There were approximately 17 ZOOMERS and 35 in person Rotarians, Students of the Month, Parents and Career Specialists who enjoyed a catered lunch and Valentine’s Day inspired music.  Vice President Michael Kvistad had a play list that included Groove Me by King Floyd, You’re Still the One by Shania Twain, and What the World Needs Now by Dionne Warwick.  All of the attendees and the music set the mood as we glided into the Meeting.

 

The 31^st meeting or our Rotary year and the 5,483^rd meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett started at the noon hour.  Vice President Michael took the reins, as President Tammy Dunn was off for some well-deserved R&R and led all of us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

 

Vice President Michael talked about the love songs (inspired by this being Valentine’s Day) he selected for today’s pre-meeting time frame and said that 70% of all songs are love songs or friendship songs.  Vice President Michael referred back to the September 20^th meeting when during the Thought of The Day he mentioned the 17^th century poet Jean de La Fontaine who said “Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer”.  He noted that in his Rotary friendships he has been inspired by Kaye Phinney and Past President Steve Miller.

 

Past President Mark Valentine introduced his Valentine (wife) Michelle, the parents. of out Everett High School Student of the Month, Dave, and Wendy Needham, and Everett High’s Career Specialist Jen Selders.

 

Brian Hollingshead introduced the parents of our Cascade High School Student of the Month, Jennifer, and David Burns and Cascade High’s College and Career Specialist Trish Roberts.

 

Ian Saltzman introduced the mother of our Sequoia High School student of the month.

 

Amanda Abernathy (I hope I didn’t completely botch her name) introduced herself as a visitor to our club,  She is the daughter of one of our past members, Paul Dennis.

   

Brian Hollingshead reported that the next Happy Hour opportunity will be on Thursday, February 23^rd between the hours of 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm at the Marriot on Colby.

 

Heather Barnhart reminded us that the next quarterly Blood Drive, put on by our club and the Everett Elks, with be on March 31^st at the Everett Elks Lodge. Please contact Heather or Kelle Thode for details.

 

Jim Staniford is selling tickets to the Everett Silvertips Hockey game on March 12^th. The proceeds will benefit Dawson Place.  The cost of the tickets are as follows: $20.00 each, (2) for $35.00, (3) for $50.00, (5) or more for $10.00 each. Please

  See Jim for your tickets, he may have other cost choices that I missed.

 

President Elect Neil Angst did not have a formal announcement of his upcoming fund raiser but he did thank those who have already pledged and donated. He sees no reason that he’ll have to ask his friend, with the Brass Knuckles, to help him once the fund raiser kicks off in high gear.

 

Kelly Shepherd was happy that the EHS Interact Club has been resurrected.  The Club is going to have a fund raiser, selling EHS Sweatshirts, with the proceeds going to adopt a classroom which is part of our Clubs Dajabon Literacy Project.  Please contact Kelly to find our how we can purchase sweatshirts in support of the Interact Club. Kelly was also happy that the school celebrated the 50^th anniversary of EHS’s first girls 5 on 5 basketball team, which was one of the first teams formed after the passage of Title 9. After writing down all this information I neglected to hear the amount of the Happy $$$.

 

Walt Greenwood was $100.00 happy to announce his birthday plus a few extra dollars.

 

Rich Toyer was also $100.00 happy. He went to a Spine Specialist because he was having a very difficult time walking for the last few months and whatever that Specialist did has helped Rich immensely and his ease of walking has returned.

 

1.  Jim Schrader won red wine and chocolates.

 

2.  Past President Steve Miller won wine and a coveted bookmark made by Past President Mark Valentine.

 

3.  Past President Steve Juntwait won a free lunch.

 

Brian Hollingshead introduced Kadyn Boyle, our Student of the Month from Cascade High School.  Kadyn is described by her teachers as a hard worker with a quick mind, a great work ethic, courteous, and she excels in all that she takes on.  Besides working in the classroom she also works outside of school at Panera Bread.  Kadyn is on the National Honor Society with a 3.95 GPA and she would like to major in Zoology/Biology at Oregon State University.

 

Past President Mark Valentine introduced Blake Needham, our Student of the Month from Everett High School.  Blake has been in the ORGA (Ocean Research College Academy) Program on the Everett waterfront for the last year and a half but he still is involved in EHS’s leadership class and frequently audits other classes on campus to stay connected with his friends and school.  He is very interested in videography and has led a group of others in helping all who attend EHS to feel included by being videotaped and posted on an EHS Youtube.  His teachers have praised Blake for his motivation, brightness, great ideas and vision. He works at Starbuck’s and in the summers has worked at Camp Prov. and communicated with deaf children with his knowledge of sign language. Blake also participates in Tennis and Track at EHS.  He would like to attend the University of Washington and major in either Business Computer Sciences or Architecture.

 

Ian Saltzman introduced Eve Quintana, our Student of the Month from Sequoia High School. Eve is very motivated, determined, and has been a model student at SHS.  She has been involved on the yearbook staff and according to her teachers she can take on any task and excel at it.  She also takes Criminology classes at Sno Isle Skill Center. Eve plans to graduate early from SHS and attend Florida State University with a desire to major in Criminal Justice and someday work for the FBI.

 

Vice President Michael presented each student with a certificate and a Rotary button and thanked them for coming to our meeting today and congratulated them on their scholastic accomplishments.

 

Vice President Michael introduced Bill Reed, a Business consultant with MFR Law Group, who specializes in Consumer Fraud and will be talking to us today about how we can minimize the changes of our companies and ourselves of becoming victims of fraud.

 

Bill is a former member of our club and had taught at Everett Community College for 18 years, worked at Microsoft as a Senior Operations Manager for 6 years and worked in various other positions at ICS Systems Corporation and Northern Telecom.

 

The 30 minutes of allotted time sped by quickly especially after a warmup of anecdotal information about fraud so Bill then went straight to his last “slides” on his Powerpoint presentation that was titled Takeaways and here are the highlights.

 

-  Cypercrime (Fraud) is the fastest growing crime in the United States.

   -   How do we mitigate the impact of fraud?

       -  Very secure passwords (12 characters mixed with capitals, numbers, etc.), change

          passwords several times a year.

       -  Don’t trust, do question, be diligent, be skeptical.

 

-  What age bracket is being targeted over the internet?

   -  The 20 - mid 30 year olds because they are the predominant users of the internet.

 

-  What age bracket suffers the most losses?

   -  Old people, they have the money.

 

-  Fraud protection is the responsibility of all of us. 

 

Snohomish County Council Update by Nate Nehring

 

Vice President Michael adjourned the meeting at 1:00 PM.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Photography Submitted by.