Log Report 11-04-25

 

Today we celebrate a curious mix of milestones: Voting Day, the anniversary of King Tut’s tomb discovery, and National Common Sense Day, it feels fitting that sending/turning in our ballots is our modern treasure hunt, guided by the wisdom of common sense and the joy of community service.  Whether uncovering ancient wonders or exercising civic duty, we’re reminded that true riches lie in participation, fairness, and fellowship.

 

President Kelli Thode led us in the Pledge of Allegiance and into her/our 19th meeting of the year and our 5,619^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett. There were 26 Rotarians in attendance.

 

Past President Larry O’Donnell, dressed out in red, white, and blue for Voting Day, told us about a new Ken Burns documentary coming out about the American Revolution.

 

Past President Larry was fortunate to have met Ken and when he did, he thanked him for all he has done.  As you watch the documentary, remind yourself of what is written in our Declaration of Independence.

 

 

Ashley Bolden introduced her oldest daughter, Bailey, who is enjoying a legitimate day off from school and is also delighted for the beginning of her birthday month.

 

President Kelli made the following announcements:

Ashley’s office (Keller-Williams) is collecting coats to provide to children, individuals, and families in need.  Feel free to drop off your donation to Keller-Williams or bring them to Rotary and Ashley will take them to her office for you.

 

Past President Greg Tisdale is organizing the Strategic Planning discussion that will take place in January.  More information to come.

 

Ryan Willis will be attending the November 8^th Rotary Success Seminar in Mount Vernon, others are welcome to join in.  Contact Ryan if interested. The meeting starts at 9:00 am.

 

Barb George was happy to announce that she is helping out Rotaract in collecting food for them and that each of us can help by filling bags with non-perishable food and bringing them to give to her at Rotary or by dropping off those bags to the Van Valey House on Thursday, Friday, or Saturdays between 1:00 and 4:00 pm.  She also invited all of us to come through the Van Valey House during the Christmas season to marvel at the ornaments that Ed Morrow had carved and painted.

 

Henry Janiki gave a bell ringer for a friend who passed away and how fortunate he was for having spent time listening to and learning from that older person.

 

Playing off Henry’s comment, Past President Michael Kvistad was $100.00 happy to say that He misses his partner who was 25 years older than himself and full of knowledge and experiences that can’t be duplicated.  Young looking Michael is only 9 years younger than the current oldest person in his office. Part of his Happy Dollars were for a birthday, an anniversary, and the peaceful period between volleyball and basketball seasons.

 

Janice Ellis’s $200.00 was for Ralph and Roy, people you could look up to and count on and it was also for the people she met while recently volunteering for the Red Cross in Alaska.  The families she was helping had lost their homes and possessions to floods in their remote village and were taken to Anchorage for shelter.  Many of the kids had never been far from home and for them to see and ride an escalator and an elevator in the big city had to be a cultural shock to them.  Luckily, the Red Cross had a compassionate person like Janice to help these families adjust in a safe environment.

 

Paul Stoot has been driving for 47 years and last week while visiting in Portland he was given a Tesla to drive by a friend of a friend.  He walked out to the car in the pouring rain and couldn’t figure out how to open the door, A kid of the friend of the friend showed him how to get in the car and observed that Paul had no clue how to start the car so the kid showed how to get the car started and drove around with Paul for a while to give him a tutorial before Paul was comfortable enough to go on his own.  Did I mention the Tesla screen and getting access to GPS?  That is another story.

 

President Elect Kari Petrasek gave $20.00 in celebration of her 19^th wedding anniversary.

 

Bailley drew the following winning tickets:

 

Winner number 1 - Past President Andy Hall selected the Rotary license plate holder and the candy.

 

Winner number 2 - Lynsey Gagnon selected the Soap container and a box of Trix candy.

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Winner number 3 - Past President Larry got the Wine and candy.

 

President Kelli introduced Past President Greg Lineberry who will be talking to us about Rotary Foundation Month but before that she thanked him for getting the Club Technology ready as we faced huge challenges with COVID.

 

Past President Greg said that Past President Roy embraced being able to join the meetings from home, but he didn’t embrace technology at all.  Greg spent some time on several occasions at Roy’s home helping him get set up.  The only thing he couldn’t get Roy to do was to get his camera in the right location for us to see his face.  On the opposite side of embracing the ZOOM method of Rotary meeting attendance was Ralph who did everything he could to help secure on-site meeting spaces for our club and to attend those meetings in person.

 

Greg gave us an early history of Rotary.

The goal for our club this year is to donate $15,000.00 - $20,000.00 to Rotary International.  We have 80 members in our club, so to get to this goal Greg will be contacting each of us and encouraging us to donate in various ways.  These funds help our own Club with our international service projects that have all received piggyback grants from Rotary International that have helped us provide huge benefits to the groups we serve.

 

When Greg contacts you for your help please do what you can to help the cause.

 

Rotary Youth Exchange Student Presentation - Hakumi

 

President Kelli adjourned the meeting at 1:03 PM

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Photography Submitted by.