales manager and most importantly as operations manager for their cement business.  About 95% of the cement used in the state passes through and is sold by that operation.  He expects to bring in five ship loads of product next year.  The product comes from Korea and Vietnam.

In Bruce’s final turn at the podium, he introduced Julien (editor’s apology for missing his last name), a recipient of a AIR Memorial Scholarship.  Julian is a charming and assured engineering student at UAA.  He had reached out to Bruce and they met to discuss the engineering field.  In answer to a question we learned that a year at UAA can be expected to cost about $26,000.  That brought to mind for many of us older folks that when we attended college, a kid could reasonably plan to earn enough from a summers work in Alaska to cover a full year at a state college in the west coast.

OK, guest scribe 🖋️here.  I apologize in advance, it’s been a long time since I’ve taken notes and can’t write (or read my chicken scratch) nearly as quickly as I could in college so there are lots of gaps🙂. ~PP Jay Tung

President Becky called us to order at 1205 🔔.  Past President Al Biss led us in the pledge 🇺🇸.  Penny May had several thoughts 🤔, but concluded with, “If you have to choose between being kind or right, choose being kind and you’ll always be right.”  Past President Angie introduced our guest speaker, Adam Hays, as a visiting Rotarian from Anchorage South 👏.  Just before we started Happy Bucks 💰, Lina wheeled in a cake 🎂 with candle and flowers for President Becky’s birthday 🥳 and we all sang to her. Jeanne Brady expressed contentment at returning home after two months Outside and generously brought back bourbons and cigars for club auction. Tim Trueblood donated $325 💴 in his winning bid for a gorgeous checkered hardwood cigar box with tool tray and dozens of choice tobacco goodies.  PP Art Clark took home two bottles 🥃 of high end bourbon at $225.  Party at Art’s this weekend!  Jess apologized for his absence last week due to an uncooperative truck battery 🛻.  Nelson celebrates his 45th anniversary 💐 of joining AIRC and shared that as an investigator he had an inside track on the club for his Sergeant at Arms duties. President Elect Elect (PEE) Shari put out a plea for next year’s District Grant ideas before the April submission deadline.  This is a great way to double our contributions 💰 and make use of our own Rotary Fund donations. PE Mark brought wife Christine along in their last meeting before they depart for their multi-week motorcycle cross country tour of India. Ginger was glad to touch base with Alaska after lots of grandkid travel in CA and she’ll be returning south soon. PP Art highly recommends the Queen Mary cruise to Southampton 🚢 .  PP Rick is going to the Caribbean to check the veracity of his brother’s claim of an island residence. PP Kevin thanked the club for the generous support of the December Holiday Clare House dinner 👏. We supported 77 residents, mostly with donated food so excess resources may go to other critical needs such as diapers. Penny said the grandkids were delayed in their eventual safe AK return as they were flying Alaska Air ✈️ and were caught in the Max 9 door inspection fiasco. PP Steve pointed out that along with Martin Luther King Day, this weekend marks the start of the AK legislative session. Nelson helpfully reminded Steve that his phone was on by calling him in the middle of his Happy Bucks. PP Bruce reintroduced the Word of the Day which no one guessed and I didn’t get, so it rolls to next week. Jeanne introduced her friend MJ from Global Credit Union. Boyd gave condolences for those who were racing south for winter and was thankful for the wonderful snow in Kincaid. PP Ben reminded all that the Foundation Auction with East Anchorage will be the evening of Feb 9 and they are looking for auction donations and wine.

Past President Bruce took the podium and told us how his duties as Assistant District Governor led to inviting Adam to our club after seeing his presentation at Anchorage East 👏 .

Adam is a lifelong Alaskan who was a Girdwood kid. He jumped right in with his Rotary history beginning with his year in Western Australia as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. He quickly found out it was more like being in the Bush than Anchorage and discovered the mine owner’s family lived decidedly differently than the mine worker’s families. While a member of Downtown Rotary, Adam was selected to be the Alaska contingent of one to the Check Dam project in India.

A check dam is used to retain rainwater from the monsoon rains.  Without it, three months of rain drains away and the villages and farmland quickly run out of water after two months.  The dam holds back water that can be accessed for an extended period (sometimes until the next monsoon in nine months) directly from the reservoir or from wells. A few years ago, a Rotary NID team had finished their polio vaccinations and wondered, “what’s next?” and the Rotary Dam Project began. There are many dam projects in India and the need is widespread and ongoing.  After previous Rotary funding expired, this particular project was funded specifically by Anchorage Downtown with District and Global grants.  Adam has now worked on three dam projects.  He is moved by the life changing effects the dams bring to the villages.

His pictures were from his most recent visit and he brought along his 13 year old son. The visiting Rotarians stayed in nice wall tents with showers and flushing toilets. Adam expressed some guilt with this as the villagers are very conscientious about water usage and safeguard the resource. There is no engineering analysis or formal design process.  A local “dam” guy with many years of experience looks at the valley and says, “we’llbuild it here.”  Again, no gigantic earth movers, cranes, or dump trucks, just lots of small women who for pennies in wages move bags of concrete and rocks on their heads all day long.  PP Rick asked about a cement mixer in a picture and Adam said it was never used. Concrete was made in a ground hole and ported to the dam via very large bowls. The dam can’t be over seven feet high to allow for overflow for downstream villages.

Rotarians pitch in where and as much as they want though none can compete with the endurance of the local women. His son was naturally hesitant to mix with the local folks at first, but quickly became a proponent of the evening cricket games and other social events. Some of the other Rotarians were upper caste from Delhi who definitely do not do manual labor, but they soon pitched in with the others.  It was interesting to see the Indian cultural and social barriers dissolve. At a trip to another location, Adam was recognized by a villager from a previous dam visit who told him how much the dam improved conditions.  The villager explained how they went from barely one annual harvest to 2-3 per year with an ability to sell the surplus.  By the end, the villager was in tears and took Adam’s shoes off and kissed his feet.  There are no words for that level of gratitude.

Adam pays airfare and accommodations. There’s another project leaving in Oct/Nov.  He suggests tagging on tours (Rotary or otherwise) at the beginning or end for enrichment. If interested contact Adam through South Rotary.

We ran a little over with such an interesting program.  Dodie won the $21 split the pot.  See ya next week!

President Becky Erickson rang the bell 🔔 to open the meeting just afternoon.  Attendance was light but enthusiastic with Happy Bucks/5$ 💴 Friday.  It was nice to see Bruce Erickson at the meeting after his knee surgery 🏥 the week before.  

Past President Jay Tung reminded everyone that AIR elections were coming at the Pie Auction.  A tentative slate of AIR members have “not said no”.  If you have not already volunteered, don’t be surprised when you too get a call from Past President Jay.  📚 Dictionaries were delivered to several Anchorage schools last week.  The Halloween Carnival was a success and $700 was raised.

Past President(s) Ted Trueblood gave a talk/slide show on the ✈️ 10th Last Frontier Honnor Flight to Washington D.C.  Ted showed pictures of the entourage starting at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, in DC and the return to Anchorage where 🇺🇸 Quilts of Valor were awarded.  There are 135 Honor Flight Hubs in the US.  The Alaska contingent was supported by generous donations from Alaska Air, Lyndon Transportation and the Rasmusen Foundation as well as individual donors 👏.  With a single hub in Alaska, the 21 honored veterans came from various communities throughout Alaska.  All Honorees are in the 80’s with one, who served during WW II, at 99 years young.  Each Alaskan Veteran 🫡 was accompanied by a Guardian who helped with luggage and provided leg power for the wheelchairs ♿️ used to speed Honorees between hotels and the many memorials to Veterans in the DC area 🇺🇸.  Past President(s) Ted concluded the event was well planned and executed and that he especially enjoyed the overall camaraderie of the group and that his Guardian was his daughter Sarah.

Meeting adjourned slightly after 1pm.

Correction to Air Meeting Summary for October 27, 2023:  The Annual Memorial Scholarship Fund has $345,000 (not $375,000) in the Fund with a goal of reaching $500,000.

