It is a great day to be a Rotarian, and to gather together in fellowship and service.
Notes from the July 6 meeting of
The Rotary Club of Clover Park
recorded by Tom McClellan
Vice President Mike Killen got his first chance to preside over a weekly meeting, because both President Becky Newton and President-Elect Sue Potter were attending to business at other locations. Let the record reflect that the building did NOT burn down on Mike’s watch.
Mike started by thanking Tom Faubion for serving as our greeter, Sue Potter for performing duties as Zoomxecutrix, and David Cotant for doing the meeting setup.
Jeannie Hill shared 3 inspirational thoughts to get us into the mood:
1. Adventure is worthwhile in itself. - - - Amelia Earhart
2. The purpose of life, after all, is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. - - - Eleanor Roosevelt
3. Nearly every great discovery in science has come as the result of providing a new question, rather than a new answer. - - - Paul Meglitsch (author and famed invertebrate zoologist)
Bob Lawrence led us in the flag salute, and Ramona Hinton led us in reciting the Four-Way Test.
Meeting guests included our guest speaker, Kathy Weymiller, and Alan Billingsley’s wife Debbie, who used to work for Kathy.
Future Programs
July 13 Dr. James Polo, MD, Mental Health Post-Covid
July 20 Sgt. Jeff Carroll, Lakewood PD, Auto Theft Prevention Month
July 27 Reid Vance, Home Title Theft
Announcements
Jim Hairston gave an update on the Golf Tournament fundraiser. So far $5,300 has come in, and we are a quarter of the way to having a full tournament field. We need Rotarians to sign up golfers and sponsors. The cost for an individual is $130, and a four-person team is $520. This includes 18 holes of golf, ½ of a powered cart and a Bar-B-Q lunch afterward.
Sponsorship Opportunities:
• $250: Individual Hole Sponsor: 18” X 24” placard on a designated hole
• $500: 24” X 48” placard on a designated hole Super Donor Sponsor (with prominent placement in promotional materials)
• Silver ($1,000): Includes 18”X24” placard on a hole, and (1) complimentary foursome
• Gold ($2,500): Includes 24”X48” placard on a hole, and (2) complimentary foursomes
• Titanium ($5,000): Includes 24”X48” placard on #1 hole, + (3) complimentary foursomes
• Titanium ($5,000): Includes 24”X48” placard on #1 hole, + (3) complimentary foursomes
We ask that all sponsors provide a high-resolution jpeg, pdf or png logo file by July 18th. Please send files to Sue Potter at Spotter617@msn.com.
See our club’s Home page at www.cloverparkrotary.org to find an online signup, or a mail-in signup form, as well as a sponsorship letter with more details.
Club Secretary Tom McClellan noted that annual dues are now payable, and invoices have gone out. Thus far we have received payments from 8 Rotarians. Don’t be the last one to get your dues paid.
Bob Lawrence thanked everyone who supported the CrimeStoppers theater benefit, and especially Carr’s Restaurant for supplying the buffet dinner.
Foundation Minute
Georgene Mellom shared with us some brief information as part of a weekly series about the Rotary Foundation:
WHAT IS THE ROTARY FOUNDATION’S ANNUAL FUND?
The Annual Fund is the primary source of unrestricted support for the programs of The Rotary Foundation. From digging clean water wells for villages in Africa to teaching basic literacy skills to children in Latin America, during any given moment in a day, thousands of Rotarians volunteer their time and expertise to ensure that all contributions given to the Annual Fund are spent wisely on quality Rotary projects.
In the 2018-19 Rotary year, US$126.1 million was donated to The Rotary Foundation’s Annual Fund. The Annual Fund is comprised of donations from Rotarians, friends of Rotary, corporations, workplace giving vehicles and can be matched by corporate matching gifts to leverage your donation. There is even an online resource that allows you to see if your company has a charitable matching program…check it out at: www.rotary.org/matchinggifts
Will you support the Annual Fund with a $10 monthly gift this year?
Fun And Fines
Ed Trobaugh was out, and so David Cotant was deputized. He started by encouraging us all to read the book “The Match: The Day The Game of Golf Changed Forever”. He noted that it is a great story that anyone would enjoy, and even more so if you like golf at all.
