May 4, 2021 Meeting Notes

President Earl Crowe called the meeting to order and Carol led with the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag. Chris led the club with the Invocation. 

Earl acknowledged Carol as the winner of the marble draw from the previous week and presented her with a check for $76 and Rotarian of the month too! Nice haul! Then Earl mentioned that the check was for $2 too much and asked for cash to cover the difference. Haven't we been warned enough about these scams?!!!

Announcements

The Rotary Foundation will have an on-line fundraiser gala on Wed., May 12th from 5 pm to 6 pm. Cost is $110 to join and $100 of it is donated toward your next Paul Harris award. There will be a variety show featuring lots of entertainment and worthwhile speakers. The in-person meet-up in the board room has been canceled, but if you still want to get together for it, Carol and Jim invited everyone to their house for some snacks and drinks.

Afterwards, at 6:30 pm, will be the
Rotary District 5060 Awards Ceremony. Click this link to register for just the Awards Ceremony:

District 5060 Awards Zoom Registration
There is no cost to attend the District 5060 awards ceremony so if you can't attend the Foundation Gala, be sure to attend the District awards ceremony. We'll be getting together in our normal meeting area in the Pybus Event Center, but both the Gala and Award Ceremony will be hybrid events (Zoom and Live at Pybus). Special bonus is a cash bar during the District 5060 awards ceremony.

Again, we will be doing the "takeovers" of the Wenatchee Valley Farmers Market at Pybus starting on Sat., May 15th and continuing into October. It's always fun to greet people and help with set up or take down if necessary. We also help people get things to their cars if needed so it's a great opportunity to demonstrate Service Above Self! It's on the 3rd Saturday of each month. There will also be non-profit tables this year where we'll have one for kids activities and brochures for the parents. Sign-ups will begin next week so check your calendars and come ready with your availability. A sign-up sheet for hour long shifts was circulated at the meeting. If you didn't sign up and want to be there, contact Kathleen.

PJ and Robin are organizing a cleansing of the sign (as the service project will now be called) at the North end of town as a service project. We need to trim a tree branch that has grown in front of it and the property owner has ok'd it's removal. The Wenatchee Valley service clubs' signs deserve to be visible!

May 22nd will be the Board Retreat and Strategic Planning meeting. It will involve all current board members plus the incoming board members. Dan & Jackie have been invited as new members to be involved to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective. This doesn't mean Earl isn't interested in what the rest of us have to say! In an effort to include all club members, between now and May 18th, any member can email Earl with their thoughts/ideas concerning the direction of the club over the next 2 to 3 years (ejcrowe1@yahoo.com). Just make sure the comments are constructive! I know, there's always a catch; they get you with the fine print! Earl will compile the information and take it with him to the meeting.

Taro wanted everyone to get the changeover dinner on their calendar now.

It will be Tuesday, June 29th at Ridgeline Graphics at 6:30pm.

Still working on the menu, but it'll be a BBQ, cost TBD. There will be no meeting that Tuesday morning! Mark your calendars!

Come help us roast send off Earl and welcome Kathleen.

Rotary International 2021 Virtual Convention is now available for registration.

The 2021 Virtual Convention will be better than ever, opening more innovative opportunities to learn and to engage with the family of Rotary, near and far. You’ll be able to network in virtual lounges, meet new partners in service, and join fun activities with Rotary members from around the world.

This event is open to all Rotary members and participants from 12-16 June 2021. Registration fees are as follows:

• Promotional rate: US$49* through 7 May, 2021 (11:59:59 Chicago time - CDT) 
• US$65 - 8 May through 16 June. 

Click this link to register for the 2021 Virtual Convention: REGISTER for 2021 Virtual Convention

Rotary Moment

Wayne presented a brief Rotary Moment. He reminded the club about the article in the latest Rotary magazine about the 2027 Rotary International Convention. It will be held in Honolulu, Hawaii on June 5-9, 2027!! Last year's 2020 Convention was scheduled to be held in Honolulu, but because of CoVid-19, it was cancelled there. SO, start working on your tan and fitting back into your bathing suit or at least shorts! We're headed to the beaches!!

Brags and Confessions

Jim Adamson bragged about the Rotary training this past weekend. There were 10
sessions to choose from and three one-hour time slots in the morning. Jim led one, participated in one, and facilitated another. He also bragged about Jackie's idea in one session where she came up with an idea for an event for pet owners.