Past President and Acting President of the Day, Al Bliss opened the meeting at noon 🛎️.

After greetings and happy bucks 💰 and a reminder to sell/buy Thanksgiving Flowers 💐, we were provided an update of the Annual Memorial Scholarship Fund.  A quorum being present, Boyd Morgenthaler summarized the status and the proposed actions by AIR (Proposed amendment to the BY-Laws and election of 5 members at large to the Board of Trustees.  

The purpose of the Fund is “Service Through Education” that is fulfilled by offering scholarships to high school students enrolled in the Anchorage School District 🏫.  The Trustees have developed a partnership with King Tech High School 👏 to be a clearing house for applicants requesting a financial grant. Awardees are based on interviews with the AIR Trustees.  15 AIR members comprise the Trustee Board:  13 at large, President Elect Elect, and President Elect.  The Club Resident is an Ex Officio member.  Board members serve 3-year terms. Five members-at-large are up for election.

Joe Zimmerman summarized the overall financial condition of the Fund.  It has $375,500 with a goal of reaching $500,000.  This year a total of $15,000 has been awarded 👏 .

The first order of business was to consider whether to adopt an amendment to the Trustee By-Laws.  Experience shows that a fixed date for the election of Trustee Board members-at-largewas not always met.  Therefore, it was proposed the By-Laws be revised to read the election will occur during the month of October.  The proposed change to the By-Laws was adopted without objection.

The second order of business was to elect 5 Board Members.  These are: Jeanne Brady, Debra Mason, Joe Zimmerman, Bruce Erickson, and Mark Cosby.  Without objection, the proposed Board Members were elected to a 3-year term .

Following the regular AIR meeting, the Board will be meeting to select new Officers.

With completion of the Memorial Scholarship Fund required business, AIR turned to our speaker: 🎤 David Nicolai for an explanation and demonstration of the art of Yupik String Figures.  As children many learn to make string figures such as Jacob’s Ladder and Cat’s Cradle.  But did you know that you could make a string figure move or grow bigger or smaller?  Also did you know that there are more than 55,000 different string figures in world-wide use.  FYI – Jacob’s Ladder is a string figure found throughout the world.  David posed the question that perhaps the art of storytelling with a looped string is something in our DNA????

David learned this ancient form of communication from his father (Mathew Nicolai, Past Resident East Rotary).  David has attended an International String Conference where he had the opportunity to learn new techniques in story-telling with string.  David uses a 6 ft length of string fused into a loop but noted that some string figures may involve up to 50 ft of string.  Some of the string figures David showed included: sea gull, fishing and the tale about the one that got away and how big it really was, how to catch lots of fish, fish n bear, mountains tied down/mountains of the valley, mountains of sunset, mind your own business, heart, rib cage, diving whale, whale blowing, and the hardest string figure – Fox and Whale.  Also shown was the teacup saucer, manger, and star.  Especially memorable was the Jumping Flea, which David’s father had the privilege of demonstrating to President Regan and USSR General Secretary Gorbachev at the White House.

President Becky Erickson rang the bell 🔔 to open the meeting at noon.  Star-Spanged Banner 🇺🇸 sang by Ben Robinson, who also was our featured speaker.

Club reminders: Pop Corn Polio  event at Koots; Pie Auction; and Thanksgiving Flowers 💐.  Ted Trublood will be returning from the Honor Flight on October 28 at 1PM.  Everyone is invited to attend a 🇺🇸 Welcome Home ceremony at the Airport Train Terminal.

NOTE: ANNUAL AIR GENERAL MEETING REQUIRES A QUORUM 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 (ONE HALF OF THE MEMBERSHIP VOTING) SO IF NOT ABLE TO ATTNED PLEASE BE SURE SOMEONE HAS YOUR PROXY!  This meeting is when we vote in AIR leadership for this Rotary Year.  After a call for “volunteers” without response, the current AIR leadership was re-nominated.

Ice Breaker:  Art Clark was asked “What was the stupidest thing you ever did?  Answer was Too many to recall just one!🤣

Program:  Ben Robinson led the discussion about Opera 🎭 in general.  This is the 61st Anniversary of Anchorage Opera and it needs a little help. He noted that Opera is an art form that captures the elements of 🎶 Music, Dance, Art, and Theater.  Our conceptualization about Opera tends to lump us into one of three groups reflecting: 🎭Curiosity, Toleration, or Hatred. (I add a fourth:  Love. 💕)   Ben will be the Stage Director for Elixir of Love and encourage everyone to attend Anchorage Opera’s which has been recast as taking place in 1989-Hollywood v. 1832-Italy. 👏 This opera is funny, melodic, and death free.  Luke Honaick sang the central theme from the Elixir of Love (L’Elisir d’Amore by Donizetti – 1832).  Luke grew up here in Anchorage and after college again makes Anchorage his home here.  Luke was accompanied on the piano by Richard Gortan.  

Come see Elixir, a 2 act comic melodrama 🤓, and you will be surprised: hopefully in a good way!  P.S. there is a pre-concert lecture that provides background about Elixir.

As a side note, Ben told us about an Anchorage Opera-UAA 🏫 talent development partnership that offers apprenticeships to UAA students.  Anchorage Opera also uses the format of Opera to explore important issues that are significant to Alaskans.  For example, an Opera based on missing Native Women.  (March2023 — The plot centers around the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls written by First Nations playwright Marie Clements.  (Co-commissioned by Pacific Opera Voictoria and City Opera Vancouver) 

During the QnA ❓ we explored why Opera is, until the end of 18thCentury, sung in Italian 🇮🇹 --- Because Opera is considered an Italian form of entertainment.  (Yes there are subtitles in English)   

We closed with spilt the pot 💰 and President Becky rang the bell 3 mins early!

President Becky Erickson rang the bell 🔔 to open meeting at noon.  Although attendance was somewhat sparce, the $5 Friday Happy Bucks were abundant.

During the meeting, everyone was reminded to order their 💐 Thanksgiving Flowers.  Past President Ted Trueblood, via camera 🎥 Zoom, let us know he would be missing the next few meetings because he would be participating in an Honor Flight 🫡 to Washington D.C. Ted also let us know that he would be on TV discussing Veterans in the near future.  (We are certain that hisTV exposure will be accompanied by a generous donation --- Preferably to PolioPlus since the District goal is to have 100% of Rotarians contributing.)  Ted also indicated he would be pleased to present AIR a talk on the role of Veterans in Alaska through the Honor Roll program 👏.

President Becky led the program topic of “Popcorn and Polio” with the reminder that October 24 is Polio Day.  During Happy Bucks 💰 it was noted that October 15 is Global Hand-washing Day which was relevant to our program, as unwashed hands is one of the ways Polio can be spread.  

President Becky opened the program with an opportunity to express 🤔 our own experiences with Polio.  It was followed by several rounds of Polio Bingo  where each square represented a significant event or fact about Polio.  The following are some of the fact/events with some additional information from Google:

💡Did you know that the borders areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan have continuing cases of wild polio virus; or that a new case has been documented last year in an unvaccinated 20-year-old man living in New York State? 💡Did you know that the Polio virus from the man in New York is linked to similar virus found in wastewater samples in Jerusalem and London? 💡Or that plans are being made to vaccinate 33 million Children in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as a result of new case in Malawi? 

Finally, do you remember that in 1985 Rotary International launched the PolioPlus program which has, as of June 13, 2022, contributed $2 billion and many volunteer hours to immunize more than 3 billion children in 122 countries?

Jules was “nominated” to respond to the Ice Breaker question: what was your worst day?  At the close of the meeting Jules also volunteered how he met Peg, his wife of 69 years.  (See Jules if you are really interested in his answers.)

