The boyfriend proposed! And we learned about the work of NineLine Veterans Services.
Notes from the September 21 meeting of
The Rotary Club of Clover Park
recorded by Tom McClellan
President Becky Newton was operating this week from a “secure, undisclosed location”, and so President-Elect Sue Potter got to stretch her wings (and adjust lower the microphone) as president pro tempore. She welcomed the Zoomers, she thanked the meeting setup crew, and she tossed the ball to Jeannie Hill, for some inspirational quotes to get us into the mood. Jeannie offered up these:
1. Never lose sight of the fact that the most important yardstick to your success is how you treat other people. - - - Barbara Bush
2. Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day, someone might do the same for you. - - - Diana, Princess of Wales
3. It's the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves! - - - Winnie the Pooh
We welcomed a few visiting Rotarians on this day: Dave Harkness and Desniege Haywood from the So. Tacoma Rotary Club, and Bob Martin from the Lakewood Rotary Club.
Sunshine Report:
Jeannie Hill noted that Tho Kraus sends her greetings, and hopes to join us in person in October. She has been super-busy running the City of Lakewood singlehandedly, or so it seems. Tom McClellan mentioned that he heard from John Unfred, who Tom contacted to share the news story about the wrongway car thief who drove into the wet concrete last week in Lakewood.
John mentioned that he is unable to join meetings via Zoom most days because of the FBI’s restrictions against using Zoom within their facilities. On this particular day, he was teaching an active shooter class to FBI trainees. He promises to try hard to join us via Zoom next week.
Foundation Minute:
Georgene Mellom noted that when you contribute to the Rotary Foundation, they send an acknowledgement letter for tax purposes, and also to let donors know the impact you are making. She read from the letter that she had received.
Future Programs:
Sep. 28 Shakisha Ross and Zach Kaija, PSE New Innovations
Oct. 5 Ellie Wilson and Andie Gernon, Habitat For Humanity
Oct. 12 Debbie Armstrong, Lkwd Playhouse Education Program
Announcements:
Sue Potter read a thank you note from Partners For Parks, in appreciation of our club’s donation of $1000.
Visiting Rotarian Dave Harkness promoted the So. Tacoma Rotary’s upcoming 18-hole putt-putt golf tournament to be held on Oct. 21 within the showroom of Harkness Furniture on South Tacoma Way. It will feature a “Roaring 20’s” theme, and dinner catering by Carr’s Restaurant. This is that club’s major fundraiser, and will support Compassion Washington as their “raise the paddle” charity. This organization works to fight human trafficking, and operates a no-cost dental clinic.
In celebration of this upcoming event, and to encourage our club’s members to participate, Dave Harkness donated a $100 Harkness Furniture gift certificate to our club, to use as we see fit.
Bob Martin of the Lakewood Rotary Club noted that his club does Monday Night Football parties, and they rotate around to various members’ houses. It is a purely social event, to which he wished to invite our club’s members. Contact Bob at (360) 913-0895, or bobandsuemartin (at) gmail.com.
Fun And Fines
President Pro Tem Sue Potter then tossed to guest finexecutrix Terese Nye, but not before noting that a couple of weeks ago, Sue’s daughter’s boyfriend had contacted Sue and Bill to formally ask for permission to marry their daughter. They said yes, and now we learned that the boyfriend followed through and proposed, and their daughter said yes!!!!!! That was worth an unspecified initial installment on what will assuredly be a lengthy set of expenditures by the soon to be parents of the bride.
Sheri Hodson made a recent trip to Marquette, Michigan for a niece’s wedding, and along the way got to attend a Sunday Night Football game in which Sheri’s favorite Green Bay Packers beat the Chicago Bears (again……)!!! That was worth $50.
Katelyn Billingsley noted that she had spent last weekend in Lake Chelan, doing wine tasting and celebrating mother-in-law Debbie Billingsley’s birthday. Alan Billingsley was not present to elaborate on the festivities, so his accounting of them will be forthcoming at a future meeting.
Jim Hairston spent 2 nights in Quincy, Washington, with his wife, and with wine, which was worth $10.
Tom McClellan flew east to New York for a week to appear on Fox Business News, and attend his West Point class 40-year reunion, during which Army beat Villanova 49-10!!! $100
Teresa Nye is out of the boys’ high school lacrosse game, or so she thought now that her youngest is off to college, but she still somehow got to hose a boys lacrosse party at her house.
This Week’s Program
Our guest speaker was Shawn Durnen, who is the founder and president of NineLine Veterans Services. The name refers to the Army training principle that when you are calling for a medevac helicopter, there are 9 essential items of information that you need to convey to the incoming aircrew.
The organization started from a garage conversation with one of Shawn’s Army buddies. It now serves veterans in a variety of ways.
Nationwide, 37,000 veterans are homeless. Washington is the fourth highest state for veteran homelessness. The idea for NineLine was to push services out to vets, so that the vets would not have to go hunting for them. Its areas of focus include:
- Mental Health
- Housing
- Employment
- Outdoor wellness (environmental therapy)
NineLine works with the VA and has a sponsorship program for soldiers who are about to reach the End of Time in Service (ETS). NineLine assigns a trained community member to a separating soldier to help navigate access to benefits and resources.
Shawn has built a program to operate houses, and train the vets being house to get certified to run their own houses. House managers serve as mentors and on site managers. Case managers provide access to rental assistance to move them out of the group homes, and job access.
NineLine coordinates with 12 organizations in Washington to get services and support. It gets referrals from across the USA. It connects with Tacoma Rescue Mission to take vets who end up there and get them into housing. Their housing program currently serves 120-150 vets nightly. They have 6 houses, with 27 beds for initial temporary housing which lasts up to 2 years, and leads to vets getting rental assistance for their own housing.
Raffle:
There is a new deck with 54 cards, including 2 jokers that are worth $20 each, because Sue Potter won the full pot last week. With $76 in the new pot, Teresa Nye had the winning ticket, but no luck in finding an ace or a joker.
And Finally…
You may have heard that the stock market has been down lately. Evidently the word is getting around.
