Meeting Of The Rotary Club Of Eureka July 30 2012

President Nancy Dean welcomed everyone to the fifth meeting of the Rotary Year.  No one had thought to bring a fifth, so she abandoned the idea of drinking and asked Dave Dillon to lead the pledge.  Dillon has been a member since 1967, a Past President, Past District Governor and multiple Paul Harris Fellow.  Ryan Fray delivered the invocation.  

 Dean congratulated Dennis Hunter and Tom Schallert for sitting at the head table five weeks in a row to avoid a birthday fine.  Two Rotary opportunities for Fellowship are coming up in August.  A Day at the Ferndale Fair Races with barbeque occurs on the 15^th and a Rafting Trip on the Trinity River is going down on the 18^th.  Eric Bergel promises White Water and asks everyone to bring their water cannons.  Other events coming up: a Softball tournament on September 1 sponsored by Lost Coast Rotaract and The Foundation Dinner on October 13 at River Lodge in Fortuna.   

Eric Bergel was called up to the podium to receive his Paul Harris Fellowship.  Our special guest District Governor Michael Juric did the presentation, noting that for each PHF, four lives were saved.

Then the Club acquired a new member, Dana Jones Cal. State Parks NC Redwoods District Superintendent.  She is a transfer from the Carmel Valley Rotary Club and carries a gun.   PP Steve Justice told a lengthy story about starting the Blood Bank project in Nigeria as an example of what is possible for an involved Rotarian.   

Dean then donned her “Recognition chapeau”, a top hat with a cardboard sun appended.  First up was Corky Cornwell who married off his last daughter.  He said they were on their honeymoon in Mexico.  He had given his daughter enough money to get back. The son in law, he said, is on his own.   

Gary Todoroff’s daughter Clara married Eric Metcalf. Their honeymoon was a week of camping with the in-laws.  Sounds romantic.   Both proud fathers received rain sticks.   

District Governor Michael Juric then addressed the Club.  He’s a school administrator from Petaluma.  His goal is to increase and distribute leadership across the District.  The District will be incorporated and have a board of Directors.  He shared some quotations.  “What is going on here and what are we going to do about it?  “What would you attempt to do if you could not fail? (Robert Shuller) and “I can do things that you cannot.  You can do things that I cannot.  Together we can do great things” (Mother Teresa). He answered a few questions and then signed a book about Manatees

 .

Briefly submitted while wearing briefs by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
July 23, 2012

John Winzler, member since 1961 and 4^th longest serving member in the club, led the pledge.  Ron Pierre gave the invocation and asked for a moment of silence for those who lost their lives in the recent shooting spree in Aurora Colorado. 

President Nancy Dean ascended her stool and reminded everyone that next week the Rotary District Governor Michael Juric will be visiting the club.  A mass exodus at 1pm would not be good, so if you come, plan to stay for the entire meeting.  If you must leave before the program Nancy suggested that you approach the lectern, spit on your palm, and shake the DG’s hand vigorously and say “See ya, I wouldn’t want to be ya…”.  This is how the Elks do it. 

Michael Cunningham announced that there would be a Barbeque/Day at the Races on August 15 12 noon at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds.  Cal Trans is providing the meat. 

New member Nick Bertel gave his craft talk.  He said his family came first.  He works for Redwood Coast Financial Partners.  He opined that the Fed’s easy money policy would be bad for the economy, leading to inflation.  Gas is up 9 cents, coffee up 16% and apples 6.8% His time was up too. 

Tom McMurray Jr. was recognized for his impending trip to Norway.  His daughter lives there so they go every two years or so.  He was awarded a rain stick. 

Dale Stockly was then asked to stand because spies had told her that he was hanging out at an auto dealership looking at cars.  He hadn’t bought one, nor had he gone fishing.  He hadn’t done a fair number of things that Nancy asked him about.  Finally he admitted to having been in Alaska.  He didn’t get a rain stick.

Having run out of material, Nancy Dean then called for the program.  Sheriff Mike Downey introduced our speaker, wildlife biologist Mourad Gabriel.   

