August 23 Announcements

Mark your calendars - September 18 will be a family picnic at Utigard's orchard.  Former member, Mark Anderson, will be in attendance.

We heard of a potential project fixing up the house that one of our Challenge Scholars will be moving into with her mom and brother.  More to come.

PJ finished the shadow box containing the sole possessions of a family that lost their home in last summer's fire.  Thanks, PJ.

September 17 will be a football game between WHS and Kelowna, BC (a first).  Our area clubs received a $1500 PR grant, and will be working the concessions and manning a Rotary booth.  More details to come.  This can be a great social as well as a public image awareness event.

Milt gave a report form the Nicaragua Stove Team.  They received a $87,000 matching global grant from The Rotary Foundation for a contract to build 850 stoves in the next 8 months.  The factory is finished, and the first 100 stoves have been sold, with more orders coming.  Our local clubs have contributed $7000, which paid for about one third of the factory build.

Make-a-Difference Day is October 22.  Our club will do our section of highway clean-up that day.

Brags and Confessions

Leslie Trebotich and Mike Coleman are officially engaged.  Wedding to take place in Vegas on November 12.  Congratulations.
Wayne Massing had a family reunion in Yakima, and has relatives visiting now.
Carol and Jim Adamson are leaving Saturday for a 10 day cruise/land tour to Alaska.
Joanne Rosenthal's sister and brother-in-law are moving to Wenatchee.

Program - Gustavo Montoya - El Mundo

Gustavo Montoya, owner of El Mundo, discussed his perspective of the progress our community is making in connecting with Hispanics in our area.  The El Mundo (Spanish newspaper) has been around for 28 years, and has a readership of 150,000.  They have 900 distribution points statewide.  A major push has been citizenship, as our area has around 2000 people eligible for citizenship each year.  Gustavo talked about how we are connecting the dots - community, Hispanic Chamber, South Wenatchee, Our Valley What's Next, new parks, etc.  He also answered a few questions, including how service clubs might better attract Hispanic business and professional people.

August 16th Meeting

Hi Everyone,

Sorry for the delay in the blog this week!  It was a bit crazy at work. -Annie

Announcements:

***A Chaplaincy committee has been formed.  A brief debate about the word "chaplaincy" occurred.  You chapter blogger was able to find this definition:

Chaplaincy:  the job of a chaplain or a building or office where a chaplain works. 

If you are interested in the 3000 year history of Chaplaincy, click here.

President Jim Huffman presiding (left)

***A club assembly is coming up.  According to RI, a club assembly is:

 a meeting that all members attend to discuss club programs and activities. Most clubs hold four to six assemblies per year. Assemblies allow members to

• Brainstorm ideas for projects and activities
• Set goals and develop action plans using the club leadership plan
• Coordinate committee activities
• Review the club’s strengths, opportunities, and weaknesses
• Learn more about Rotary and its programs

***Board Meetings are open to everyone and in the future, Board meetings will be summarized verbally at the next club meeting and then after the next board meeting, approved minutes will be distributed.

Brags and Confessions:

Roni lost her dog when some thieves broke into her fence.  The dog is back.

Erin's husband ran a 120 mile race and broke his best time, coming in under 36 hours.  Erin thinks the Canadian park system is amazing and she wishes the U.S. Park system would develop better access for everyone.

Earl celebrated his 20 year anniversary.  He went beach combing with the family where they found a rope that the kids assumed might be attached to a body.  Maybe Earl brings too much work home?

Pete's youngest daughter did an awesome job as goal keeper and for the first time in his life he is an empty nester.

Lisa broke ground on her new house!

PJ realized he is old as he attend the 40th birthday party of his step-daughter.

Classification Talks:

Two classification talks were given this week. The first was by Annie LaCroix and the second was by P.J. Jones.

P.J. reviewed a great life of traveling and fun due to his skiing career.  He grew up in Bozeman, MT.  His ski life started on his 5th birthday, one day after Christmas.  He stumbled into a job as a National Team Director which led to traveling all over the world including Japan, Korea, Italy, Germany, Czech Republic, France, Canada, Finland and more.  He has skied at over 400 ski resorts.  He ended up back in Wenatchee in the Construction industry.

Annie's Confession (she will pay a dollar next she is there)  Annie didn't write down enough about P.J.s talk because she forgot so the above summary is a shortened version of what he said. 

Annie's Talk:

Basically, Annie has had weird life including social work, culinary arts, septic installation and massage.  She has a Bachelor's in conflict mgt, with a minor in poetry and Spanish from UPS.  Lived in Tuscan, AZ, Portland, and Leavenworth before landing in Wenatchee.  She taught massage therapy and now owns her own school of massage therapy.  She loves cats, and like to read and do pod casts. Her husband manages the Home Depot in Moses Lake.   They are buying a home in Ephrata.

August 9th Meeting

Announcements:

The club is adding a Chaplain committee.  More information to come at a later date.

We still need people to sign up for committees- check with any board member about openings.

Matt McColm has stepped down as President of our club, and Jim Huffman, the former Vice President, has stepped in per club bylaws.  We thank Matt for his service and appreciate the commitment to Service Above Self as he believed his presidency was not the best fit for the club.  We thank Jim Huffman for his willingness to serve.

