The Rotary Club of Kirkland held an in-person meeting at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Club in downtown Kirkland.
The meeting was called to order by President Kate Koslosky at 6:21 p.m. She then led us in the Pledge.
Attendance: David Aubry, Bob Auslander*, Margie Auslander*, Gary Cohn, Sue Cohn, Terry Cole, Don Dicks*, Sandy Ekins (Honorary)*, Jocelyn Ellison, Rashmi Garimella, Isabelle Kalisa, Chris Kelly-Storbeck, Kate Koslosky, Jim Meniketti, Rick Ostrander, Joanne Primavera, John Pruitt, Daniel Sada Caraveo, John Storbeck, Pat Swenson, Manny Tetteh*, and Rick Walter. *Attended via Zoom.
Guest: Anna Aubry.
Visiting Rotarian: Dick Carlson from Tucson Rotary.
Joanne Primavera passed out cards with the 4-Way Test on them; she then led us in reciting the Test. Following this she asked who had the highest and lowest ranked (playing) cards of the ones she had distributed. The winner, and ‘loser’, received prizes.
Daniel Sada-Caraveo gave us a Rotary Moment as he described his experience visiting Woodinville Rotary and becoming aware of how many physical installations in town are the product of Rotary clubs’ efforts.
Announcements:
We were all reminded of various upcoming Club events – be sure to sign up and attend!
August 11 – Social Event [Picnic] at the Rotary Pavilion on the Cross Kirkland Corridor. Sign up to bring food items as indicated by the first letter of your last name.
August 25 – Salmon Bake at the Ostrander residence in Kirkland – cost $55/person. Sign up! We will need assistance with setting up and take down of tables, etc.
Today was our first monthly collection of food items for the Free Pantry at St. John’s in Kirkland. Please note container size on the list of items desired. Bigger ones will not fit in the small cupboard that is provided for folks to obtain foodstuffs. Bring the desired items to the club’s first meeting of each month.
September 12 – Gala and Auction at the Kirkland Woman’s Club. This is always a fun event and will be our fundraiser for the year. Submit descriptions of items to be auctioned to Dave Aubry so we can prepare bid sheets and/or item descriptions for the silent and live auctions. Sign up through the Eventbrite website ASAP so we can plan on food and drink. The ticket cost is $100 (plus taxes and fees for a total of $119.73).
President Kate noted that the Kirkland Downtown Club is shrinking and perhaps it makes sense to combine clubs.
Apparently, our planned speaker for tonight is not appearing. President Kate had several members briefly describe their vacations:
John Pruitt and wife Janet visited several countries in Africa, including Kenya and Tanzania. They saw a number of wild animals. They also observed how residents have managed to build successful lives in spite of what we might consider challenging conditions. John was stricken with a systemic infection and treated with antibiotics. Following that, he developed a reaction to one of the drugs used and was successfully treated in what we might consider a somewhat primitive clinic.
Rick and Peggy Ostrander toured the Baltic States, where one of their stops was an old Soviet ballistic missile silo. This mirrored Rick’s military service in the U.S., where he was stationed at a U.S. ballistic missile installation.
John Storbeck, who has been recovering from a lower leg injury, recounted some of his experiences touring parts of Africa a few years ago. He recounted a conversation with one of their tour guides who described Germans as the most difficult tourists. He also described how they found very large lion or leopard tracks just outside their tent one morning.
Sue Cohn described their tour of the Rhone River valley this spring, including a stop in Lyon and a visit with the Aubrys.
Joanne Primavera described a South Africa experience where they stayed at a beach B&B. They had no transportation to visit neighboring towns, so they called a local Rotary Club which arranged to take them to a Rotary meeting and to tour them around for a day.
More Announcements:
Rashmi Garimella, International Service chair, will hold a short meeting with folks on the International Service Committee right after this meeting.
Rick Walter, Community Service chair, recounted some of our activities so far that have been well-received. In October or November we will prepare and deliver a meal for Helen’s Place. He has inquired of Hopelink as to a food-sorting work party but has had no response so far. Our stretch of the Cross-Kirkland Corridor has not required much effort to keep picked up. We will be providing food for St. John’s Community Dinner on the last Saturday of October. We will assist with buying food; not sure what else we may be doing on this. KidVantage always needs diapers if anyone wants to provide those.
There were FIVE winners for the ticket drawing – Pat Swenson, Rashmi Garimella, Chris Kelly Storbeck, Dick Carlson, and Daniel Sada-Caraveo.
We adjourned at 7:20 p.m.
Dave Aubry
Acting Scribe