His topic-the effects of rodenticides from local marijuana grows on the environment and wildlife, including endangered species.  Growers deploy rat poison, DDT, Furidan and other toxic substances that are then ingested by wildlife.  The Fisher, a rare Marten that lives in the forest, is on the verge of extinction because of these poisons.  There are only 20 left.  Something needs to be done.  At the very least, they could shorten the hunting season for Fishers by a few weeks and take “Fisher and Chips” off the menu at the Ingomar.  He needs more funding to study the problem.

Meticulously prepared by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
July 16, 2012

The bell rang at the seemingly empty podium, and then Nancy Dean popped up like a Prairie dog, using a stool to give her contact with the outside world.  Sensing no danger, she called on Walt Shimasaki to lead the invocation.  Walt has been a member since 1960 and is a past president and Paul Harris Fellow.  The invocation was given by Steve Justus. 

After visiting Rotarians and Guests of Rotarians, Eric Bergel presented our outbound exchange students, Erin Knight headed to Brazil, Austin Schmaltz going to Norway and Royce Buell on his way to Germany.  

Erin Knight

Austin Schmaltz

Royce Buell

Mike Cunningham called everyone’s attention to the Rotary sponsored Rafting Trip on the Trinity river August 18^th.  Reservations must be in by the 10^th and the cost is $81.50 a person 

District Governor Michael Juric will be here in two weeks.  Nancy reminded everyone that it is not cool to walk out on the District Governor, so plan to stay for the program.

She thanked Bob Morse and Carlton Nielsen for getting www.rotary1.org transferred over to a new server, and promised them lands and titles once the U.S. reverts to the feudal system. 

Jason Eads was recognized for multiple Paul Harris Fellowships. 

Steve Justus wanted to endow a PHF for his son, who has just graduated from Basic in the Marine Corps, but I think he’ll have to wait until next week for the ceremony. 

Then Nancy donned her fining hat, a stovepipe affair with a paper sun appended.  Mike Martin was her first target.  He’s about to embark on another treasure hunting trip to England, so she relieved him of some coin. 

Greg Pierson was next.  He had just come from Boston where he attended his daughter’s graduation (A Masters in Economics).  

Hank Pierson was also asked to stand, because his granddaughter just got her masters. He claimed that the smarts in the family didn’t come from him.  Both of them received a “rain stick”, which is a section of dried cactus with the thorns removed, then pounded back in.  It is filled with pebbles and the ends are resealed.  When it is tilted, it makes a sound like rain.  The rain stick was invented by the Puritans, who had lots of left over cactus when they stopped by Spain on the way to the New World.  In fact, if you look at the stern of the Mayflower, you’ll find the original name of the ship, “Cactus Flower” has been painted over.  It was also a movie with Goldie Hawn.   The Movie was too racy for the Puritans, so they spent their spare time pounding their thorns.  

Then it was time for our program.  Captain Murl Harpham was gracious enough to drive all the way from Trinity Lake to fill in at the last moment when our speaker couldn’t make it.  His topic, dear to all of our hearts, was “The History of Prostitution in Eureka.”  Briefly, prostitutes first appeared in the 1860’s when the poulation swelled due to mining in the Trinities.  Murl said he was too young to remember that era, but as Eureka established itself, a red light district was created.  Prostitutes displayed their wares, and their existence was tolerated.  This went on until the 50’s, when then attorney General Pat Brown issued an edict to close down the houses of ill repute.  Initially the girls were given a choice of a bus ticket or jail, but the trade then moved to operate out of local bars.  The ABC put pressure on the bars to curtail their activities, and this resulted in “Coffee Houses”  They didn’t serve booze so they couldn’t be regulated.  Drug use didn’t become a problem until the advent of Meth.  Now most prostitutes are addicts, and the ravages of meth use are only too evident on their faces.  The latest trends include the use of cell phone, the internet and Craigslist. 

Nancy Dean thanked Murl for his narrative, and gave him the book “50 Shades of Gray” to donate to the library.

Repugnantly submitted by Hank Ingham

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

July 9, 2012

President Nancy “stepped up” and called the second meeting of her Rotary year to order.  As a special treat, the flag salute was lead by Dick Nash, the longest currently serving member of Eureka Rotary.  Dick, a Paul Harris Fellow and Club President in 1961-62, has been a proud Eureka Club member since 1954 – that’s 58 years for those of you counting at home.  Dan Heinen gave the invocation.

