Rotary Club of Kirkland Meeting – October 17, 2016
Scott Becker brought the meeting to order and Jason Overleese lead the group in the pledge of allegiance.
Visitors were recognized – Our student of the month Jorge who will be giving us a small presentation next week in his final meeting with the group. Lynn Petsel will talk later about “NOLS”. Our Speaker “Mickey” Pierce will talk on access to technology.
Announcements – Anne Hamilton talked about the Lake Washington Technical College Event; Bright Futures Benefit Breakfast on November 1, 2016.
*** Note from Editor. Steve Shinstrom wasn't at the meeting but is announcing BUNCO is Saturday November 5th. He will again email sign up list and then will do food the week prior. ***... We will need a minimum of 16 committed to host the party and as of today sign ups are a bit light. More to follow. ***
Pat Swenson reminded us about Reading Buddies – the due date to sign on is October 25th and if you need more information, see the accompanying flyer.
Dave DeBois let us know that he is in the processing of rounding up children to participate in the Holiday event sponsored by Kirkland Rotary Foundation. More information to come.
John Pruitt told us that Operation Warm Coats gets underway this Friday – they have 5 or 6 volunteers but the more the merrier.
Brian Tucker, along with Joanne Primavera filled us in on the “K-TUB Teen Feed” event. The goal is to feed homeless kids in Kirkland. The teen feed which is sponsored by the YMCA is held at the Teen Union Building (TUB). The club’s involvement is the 3rd Friday of odd months starting with November so November 18th would be the club’s first feed. Be sure to contact Joanne if you want to be involved.
Scott Becker let us know the club is getting involved in the youth movement – We are going to help the Downtown club financially with their efforts with Interact and Rotaract clubs in our area. In addition, the club will be involved with an exchange student next fall.
Lynn Petzold who is involved with NOLS (National Outdoor Leadership School) told us about her early involvement with Rotary where she became an exchange student thru Rotary and ended up in Bolivia. In addition, she applied for a Rotary Scholarship Abroad and received it. Her schooling was in New Zealand. She has committed her life to giving back thru this organization which teaches confidence and has you do things outside your comfort zone.
Mickey Pierce works for Interconnection.org – a not-for-profit providing access to technology for low income families. They receive used technology (computers, monitors, laptops, phones, etc) and they refurbish them locally. Once made useable, they sell them for almost nothing ($89 gets you a desktop computer with keyboard, mouse and monitor). The computers come mainly from the corporate world as donations. Interconnection.org is R2 certified so they know how to handle your hard drives for sensitive information. They can do a wipe of your drive but if you have more security concerns, they have both a powerful drill that will go right thru the hard drive or they have an actual shredder the will turn the hard drive into tiny pieces of metal.
Scott Becker thanked our speaker and the club donated 600 pounds of food on her behalf to Northwest Harvest. The meeting was adjourned.
Rick Walter your scribe for an evening!