At Noon, President John opened the 24^th meeting of his tenure when the attendance on Zoom reached 40 Rotarians and guests. This was our 40^th virtual meeting and our 5,378^th meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett.

 

Tammy Dunn led the club in the Pledge of Allegiance. After President John thanked Tammy, he reminded all that he encourages volunteers like Tammy to lead the pledge at each luncheon meeting. 

 

The thought of the day was arranged by Zak Parpia and delivered by Will McMahan. Will started the meeting with a timely prayer for the season.

 

 

No visiting Rotarians. Guests included Max Olsen’s parents, Melissa and Rob, Madison Johnson’s mother, Gina, and Darcie Cooper, Cascade High School Advisor.

 

President John then led the induction ceremony for new member, Kyla McNulty.  Kyla is an experienced Rotarian who has served as President of Mill Creek Rotary. Kelly Shepard is sponsor.  Kyla works with YMCA of Snohomish County. President John encouraged Kyla to work with her sponsor and engage as a club member. Welcome to the club, Kyla!

 

Ed Petersen gave the club good news regarding the greenhouse gardens in Dominion Republic we are supporting. District 50/50 matched 100% our $30k budget and the Rotary Foundation is providing $107,000 for the project, totaling 60 gardens. The project is the first Micro-fund project in our District. Ed announced that we have found a micro-fund institution to administer the grants. Additionally, George Bowden announced that the Friends of Dominican Republic (former Peace Corp volunteers) approved $5000 for the greenhouse gardens. If you remember from November, the Friends of DR selected the club as their community partner of year. With all the extra funds committed, this brings the total to $115,000 for the project. George also announced the World Community Service meeting today at 5 pm. Additionally, a trip to the Dominican Republic when it is safe. Please contact George if you want to get more involved in the project or the community service group. 

 

President John announced that the club’s credit card processor is working our giving platform. Currently we have limited options to help protect the donor. We are trying to work with the processor to match giving options to our raffle. Also, there will be a $25 increase in dues. It will start in January. This is the first increase in many years and will enable our club to continue our projects.

 

Tammy Dunn provided an update on “Everett Interact Club” at Everett High. Tammy commented that it was a small but mighty group. Their theme is service over self. They are trying to launch social media platforms. The club is working with communities of need internationally with KIVA loans. Two projects currently in Vietnam and Liberia.  

 

Dr. Paul Stoot introduced the Cascade High SOTM, Cody Murrweiss. Darcie Cooper was his sponsor. Paul stated Cody’s personal highlights. Among his many accomplishments includes receiving his Eagle Scout rank. Cody thanked our club and is extremely grateful.  Cody is with the Snohomish Sheriff Explorer Post program. He wants to attend the Air Force Academy or will attend UW. He wants to be Air Force officer. He thanked his parents and teachers as well as his Scouting leaders.

 

Marybeth Dingleby introduced Madison Johnson as the SOTM from Everett High School. Madison was joined by her mom, Gina. Marybeth commented that the teachers see Madison as passionate and hardworking, especially with community service. Madison led the recent food drive. Madison was undeterred by COVID and because of her leadership, the drive collected over 3,000 pounds of food and over $1000 in just two days. Madison expressed her gratefulness for the honor. She thanked her parents and Mrs. Adams, her leadership teacher. Madison is involved in Honor Society and community service projects. She wants to continue to receive an education or social work degree. 

 

Judi Edwards presented Max Olsen, SOTM from Sequoia High School. Max was joined by his parents Melissa & Rob. Judi Edwards commented that his teachers consider Max to be extremely kind and a humble motivated student. Max enjoys video games and plans to go to Everett Community College and then UW to focus on a computer science degree with focus on coding. Max thanked everyone. He feels he just doing his work.

 

Amy Norman was happy as all wheelchairs that were secured in her presidency have been delivered to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. She commented that her happy dollars were for Greg Lineberry, George Bowden, and Ed Peterson, all who were quite involved in the wheelchair project.

 

Mark Baker was $100 happy. A former Rotary exchange student, Daniel Nielson was now residing in Copenhagen. Mark has started a fund to help support Daniel as he begins to work for UN. 

 

Roy Yates gave another bellringer gift. Roy and his bride, Barb and have been married for 60 years

 

Jack Robinson, currently in Canada was happy to promote the Candlelight Foundation that he supports. The Rotary Foundation is also helping the foundation. Two grants in Canada will provide support for immigrants and 1^st Nation’s people programs.

 

Wick Temple announced that you have one week now to donate to the RAFFLE! He thanked us for helping keep the raffle popular! Next week will the best raffle EVER, Will promise.

 

Tammy Dunn sent us a link to vote for the SportsEvents Readers' Choice Award. Please vote for Snohomish County Sports Commission and Angel of the Winds Arena using the following link: https://sportseventsmediagroup.com/vote-now-for-the-annual-readers-choice-awards/ Deadline to vote for us is Friday, December 18^th.

 

Kelli Thode chatted that she is giving $170 in Happy Bucks. She made multiple donations on the club website this morning for the Red Cross Heroes Breakfast that raised over $170,000 last week. She gave thanks for the support! The program video is now embedded directly on this page. https://nwwaheroes.givesmart.com/

 

Richard Schlosser let us know that he is giving a $100' donation. Richard commented that he is so proud to be a Rotarian and member of a club which has made such a dramatic difference in our local and world communities. He is also especially thankful to Henry Newton who went way above and beyond his daily workload to help a member of his family. 

 

Sean Kelly produced and moderated today’s fascinating program about journalism today and the internet as a platform for today’s journalists. His guests included Katie Herzog & Jesse Singal. Katie and Jesse are the producers of a Podcast called Blocked and Reported, a podcast about internet nonsense. Katie, from Bremerton was a journalist with the Stranger. Jesse is originally from Newton Mass and now lives in New York.    

 

About the show- Journalists Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal scour the internet for its craziest, silliest, most sociopathic content, part of an obsessive and ill-conceived attempt to extract kernels of meaning and humanity from a landscape of endless raging dumpster fires. (And sometimes they talk about other stuff, too.) 

 

The podcast can be found at: Free version: https://barpodcast.fireside.fm/ or For more content, including premium episodes, check out the Blocked and Reported Patreon page: http://patreon.com/blockedandreported.  Their Twitter accounts:   Katie:  https://twitter.com/kittypurrzog and Jesse’s: https://twitter.com/jessesingal

 

Sean hosted the discussion with Katie and Jesse on many topics, included the podcast as a thriving journalistic platform for writers to get their ideas out to a much broader audience. Katie and Jesse noted that journalists are finding it tougher to get thoughts out via traditional platforms such as newspapers and television due to set expectations. 

 

Podcasts are like a radio show that you can listen to anytime. It now dwarfs traditional media and has a lot of cultural pull.  There are no barriers to entry, especially as Google and Facebook started gaining big revenues from ads. Katie and Jesse are part of a wave - established journalists that have moved to podcasts and other reader paid platforms. 

 

Journalism works well if you have a personal brand. If you are new, can be extremely difficult to get make a career.

 

For more information on Katie and Jesse, please refer to the links provided below from the Zoom chatroom.

 

 

As the program ran long, President John thanked all who attended, especially our Students of the Months and invited all to stay longer to ask questions of Katie and Jesse. 

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

            

Photography Submitted,

 

 

“Christmas Program” presenter by the Everett High School Music Program