Robin bragged that she just go back from SoCal. Unfortunately, she was there because her mom had fallen. She's going to bring her mom up to live with her and Richard at the end of the month. She confessed that this process will probably result in her needing a liver transplant. I don't know what it meant, but she wanted to have her new liver on the rocks, whatever that meant. ;-) She also confessed that she missed CSTE this past weekend because she was traveling home.

Kathleen confessed that she read in the newspaper that her husband was retiring. So
she's looking for a job for Steve now! They're not planning on leaving town as they've settled in and love it here. Great news for our club, valley, and congratulations Steve!

Program

Earl introduced his partner, excuse me, a work associate, Rick Phillips, funeral
director for Chapel of the Valley. Rick was the owner of Telford's and is a real down to earth guy. He commented that he was a little "stiff" after doing a yard sale with his Kiwanis club this weekend. The audience wasn't sure if it was a little funeral humor or not. Kiwanis club, come on, you're pulling our leg! Seriously though, 38 years is quite a commitment, keep up the great community work Rick!

Rick's dad and grandfather were both funeral directors, so he has been around it his whole life. It has meant a lot to him over the years to help families through that difficult time. His family took in two boys from abusive situations and they both wound up committing suicide. When he was 17, his girlfriend died from a bleeding ulcer. He really struggled with these losses, but a funeral director helped him and he has been forever grateful. After that, he decided to get involved. His grandfather was also a pastor and told him that he'd be able to make a difference in a lot of people's most difficult moments.

Over his career, he has been granted many honors and achievements, including president of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association and elected to represent Washington State on the National Policy Board, meeting multiple times with the President of the United States.

He's kept a daily journal since 1974 and hopes to write a book one day about his experiences. He was involved with the Green River homicide victims and families, as well as the Tylenol tampering cases so there is no shortage of information and stories to pull from. 

Rick noted that there are almost three million deaths in the United States annually, over 52,000 in Washington State. When someone dies, a death certificate must be created and requires a lot of information to be complete.

He's seen a lot of change over the years. In 1981-1982, the Washington State cremation rate was 9%; very high compared to the national average of 2-3%. It is now 81% in our state, highest in the nation! The national average is 52% and Canada is 70%. While cost is a factor, the biggest reason for the change is a change in belief system. Most denominations frowned on cremation in the past, but it is accepted now.

State law allows immediate family to view someone who has passed without embalming for a certain time, but must embalm, if there will be a larger viewing. If known COVID, it requires embalming. When he started in the valley, there were three funeral services and none of them had a cooler, so everyone was embalmed. Now, everyone has a cooler.

There is a social security death benefit as well. It used to be an automatic $250, but was changed in 1991... to $255. It is only paid to a surviving spouse or dependent children.

Indigent cases need to determine if they have any family. If they find family and the family won't acknowledge the deceased, they are considered abandoned. There are about 20-25 indigent cases per year. In these cases, the county will pay $695 for cremation. They're usually put in a mausoleum, but if they're a veteran, Earl will drive them over to a veterans' cemetery on the Westside. If the deceased is abandoned, it's between the county and funeral home. The state used to pay for people on welfare if they didn't have anyone to pay for their burial, but too many people took advantage of the program (even when they had the means to pay for their family member) so the state stopped providing the service.

COVID has impacted funeral services as well. It has limited how many people can turn out for functions, like memorial and graveside services. There have been a lot more private burials with just the family. At one point last year, the state of Washington raised the limit to 100 people for graveside services. They followed the rules and told people they had to limit their gathering to that. Rick made sure everyone was counted to stay on the up and up. One service had 74 people and

during the service a couple of cars pulled up from a distance off and he didn't think anything about it at first, but then he noticed they had binoculars and they were counting the people assembled. He wound up in trouble because the city of Wenatchee was only allowing 30 people at the time.

Following death, COVID begins to subside within 30 minutes, but it doesn't make much difference to funeral directors as they already took the same precautions with everyone who passes as they don't know if they had COVID, HIV, or numerous other potential infections.

For speaking to us today, a children's book will be donated to the library in Rick's name. It must be difficult to go through such difficult times with people over and over again. Thanks for what you do, Rick, it helps people so much!

Raffle

Taro's ticket was drawn, but alas, he couldn't do that simple thing that Carol did the week before and he was left disheartened. So sad!

Closing

Earl closed it out with a quote from Yoda in honor of "May the 4th be with you" - "If no mistake you have made, losing you are. A different game you should play." And Taro felt like that spoke to him.