There were 28 Rotarians in attendance and 4 via ZOOM.

 

Prior to the meeting Past President Mark Valentine, Past President Steve Juntwait, our exchange student Tobi and I were talking, and we were saying how well Tobi is speaking English. From there the conversation turned to Tobi’s Spring break trip to the Dominican Republic and his role as the translator for both the World Community Service committee group and also, for the Dominicans.  A question was asked of Tobi if with all the Spanish speaking groups he has come in contact with are there any different dialects that he can’t understand.  He said the one that comes to mind is Chile, which has some of its own dialects, but otherwise, he can understand all other Spanish speakers without difficulty.  This led to what Mark learned about languages in India, which has 121 recognized languages with over 1,369 dialects.  I know this is a far cry from the start of our conversation concerning English.  You never know what will transpire in the minutes before our Rotary meeting starts.

 

President Michael Kvistad let us in the Pledge of Allegiance and to the beginning of our 42^nd meeting of the year and the 5,592^nd meeting of the Rotary Club of Everett.

 

Ashley Bolden’s Thought of the Day came from a quote from President Obama.  “Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time.  We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.  We are the change that we seek”.

 

There were no visiting Rotarians at today’s meeting. 

 

At last week’s meeting Liz Stenning told us about Sip & Shop (a wine/spirit walk and shopping opportunity) in downtown Everett on May 1^st between 4:00 and 8:00 pm.

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President Michael received the following good news concerning last week’s blood drive from President Elect Kelli Thode.  25 units of blood were collected which will/has impacted 75 lives in our community.  Pranal, the Rotaract President spent the entire day at the registration desk helping the other Rotary volunteers.

 

Don’t forget the EPIC Day of Service on May 17^th from 9:00 am - 12:00 pm at the Van Valey House and at the Everett Museum of History.

 

Anna Marie Laurance was $20.00 happy for the volunteers who helped at last Saturday’s Scholarship interviews.

 

Steve Miller gave a $100.00 bellringer. His daughter recently graduated with a master’s degree from Pepperdine. She will also be getting married later this summer and she and her fiancé will be moving to the Seattle area and closer to home.

 

President Michael gave an update on his daughter’s 6^th grade basketball team that last year were defeated in all of their games.  This year they tied their first game and recently won their second game.  The taste of victory was overwhelming.

 

Janice Ellis gave $100.00 as a thank you to the World Community Service committee and her trip to the Dominican Republic.  She was very complimentary of our exchange student Tobi and how he was not only a translator but also a great ambassador.  After leaving the DR, Janice travelled to Washington D.C to visit her daughter.

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Past President Tammy Dunn donated 3 sets/days of AquaSox tickets to be auctioned off.  President Michael started the bidding and non-other than the perpetual auction winner, Past President Neil Angst, won with a $25.00 bid.

 

Winner number 1 - Jerry Tucker won a Tee Shirt and some candy.

 

Winner number 2 - Past President Steve Miller won a button down shirt and some candy.

 

Winner number 3 - Past President Will McMahan won some candy and a UW tumbler.

 

Vice President & President Elect Nominee Kari Petrasek along with Past President Ed Petersen gave us the following update on what has transpired with the World Community Service projects in the Dominican Republic.

 

Since 2015 our club’s World Community Service committee has made 22 trips to the Dominican Republic and 34 people have gone on those trips.  The work we do is in conjunction with the Dajabon Rotary Club (local DR club) and recently with the Arlington Rotary Club.

 

Here is what we do:

Here is what we have done.

 

President Elect Kelli Thode could not make it to this meeting as she is in Montana attending her son’s wedding. Presenter/ Host extraordinaire Past President John Olson stepped in to announce the winners of the prizes, but before that John wanted to thank all the contributors and their contributions that amounted to close to $51,000.00, that included a

$10,000.00 anonymous gift (thank you very much!)

 

To save space I left titles off of the names shown below.

Everett Museum of History; presented by Barbara George and Rebecca Monaghen

 

President Michael adjourned the meeting at 1:00 pm

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Photography Submitted by.