President Becky Erickson brought us to order following a brief search for the club bell 🔔.  Until that bell rings out, the group is in an “at ease” status.  In honor of our recently deceased, revered member 🕯️Cathie Straub the thought-for-the-day 🧐 was “be bold enough to use your voice, brave enough to listen to your heart and strong enough to live the life you want.” We moved directly into a presentation of the Paul Harris Foundation (PHF)  Major Donor recognition to Cathie’s husband Jeff Loughrey.  Jeff recounted a wonderful anecdote regarding him taking over Cathie’s Facebook page.  When she initially established the account years ago, Cathie told Jeff “we are going to use this to communicate with family friends and clients.  You can’t have a page because you don’t have a filter!”  PDG’s Ted Trueblood and Diane Fejes spoke on the impact of the PHF and  of our 9 members with major donor status.  Boyd Morgenthaler remarked of his pride at having sponsored  Cathie’s membership in AIR exactly 24 years ago.

Following that moving presentation President Becky astutely moved directly to the program to give the speaker their full allotment of time.

Teresa Pond is the Artistic Director of 🎭Cyrano’s Theater  Company.  If you haven’t been keeping track Cyrano’s moved from their original location on “B” street to the intersection of Debarr and Bragaw streets a few years ago. They are a small (about 90 seats) but professional local theater in operation since 1992.  Since then Cyrano’s has presented several shows per year.  This writer has attended many of those shows and never left without having been delighted.  

Ms. Pond is a local girl, her father a regular actor in local  in local productions for decades.  She left Alaska to study for her Bachelors and Masters in Fine Artsrelating to the performing arts.  Following professional work in her field she was drawn back home.  Ms. Pond was a captivating spenaker.

Although Teresa spoke of the entire community of Anchorage theater organizations her main subject was the current production of “Uncle Ted”  the dramatized story of our famous longtime Alaskan Senator, Ted Stevens. The play examines the reputation, as well as the rise and fall of Senator  Stevens, told by the man himself. Written by Past Rotary District Governor, Kodiak State Senator Gary Stevens (no relation), Uncle Ted runs from September 29th through October 22nd with tickets available for performances on Fridays through Sundays.  Gary Stevens was a history teacher so he understands narrative.  Audience reports are that the show, with Ted Stevens played by a professional actor imported for this role from “outside” is spellbinding.

President Becky presided 🔔 over 25 members and guests in the room, plus Tim Trueblood on Zoom 👏.  Following the 🇺🇸 pledge, Monika Fair offered a Thought-For-The-Day 💭 from an unknown author: “Everything you need is already inside you.  Don’t wait for other to light your fire. You have your own matches.”

Regarding the pledge, past president (PP) Bill Pearson told a story about United States District Court Judge Ralph Beistline leading the pledge at a bar association convention.  The judge had recently been overruled by the US Supreme Court on the constitutionality of the words “under god” in the pledge.  The person introducing Beistline speculated as to if the judge would rely on his ruling or the Supreme Court in reciting the pledge.  He deferred to the nation’s highest court. Bill gave $20 for the story. 

Commencing happy bucks💰, collector-in-chief Jess Snider called on PP Ric Schmidt who recounted falling down the stairs at his mother funeral.  😞 Chera Boom’s mother recently took a fall as well, breaking her hip. Chera also used her $20 donation to pitch the upcoming Alaska Sound Celebration event 🎶. PP BruceErickson introduced his guest Rotarians, visiting from Hilton Head NC.  We learned from Bruce that he and Becky met the guests in 2017 at a Ricky Skaggs concert while they were all attending a Rotary International Convention.  Additionally, that the guest had been an electrical contractor in Rochester, New York, they knew Steve Strait’s Partner Past District Governor Terry, and that the Erickson’s and this couple became all but inseparable ✌️for the rest of the conference.  Shari Showalter gave $20 as is her custom 💵, Ginger George-Smith gave $10 for being late and PP Kevin Fimon contributed for having done his civic duty by attending a Community Council last night.  Al Biss gave $5 and someone contributed because they are happy to see snow ❄️ on the Chugach. That was not greeted with universal agreement 😒. Penny May auctioned off cookies 🍪 and 2 bottles of Washington State wine 🍷.  

Our program was Anchorage School Board member Dora Wilson 👏.  She was elected to the board 3 years ago.  Her husband is known to many of us a  former principal of North Star School 🏫 where he developed an appreciation for AIR for our activities supporting the school.  Many of us remember fondly his program that had the boys wear neckties 👔 to foster a sense of pride.  Mrs. Wilson is also the mother of a recipient of a AIR Memorial Scholarship Fund grant.  The award assisted her daughter in completing an undergraduate degree in social work from UAA and is now completing a master’s program in clinical psychology.

President-elect Mark Cosby presided over a small group of members and guests on his first experiencerunning our meeting.  He aced it! Mark even smoothly gave the speaker a few moments to clear her throat by doing the split-the-pot drawing out of order.  Rick Goodfellow gave us the thought for the day in a quote mouthed by Russell Crowe playing Marcus Aurelius in the movie Gladiator.  “Death smiles at us, all a man can do is smile back.”  Mark read the obituary for our beloved member Cathie Straub.  We observed a moment of silence.  PP Tryg Erickson gave an update on the funeral Service Tuesday (family only) and the memorial to be held at the Bridge Restaurant Wednesday September 20 at 4:30 PM.

Moving quickly to Happy bucks Jess Snider had PP Jay Tung tell us of his recent experience playing rugby. File that story under the heading of “should be old enough to know better.” Jay survived. Monika Fair participated in a Star Walk.  What that is was missed by this correspondent.  Jules Tileston contributed tohonor of his 69th wedding anniversary.  PP Bill Pearson spoke movingly of Cathie’s mentoring of him as a new member.  Chera Boom contributed to tell of Alaska Sound Celebration’s upcoming event.  Both Chera and PP/Treasurer Debra Mason are participating.  Acting President Mark was happy to have hosted his son while he searched for housing and is even happier that they were successful and have move out!  PP Tryg paid $5 for the observation that Shari Showalter shows true chutzpah in scheduling her boss as today’s speaker and not attending the meeting.  The boss, Christine O’Connor of the AK Telephone Assn. assured us that Shari is traveling on business.

The Alaska Telecom Association represents most communications providers in Alaska.  It was formerly known as the AK Telephone Association.  Ms. O’Connor, a lifelong resident, points with pride to her rural roots.  Her first telecom position was as a boardmember at the cooperative telephone company in Dillingham.  She attended grade school in Moose Pass.

The Federal government has been funding efforts to extend broadband access to all of Alaska for more than a decade.  The various COVID recovery programs have supercharged these expenditures. When currently funded projects are completed, federal funding will total 1.7 billion dollars. Most of these projects require financial participation by the owner and that will be over 100 million.  Project owners/operators will be required to generate revenue to support continuing operations.  These projects rely on fiberoptic cabling, the gold standard as well as microwave, the second choice and satellite connections which are the least desirable.  Audience questions were why all this investment when Starlink can offer similar service today for minimal investment?  The answer is reliable communications rely on loop connectivity that cannot be achieved with satellites.   If the loop is severed the traffic reverses direction and users experience no interruption. Additionally, all wireless connections are  limited in bandwidth and stability compared to fiber.

The largest of the federal programs is from the NTIA, the National Telecommunications and Information Agency.  These programs prioritize areas that currently have no service or service of less than 3 megabits per second (Mbps) and anchor institutions such as schools, hospitals libraries and clinics. 

A map of the projects under construction or planned showed fiber running, mostly offshore, from the pacific northwest all the way to Kaktovik, almost to the Canadian border 120 miles east of North Slope oil fields.  

40 Rotarians and guests, plus one on Zoom, enjoyed one of the spacious full sized meeting rooms at the Coast on our last meeting in August.  Past President (PP) Jay Tung resorted to a ceremoniously folded American Flag for our pledge of allegiance.  Presiding officer Becky Erickson called on husband PP Bruce Erickson for a Thought for the Day.  Bruce had two. The first was from Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw.  “Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” 

Jerry Wolf was visiting from Hillside Rotary as well as Winston White from Maine.  Mr. White, as well as his guest Lee Harmon of Arlington, Washington are participating in the Alaska-Mexico Challenge to support the Rotary project to end Polio Now.  They are driving a 1932 Ford, along with 57 other classic cars to Cabo Mexico.  

