May 21, 2012

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
May 21, 2012


40th meeting of the year

Past President Will Kay presided over the meeting, as President Pierson was out of town. 

John Burger led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.  

As Memorial Day is one week away, Bill McAuley used that theme for his invocation and acknowledged the sacrifices of the men and women in our armed forces. 

Visitors
Four members from Old Town Rotary made up at our meeting. Lisa Fryrear, Liana Simpson, Jill Hansen and Kim Brown.

Guests of Rotarians included: Cindy Bedingfield's, CEO of Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, who was introduced by Lowell Maffia; Linn Van Meter, attorney to the Federal Magistrate Judge, who was introduced by Jill McDonald; and Dick Storre introduced his wife Debbie. 

Birthdays and Anniversaries
Acting President Kay gave a pass to those who had a birthday in May and didn’t sit up at the head table.  Those with Rotary anniversaries included Sue Bosch and Paul Hagen

Announcements
There is a joint board meeting at noon May 30th at the Ingomar Club for the current and incoming board. 

John Bradley reported on the Backpack Buddy Night fundraiser held the night before.  Preliminary numbers showed the joint clubs of Rotary Club Eureka, Southwest Rotary, Old Town Rotary and Soroptimist of Humboldt Bay raised over $15,000.  John thanked the many members who donated items for the event. 

During Will’s year, he developed a new badge and he acknowledged Murl Harpham and Kurt Barthel who still wore those badges.  Will Kay, on the other hand, wore no badge and Past President Bill McAuley recognized him for $25 to get his badge back. 

Rotary Club of Eureka and the Eureka Chamber of Commerce is honoring Joe Mark, CEO St. Joseph’s Hospital, on June 2.  Contact the Ingomar or Gregg Gardiner if you’d like to attend.  


Two new members were inducted into the club.  Russ Harris introduced Chris Witt, Director of Donor Services and Planned Giving at the Humboldt Area Foundation.  Chris has taught bee keeping, comes from MN and is a Viking fan, and three times rowed down the Grand Canyon. 

Mike Cunningham introduced Bruce Smith and read the biography and mini craft talk written with flair by Bruce.  Bruce has lived in the Philippines, Alaska and Japan and received his degree from UC Berkeley.  He is the CFO of Premier Financial Group and is a scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts. Hank Ingham gave the past president’s words of wisdom, pulling information from the club roster including the mission of Rotary and the bylaws. 

Recognitions
John Ash volunteered that he has a new great grandchild, Vincent Gunner, son of Lisa and Jon.  He will donate $100 to the Foundation in recognition of Vincent. 

Nancy Dean talked about her trip to the Rotary International Conference in Bangkok, Thailand and her opportunity to meet the girl and her family that she sponsors at a Rotary built school in Cambodia.  As she will be president next year, she was not financially recognized. 

Alicia Cox was recognized for a number of items that occurred many years ago, including a tourist trip to D.C, her daughters graduation from So. Oregon and a Tech Beat article in the Times-Standard.  She received the coveted tape measure as she was tapped out. 

Murl Harpham was recognized for his annual vacations in late July and August in Trinity County and also received the coveted tape measure. 

Finally, Keith Crossley, received the tape measure for multiple items like receiving tax training in Sacramento, and saving his family from going along to the training, and surviving the recent tax season.  

Raffle
Guest Cindy Bedingfield and Jill McDonald had the winning tickets for the Spengler Science Fair Raffle  

Program
Gregg Gardiner introduced Honor Flight as our program.  He gave some background that Katherine Burleson spoke to the club in Feb. 2011 about Honor Flight and Steve Justus took up the local cause.  Steve, with many members of Rotary Club of Eureka, including Keith Crossley, Pat Folkins, and Gregg Gardiner, have raised over $256,000 and sent 108 World War II veterans to the World War II museum in Washington, D.C.   Rotary Club of Eureka members Al Crnich and Ken Stoddard and guest Gordon Redtfeldt received a standing ovation for their service during World War II.

Ken Stoddard talked about his experiences in World War II when he was in the Army Air Corp from 1944-1946 and then was brought back from the reserves to fight in Korea in 1950 and 1951.  Ken was in Alamogordo, NM and observed the first atomic bomb blast, though his crew was initially told it was an ammunition dump that exploded.  Ken was in the second group of Honor Flight and remembered the large greeting the group received at Dulles Airport. 

Gordon Redtfeldt, retired Lt. Col Army Air Corp, was then introduced.  Gordon was in the last honor flight. He remembered the wall of gold stars which included 4000 gold stars with each star representing 100 men who gave their lives.  Gordon joined in Feb. 1943 and was shipped off to training to an all-women’s college in Idaho.  His fiancĂ© quickly joined him and they married in April 1943 and they recently celebrated their 69th wedding anniversary.   Gordon was a navigator in a B-17 and told a story of getting caught in the jet stream over water with lots of cloud cover as they were flying to Iceland.  Even though the jet stream was unknown at the time, Gordon trusted his training and the plane landed exactly when he said it would.  On Gordon’s eighth mission to Germany, his plane was shot down and he parachuted to the ground fracturing three vertebras.   He was captured by the Germans and spent 1 year in a POW camp.  After WWII, Gordon stayed in the military due to his strong patriotism and fought in the Korean and Viet Nam wars.  



We are dark May 28 due to Memorial Day and our program June 4 will be Lost Coast Brewery.   While Will started the meeting with a loud clanging of the bell, there was not even a soft ring to close the meeting.

Respectfully submitted,
Nancy Dean

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