March 12, 2012 Spokesman
March 12, 2012 Spokesman
President Brandon Honcoop called the March 12, 2012 Kirkland Rotary Club meeting to order at 6:30 PM. He thanked Rick Rekdal for greeting and Mike Hunter for scribing. Jerry Campo led us in the Pledge of Allegiance. Jim Feek offered an inspirational moment from Sven and Ollie related to what one looks like who has given up drinking, golf and skiing.
Introductions:
Rachel Knight introduced her daughter, Niki Love.
Sue Greenfeld introduced our Student of the Month, Jess (Jessica) Lund, from Lake Washington High School.
Announcements:
Dave DeBois announced the names and thanked those who attended last Saturday’s Northwest Harvest work day. A total of 16 Kirkland Rotarians and guests were on hand to pack frozen green beans and sort & box variety food.
Photos of the event taken by Chris Rusnak can be seen on Flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/58273812@N08/sets/72157629573899643/detail/
Rich Bergdahl told us that Sigi Schmid, the Seattle Sounders FC Coach, will be our guest speaker next week. Sigi is known as the Gentle Giant, he speaks about leadership, and likes to interact with the audience, especially kids, so bring guests and come prepared with your questions. President Brandon sent out an email earlier this week asking us to sign up for next week so that the proper amount of food can be prepared.
Pat Dye explained that the Rotary District Conference will be held at the Coeur d’Alene Resort in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, on April 20-22. Go to the District website to register (District5030.org) and make room reservations on a separate website. Let the Resort know you are with Kirkland Rotary for fantastic views of the lake! Lots of fun stuff to do, including golf on Friday and activities on Saturday afternoon.
Megan Nakanishi clarified that this year’s Duck Dash will be on August 11 at 2:30 PM as part of Summer Fest. All of the activities on July 4 will still happen, i.e. the Parade, the Duck booths, etc. but not the actual duck race.
President Brandon announced this week’s Board Meeting on Wednesday at Conover Insurance at 4:00 PM. Red Badge members are welcome to attend as part of their Red-to-Blue Badge process. The meeting will end at 5:30 PM.
Happy Dollars:
Dave Aubry did the duty of procuring Happy Dollars from members and the happiness was too much to detail here. Suffice to say there were lots of happy thoughts and dollars to accompany the happiness.
Program – Kirkland Rotary Foundation, Getting to Know You:
President Brandon introduced our own Barb Seaton to give us an overview of the Kirkland Rotary Foundation. Barb explained that the foundation started on April 29, 1998 so that other organizations, like Starbucks, could donate to our projects. The foundation can take donations for natural disasters, like Katrina, and just last year we helped the Milken family with a permit to help complete their home. John Woodbery, Rachel Knight, Dave Aubry and Katherine Kehrli are the current Board members of the foundation. The auction on April 27th at 6:00 PM at the Kirkland Women’s Club will support the foundation, so plan to attend. The Bruners will supply the spaghetti dinner, there will be wine and cheese pairings, a live auction (not a silent auction) and of course the ever popular home-made dessert auction.
The main beneficiaries of this year’s auction will be determined later by our members. The two choices are Northwest Harvest’s Baby Day and the Kirkland Police Department.
John Woodbery introduced Deborah Squires, the Director of Community Engagement for Northwest Harvest, who explained how important the Harvest’s Baby Day is the many people in need. On Thursdays over 100 people with very young children are served by Northwest Harvest so the need for baby formula, baby food and diapers is critical. Over 89,000 volunteer hours a year go into feeding people in our area.
Barb then introduced Eric Olsen, the Chief of Police for Kirkland, who described the need for a portable alarm system for domestic abuse victims. Right now the department has one of these alarm systems and at least two more are needed. The alarm system is installed in the victim’s home and through a key fob the victim can send an alarm directly over the Kirkland Police radio network. This saves time because the responding officer(s) in that neighborhood will arrive much faster than if the call went to the police dispatcher. These units cost about $5,000 each because of the installation requirements and the need to be on the police radio network.
Barb informed us that the foundation has about $7,000 in reserve now and they like to keep about $5,000 on hand. So the auction will be an important contributor to these two fine causes. If you have ‘large’ items for the live auction, please contact Barb or Rachel. And please mark your calendar for April 27. Be there ready to drink wine, eat cheese & spaghetti & dessert, and above all be ready to bid!
President Brandon summarized this program with the offer that our scholarship program can take donations through our foundation so keep this in mind if you are thinking about giving.
Joker Pool:
Rick Walters noted the pot is over $2,200 and 22 cards are left in the deck. Jerry Campo had the winning number but failed to find the Joker. The pot will now grow towards $2,500 so don’t miss next week’s meeting!
Adjournment: President Brandon adjourned the meeting at 7:30 PM with the reminder to sign up next week for Sigi Schmid’s program.