We celebrated the birthday of Onolina (Lina) Fanualelei.   PP Treasurer Debra Mason correctly remembered the word of the day, Murmuration.  She knew that it is a group of starlings or the act of murmuring.  

Sgt@Arms Jess Snider commence his passage with Art Clark paying $40 to tell of a talk he attended by a favorite pundit of his, Davis Brooks. $5 Fridays were paid  by Shari Showalter, PP Angie Rush and PP TrygErickson.  Mark Cosby gave $5 in celebration of getting his house painted before the rains.  President Becky is rejoicing that she’s done overseeing golf tournaments for this year at the Anchorage Golf Course.  Penny May generously contributed $70 for various things.  PP Kevin Fimon reported we fed 43 folks at Clare House last Friday.  Rick Goodfellow introduced his guest, Don Andrews, an Ear Nose and Throat physician and husband of today’s speaker, Laura Koenig PhD.  PP Joe Zimmerman had $5 for wife Linda visiting with a college roommate.

Our speaker, Laura Koenig is a well known University of Alaska Anchorage  educator and performer on the Anchorage classical music scene.  The Anchorage Festival of Music along with Ms. Koenig is presenting the 1923 silent film blockbuster Scarmouche at 4:00 PM on Sunday October 4 at the Beartooth Theater Pubwith a live orchestra and chorus. The film runs just over two hours.  

Silent films, although lacking a soundtrack, were not viewed in silence.  They offered on screen captioning and music, performed live, usually a single piano or organ player.  Scarmouche was different in that most venues included multiple musicians and showing often included a written score.  Koenig has unearthed several of these scores, known as cue sheets, and will present the film with live performances.  She showed various scenes from the movie with music appropriate to the action.  We were given a sense of the scale of the original production.  One example is that there were ten thousand actors and technicians involved with the production.  In a time when films usually were filmed in days Scarmouch took six months.  A replica French village was built on 60 acres by almost 900 craftsmen.  The film is a historical fiction set in the time of the French Revolution.  

The plot revolves around a nobleman who murders his best friend and a lawyer who becomes a revolutionary to avenge the killing.

It was a captivating program and several members spoke of getting a group together to attend the show.

Dr. Hartmann was introduced by Rick Goodfellow.  When Rick was asked to choose speakers for this Rotary year, this was the first speaker he thought of and asked. Hartman is Associate Professor and Chair of the University of Alaska Anchorage History Department.

Dr. Hartmann opened with a chart showing the erosion of public confidence in various institutions such as news media, education, police, congress, and others from 2015 to 2023.  All have seen marked decreases in confidence.  Education was typical, having declined from 57% in 2015 to 48% in 2018 and 36% currently.  Hartmann assigns the cause for this being the fragmentation of knowledge.  Until the internet age, most Americans got news from three radios and TV networks, plus a local newspaper and maybe a news magazine such as Time or Newsweek.  Because those were so widely disseminated, errors were quickly and loudly pointed out.  Now everyone is connected but silos make us connected but so disconnected.  We don’t even agree on history.  People don’t read long format stories.  Professor Hartmann tells, he has difficulty getting college students to even read a course syllabus! A recent study among 8th graders showed a first ever decline in knowledge of Civics.  While disagreements about our history have worsened recently there were several examples that these are not unprecedented.  A book written for the nations bi-centennial in 1976, 1776 was controversial and prompted a book in response, The 1619 Project.  On the 100th celebration of our nations founding, in 1876 the top news story of the day was not the national celebration.  Headlines in newspapers were about the defeat of General Custers army at Little Big Horn.  

As a natural advocate for the teaching of history, Hartmann presented several arguments.  A quote from Chief Justice John Roberts decrying the false information that can spread quickly and without challenge via social media.  Also from a academic declaring that a education including history teaches the ability to think critically.  Strangely, while Red states colleges are concentrating on job training, technical education and applied research those same states are mandating the teaching of history in the public schools.  Unfortunately, that history may exclude hard truths about our past.    

Among questions for our speaker, PP Joe Zimmerman asked what are the job prospects for a history major today?  Hartmann answered that skills involving critical thinking and the ability to provide narrative explanations will always be valued.  

Past President (PP) Debra Mason introduced visiting Rotarian from Anchorage, Jim Cloud whom we haven’t seen in quite a while 👏 .  Jim admits to having spent the winter in the lower 48 where the winter days are longer. We also acknowledged our pleasure at the presence of esteemed member Bill Sharrow.  General Sharrow was not specific as to where he’s been, but he did say that he’s been spending time with a physical therapist. On a similar note, PP Kevin Fimon was pleased to recognize for the first time in a long timemember Carmela Warfield 🙌. 

Sgt@Arms Jess Snider collected Friday Fives 💰 from Penny May, Jeanne Brady, Ric Schmidt and John Trueblood.  PP Al Biss contributed as penance for his latest epic vacation to Japan 🇯🇵.  The trip included climbing Mt Fuji.  It wasn’t clear if the 4 Biss’sachieved the summit.  PDG Ted Trueblood was happy to attend with another rarely seen, excepting Zoom, member, his big brother, Tim Trueblood 👏.  Linda Dunegan has two guests including brother Paul.  PP Bruce Erickson reported on his tour of local rotary Clubs.  Our meeting represented his third club of the week.  He observed that Anchorage Downtown with a membership of well over twice ours was attended by about the same number as we had Friday.   Ric Schmidt proudly reported that his daughter 👩‍⚕️ Becky is now a medical doctor practicing obstetrics in Juneau and is engaged to marry. Ric also thanked us for our condolences on the recent passing of his mother 💐.  Jeanne Brady is happy to note that she recently participated in her fifth and last running 🏃 event of the season.  Peter Lange is grateful that wife (and club member) Grace has received her US citizenship.  Also,that his son has finished his nursing education at University of Alaska Anchorage.

Linda Dunegan introduced the day’s speaker, retired Anchorage police officer Glen Klinkhart.  Klinkhartnow serves as the Director of the State Division of Alcohol and Marijuana Control.  He is the author of “Finding Bethany” a story beginning with the murder of his older sister.  Bethany was a teenager having a house party on the Anchorage hillside while her parents were traveling.  A uninvited guest wasremoved.  The man later returned and murdered her.  

Klinkhart started by answering the question “Does having had someone close to you murdered changed the way you did your job.” His answer is it increased his empathy for victims and families.  He then spoke to the popular perception that “things are getting worseand crime is increasing.”  To that he answered that for the last 25 years Anchorage has had 15 to 25 murders per year.  Very  few of these are random.  Most are intra family or the result of the drug trade with a few the result of mental disorder.  He spoke of how different a real crime scene investigation is when compared to the TV picture of just a couple investigators peering at the body. In the real world there are 20 to 30 officers and technicians “working” the scene. The job of the lead investigator is to pick the most meaningful pieces of information from the stream of facts arriving.  He likened it to drinking from a fire hose. An area where television dramas have made the work of the police and prosecutors more difficult is the perception of jurors that circumstantial evidence isn’t enough. There should be some critical piece of evidence that clinches the case.  That is not the way real cases unfold to a jury.  In Klinkhart’s opinion the fictional “good cop/bad cop” strategy simply does not work.  He draws a line between interview and interrogation. Most people want to tell their story. His job was to give them the opportunity.  In his opinion the worst thing a person being interviewed can do is refuse to talk until they speak to a lawyer.  (editorsnote: in officer involved shootings police are advised not to speak without the union provided lawyer present)

There were numerous questions for the speaker.  He feels that suicide is one of the most difficult things he had to work.  Not surprisingly families have a harder time than with having had some evil person being responsible for their loss than their loved on taking their own life. Answering a question on why do folks make false confessions? He answered that often it is because a person just wants a excessively long interview to end.  They will say anything to get out of the room.  In closing Mr. Klinkhart told the story of a case where he was pressured to make an arrest of someone who was a likely suspect.  He refused and eventually the actual perpetrator came forward.  He ended by telling us that he learned he had to “Stand up for what’s right.”

