President Michael Kvistad started the 48^th meeting of the year and the 5,598^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett with the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Ashley Bolden presented a quote by Walt Disney. “If you can dream it, you can do it.”

 

Walt Greenwood led the members with a rousing sing a long of, “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” complete with an ukulele.

 

Anna Marie Laurence introduced her sister-in-law, Sonya Laurence Green, the first women club president of her club in Nairobi. Paul Stout introduced Julia Laurence, the daughter of Anna Marie Laurence. She worked with the Barack Obama administration.

 

President Michael District 5050 is looking for a licensed lawyer to volunteer for the District Crisis Management Team.

 

Kari Quaas AVID Shopping Spree was last Tuesday and Wednesday. Nine out of ten students attended.

 

Greg Tisdel, Will McMahan, Ashley Bolden, Walt Greenwood and Janice Ellis participated in helping the students spend $600 each for college school supplies.

 

Ed Petersen introduced Brock Howell, Executive Director of the Everett Station District Alliance.  Brock invited the club to join him at the Everett Station District Street Fair. June 18^th from 5 to 8:00 PM located on 32^nd Street between Smith & Paine Ave in front of Everett Station. There will be 70+ vendors, Bouncy Houses, food trucks, and Arts and Crafts vendors.

 

Janice Ellis was not present, but she needs to find host families for next school year’s Rotary Youth Exchange. She had it all lined up, but 3 host families have backed out at the last minute. Please contact Janice if you or someone you know is interested in being a Youth Exchange host family.

 

Brian Hollingshead would like to see all of us at the Rotary After Hours Thursday, June 26th at the Courtyard by Marriott on Colby 5:00pm to 6:30pm.

 

Bob Beal passed away April 26. There will be a Celebration of Life on June 14^th from 3:00 to 6:00 at the Hilton Garden Inn Seattle North/ Everett. Near Paine Field.

 

Kari Quaas was happy Sorticulture was a great success again this year and she enjoyed the lovely lunch at Anna Marie’s house for the Rotary Scholarship Committee.

 

Betsy Baker-Bold survived being hit by her kite board just below her right eye. She has a large contusion but appears to be healing well.

 

Liz Stenning was a bell ringer happy about her recent vacation to Copenhagen, Stockholm, Oslo and all over Norway where she found her great, great, great grandparents’ headstone.

 

Ed Petersen was a bell ringer about the Everett Station District Alliance acquisition of property near the light rail station in Everett. The property will be developed in two phases with 60 units of low/affordable income housing and the second phase will be market rate housing and commercial space.

 

President Michael was happy and frustrated about his failed attempt to acquire party ballons to celebrate his wife being selected the assistance chief of the Juvenal Prosecutor’s office in King County.

 

Paul Stout was a bell ringer happy that the Rise Up Academy has receive $1 million from the State of Washington to build a new facility at the current Rise Up Academy location and to also build a second facility on the vacant land on the corner of Rucker and Pacific.

 

Megan Dunn was happy about her recent trip to Brussels and Iceland to look at their clean energy projects and hike on icebergs and see beautiful waterfalls.

 

Brian Hollingshead thanked Anna Marie for a lovely lunch for the members of the Scholarship Committee.

 

President Michael asked that we all donate a cash tip to our lunch server, Kim, that we will present to her at the Changing of the Guard meeting July 2.  Sandy will collect the money at the next meeting.

 

There was a reminder to donate more prizes to the Raffle Committee.

Anna Marie Laurence introduced our speaker, Matt Freniere, Co-founder of Cold Steppe and former commanding officer of the USS Henry M. Jackson, an Ohio-class nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine named for the late Washington Senator and father of our own Everett Rotarian, Anna Marie Laurence. Cold Steppe was founded by two retired US Navy Submariners, Kevin Crow and Matt Freniere, and is a service-disabled veteran owned small business certified by the United States Small Business Administration.

 

Cold Steppe processes agriculture residue into a soil amendment there by improving soil health and food security. They picked Stuttgart, Arkansas as the site of their first facility due to proximity to where nearly 50% of the rice produced in the United States is grown. Nourishing Burn is their name for the biochar (Biological charcoal) soil amendment that creates a “coral reef” for the soil that will provide better nutrient availability, water retention and soil decompaction.

 

The process takes agricultural residue like rice hulls and heats it up in a kiln to about 700 degrees in a low oxygen environment. This creates a chemical transformation turning the plant material into a charcoal like material. It is a pores material with a large surface area so it can hold on to all of the fertility treatments like nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, reducing the need for more fertilizers in the soil protecting the environment and decreasing costs to the farmer.

 

The business model has three primary products. Biochar for agriculture soil amendment and carbon capture, renewable energy production and carbon tax credits to help offset global warming.

 

Biochar works beneath the surface of soil by adding carbon back into the soil maintaining nutrients, increases bacterial and fungal activity resulting in increased root biomass and root length which is great for root plants like potatoes and sugar beets. This all adds to increased crop yield for a hungry world. The carbon stays in the soil for years and is not depleted over time.

 

President Michael thanked Matt for an interesting and informative talk that took me back to my days in the wheat fields of the beautiful Palouse.

 

NEXT PROGRAM: David Lukov and Janice Ellis – Friendship Exchange visit.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Photographs Submitted,