Rotary Club of Eureka, California

August 15, 2011
Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka

Pledge:  Dan Heinen

Invocation:  PP Carlton Nielsen

Student Guests:  Our two incoming exchange students, Marina from Brazil and Tonya from Norway, joined us for the first time.  They are staying, respectively, with the Williston and Owren families.

Visiting Rotarians:  District Governor Maureen Merrill & President of Old Town Rotary, Steve Knight.

Guests of Rotarians:  Intern, Gilbert Resendez, was a guest of County Supervisor, Virginia Bass.  PP Carlton Nielson brought Eleanor Umidon, Gabriel’s sister from Milan, Italy, who, by the way, is an accomplished viola player on loan to the Eureka Symphony for several months.  David Loring, son of Ted Loring, came to hear our guest speaker’s presentation on his year in China.

Pat Shanahan

Other guests included Pat Shanahan, Arthur Nielsen & Christian Hill (just kidding, Christian)!

Birthdays and Anniversaries:  Happy Birthday today to Gary Todoroff…congratulations on your new hammer!  Happy Birthday also to Fred Whitmire and Ron Pierre.  Ron, you sat at a round table, so that’s going to cost you $15.  Anniversaries were many this week.  Congratulations to the Whitmires, Bauriedels, Shimasakis, Stodders, Brissos, Nashs, Nielsens, and McCauleys.

Announcements:  John Bradley spent some time talking to the group about our great Backpacks for Kids program.  Over 10,000 kids in Humboldt County qualify for the free/reduced lunch program and are at or under the poverty level of $30,000/year for a family of four.  BFK, through the combined efforts of the Rotary Club of Eureka, Old Town Rotary and Southwest Rotary, currently delivers approximately 400 packs every Friday morning to Alice Birney, Lafayette & South Bay Elementary Schools.  Last year the group delivered over 3,000 bags of food for needy students.  This year the program received a generous donation from the McLean Foundation to make this a self-sustaining program.  Also, the program will be a beneficiary of this club’s 1^st Annual Smokin’ In the Redwoods Bar-B-Q Challenge, September 24^th at Redwood Acres.  Come out and join us on Thursdays at 4:45pm to pack bags at Humboldt Moving & Storage.  It’s a great way to meet your fellow Rotarians as well as mingle with members from both the Old Town & Southwest clubs!

Packpack Buddy Night.…Be a Buddy….Bring a Buddy….Help Us Feed Humboldt County Kids!  President-Elect Nancy Dean announced that there will be a fundraising prime-rib dinner on Tuesday, September 27^th at Cher-Ae Heights Casino in Trinidad to support Backpacks for Kids.  Please call 269-4335 to reserve your tickets, to volunteer or if would like to donate live or silent auction items.  The annual cost to run this extremely important program is over $20,000, so bring your checkbooks and donate, donate, donate!  Tickets are $30 each and the ever entertaining Rex Bohn will be our auctioneer.  Click here for more information.  A big shout out of thanks to the event sponsors:  Coast Central Credit Union, the Times-Standard, Ming Tree Realtors, Cher-Ae Heights Bingo & Casino, Cunningham, Malone & Morton, and Norman’s Dry Cleaners.

August 27^th is our Bigfoot Rafting trip down the Trinity River.  Everyone is welcome, but please contact Mike Cunningham or Keith Crossley with the ages of any children you would like to bring.  More information can be found by clicking here.

President Pierson said a great time was had by all at the Foundation Super Seminar held at the Humboldt County Office of Education last Saturday.  Arcata Sunrise Rotary Club will be hosting the Foundation Dinner North this year, which will be held on October 15th.  The guest speaker will be Rick King, Past President of Rotary International (2001-2002).  

President Pierson presented Dave Perris with his Blue Badge.

PP Steve Justus reported that the Honor Flight fundraising dinner held last weekend at the Elks’s Club blew away the pre-dinner estimate, and netted nearly $19,000!  That will support a lot of our honored WWII veterans!  PP Justus held Captain Hank responsible for bidding him up too high for his winning Prime Rib Dinner.  Way to go Captain Hank, it’s all for a good cause!

Recognitions:  PP Bruce Rupp, $10 for not turning off your cell phone.  President Pierson also toyed with the idea of fining Corky $10, as it was probably one of his phones! 

Neil Carnham was fined $145 for Winzler & Kelly’s beautiful new LEEDS Certified building on the site of the old McMahon’s furniture in Eureka.  LEEDS Certification and rating is the leading standard world-wide for measuring building sustainability.  Neil said they were doing their best to reduce their overall carbon footprint.  Speaking of footprints, Neil’s fine also included an impressive trek to the top of Mt. Shasta in honor of his 60^th Birthday.  Very impressive Neil!