President Becky Erickson gaveled us to order shortly after noon.  Past President (PP) Ric Schmidt led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  PP Bruce Erickson, after a historical meander of events occurring on this date, Jackie Kennedy’s birthday and the Exxon Valdez grounding, offered a thought-for-the-day from Groucho Marx.  “I, not events have the power to make me happyor unhappy today. I can choose which it will be.  Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn’t arrived.” Visiting Rotarians Jerry Wolfe from Hillside and Gloria Chron from East were recognized.  Sgt @ Arms Jess Snider called on Jeanne Brady for a happy buck where she extolled the virtues of visiting Spencer Glacier.  PP Joe Zimmerman told of his first out of state trip since COVID.  He was in Washington State to assist one of his boys in a move.  He discovered that Seattle/Tacoma International Airport is not a easy portal.  Chuck Schumann, our speaker, suggested considering Paine Field in Everette as a alternative to SEATAC.  Chera Boom recounted a story about a encounter with a Walgreens pharmacist who told of a Rotary scholarship changing his life.   PP Steve Strait used that opening to unashamedly pitch Bernie’s Pharmacy for all you drug store needs.  PP Bruce Erickson paid $10 to tell of PP Tim Ellis recovery from shoulder surgery, Past District Governor Phil Livingston’s memorial service and to thank Angie Rush for assisting with storing the Field of Honor flags.  Jenette Wakefield and PP Ted Trueblood commented on how proud they were of the July 4thPark strip flag event.  PP Kevin Fimon reminded us that our next feeding of the Claire House residents will be August 18th and recounted his work with the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority recent board meeting.  PP Angie Rush needed help, twice, to remember the day’s secret word. Kris Shippen told a cautionary tale of why it is a bad idea to have your home freezer powered by a surge protector/power strip.  Something fell on his, toggled the on/off switch and cost him 400 pounds of game meat! PP/Treasurer Debra Mason gave $10 as penance for missing meetings while she vacationed in Italy.  Dodie Pruessner gave $5 to tell of progress on her, and husband Robin’s MCarthy cabin.  It’s approaching habitable!  Club Secretary and Bulletin publisher Jeanne Brady received recognition for contributions to her Paul Harris Fellowship account.  PP Ric Schmidt was given belated thanks for his/our contributions to the Polio Plus program during his rotary year.  Happy Friday $5’s came from Penny May, Angie Rush and Shari Showalter.  Rick Goodfellow gave $5 because he loves hearing Shari’s perky excitement at it being Friday. 

Mr. Schumann was introduced by Shari Showalter of the Alaska Telephone Association.  Pacific Dataporthas been around since the it commissioned a massive satellite dish on the roof of the Frontier Building in 1984.  That was the beginning of private data communications for large customers that did not rely on the telephone carrier.  Schumann has been working in the satellite business in Alaska since 1979.  

He recounted the travails of launching his latest satellite with errors and omissions from Boeing and SpaceX.  In spite of the regularity of space launches they remain specialized, complex and expensive.  We saw a video of the recent launch of the one hundred fifty-million-dollar rocket Falcon Heavy which was carrying a Pacific Dataport satellite. Pacific Dataport,using high orbit Synchronous orbit satellites will work with low earth orbit systems, such as Starlink, to offer reliable broadband links to large users and telephone carriers as a alternative or back up to fiberoptic systems. An example of a market they are successful in is the construction of Tribal Broadband 2.5 gigahertz local broadband systems being built nationally. Pacific Dataport currently has 8 employees.  He and his wife also own and operate Microcom which employes 80.  Microcom was the first authorized retailer of Elon Musk’s Starlink equipment and service.  In response to a question he explained the advantages of having a local entity supply Starlink users.  Answering another question as to why GCI and other established telcos have had such success at getting federal funding for their rural services Schumann said those carriers have been better lobbyist’s. He thinks they are getting better at selling their capability to the funding agencies.

After President Jay Tung brought us to order 🔔 at 12:04, Jeanne Brady had a thought-for-the-day 🤔 from motivational speaker Steve Maraboli, dubbed “the most quoted man alive” by Inc. Magazine.  “In your own life it’s important to know how spectacular you are.” 🎉 

We welcomed back Celeste Cohen 👏 but then learned that Celeste and Arnie have sold their Anchorage home in Park Place Condos 🌃 and will be moving full time to Virginia 😞.   Very bad news!  For good news we issued self-described shy person Terry Nelson her 💙 blue dinner badge. Past President (PP) Bruce Erickson, having been strong-armed 💪by PP Angie Rush to sign up for meeting duties on 19 May, learned that he will be enroute to the Rotary International Convention in Australia.   PP Ben Schulman reported on the 👨🏻‍🎓exchange student staying with them and apologized for seeming tired.  He was up much of the night taking 📷 pictures of the northern lights.  Those of us who saw those pictures he posted on social media felt it was time well spent.  

Sergeant @ Arms PP Kevin Fimon reported that, assisted by Neil Harper and new member John Trueblood they fed 37 residents of Clare House last Friday🙌.  Jeanne Brady introduced her mother, a retired educator.  PP Trygve Erickson introduced guest Kris Shippen👏.  PP Ted Trueblood spoke as the chair of his Limited Road Service Area, Stuckagain Heights, that we’re having a nice break-up. PP Steve Strait reported that he attended the 🏎️ Indy Car race in Long Beach CA to watch the car he has ownership interest in race.  It ran out of gas!  President Jay congratulated and recommended the 🫡Alaska Veterans Museum for one year at its now location.  Penny May, just returned from one of her numerous trips 🗺️, had several bottles of interesting looking liquor 🥃 as well as a gold coin celebrating the upcoming coronation of the former Prince Charles 👑 as king and a key chain to auction.  $105 💵 bought it all 🥂.

Former AIR member from the 1980’s Jim Huettl was introduced by PP Steve Strait.  Jim, a retired architect was the “H” in the large engineering and architectural firm USKH.  Although he was a long time fan of automobile racing dog mushing never crossed him mind until he moved to Alaska in 1971.  The first time he saw the Fur Rendezvous sprint races he was hooked.  His first ride in a dog sled didn’t occur until last year! Echoing the take-away message from Rick Goodfellow’s recent talk, we aren’t doing enough to revitalize our downtown.  The Anchorage Mushing District proposal is one idea that could bring excitement and investment downtown.  

The district runs along 4th Avenue from A to G streets and includes a walking museum and interpretive signs explaining the history of dog powered transportation in Alaska.  He showed photos of signs attached above existing street signs, banners and a artist’s rendering of the proposed archway to span 4th Avenue at D street.  Most of the design work is done and fundraising is well underway.  Permitting and ownership details are being negotiated with the Municipality.  While thosedetails are time consuming and frustrating both this administration and the previous mayor strongly back the project.  Most recently the Municipality suggested minor changes to the archway to make it more difficult for people to climb the supporting poles.

The pay-off of this project would be a step in making Anchorage more than a single overnight for the million plus visitors we accommodate each year.  Anchorage already realizes about 55 million dollars in annual revenue from the bed and car rental taxes.  Any increase can be used to further develop our downtown.

