Rotary Club of Eureka, California

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

July 2, 2012

Welcome to President Nancy's Year!

Al Crnich was called upon to do the flag salute.  John Gierek gave the invocation, and asked us to remember Bob Bosch, husband of Rotarian Sue Bosch, who recently had a stroke.  John didn’t say anything funny, which was uncharacteristic of him.  He must have been deep into his role as Bru Brunier, but more about that later.   

President Greg announced a new award “The Charlie Strope Rotarian of the Year Award.”  Charlie was “Mr. Rotary”, former District Governor and great supporter of the Rotary Foundation.  Dave Dillon gave a brief description of Charlie’s life, and then Dave and Greg presented the award to John Bradley, for his contributions including 4 years as head of youth exchange and more recently his spearheading of the very successful Backpacks For Kids Program.   

Then it was time for the changing of the guard.  This being Nancy Dean’s first meeting, Greg Pierson gave her the president’s pin, 

he received the past Presidents pin from Carlton Nielsen, and  

Ziggy Ziggenfuss received the president elect pin from Nancy Dean.   

Then Greg called up his board of directors and praised their work.  He then gave each of them a shoe box with a bow on it, someone said Greg’s shoes would be hard to fill, and then someone else pointed out that as tiny as they were, it would only take a teaspoon of dirt.   

Then there were some announcements-a rafting trip on the Trinity River on August 18^th and a day at the Ferndale Fair horse races sometime in August.   

Nick Bertell presented the club with a banner given to him by the President of a Finnish Rotary Club he met while playing in the sun near Willow Creek.   This earned him the first coveted rain-stick from President Nancy.

After the raffle, we were in for an unusual treat, a play about the life of Rotary Founder Paul Harris, written by Dave Dillon, narrated by Ken Stodder, starring (and I use that term loosely) Greg Pierson as Paul Harris and featuring Dan Heinen, Don Leonard, Jason Eads, John Gierek (Bru Brunier) Burt Campton (as himself) Kim Bauriedel (as somebody totally off the wall), Tim Gallagher, Pete Vallerga, Jim Davis, Steve Justus, Keith Crossley, Nancy Dean, Carlton Nielsen (as the Ghost of Christmas Future) and with a special appearance by Carol Risch as Glyndon”Sign” Smith.   

 

 

The play covered 106 years of Rotary History and seemed to last that long.  As far as I can tell Paul Harris was a 'huntin for some food when up from the ground came a bubblin’ crude.  Kinfolk said “Rotary’s the place to be”, so he packed up the car and moved to Chicago- Illinois that is- Land of Lincoln, and Al Capone.  Ok, it was pretty good considering the subject matter and whom Dave Dillon had to work with. But Dave, resist the urge to turn it into a Musical.

Official Stenographer,

Hank Ingham

Our new Board of Directors for 2012-2013

 

Sharon, Greg's Wife

Richard, Nancy's Husband

Lost Coast Rotaract