PP Carlton Nielsen’s son, Hayden, recently received a perfect score (for the 2^nd year in a row, mind you) on his state-wide standardized testing for mathematics.  In math terms, that means $145 for good ‘ole Dad.  In addition, Hayden is the founder of the Entrepreneur Club at Freshwater Elementary School.  They sell cookies, soup and will wash your car at the school on Thursdays from noon-3pm.  The school is located at 75 Greenwood Heights Drive, near Three Corners in Freshwater (right before the Freshwater Stables).  They can be reached at 707.442-2969.

President Pierson held up a picture of Jim Hoff, back in Humboldt from Texas, with presidential candidate and current Governor of the Great State of Texas, Rick Perry.  It did not take long to decide documentation of this unique event was worth at least $145.  Not missing a beat, Jim presented President Pierson with Perry’s book “Fed Up” in exchange for the fine, stating that a picture is worth a 1,000 words.  President Pierson accepted the deal.  The president then recognized Jim again for $145 because his son, Henry joined the US Army.  Thank you, Henry, and God Bless!

Raffle:  Congratulations, Jason Eads & Mandy Nash!

Program:  Today’s speaker was Ryan Knight, son of Old Town Rotary President, Steve Knight.  Ryan is a student at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington, majoring in Peace & International Studies.  For the past year (August 2010 through July 2011), Ryan studied in China on a multi-cultural education exchange sponsored by his school.  He chose China as they were a growing world power and both Russia and North Korea weren’t options. The program had students from all over the world, including several from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.  Ryan set five very clearly defined goals for his year abroad:  (1) Learn to speak/read Mandarin, (2) Understand who the Chinese are as a people, (3) See as much of the country as possible, (4) Make friends, and (5) Understand what it is like to be religious in China.  Ryan said he is a Christian, and was surprised to learn that there is an increase in the number of Chinese that also identify as being Christians.  Surprisingly, they are able to practice their religion without fear of being persecuted, just so long as they don’t challenge the government or make a scene.  There is also a fairly large group of practicing Muslims in China. 

Based on his presentation and photos, Ryan did an excellent job of making sure he accomplished Goal #3.  His Chinese travels took him to places such as Xi’an, Beijing, Chengdu, and Lhasa in Tibet.  He said Lhasa was the most beautiful place he had ever visited and after doing so, now feels he has a much better perspective on the issues with this area, stating the situation is much more complex than we know in the US.  He also visited Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall of China and the Terra Cotta Warriors before ending his trip in Southern China on the North Korean border.  All politics aside, he felt that the western media doesn’t give justice to what a great place China is, both in terms of natural beauty and the people.  He stated that crime is very low and he never felt unsafe walking around the larger cities, save for minor pick pocketing.  Gun laws are very strict.  He also spoke of the paradigm shift between the very rural areas of the county and the busy, mass-populated cities. 

Of particular interest was the fact that Ryan was physically in China during several large political events that occurred over the course of the past year.  This included Chinese anti-Japanese protests, the Chinese New Years, Arab Spring, the Tibetan unrest, the assignation of Osama Bin Laden, Obama’s meeting with the Dalai Lama and the US military action in the Yellow Sea.  As he mentioned at the beginning of his presentation, several of his fellow students were from both Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.  He thought it was interesting to hear their take on issues such as the US entering Pakistan to find and kill Osama Bin Laden.  He mentioned that bribery is very much an active part of the culture in China, noting an example of obtaining a boat license on the Yangtze River, a major trade route flowing West to East through the middle of the country.  Audience questions included what was his favorite food (he lost 10 lbs, but loved the frog legs!), the use of traditional Chinese medicine vs. western medicine, censorship in the media and the internet (there are lots of computer firewalls, but you can pay to get around them), the outlook of fellow students from Pakistan (one’s father was the Vice Counsel for the country) and an overview of what religions are practiced and how.  He noted that due to manufacturing interests in China, there were a large number of American ex-pats, as well as quite a few French.  Overall, Ryan gave a fabulous presentation and is looking forward to his next adventure abroad.  He then signed his book for the Humboldt County Library, “Bats! Strange and Wonderful.”

President Pierson concluded the meeting at 1:31pm with a strike of the hammer to the bell and a reminder that the Small Grants Committee is having a quick meeting by the flag pole.

Respectfully submitted,

Stacy Lane