July 15 meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
The menu was Swiss steak in tomato sauce, corn, scalloped
potatoes, salad bar, with apple crisp and cool whip for dessert. The meeting was lightly attended. Mike Messner gave the invocation. The Elks Club had neglected to put out the
flag, so Ziggy plucked one out of the flag array on the podium and held it up
as David Tyson led us in the pledge.
Birthday boys were Gregg Gardiner and Fred Sunquist.
John Bartholomew was recognized for being
seen in Blue Lake wearing an “Old Crows” hat and Logger Bar T shirt. He said he
was part of a group of guys who volunteered to do improvement projects in
town. Ziggy asked him if his group had
been involved in the recent parade, and then fined him $50 for lining the Shriners
up in front of a Brewery that was closed.
Dan Heinen was recognized for new granddaughter and Al Crnich was
singled out for having left his badge on the table the last meeting. Al said that he forgot things, like zipping
up his fly. Ziggy said it was better to
forget to zip it up than zip it down.
We were all relieved when he changed the subject. Tim Jones paid $50 to Rotary for his new
son 9 pounds 10 ounces. Keith Crossley
made a generous donation of $1,000 to help refurbish Winship School.
Our German Exchange Student Larissa
recounted her experience on her recent trip through the West. She and her fellow exchange students
descended into the Grand Canyon without realizing that getting in was a lot
easier than getting out. They were so
tired when they reached Las Vegas they couldn’t walk around, so they rented a
limo. They also visited Yosemite. She flies back home to her parents on
Sunday. Outgoing exchange student
Ashley is raising funds by dancing for tips at Gallagher’s Irish Pub on Thursdays. Go see her, she’s an award winning clog
dancer. Ziggy reminded club members
that if you don’t have the 14.50 lunch, you must pay $4 for coffee.
Ziggy then called up David Tyson to
introduce our program, Betty Chinn , head of the Betty Kwan Chinn Homeless
Foundation, which is about to open a day center for the homeless in a building
located at 133 7
th Street in Eureka. Betty Chinn has been helping the homeless for over 30 years. It is her passion, because she has
experienced homelessness first hand.
Her parents were physicians in China, and spoke out against the
regime. They were jailed, and Betty
found herself living on the streets at age 7.
Two years later she was sent to a work camp. When the authorities discovered that her mother was a American
citizen they released her and sent her to the U.S. She landed with $20 in her pocket, and went to live with her
sister in Seattle. When she started her
arranged marriage, she spoke no English and her husband spoke no Chinese. She learned English, she says, by watching
Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.
She
started out by feeding the homeless out of her home, and with the help of
others and her own determination gradually increased her activities. In 2012 she and her army of volunteers
served 292,000 meals, provided 4,680 showers to 486 people, handed out over
7,600 items of clothing, purchased 246 bus tickets to send 267 adults and
children home to their families (no one has returned) placed 23 individuals and
31 families in permanent housing, and spoke to 72 schools and community groups.
Rex Bohn talked about the homeless he had met.
They were local people raised here who might be just 3 months out of a
paycheck. Some have mental
problems. He said that no one moves
here just to get a free peanut butter sandwich for lunch every day.
The new center will provide street outreach,
case management, life-skills workshops, Mental Health services, a learning
center, transitional housing, a commercial kitchen, and a kids program. The philosophy of the center is that
everyone deserves the opportunity to change their life. Every person has a unique path, and every
person should be treated with dignity, compassion and respect. After giving Betty her book to sign, Ziggy
remembered that he hadn’t done the raffle yet.
I guess 20 years on the Spengler Raffle committee didn’t help him.
Submitted by Hank Ingham
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