Longtime Rotarian and presumed lifetime Alaskan, Rick explained how operating the “Ghost Tour” he became interested in local history.   Beginning with the century old mystery of who caused the death of Anchorage’s first police chief, he’s learned what people want of history.  “Give me the story.  Not too much and not too little and include a moral.”  Also that in reading history footnotes are your friend, as they take to another story.  To illustrate, Rick showed a map of the Cook Inlet area of Alaska from 1914.  There was no Anchorage at the mouth of Ship Creek.  There were 4 residents in this area then.  Two on what we now call Government Hill and two inland to the east.  Then Rick displayed a mosaic of 5 photos crowded with tents of the mouth of Ship Creek taken a few years later by Sidney Laurence.  His point is that, Anchorage was built by stampeders. The first spike for the tracks of the railroad was driven by Martha White, identified as “the first non-native born as Ship Creek.” People came here largely for a quick fortune.  No matter if it was the construction of a railroad, finding gold, building military bases or drilling for oil.  As a territory and state, we have always been short on long term investors.  For infrastructure we have always been largely reliant on the Federal Government and more recently the State.  Prior to the Alaska Railroad being built by the US Department of Interior in 1915 there were 40 different railroads started or running in the territory.  None were viable unless associated with a single project, such as Kennicott Copper River line of the Guggenheim trust.As long ago as 1913 there was a map showing “proposed” rail lines that even included a link to the Canadian National Railroad.  Mr. Goodfellow posited that it didn’t make sense then and it still doesn’t.  Industry has always been willing to invest someone else’s money in our projects.  The land manager for the Alaska Land office who also served as the auctioneer for the sale of lots in Anchorage’s original townsite came to believe that the construction of the railroad was a mistake and left Alaska in the 1930’s.  It took World War II to bring the Alaska Railroad it’s first profitable year, 1938.

Rick’s underlying point is we aren’t recognizing or investing as a community in our most achievable prospect.  Making Anchorage a city that people want to visit and maybe stay in.  Currently the tourism business is focused on offering visitors the quickest way out of town.  Downtown is becoming a ghost town with shuttered stores and empty lots.  While we are waiting for the next big discovery or project our town is losing population and decaying.

Dr. Nelson is Associate Dean of the School for the School of Business and Public Policy at the University of Alaska Anchorage.  She is a member of our club and she noted that with this talk she qualifies for her blue badge.

In a dynamic and fast moving presentation Terry spoke of how unintentional remarks, influenced by societies stereotypes can cause us to seem sexist, raciest, ageist, elitist, homophobic and so on.  As examples of these mis-steps she asked if a person dresses like someone of the opposite sex does that mean they are gay? Are Asians good at math?  Do all (insert name of ethnic group) look alike? These are oopsisms.  While some dictionaries recognize the word MS Word will autocorrect it to opossum! Dr Nelson defines a oopisim as a unintentional blunders by spokenwords, writing or with body language.  She likes to think that most folks have a good heart.  They don’t mean to offend. A oopsis may be hard to detect, appear harmless or appear unintentional.  To avoid these remember that when we speak it is not so much what we meant to convey but how our words are understood that counts. If we are fortunate enough to be called on a oopisim be grateful.  Apologize and recognize it as a teachable moment for both parties.  Truly apologize.  “If I offended you” isn’t a apology. Own up to it and learn.

After President Jay Tung brought us to order , Past President (PP) Art Clark offered a thought for the day💭.The message was along the lines of ““Live as if you were to die tomorrow; learn as if you were to live forever” from Mahatma Gandhi. We welcomed visiting Anchorage Rotarian Michael Hurst 👏.  President Jay dismissed complaints that they couldn’t hear him from the back of the room with a suggestion that it was age related and that they should move closer to the front.

To award our Vocational Service Award PP’s Joe Zimmerman and Lynn Johnson introduced Sarah Oates, the President/CEO of CHARR, the Cabernet Hotel & Restaurant Retailers association the award winner 👏.  Joe met MS Oates through their volunteer work at the University of Alaska Anchorage School of Business and Public Policy.

Sergeant@Arms PP Kevin Fimon told us of the process the AIR Memorial Scholarship Fund used to interview this year’s applicants for scholarships 📣. Boyd Morgenthaler, Scholarship board chair advised there were 22 applicants this year winnowed to 6 who received awards.  💰Nelson Defendorf gave $5 in gratitude for the work of club members interviewing those applicants.  Art Clark gave $5 to stay seated. Bruce Erickson announced that last week for the second week in a row he won the split-the-pot drawing and is donating the proceeds back to the club 🙌 .  

PP Steve Strait and President Jay memorialized Phil Livingston.  Phil, who died March 20, was PP of Girdwood Rotary, Past District Governor, real estate broker, Marine, skier, aviator, sailor and good companion and friend.  Phil was a member of AIR when he passed. 

Cathie Straub was happy following easy and successful cataract surgery 🏥. Jeanne Brady would have donated but she forgot her wallet 👛.  Linda Dunegan introduced her guests, Trace, Brian and 2 others whom she identified as “new applicants.” PP Joe Zimmerman commented on the television interview 📺 with PP Ted Trueblood that aired this week of the 50th anniversary of America’s withdrawal from Vietnam 🫡 .  Ted Served as a Lieutenant in the Army in that conflict.  Ted spoke briefly of his experience in the war.  His greatest pride is all his soldiers returned alive.   Ted was particularly appreciative for Joe making the link to the story available.  Since the piece ran on the Ten O’clock evening news and that’s past his bedtime, it gave Ted’s wife, Gloria a chance to see it.  From Zoom, Helena Wisniewski encouraged us to attend the Perfect Pitch competition for the best presentation of a business plan on April 7, 5:00PM at UAA 👏.

Becky Erickson and Ted Trueblood gave warm hugs and handshakes to AIR members, visitorsand guests.  Shortly after noon President Jay rang the bell bring a temporary halt to the boisterous greetings of members and guests.  Jess Snider led the Pledge of Allegiance and Jules Tileston presented some thoughts for the day from a little red book.  Greeting resumed and then  Kevin Fimon provided a generous opportunity for all to donate $$ for happy bucks.

Dave Stieren, Regional Director, Governor’s Office-Anchorage provided information and answered questions about Governor Dunleavy’s proposed program on “Carbon Management and Monetization” bills in the Legislature is seeking authority for the Alaska Department of Natural Resources to be able to lease State ownerships for capture/storage and for other activities that result in natural carbon capture as an offset to the originator of the CO2 in another US or Foreign location.  

We are hearing a lot about “carbon capture/offsets” but most of us have never given too much thought on what this means.  In its simplest terms, the Governor is asking the legislature for authority to, as Dave described, get paid for doing nothing.  Even though I am a recovering bureaucrat, I had to go to Google to see what carbon capture really is:  car·bon cap·ture; noun: carbon capture and storage; noun: carbon storage.  (“The process of trapping carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels or other chemical or biological processes and storing it in such a way that it is unable to affect the atmosphere, with the aim of mitigating the effects of global warming.  Large amounts of greenhouse gases will need to be removed from the atmosphere via carbon capture.”  In its simplest terms, carbon dioxide can be captured at large industrial sites where CO2 can be turned into a liquid and then permanently stored underground.  To work, the process of removal and getting into a permanent storage place, including transportation must be economically viable.

One example for carbon storage are the potential to use the Cook Inlet and on the North Slope oil fields where production is from deep geologic structures.  Existing or new injection wells could be drilled to inject carbon dioxide in liquid form for permanent storage.  (Alaska already is using some of the deep formations in Cook Inlet for reinjection of natural gas during the summer for potential withdrawal during the peak winter use for electrical generation while most natural gas on the North Slope is reinjected.) On the plus side, the Cook Inlet fields are readily accessible to tankers carrying liquid CO2.  The Cook Inlet fields are projected to have the potential to safely store up to 50 gigatons capacity.  (gigaton = 1 billion metric tons, or 2.2 trillion pounds.) Tanker transport to North Slope fields needs to consider the ability of transit sea ice or wait until there is less sea ice.  For both Cook Inlet and the North Slope, the technology to convert and transport liquid CO2 is still being developed.  A major economic factor is the cost of transporting the liquid CO2 to either Cook Inlet or the North Slope.