Sheri Hodson went to Wisconsin for the funeral of an uncle, but had an enjoyable time with her mother and 2 sisters, plus lots of other relatives. 5 nights = $25.
Alan Billingsley was happy to have his wife Debbie with him, and happier that they are celebrating wedding anniversary number 44.
Bob Lawrence happily announced that his son and daughter-in-law are going to be adopting a newborn on August 14, which will be Bob’s grandchild #10.
This Week’s Program
Kathy Weymiller is the principal of our adopted school, Custer Elementary School. Every year of her 3-year tenure there has been affected by Covid, and that is likely to continue.
A graduate of University of Puget Sound (UPS), she began her career in education as a middle school music teacher in the Renton and Central Kitsap districts . After a side trip to the UPS Law School, where she attended with Judi Maier, she obtained her Principal certification through the Danforth Education Leadership program at the University of Washington. Prior to joining Clover Park Schools, she was an administrator for 22 years in the Tacoma and Peninsula School Districts.
Her history with Rotary includes several years with the Gig Harbor Mid-day club, hosting an exchanging student and supporting her daughter's involvement with Interact and RYLA.
Covid brought a lot of weird restrictions that are contrary to normal teaching methods. They had to teach kids, for example, to NOT share toys. Studying from home left a big socialization gap, and Custer is working with a consultant on social/emotional hierarchy of instructions. Resolving emotional problems and other barriers to instruction makes for more traction of the classroom instruction. Keeping students feeling safe and loved enhances academic success.
Custer has 235 students in 10 conventional classrooms, plus 6 special education rooms, and soon to be 3 pre-school rooms as part of the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), which is Washington's pre-kindergarten program that prepares 3- and 4-year-old children from families furthest from opportunity for success in school and in life. The students speak 16 different languages other than English at home.
Kathy expressed gratitude for our club's support of her school, and looks forward to working with us more in the future. She even brought thank you notes prepared by the students.
When asked about her greatest challenge, Kathy said without hesitation that it is hiring. Lots of military wives were teachers last year, and have transferred, leaving a lot of openings for her to fill.
As Covid restrictions are gradually relaxed, she expects that volunteers will be welcomed in school once again. Rotarians can help this fall, with tutoring and mentoring, even just sitting with a student at lunch once a week. We can come to apply to volunteer at the school. There are some screening and training hoops to jump through.
The District is recommitting to active shooter training for all staff, and Custer will be holding a live drill in October. On this point, Deputy Police Chief John Unfred noted that in Lakewood, every officer gets 8 hours of active shooter training per year, which is much more than other police agencies.
Raffle: With $375 in the pot, 22 cards in the deck, and only 1 ace remaining, Paul Webb had the lucky ticket, but not the lucky touch at drawing a card.
And Finally…
July 7 marks the 94th anniversary of the invention of the automatic bread slicer by a Missouri jeweler named Otto Rohwedder. This has led to the modern saying, “The best thing since sliced bread.”
Interestingly, the advertisement for this machine read: “The greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped.”
So evidently the best thing before sliced bread was wrapped bread.
According to the folks at Mental Floss, there was even a time when sliced bread was banned:
Starting January 18, 1943—the midst of World War II—sliced bread was barred from American bakeries and homes. New baking regulations set by the Office of Price Administration had boosted flour prices, and the government wanted to prevent these costs from getting passed down to the consumer. By banning the use of expensive bread-slicing machines, the government was hoping bakeries could keep their prices low. Officials were also worried about the country's supply of wax paper—and sliced bread required twice as much paraffin wrapping as an unsliced loaf. (It prevented the slices from drying prematurely.)
The rule was so disliked that nobody in the government apparently wanted to confess to having the idea. The ban was ordered by Food Administrator Claude R. Wickard, but the office of Price Administration blamed the idea on the agricultural department, which blamed the baking industry.
Not only did the rule fail to save money, it didn't even save that much wax paper. On March 8, 1943, the ban was rescinded, prompting jubilant headlines across the country. As The New York Times trumpeted: "Sliced Bread Put Back on Sale; Housewives' Thumbs Safe Again."