We were welcomed to the Meeting of Rotary Club of Everett on August 9, 2016 by greeters Katrina Koontz and Jessica Mitchell. Meeting #6 (#5164 for the club) was brought to order by Vice President Todd Morrow promptly at 12:08pm. After the Pledge of Allegiance, guests were introduced including Lance Balla, the new principal of Everett High School, as a guest of Ted Wenta. Tammy Walker introduced Mike Harness of Estate Planning NW, and Pastor Paul Stoot introduced his God-daughter Tienna Jones. Daniel Neilson, our prior Rotary Exchange Student was also present, introduced by Sonya Kraski. Our club meeting sponsor was United Way of Snohomish County, presented by Dennis Smith. Dennis reminded us of the strong connections between the Rotary Club of Everett and United Way, and reported that between Rotary Club members and their businesses, helped to donate $750k to United Way, and when you include Boeing, that number increases to over $3M! He reminded us of the upcoming Spirit Breakfast on Thurs September 8, and the upcoming Day of Caring.

Announcements by Vice President Todd included that GolFun is now filled with a foursome! We are looking to help support the South Everett/Mukilteo club in a Golf Tournament on Aug 26 at Harbour Pointe Golf and Country Club.

 

Happy Bucks/Birthday Bucks: Rich Toyer gave $100 birthday bucks, ______ was happy that the move of his office is finally completed, Eileen Simmons was happy for her visiting sons and grandsons (and now some calm and quiet that they are gone!), another happy Rotarian (sorry, I missed the name..) was also happy ($20) for having all of his 4 sons in town together for the first time in over a year.

Drawing winners included Tom Rainville (Free lunch and campfire cookies), Andy Hall and Jessica Mitchell (wine, cookies and a knife)

Program:  “Everett Aquasox Baseball” introduced by Katrina Koontz, presented by Danny Tertzlaff, General Manager: Dan comes from several prior teams and is in his 2^nd year with the AquaSox, and started out with a big thank you to the Bavasi family for helping to build such a successful and supported team here in Everett. Everett is a Short-Season minor league team for the Seattle Mariners and draws players out of high school and college. This year, the AquaSox got players from each round of the Mariner’s high draft picks (Rounds 1-15, except 2^nd round), and provides a place for players to come and play as they rehab from injuries. For example, Felix Hernandez is one of those players who came and played in Everett while on the injured list (and helped bump attendance that night to over 5,000!). (Did you know that Felix Hernandez’s brother is the pitching coach for the AquaSox?) King Felix made his debut at 17 years old with the AquaSox, much like Kyle Lewis, the 1^st round pick for the Mariners this year. Despite a torn ACL earlier this season, Kyle is expected to be the future of the Mariners, and should do great things with the team.

The AquaSox are very committed to their community and are involved in many ways including providing $10k to the Oso Community Fund, have Reading Camps where kids earn game tickets for reading books, Boy and Girl Scouts sleepovers on the field, and partnerships with the Boys and Girls Clubs. They have special jersey nights where they auction off specially designed jerseys with player autographs to help fund the AquaSox Community Fund and various organizations, and they have special theme game nights to help highlight community organizations and charitable causes. It’s more than just baseball to this team and these players.

The AquaSox have an attendance goal this year of 105,000. An average night’s attendance is about 2500. They hope to draw in attendance with such theme nights as Bark in the Park (bring your pups!), Flat Screen Fridays (flat screen giveaways during every inning!), 9 Fireworks nights, Ken Griffey Junior bobblehead night (this Friday!), and Frogstock (special tie-dye style jerseys, a la Woodstock, auctioned off). Dan reminded us that there are still 14 more home games this season, ending on Labor Day. Come on out and Play Ball!

Dan concluded by taking questions and comments from Larry O’Donnell who ‘outed’ Bob Bavasi who told the story of the bronze home plate plaque that sits in the sidewalk off the left field home run area, marking Ken Griffey Junior’s first professional home run! (Kyle Lewis did that earlier this year, I wonder if the same fate will become of his career?)  Bob also gave a heartfelt thanks to Dan for continuing the tradition of the club and to the Everett School District for continuing to allow the AquaSox to play on their property. Henry Newton thanked Dan for keeping his grandson’s employed at the park, and is thankful that now they know how to operate a BBQ so Henry doesn’t have to anymore! Dan gave out some fun prizes, one of which was an autographed ball by the 2013 All Star players, won by Tammy Dunn!

Vice President Todd thanked the guests for coming and asked Daniel Neilson to come up and give a “Rotary Youth Moment” in which Daniel spoke about how his life has been forever changed by his experience here as a Rotary Exchange Student in 2012-2013. Daniel encouraged the club to continue to build peace and understanding among nations by staying actively involved in this program as host families, and assured us that the experience is equally positive for the host families themselves as much as it is for the students. He thanked his host families, Tom Koenig and family, Marc Baker and Lori White and Janice Ellis for supporting him and thanked the club for welcoming him back now for a third time in a couple of years. Daniel is in town until the 16^th and then will be moving on to University in West Denmark to get his Bachelor’s degree in International Studies and is already participating in Model UN events.

Next Program:   “Doctor/Patient Communication” presented by Gordon Heinrichs introduced by John Olson

 

Meeting was adjourned at 1:05pm. Go out and be a “Rotarian Serving Humanity”