Guests

Visiting Rotarians Barbara Walser, Liana Simpson and Dana Jones were welcomed as was Chuck Ellsworth’s guest Eureka City Councilwoman Marian Brady.   

Birthdays & Anniversaries

Birthdays celebrated were Dennis Hunter, Ziggy Ziegenfuss, Carol Rische, Al Abrahamsen and Don Smullin –  though the head table was noticeably absent of birthday celebrants, Tom Schallert did his duty and sat up front and Capt. Hank snuck up there at the last minute.   

Steve McHaney and Brian Papstein celebrated wedding anniversaries with their spouses and Ron Pierre and Lisa Slack marked Club Anniversaries. 

Student Guests

It was our exchange student Tonje’s last meeting with us before she heads back to her home in Norway and President Nancy brought her up to the podium for the following conversation:   

President Nancy – “So you just got back from the District 5130 Western Safari, what did you do?”   

Tonje – “A lot”   

With some more insightful questioning from President Nancy, Tonje did elaborate that she saw the Grand Canyon and Yosemite among other sites on her two week trek through the West.  Bon Voyage to Tonje, it was great having you as part of Eureka Rotary this past year.   

Announcements

Announcements made included a reminder of upcoming fellowship events:  Rafting trip on the Trinity River on August 18th and a Eureka Rotary Day at the Races at the Humboldt County Fair. 

President Nancy thanked Mike Cunningham for organizing our recent Madaket boat trip and Eric Bergel for ably captaining the ship.   

While on the topic of thank yous, President Nancy also said thanks to Lane Strope and his staff at Times Printing along with Hank Pierson, Gregg Gardiner and Dan Heinen for their help in putting together the new club roster booklets which were handed out at the meeting – with a nod to her meteorological background President Nancy’s roster has a bright yellow sun and the tagline, “Bringing Sunshine Through Service” on the cover.   

President Nancy outlined her goals for the new year as she: 

1) challenged us to bring in a net of 4 new members this year (counting for attrition that means we need 14 to 18 newbies) 

2) Encouraged yearly Foundation giving and honored Dick Story for his third PHF 

3) talked about a Club Peace Project to meet RI President Tanaka’s goal 

4) Develop a long range strategic plan for the Club 

5) Enhance the Club’s public image 

6) Emphasize vocational service and 

7) a potential Parks project for the club with the City of Eureka Parks.   

Then it was time for a Small Grant presentation and Carol Rische presented a check for $2,039 to the Humboldt Senior Resource Center which will be used to repair their “sealer machine," used to seal and package the over 800 frozen meals they prepare each week for area seniors.   

Recognitions

Members Roy Frostenson (trip to South Africa) 

Paul Brisso (unsuccessful hunting trip to Alaska) and  

Diane Cipperley (Anniversary trip) were recognized and given one of President Nancy’s highly sought after rain sticks (staying with the weather theme).  

Raffle

Roy Frostenson and Greg Bowen won the Spengler Raffle.   

Program

Then it was program time.  Humboldt Film Commission Executive Director Cassandra Hesseltine told us what she and the Film Commission do, which is “help bring films here and keep them happy while they are here!”  Hesseltine said Humboldt County hosted 15 productions in the past year including the major studio film "After Earth," starring Will and Jayden Smith, which is set for a Summer 2013 release – our beautiful Redwood forests will play a major part in the film and hopefully the movie will spur tourism for our county.   

Hesseltine encouraged local businesses and locations to sign up with the commission for future productions.

Respectfully submitted,

Roy Frostenson

For Hank Ingham

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

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

June 25, 2012

Hank Pierson led the flag salute and past president Carlton Nielsen prayed for the survival of President Greg Pierson on this day of his debunking.  Lightening did not strike, but judging by the looks of the bay, box, and large crane outside, that was the least of President Greg’s worries.

 

Visiting Rotarians

From Arcata Sunrise, Lori Breyer who is a past president.

 

Guests of Rotarians

With us on the final day of the Presidency of Greg Pierson was Greg’s wife Sharon, his aunt Ann Pierson, mother Donna McGowan and “other” Dad, Darrel McGowan, father (and past president) Hank Pierson and his wife Cathy. Samantha Hovis came with her grandfather, Dave Dillon—perhaps also hoping to see the debunk-dunk.

