Dec 21, 2015


Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
December 21, 2015

Lunch Menu: salad bar, beef stroganoff, noodles, fried fish, scalloped potatoes, rolls. Called to order by President Jay Bahner at 12:30pm. The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Ken Stodder. The Invocation was led by Greg Pierson.

VISITING ROTARIANS: None.

GUESTS OF ROTARIANS: None.

STUDENT GUESTS: None.

BIRTHDAYS: Chuck Ellsworth, Richard Borough, Russ Harris, Virginia Bass, Walt Shimasaki, Hank Ingham, Wendy Purnell.

ANNIVERSARIES: Sean McLaughlin, Doug Lanning, Dan Heinen.

ANNOUNCEMENTS: Matthew Owen announced that the Annual Fundraiser will be Saturday, February 20th.  The dinner will be held at the Humboldt County Department of Education’s new conference center.  There will be $5,000 in cash prizes.  He is looking for prizes. If you can help please let him know.




RECOGNITIONS: John Burger was asked by President Jay if he had any confessions to make.  Eventually we learned that John had recently traveled to Santa Barbara, where he owns a second house. They had Thanksgiving scheduled with his kids.  His son had surgery and John had a problem with his heart and ended up in the ER.  They fixed it but John and his son were not much fun on Thanksgiving.

President Jay told us a Christmas Story.  Back in the day when microwaves first came into being his first wife had invited the entire family to Christmas dinner.  His sister thought it would be a great idea to microwave the turkey instead of baking it.  The turkey looked beautiful.  Jay said it was nice and browned, just gorgeous.  Everybody was sitting around the table anticipating their first bite of turkey.  Unfortunately when his Dad began to carve the turkey the turkey exploded and disintegrated into a million, inedible pieces.   The moral.  Good thing there’s canned ham at 24 hour, 365 day a week convenience stores. 

Gary Todoroff noted that St. Bernard’s just won the State Championship in their division.  A round of applause was given to St. Bernard’s.






SPENGLER-HOWARD RAFFLE:  Rotary Hat: Jim Howard  $10: Greg Pierson. Happy Camper Mug- Keith Crossley.  







Patrick Cleary drew a card for a pot of $450 and won the consolation prize of a Rotary paperweight.







GUEST SPEAKER: Humboldt Bay Coast Guard Commander, Arthur Snyder was our guest speaker.  Snyder has been in the Coast Guard for 36.5 years.  He enlisted in 1979 (most of us thought he was probably 10 when he enlisted).  For the first 10 years he fixed electronics on aircraft.  His goal in joining the Coast Guard was to enjoy the benefits and gain experience.  But he liked it so much he decided to enlist in officer training.  He’s been an officer for 26 years and loves it.  He’s now the sector commander for Humboldt Bay. 

He showed us a slide show that talked about the history of the Coast Guard.  The Coast Guard was formed in 1790 shortly after America won its independence from Great Britain. Alexander Hamilton worked with Congress on ways to fuel the economy as America tried to recover from the war.  They decided to tax ships (especially British ships) that were coming to America with goods.  The founding organization of the Coast Guard was formed.  It was called, The Revenue Marine Service which eventually became the United States Coast Guard.  Over the years other organizations have been folded in under the umbrella of the Coast Guard including the Steamboat Inspection Service in 1838, The Bureau of Navigation in 1789 and in 2000 the Department of Homeland Security.  They are charged with drug interdiction; search & rescue; marine safety; defense readiness; migrant interdiction; ports, waters & coastal security; living marine resources, marine environmental protection, ice operations, other law enforcement.  Locally they have two patrol boats – one in Crescent City and one in Eureka, 2 motor lifeboats- one in Fort Bragg and one here, 3 helicopters with a fourth one coming in April.

MEETING ADJOURNED: 1:30pm.

Respectfully submitted, 
Alicia Cox


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