President Kelli Thode started the 22^nd meeting of the year and the 5,622^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett with the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Kari Quaas presented a quote from the 1986 iconic movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Bueller? Bueller? Bueller?

 

Dick Schlosser introduced his niece, Shannon Schlosser, who recently opened a boutique garden and home goods store called Moss and Marigold. The store is located at 2809 Colby Ave. Welcome to the neighborhood!

 

Will McMaMahan introduced his wife, Robin.

 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Ashley Bolden announced Rotary Coffee Hour at 9:00AM Wednesday, December 10 at Kel’s Café located at 1909 Hewitt Ave.

 

Rotary After Hours. Wednesday, December 17 families are invited to see the live reindeer at the Pacific Rim Plaza. The reindeer will be on display from 2:00 to 5:00 with hot chocolate available after 4:00. Then we will move indoors to the Hotel Indigo Jetty Bar for Rotary After Hours and hot totties.

 

Tammy Dunn announced the FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament Final Draw Event/Party on December 5, 2025, from 9AM to Noon at the Sound2Summit Brewery located at 1710 W. Marine View Dr. They will watch the drawing of the 42 countries that will be playing, including the U.S. Men’s National Team, in the World Cup tournament and the location where they will be playing.

 

President Kelli Thode reminded the members about the Blood Drive scheduled on December 22 at the Everett Elks Club. We are have over 450 units collected. Way to GO!

 

Roy Yates Memorial is scheduled for December 21 at the First Presbyterian Church of Everett.

 

Strategic Planning Committee meeting dates are either January 14 or January 21 from 4 to 8:00PM. The final date will be announced soon. Stay tuned.

 

Krissy Davis is working on updating the information in the Membership Directory. You can send your contact information to Krissy or you can wait for her to send you an email to compete and return.

 

Sharon from the Hotel Indigo announced there will be a Holiday Bazaar this Saturday from 10:00 to 4:00 in the hotel meeting rooms. There will be three non-profit organizations at the event with chances to win raffle prizes. The Everett Choir will be performing and there will be several venders showing their Christmas gifts.

 

Jennifer Hem, our newest member, gave a wonderful Classification Talk about her family, travel and hobbies, and career. She has two children. Her daughter Madiline works at Cocoon House, and her other Claire works at BECU. She enjoys traveling with the most recent trip to Mexico. Jennifer has worked in every level of the financial services industry for 35 years. Currently, she is District Director of the North District at Boeing Employees’ Credit Union covering from Woodinville to Bellingham. BECU is a member-owned not-for-profit cooperative with 65 locations and 20 additional locations coming soon.

Her classification is: Nonprofit Financial Institution

 

Paul Stoot was a sad bell ringer for the loss of two influential people in his life who died within two weeks of each other. Lenny Wilkens and Kenny Easley. Paul is responsible for planning Kenny’s celebration of life in Norfolk, Virgina and here in Seattle.

 

Kari Petrasek was happy for a successful trip to the Dominican Republic where they dedicated the opening of two school gardens. One of the schools is the childhood school of Seattle Mariners Star, Julio Rodriguez

 

Betsy Baker returned from 10 days in Maui celebrating her 55th birthday.

 

Krissy Davis celebrated an early bird Thanksgiving with all her brothers and sisters, parents and kids all together for the first time in 6 years. Pretty Cool!

 

Kelli Thode was happy to pick up her son, daughter-in-law and new 2-month-old grandson from the airport this morning. She will have all four of her children together for the first time in five years.

 

RAFFLE: Ashley Bolden

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

 

Kari Quaas presented information about the City of Everett Wintertide Tree Lighting Celebration. Friday, November 28, from 2:00PM to 8:00PM at the intersection of Colby and Hewitt. Join the afternoon and evening festivities in downtown Everett with movies, dancers, ice skating, arts and music and food trucks. Santa will arrive in a firetruck with Rucker the Fire Dog to light the tree with magical snowfall. Please check out the Visit Everett Wintertide website at visiteverett.com/wintertide.

 

Janice Ellis gave an update on our Rotary Youth Exchange student, Hakumi Matsumoto, from Kanazawa, Japan. Hakumi is getting ready to move to his second host family and is enjoying Everett High School. He has an interest in being a history teacher and he enjoys all kinds of books. Hakumi is also interested in participating in a District 5050 YES Program Youth Engaged in Service weeklong trip to Guatemala. He is required to complete 80 service hours to be eligible to participate. He is looking for volunteer opportunities so contact Janice if you have any ideas.

 

Janice encouraged members to reach out to Hakumi with support and offer to include him in any activities with your family. Some possibilities are tickets to events, money, boating, snow skiing, ice skating, or museums. A Sushi crawl is possibly in the works. His birthday is January 23^rd and a party is being planned. Stay tuned.  Janice also has a box with Christmas cards she would like club members to write a note to Hakumi about their childhood Christmas memories or whatever you want to write to him then return the card to Janice. Finally, there is a need for a host family for the last few months of Hakumi’s stay from March/April to June 2026. If you are interested, please contact Janice.

 

President Kelli Thode reminded the members about Rotary International Foundation Month. It is not too late to support Rotary International by making a donation directly or by purchasing a “Deck of a Deal” playing card for a chance to win a Paul Harris Fellow. Talk to Sandy to make a contribution before the end of the year.

 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Photographs Submitted,