Thank you to the club for patience in this time of transition and growth.  Fortunately, the road ahead is paved with a multitude of really, really bad jokes to lighten the load.





Brags and Confessions:

P.J. attended his 50 year high school reunion and was able to re-live the old days of drinking beer at 10:00 a.m. among other shenanigans.  All around a great time.

Jim Huffman paid a fine for missing a meeting with the District Governor who wasn't there either.

Jay was able to participate in a spontaneous performance with his family at a reunion in Leavenworth.

Joan's son, Gavin, got married.  The herbs were great and everyone took them home so Joan didn't have to move them twice!

Jerry moved his wife's sister in a retirement home after 30 years in the same house.  He advises that everyone start cleaning their stuff out NOW!

Jim & Carol Adamson went to a family reunion at a log cabin in the woods, complete with a small pot growing operation.  His mother and two aunts also attended and have a combined age of 271 years!  Probably a good guess that in all those 271 years, the sisters had never had a family reunion at a pot farm.

Bill saw Beauty and the Beast in Leavenworth and thought it was amazing!

Alan took a day off to float the river with his wife.  His daughter turns 25 years old today.

Matt was able to help his 92 year old grandma have a video conference with far off family.

August Birthdays:  Mike Thorburn

August Anniversaries:  Kevin Love (Lynn), Earl Crowe (Joy), Dick Baker (Andrea), Bryan Noyd (Cyndi), Pete Blanksma (Kristine),  and Taro Masuda (Patti)

Back to School Heath Fair

Thanks to Maggie and Wayne for helping with the Back to School Health Fair last Saturday. Hundreds of kids got supplies courtesy of Columbia Valley Community Health, the Education Service District, the NC Educational Foundation, and Wenatchee Sunrise Rotary ($1000).

Meeting Notes, August 2

August is membership month.  Nothing like bringing in a couple more quality members to start off the month on the right foot.  If you enjoy our club, the friends you've made, and the service we provide, why not share it with someone who would also benefit from being in our club?  Invite someone to one of our meetings, socials, or service projects.

We enjoyed inducting Renee Parkins and Sheila Daniels into our membership today.

Jim, Matt, Renee, Sheila & friend Josh

Renee grew up in the Wenatchee area, but only recently moved back to town after spending several years in Spokane.  She received a Bachelor of Arts degrees in business and communication from Washington State University (GO COUGS!) and after graduation stayed on in Pullman to work as a marketing coordinator & recruiter for the College of Business.  She later moved to Spokane where she worked in the non-profit sector and then as a manager in hospitality retail. In 2014, she returned to the Wenatchee Valley when she was brought in as Social Media Manager for Orchard Corset. This year, she decided to change her focus from strictly social media and accepted a position as overall marketing coordinator with Firefly, a local computer networking and website design company. Renee enjoys domestic travel (and is very interested in international travel…she just hasn’t finished with the US yet), cooking, social media, wine tasting and cougar football. She also has a slight shoe addiction.

Sheila was born in Wenatchee, and moved quite frequently throughout Washington State, however she spent her summers with her grandparents here in Wenatchee every year. She graduated high school from Burbank, WA in 1997. Upon returning to Wenatchee she was employed at several employers in the valley including Lowe’s, Gottschalks, Wenatchee World and Ambitions before discovering her passion of supporting members of our community with employment needs through Goodwill OTC. Her favorite people consist of her beautiful, full of life, 7 year old daughter Ember and her amazing boyfriend Josh. They enjoy spending time as a family going on family trips, geocaching, taking their jeep out on trails and most recently, biking. She also enjoys reading when time allows, and working on various crafts such as scrapbooking. She is truly excited to be a part of Sunrise Rotary.

                                                                                                         DG Vern Nielsen and Willy

Our program today was District Governor Vern Nielsen from Kelowna.  For those that weren't there, Vern has been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer, and is undergoing treatments every couple weeks.  This makes it impossible for him to get to all his scheduled club visits.  Although we missed his presence, he did prepare a video of his talk.
President Matt introduced  our area Assistant Governor, Carol Adamson, who gave some information on DG Vern, and introduced the video.  Vern talked about how important Rotary has been in his life, and especially now, as he is going through this challenge.  He talked about the friends he has made, as well as all the important contributions Rotary has made in our communities and around the world. Vern highlighted Rotary's priorities for the year - membership, public image, and Foundation.  He also invited everyone to come to Kelowna April 27-30 for the District Conference, and had a video to promote the conference.                                                                            


This Saturday is the annual Back to School Giveaway at Columbia Valley Community Health on Orondo Street.  Our club has given $1000, and will help distribute school supplies.  Call Alan Walker if you can help (or just show up Saturday at 7:30 am).

Brags & Confessions

Earl Crowe will be teaching anatomy at WVC this year.
Wayne Massing is back from a wine tasting trip in SE Washington.
Joan Wright's son is getting married, and she grew and made the center pieces.
Jim Richardson was in DC to help his dad celebrate a WWII reunion; and WVC conducted a teacher education workshop in Omak on teaching Native American history in the high schools.
Matt McColm's son enjoyed a karate camp in Chelan.