Meeting of the Rotary Club of Eureka
May 21, 2012
40th
meeting of the year
Past
President Will Kay presided over the meeting, as President Pierson was out of
town.
John
Burger led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
As
Memorial Day is one week away, Bill McAuley used that theme for his invocation
and acknowledged the sacrifices of the men and women in our armed forces.
Visitors
Four members
from Old Town Rotary made up at our meeting. Lisa Fryrear, Liana Simpson, Jill
Hansen and Kim Brown.
Guests of
Rotarians included: Cindy Bedingfield's, CEO of Redwood Acres Fairgrounds, who
was introduced by Lowell Maffia; Linn Van Meter, attorney to the Federal
Magistrate Judge, who was introduced by Jill McDonald; and Dick Storre
introduced his wife Debbie.
Birthdays
and Anniversaries
Acting
President Kay gave a pass to those who had a birthday in May and didn’t sit up
at the head table. Those with Rotary
anniversaries included Sue Bosch and Paul Hagen.
Announcements
There is a
joint board meeting at noon May 30th at the Ingomar Club for the
current and incoming board.
John
Bradley reported on the Backpack Buddy Night fundraiser held the night
before. Preliminary numbers showed the
joint clubs of Rotary Club Eureka, Southwest Rotary, Old Town Rotary and
Soroptimist of Humboldt Bay raised over $15,000. John thanked the many members who donated
items for the event.
During
Will’s year, he developed a new badge and he acknowledged Murl Harpham and Kurt
Barthel who still wore those badges.
Will Kay, on the other hand, wore no badge and Past President Bill
McAuley recognized him for $25 to get his badge back.
Rotary
Club of Eureka
and the Eureka Chamber of Commerce is honoring Joe Mark, CEO St. Joseph’s
Hospital, on June 2. Contact the Ingomar
or Gregg Gardiner if you’d like to attend.
Two new
members were inducted into the club.
Russ Harris introduced Chris Witt, Director of Donor Services and
Planned Giving at the Humboldt Area Foundation.
Chris has taught bee keeping, comes from MN and is a Viking fan, and
three times rowed down the Grand Canyon.
Mike
Cunningham introduced Bruce Smith and read the biography and mini craft talk
written with flair by Bruce. Bruce has
lived in the Philippines, Alaska and Japan and received his degree from
UC Berkeley. He is the CFO of Premier
Financial Group and is a scoutmaster in the Boy Scouts. Hank Ingham gave the
past president’s words of wisdom, pulling information from the club roster
including the mission of Rotary and the bylaws.
John Ash
volunteered that he has a new great grandchild, Vincent
Gunner, son of Lisa and Jon. He will
donate $100 to the Foundation in recognition of Vincent.
Nancy Dean
talked about her trip to the Rotary International Conference in Bangkok, Thailand
and her opportunity to meet the girl and her family that she sponsors at a
Rotary built school in Cambodia. As she will be president next year, she was
not financially recognized.
Alicia Cox
was recognized for a number of items that occurred many years ago, including a
tourist trip to D.C, her daughters graduation from So. Oregon and a Tech Beat article in the
Times-Standard. She received the coveted
tape measure as she was tapped out.
Murl
Harpham was recognized for his annual vacations in late July and August in Trinity County and also received the coveted
tape measure.
Finally,
Keith Crossley, received the tape measure for multiple items like receiving tax
training in Sacramento,
and saving his family from going along to the training, and surviving the
recent tax season.
Raffle
Guest
Cindy Bedingfield and Jill McDonald had the winning tickets for the Spengler
Science Fair Raffle
Gregg
Gardiner introduced Honor Flight as our program. He gave some background that Katherine
Burleson spoke to the club in Feb. 2011 about Honor Flight and Steve Justus
took up the local cause. Steve, with
many members of Rotary Club of Eureka, including Keith Crossley, Pat Folkins,
and Gregg Gardiner, have raised over $256,000 and sent 108 World War II
veterans to the World War II museum in Washington,
D.C. Rotary Club of Eureka members Al Crnich and Ken Stoddard and
guest Gordon Redtfeldt received a standing ovation for their service during
World War II.
Ken
Stoddard talked about his experiences in World War II when he was in the Army
Air Corp from 1944-1946 and then was brought back from the reserves to fight in
Korea
in 1950 and 1951. Ken was in Alamogordo, NM
and observed the first atomic bomb blast, though his crew was initially told it
was an ammunition dump that exploded.
Ken was in the second group of Honor Flight and remembered the large
greeting the group received at Dulles
Airport.
Gordon Redtfeldt,
retired Lt. Col
Army Air Corp, was then introduced.
Gordon was in the last honor flight. He remembered the wall of gold
stars which included 4000 gold stars with each star representing 100 men who
gave their lives. Gordon joined in Feb.
1943 and was shipped off to training to an all-women’s college in Idaho. His fiancé quickly joined him and they
married in April 1943 and they recently celebrated their 69th
wedding anniversary. Gordon was a
navigator in a B-17 and told a story of getting caught in the jet stream over
water with lots of cloud cover as they were flying to Iceland. Even though the jet stream was unknown at the
time, Gordon trusted his training and the plane landed exactly when he said it
would. On Gordon’s eighth mission to Germany, his
plane was shot down and he parachuted to the ground fracturing three
vertebras. He was captured by the
Germans and spent 1 year in a POW camp.
After WWII, Gordon stayed in the military due to his strong patriotism
and fought in the Korean and Viet
Nam wars.
We are
dark May 28 due to Memorial Day and our program June 4 will be Lost Coast
Brewery. While Will started the meeting
with a loud clanging of the bell, there was not even a soft ring to close the
meeting.
Respectfully
submitted,
Nancy Dean
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