 

Exchange Students

Since school is out there were no exchange students present. But, two students are headed our way: one young man from Chile and another from Germany will arrive here in August.

 

Birthdays

Al Abrahamsen (7/13), Michael Brown (7/10), Diane Cipperley (7/26), Jason Eads (7/22), John Harper (7/7), Dennis Hunter (7/8), Gary Philp (7/10) Hank Pierson (7/27), Carol Rische (7/11), Tom Schallert (7/26) Lisa Slack (7/8), Don Smullin (7/15), Fred Sundquist (7/21), Ziggy Ziegenfuss (7/10). Put ten dollars on your table if you were born in June and not at the front table, said ex-president Carlton.

 

Anniversaries

Brian and Angela Papstein (7/9), Steve and Patty McHaney (7/9), Russ and Dianne Harris (7/10), Fred and Tina Griffith 7/31), Diane Cipperley and Rod Goodbrod (7/4), Charlie and Deborah Bussman (7/4), Bert and Susanne Campton (7/31).

 

Announcements

The Rotary Club of Southwest Eureka and Rotary Club of Eureka are co-sponsoring a Trinity River Rafting Trip on August 18^th from 10:00am until 3:00pm. Cost is $81.50. Sign up at tables during our meetings or contact Mike Cunningham at 441-1111.

 

Rotary Night on the Madaket! Saturday June 30, 2012. Leaves the dock at 6:45pm. Excursion lasts one hour. Embark from the Foot of C Street. Cash bar will be open. Only 40 seats available, first come, first serve! $20.00. Contact Mike Cunningham at 441-1111.

 

President Greg, looking very debonair in bathrobe and cravat, expressed his joyful anticipation of retirement from Rotary – from the Presidency that is. He drew our attention to a sheet of paper on the table that listed the many Club Projects for 2012-2013. We have donated over $111,000 and a lot of time this past year. We gave ourselves a hand.

 

The District conference went well, held recently in Fortuna. And our Rotaract Club was voted Rotaract Club of the year in the district and Rotaract leader Jennifer Kiniken was Rotoractor of the year. Our former youth exchange student, Jamie Carrol, was speaker, as were Greg Gardiner, Steve Justus and WW II veteran Gordon Redtfeldt from honor flight.

 

Thanks to Nancy Dean for putting together some great award applications. This year our district recognized many services we are providing with some nice awards. We won a community service award for a variety of projects: among them, Backpacks for Kids, Cloney Field, etc.

 

We also won a Distinguished Rotary Club of the year award. (Not best, but almost best club).

 

Greg Gardiner, Pat Folkins,  Keith Crossley and Jason Eads came forward to receive the Innovators Award for Honor Flights. We received this award for our creativity in solving a problem within our community--veterans who had not seen their war memorials. The guys listed above stepped up and used our 1923 funding raising 245,000 dollars with the result of sending 168 veterans to Washington D.C. The four received a standing ovation from our club.

 

Greg Pierson showed us a phone that had been taped to the podium at the June 11^th meeting and started to auction it off. He began at $5 and eventually sold to John McBeth for $50. Thanks Kurt Barthel for the donation of the phone. During the annual fundraiser, Greg forgot to thank Tom Schallert for the giant boxes of Monitor Wipes and Oreo cookies. Tom admitted, “They’re different.”  Greg was pleased to get the hammer back from Southwest Club. He again thanked us for allowing him to serve as President and praised us for being a great club.

 

“Enough of all that,” said Carlton Nielsen stepping back to the podium.  He then said hello and, “Nice to see you,” to Peter Pennekamp who recently celebrated his 60^th birthday and sort-of retirement. Peter got his tape measure and a hammer.

 

Raffle ticket winners

Dan Heinen and (aptly) Sharon Pierson.

 

Program and debunking

Next: the power point presentation featured the wit of Hank Ingham at President Greg’s expense. “The Presidency of Greg Pierson, a Short Story,” was recited by Hank, and then a funny video produced by Chuck Edwards. 

 

The debunking of President Greg Pierson was completed in daring fashion by his being raised in a Harry Houdini like box over the rocks and down into the bay. He seems to have survived the stunt much to the relief of all – especially the soggy ex-president, his wife and mother.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Dan Price