October 24, 2011
Lunch: Beef Marsala with mushrooms
Weather: 57 degrees and mostly cloudy
S&P 1254
President Pierson called the meeting to order.
Ziggy Ziegenfuss led the pledge of allegiance..
Invocation: Joe Mark
It was announced that Gary Gunderson, a former member, had passed away.
Visiting Rotarians, announced by John Bartholomew: Liz Smith from Arcata.
No student guests. Eric Bergel announced that there were technical difficulties with locating any students, but to please stand by for next week.
Kathy Cloney-Gardiner brought Leann Lanning, the interim Superintendent, and Judy Anderson, the school board president. If only she had brought a student guest for Eric Bergel!
Eric did, however, bring Matthew Knight, a producer at KEET, and the father of our outbound exchange student.
Neal Carnum brought his office manager, Steve Allen.
Past President Carlton Nielsen brought Tim Jones, the GM of O-o-o-o-Reilllllly….Auto Parts (cue jingle). PP Nielsen also brought Elenora Umidon, sister of last years’ inbound exchange student, Gabriel.
Our exchange students Tonya from Norway and Marina from Brazil were here. Did they mumble softly so that nobody could hear them? They did! Also, Thursday is Tonya’s birthday, and we sang her Happy Birthday, which initially began as a discordant round.
Birthdays and Anniversaries are in the book, congrats to all. There was an open seat at the head table and President Pierson let John Fullerton pay $10 to not sit up front.
FUN FACT: It is possible to sit at the front table with the distinguished members. I tried it, and they were very nice to me. Give it a shot.
Welcome our two newest members, Lowell Maffia and Arthur Nielsen. Applause.
United Way reps were in attendance. John Woolley and Gabriel Parkenson came to honor Neal Carnam and Steve Allen for their enormous support of the agency, and their help in reviving the United Way locally. Applause. Photo Op. More Applause.
RECOGNITIONS #1
Hey Neal, you helped the United Way? $100 for Polio Plus.
Barbequed Whale? November 5th? High school exchange students cooking? Dinner with the Piersons? There are 4 seats available and President Pierson suddenly turns into an affable auctioneer.
After a stunning display of bidding, with 4 seats available, Murl Harpham gets the price to $110 and says he’ll take 1. Two to Aaron Tilch, and 1 to John McBeth.
President Pierson reminds you to support Polio Plus.
Next Monday is Halloween, and if you wear a costume you are exempt from fines. I’m guessing there won’t be a whole lot of exemptions.
RECOGNITIONS #2
Sally Arnot, you had a ribbon cutting at the Morris Graves? You have a gallery for local artists? $100 to the foundation, $50 to Polio Plus.
Kim Bauriedel, you went to Ireland? For four weeks? Neat. President Pierson imitated a leprechaun, Kim made a urology joke during lunchtime, and paid $145 for the spectacle.
Will Kay, you went to the San Juan Islands for your youngest child’s wedding in August? You went to Germany in September and met your newborn grandson? That’s like 2 months of travel? $145 to the foundation, $100 to Polio Plus, and clearly, I should have been an attorney.
Joe Mark, Diane Cipperley, and Chris Freeman were recognized for their work on Child Spree, a program that takes deserving kids shopping for school clothes. No fine. Applause.
GAMBLING INTERLUDE
$10 A.A., $10 L.S.
$10 A.A., $10 L.S.
PROGRAM
Dale Warmuth, a member of our club, is also President of the Board for the Boys & Girls Club of the Redwoods. He thanked many Rotarians in attendance for their support of the agency through the years. He introduced his co-speaker, Liz Smith, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club. Liz began with the agency in 1995 as a front desk person. She rapidly rose through the organization and was recently honored by the president of the Boys & Girls Club of America.
Liz told us about the history of the organization. It was founded as a Fight Club for wayward youth in 1860. By 1906, several nationwide clubs became affiliated and officially became the Boys Club. At this point, Liz made a Twitter and Facebook joke, and let’s just say it was a little high tech for our distinguished audience. We plan to make a MySpace page in the next year or so for the club.
FUN FACT: That’s totally not true, we have a fantastic club website at http://www.rotary1.org/, and the Burl is online too! I’m still pretty sure only like 5 of you read it.
1956 was the 50th anniversary of the national Boys Club. In 1990 someone decided they should also maybe serve girls. Now they do. Locally, in 1938 police captain Thomas Rutledge founded a Boys Club, which opened and closed throughout the years until beginning continuous operations in 1972, which continue to this day.
They have a mission statement, some core values, a youth development strategy, and some other nice sounding things that went way too fast for me to record accurately. Visit their website at http://www.bgcredwoods.org/ for more information. The Boys & Girls Club of Eureka runs their clubhouse with about 60 kids a day coming, a teen center with 50 teens a day, a Loleta School site, the county’s Teen Court, with 80 kids enrolled, a T-Ball league, and the Summer LEAP program founded at HSU in the 1990s.
They are a wonderful agency, in need of financial and community support, and you are urged to volunteer, be on a committee, join the board, or sponsor a youth.
Numerous members immediately pledged money, time & goodwill. Applause
Liz and Dale were thanked, the gift was given, the library book was signed, and the meeting ended 2 minutes early.
Respectfully submitted,
John Harper
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