Feb 9, 2014

Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
February 3, 2014

Sgt. Matt Coleman, a member of the National Guard who had recently returned from Afghanistan, led the flag salute.  Craig Hansen gave the invocation, and returning Former exchange student Jamie Carroll asked us to send letters, thoughts and prayers to Teresa Sims.

Guests
Judge Brown from Fortuna was our only visiting Rotarian.

Interact students Grace and Jordan came to the podium to tell us about an upcoming fundraiser to support a trip. 

Announcements
Greg Seiler announced that the theme for this year’s Rotary Raffle would be “Bootlegger’s Ball II - Rotarian’s Revenge”.  It will be held May 5th at the Ingomar Club. 

Gregg Gardiner and Tom McMurray Jr. teamed up to introduce this years “Service Above Self” Award.  Larry Ratliff, vocational coordinator for Teen Challenge, received a Paul Harris Fellowship in his name.  He and his crew of 45 spent thousands of hours rehabilitating Winship Middle School’s grounds. Ratliff also does a jail ministry and works at the Rescue Mission.  Then it was time for “recognition.” 

Recognitions
Dennis Hunter was fined $100 for receiving a lifetime achievement award at the recent Eureka Chamber Dinner.  President Ziggy also had a photo of Dennis dressed in 49er Gear at the Seattle vs 49ers game. 

Murl Harpham was spotted in the audience attired in civilian clothes.  He retired two weeks ago and no longer packs a pistol.  Ziggy commended him on his 57 years on the force, and gave him an additional item of apparel, a Rotary T-shirt. 

Mike Cunningham had a box of framed photos from recent Rotary Christmas Parties. Sally Arnot, Burt Campton, John Bradley, Matt Owen and Tom Schallert retrieved their portraits -for a handling fee of $25. 

While they were picking them up Ziggy relieved Greg Williston of $50 for being Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Board. 

Finally, Tom McMurray was singled out for a planned trip to the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.  He said it was on the way from Oslo to Jerusalem and anyway he liked raw fish.  When Ziggy informed him that it was “Sochi” not “sushi”, Tom looked disappointed. 

Gregg Gardiner returned to the podium to distribute United States Marine Corps Commander Awards to those who had gone the extra mile in helping Toys For Tots.  They included Nancy Dean, Dennis Hunter Patrick Cleary, Paula Patton, and, weighing in at a trim 200 pounds, wearing tan slacks and an oxford shirt that brought out the blue in his eyes, the handsome Hank Ingham-but enough about me.  Wait.  I didn’t win the raffle.  OK. Now I’m done.

Program
President Ziggy introduced our speaker for the day, Sergeant Matt Coleman of the National Guard.  He shared pictures of his recent tour in Afghanistan.  For his first three months he provided security for gravel Trucks.  He escorted them over a 20 mile stretch of what is called “The Heart Of Darkness in the Kandahar province.  Then he built bridges, sometimes using the same type of pontoon floats you see loaded on the back of trucks at our local Armory.  Some projects were completed in as little as 55 hours.  The main threat was the IED. They also experienced sandstorms that turned the sky black and stopped the whole convoy.   

He was thankful that he and his unit completed their tour unscathed, but felt guilty that so many others had not been as lucky.  He said that for some, it was hard to find jobs when they came back.  He knew some who suffered from PTSD.  When there were no more questions, the meeting was adjourned. 

Submitted by the natty Hank Ingham [note: raw fish is actually sashimi, but “sushi” is funnier.]

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