Another example involves commercial timber harvest by replanting trees and other plants that naturally consume CO2 as an offset to an CO2 operation elsewhere.  A variation to accrue carbon offsets is agreeing not to harvest commercial timber. This is currently being done in Canada and on some lands owned by Alaska Native Corporations here land can be leased for periods longer than currently allowed on State land.  The Governor’s concept is that any forests on State land where there is a long-term commitment to not harvest trees would remain open to oil and gas,mining, and public use including hunting, fishing, and trapping.

A futuristic option listed by Dave was the potential for carbon offsets by have long-term leases of Alaska’s tidelands and nearshore waters to plant/grow indigenous seaweed and kelp.  

The concept of doing nothing while offering carbon storage/offsets could result in $950 million to $1.3 billing contribution to the Alaska treasury.  Dave suggested the more likely figure would be $350 million to $600 million over a 20-year period.

We adjourned slightly after 1 pm with David Stieren agreeing to stay a little longer for any questions.

Meeting came to order 🔔 just after noon under the direction of President Jay Tung, fresh off a three week respite from his Rotary duties.

PP Kevin Fimon shared a Dolly Parton quote. “If you wanna see the rainbow 🌈 you’ve got to put up with the rain ☔️ .” Kevin erroneously advised that Ms. Parton died yesterday 😭.  He was disabused of that by PP Tryg Erickson. Fimon, in his role as sergeant @ arms, continued directly into happy bucks 💴.  President Elect Becky Erickson explained how it happened that she was accompanied to the President-Elect Training Seminar (PETS) by husband PP Bruce Erickson.  Bruce is to be an Assistant District Governor as was speculated about in this newsletter last week.  Penny May advised that she’s hurt her back and won’t be traveling for a while.  This led Linda Dunegan to advise that she’s a licensed massage therapist with a table and everything 🛏️. She offered her professional services as a chef 👩‍🍳 and masseuse available for auction.  Bruce and Becky Erickson’s bid of $300 was successful for the massage .  PP Tryg Erickson spoke of the upcoming Iditarod party and promised good weather and no wind in Willow 🙌.  Nelson Defendorf advised that he will be participating in the program about sudden cardiac arrest, that we saw several weeks ago, will be given next Wednesday at East Rotary.  The program is also being given to recruits at the Anchorage Fire Department 🧑‍🚒 academy.  We were pleased to acknowledge and welcome Downtown Rotarian George Wuerch 👏. He was recognized for his work as a US Marine officer, Municipal Assembly person and Anchorage mayor.  He looked Great!  Chera Boom gave $5 to advertise the Anchorage Community Theater 🎭 production she is appearing in.  

At his wife’s urging Jay Tung returned from his travels with items to auction.  First was a bottle of sake that went to Janine Becka for $75 .  Next were two hats with the New Orleans Saint’s logo that sold for $25 each, one to Bruce Erickson and one to PP Angie Rush.  PP Ric Schmidt advised that he has 9 computers 💻 being refurbished for donation to our partners at AK Child and Family and the Armed Services YMCA 👏. The computers were donated by PP Debra Mason’s firm Thomas, Head and Greisen.   Ric also had items for auction.  Bottles Jamaican rum sold to PP Art Clark. Irish whiskey was bid to $50 by Bruce Erickson.

President Jay opened a discussion about our club’s financial status 🧾.  He advisedthat we are $ 6,500 short of our budget in fund raising.  There was some confusion with members thinking that meant we have a actual deficit.  We don’t.  What the deficit means is we can’t fund some donations that we anticipated.  One of those agencies is AK Child and Family and agency official, Angie Rush told us what they really want is our continued volunteering for their annual Alaska Flag Day celebration on July 9.  President-Elect Becky Erickson gave us an overview of her upcoming fund raiser, Colonial Flag Day this coming July Fourth at the Park Strip. We will be soliciting/selling sponsorship for flags to be displayed.  Becky is hoping to get involvement from various community organizations such as Anchorage Fire Department and veterans organizations, as well as individuals and businesses.  Bruce Erickson thinks our failure to meet our projected budget arises from us having become “lazy” at fund raising while acknowledging that we are a much smaller club than we used to be.

We adjourned on time at 1:00 PM following Ginger George-Smith’s winning the split-the-pot drawing.  She donated the prize back to the club.

Meeting was brought to order by Al Biss reprising his role as president in the absence of Jay Tung 🔔.  There were 26 members and guests in the room plus 3 on Zoom 🙌.   PP Ric Schmidt led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  Terry Nelson had a thought-for-the-day🧐 regarding not letting the fear of failure preventing you from trying.  

Wasting no time, PP/Acting President Al moved quickly to Sergeant @ Arms PP Kevin Fimon💰.  First up with $5 happy Friday dollars 💸 was PP Bruce Erickson who recounted riding to the President Elect Training Seminar and sitting next to a high school aged kid who was a member of the Key Club at his school.  Kid didn’t know of Rotary.  Bruce signed him up for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards(RYLA).  Presumably Bruce was traveling with President Elect Becky Erickson and had some role as a presenter.  Traditionally attendees were discouraged from bringing family so they could be totally immersed in all things Rotary during the seminar.  Dodie Pruessner introduced her guest, husband Robin Cole 👏.  Ginger George-Smith offered $5 to tell of her recent visit to Whistler Mountain for skiing ⛷️ and celebration of her 43 wedding anniversary 💐.  President-Elect Becky Erickson spoke of the need to recruit for    at places like Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Mountain Church, and King Tech. In support for that effort she offered a Italian orange flavored olive oil cake for auction.  Kevin Fimon was the successful bidder at $100 🥧.  Becky also had some pins reflecting the years motto of our incoming RI president, Hope in the World.  PP Angie Rush had $5 to celebrate her 8 years membership in Rotary.  Sheri Showalter was happy for Friday to the tune of $5.  Visiting Anchorage Rotarian Steve recounted meeting our former long time member Keith Bell last week when both were making up at a club in North Carolina.  PP Tryg Erickson gave $5 in promotion of his/our annual Iditarod Re-start party 🐕 . PP Ric Schmidt brought 3 computers for our long standing program at North Star School.  PP/PDG Ted Trueblood chided his brother Tim Trueblood who was attending via Zoom from his new home in South Dakotas.  It was 42 below zero there last week.  Jess Snider recounted the story of a water line break that flooded the street at the end of his driveway last Sunday.  He was grateful for the prompt repairs by Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility 👏.  Terry Nelson had $5 for her happy return from an Australian and New Zealand vacation 🌍.  Linda Duneganliked the idea of Terry Nelson becoming enamored with those southern locations and maybe  move there.  That would prompt Linda to get a PhD and take Terry’s job at UAA.  No sign that Terry is leaving so Linda will just need to get the PhD on “spec.”  Jeanne Brady is gave $5 to celebrate her first year in Rotary as well as her upcoming attendance as the Alaska representative at a juvenile justice seminar.  PP Debra Mason reminded us that the Rondy Mellow drama 🎟️ is 70% sold out.  Last item was Kevin gave $5 in thanks to newish member Monika Fair’s help in feeding Claire House last week 🙌.  They tried to do something different and supplied a dinner from Smoke House Barbecue.

The speaker was introduced by PP Al Biss.  The nature Center is operated in partnership with the Alaska State Parks.  That partnership was formed in 1995 from a desire by the State to have a management operator who could use market forces to exploit the potential of the facility more successfully.  An example of that is the availability of several yurts and cabins for daily rental.  When asked if members had any experience with those rentals several had.  Jeanne Brady recounted her positive experiences.  The cabins and yurts are an easy hike, all less than 2 miles, from the trail head and include firewood for heating.  They are enjoyed winter and summer by renters.

The headquarters building and property were purchased from the original homesteader, John Barclay in 1980.  At that time, the building was being operated as the Paradise Haven Restaurant. At least one of our older members recalls racing motorcycles there at the racetrack Mr. Barclay maintained.  That use was not popular with his neighbors and was the impetus for neighbors encouraging the legislature to fund the buy-out.

Mr. Kane first came here as a summer volunteer at the Nature Center in 2019.  He enjoyed it so much he retired from his career in academia in Washington, DC to move to Alaska, taking on the job as executive director at the center.  

