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.