Recent additions are a platform where visitors can watch several species of salmon spawn in August and September.  He had photos of the new deck that overlooks this freshwater brook and beaver pond that runs year round at 39 degrees.  It is an impressive structure.  Another project is to label the local growth with both their English and Dena’ina names.  

The Center includes 10 miles of maintained trails.  There are several loop trails with walking distances of less than 3 miles with shorter options.  The center is also the terminus of the Crow Pass trail from Girdwood.  That trail is generally on the path of the historic Iditarod Trail.  

The Center has volunteer opportunities  for garden and trail maintenance as well as  resident park caretaker.  They are planning on establishing a artist in residence program.

• Safe Families which assists at risk families as well as established foster families that need support or assistance during such times as the hospitalization of a family member or homelessness of a parent
• Family support Centers facilitates foster children remaining in contact with birth parents and siblings.
• The Heart Gallery of Alaska raises public awareness of the need for adoption and fostering.  Last year 115 families attended orientations learning about opportunities and needs of foster children.
• Bargain Boutique is a thrift store that offers donated items that helps fund the other activities of Beacon Hill and provides needed items to clients for free.  The Thrift store is located at 2807 Arctic Boulevard.

Past President Bruce Erickson conducted the meeting for our traveling President Jay Tung.  Chera Boom led us in the Pledge of Allegiance🇺🇸.  PP Art Clark offered a thought-for-the-day 🤔 attributed to Helen Keller. “Keep your face always toward the sun and you cannot see the shadow.” Art rejected the suggestion that all Helen Keller could see was shadows!  Visiting Rotarians were Woody Angst from East and Jerry Wolfe from Hillside 👏 .  

Monika Fair gave her Classification Talk to qualify for, and received her blue AIR membership badge🥇.  MS Fair operates Eye Candy Lashes on Old Seward highway near Dowling road since 2018. Also receiving their blue badge was Linda Dunegan 👏.

President Elect Becky Erickson briefed us on the pre PETS (President Elect Training Seminar) study that she has been assigned .  She has been appointing her board and has chosen a fund raiser.  We will be participating in the Colonial Flag Foundation event this coming fourth of July on the Park Strip 🇺🇸.  We will be selling American flags to individuals and groups for $50 for display at the event.

PP Sergeant @ Arms Kevin Fimon 💰reminded us that we are expected to wear our Rotary pin every day.  Those not wearing it today were expected to tender a one dollar fine 💵.  Jeanne Brady donated a dollar for the joy of it being Friday.  Jules Tileston gave $1 in appreciation of getting old and having successfully finding a new primary care 👨‍⚕️.  Dodie Pruessner just returned from a cruise 🚢 in the Sea of Cortez advised that her mother, Anchorage Rotarian Dora Gropp continues to be “up and down” health wise. Bill Pearson grudgingly gave $1 for his lack of a Rotary pin.  PP Angie Rush and PP Art Clark each gave $5 to celebrate Friday 👏 . Chera Boom introduced a guest, but your editor failed to catch his name.  Nelson Defendorf gave $5 for having ridden his snow machine 🛷 200 miles in the past few days back and forth from his compound at Towhead Lake northwest of Skwentna.   PP Joe Zimmerman donated in gratitude for there having been no IT issues during his term as president.  That was long enough ago that ones and zeros had barely been invented 😂.  PP Al Biss is soliciting the membership for volunteers to assist the AIR Memorial Scholarship board in reviewing scholarship applications.  Former member John Trueblood was welcomed back.  Jason Baer was $2 worth of happy.  PP Debra Mason encouraged us to get tickets for the Rondy Mellow drama soon as they routinely sell out.   🙌 Debra believes that it is the best yet although neither she or Chera Boom, also involved, can recall the name of the play!

An Anchorage East Rotarian for 45 years Mr. Angst was known to many of us for his work with the Rotary Student Exchange program for decades.  

Woody worked on his son’s fishing site on Raspberry Island near Kodiak Island.  Among the things that make it a interesting enterprise is that the operation goes from shutdown and buttoned up to shut down buttoned up in 12 summer weeks.

There are three main types of salmon fishery in Alaska, trolling, drift netting and set netting. 

A set net is anchored to the shore at one end and to a float about 600 feet perpendicular to the shore.  The net can be as much as 90 feet deep and held at the top by small floats called corks.  The net is held vertically by a lead line at the bottom. The fish become entangled in the net by their gills as they try to swim through the net.  To harvest the caught fish the entire net must be pulled on to a small boat and the fish separated/untangled from the net.  From the photos Woody showed it looked like incredibly hard work!  The fish are kept in a icy brine from the time they are taken from the net until the tender, a larger boat operated by the fish processor picks them up. The time fishing is controlled by the State Department of Fish and Game and known as openers.  Between the fishing time there seemed to be a never ending task of cleaning and repairing the nets and other equipment.

This lifelong Alaskan found the program to be informative and fascinating.  Particularly those of us living in Southcentral Alaska are unaware of the mechanics of our oldest one of our largest industries.

For the second week in a row President Jay choose to abbreviate the regular meeting to provide more time for a special program.  The club welcomed 30 members and guests.  Visiting Rotarians were Doug Schrage from Anchorage Rotary, Spencer Madden from South and Jerry Wolfe from Hillside.  PP Angie Rush gave the thought-for-the-day, from author Maya Angelou.  “As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, and other for helping others.”  President Jay expressed appreciation to PP Joe Zimmerman and those who attended the successful Fireside Thursday night at the Zimmerman’s. Sergeant-at-arms PP Kevin Fimon conducted a quick circuit for happy bucks and then it was on to the program.

It is often said that that best salesperson for a product or service is a satisfied customer.  Nelson Defendorf and fiancé Cindy El-Khoury are that. They have a happy ending story about Anchorage Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service.  About 7 years ago Nelson was feeling “off.”  Called for medical advice to an insurance hotline and they recommended that he see a medical provider.  He was changing clothes in their home when he collapsed. Nelson had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest.  Cindy heard him fall and on investigating found Nelson unresponsive.  She immediately called 911.  The tapes of that call were played and are chilling.  Using a relatively new procedure the 911 operator at the AFD dispatch center co-located with fire Station 12 near Diamond and New Seward quickly prompted Cindy to commence CPR.  Traditionally the dispatcher would have had many questions.  How old is the person, were they feeling poorly, medical history and other similar questions.  Under the newer policy there are just two questions.  Is the patient conscious and are they breathing? If the answer to those is “no” they immediately have the caller commence CPR.  The memory items of this procedure are “NO, NO, GO!”  The dispatcher will talk the caller through the procedure, step by step. They even start a metronome to assist with the timing of compressions.  The statistical results of this procedure are remarkable. A surprising fact given was how effective CPR is.  Paramedic Gallagher related that it is not uncommon for patients to awaken during CPR.  The procedure is effective enough that blood circulation to the brain will have effectively brought the person back from the dead.  Not restarted the heart but temporarily replaced it!  He told the story to emphasize the point to not stop CPR until relieved or directed to by a professional.

Introducing the team of AFD professionals was Chief Doug Schrage.  Presenting was Dr. Michael Levy AFD’s consulting medical advisor, Stephanie Wolf a dispatch supervisor and, Eric Gallagher a firefighter/paramedic.  They spoke of how emergency medical services function as a team.  They include in their discussion of the team non-professional bystanders.  Immediate start of CPR has shown to improve survival by 2 to 3 times.  Recognition of the need is critical, bringing up the NO, NO, GO for citizens.  What they call the “chain of survival” includes Recognition, Early CPR, defibrillation, Advanced Life Support (ALS), and post cardiac care.  

There was a question as to why emergency breathing is no longer taught?  Dr. Levy explained that breathing doesn’t become critical if heart function is being maintained until about 5 minutes into the event.

A final take-away was that even without training on CPR and the use of the automatic defibrillator the 911 call taker can talk you through to potentially save a life.

It was a memorable important program!