Club Assembly and Service Project Update!
Clover Park Rotary Meeting Highlights: January 16, 2019
Written and Edited by Dave Hall; Photos by Tom McClellan
Club Assembly/Committee Meetings
Sunshine: Karen George made us aware that General Bill Harrison had faced, and overcome some serious health challenges over the last three months; he’s expected to rejoin us again soon!
FYI: Please take notice of the square, white porcelain bowls on every table; they are there to place your raffle tickets, chocolate wrappers, and other paper litter, which will assist in after-meeting cleanup! P.S. Don’t use them as soup bowls to avoid having to make a second trip to the lunch buffet.
And Speaking of Chocolate…President Heidi took note of last week’s Oliver Twist-like plea by Paul Webb for dark chocolate, (“Please, Karl, may I have some more?”), by bringing huge bags of Hershey’s Special Dark Chocolate to share. Ironically, Paul was absent, which may lead to more piteous exclamations from him next week.
Happy Birthday to: Susan Adams, Katelyn Billingsley, and Georgene Mellom!
General Ed returned as Mister Fine and Dandy, and followed Marie Barth’s example last week by levying the largest fine upon himself, after re-invading Panama. He was in such a jocular mood that our favorite Solicitor, Tom Faubion, was permitted to stand while replying to various fine-producing allegations. Clarence Darrow could not have been more eloquent.
President Heidi invited our Interim Service Director, Alan Billingsley, to provide an update on potential community service projects under consideration. He reviewed previous club projects which have had a positive impact on the area, including: Leading the effort to fund a Neuroscience Center; funding college educations for Southgate Elementary students; building a Habitat for Humanity home; constructing two picnic shelters at Ft Steilacoom Park.
Alan explained that the club had discussed likely partnerships with City of Lakewood Parks and Recreation staff. One project stood out; construction of a water park near the recently-added bandstand. Alan showed photos of similar water parks, and explained that the cost of building one ranges from $100K to $300K. While there are a number of options for handling the water used in the park, the least costly and lowest maintenance would be to just let the water run off into the stormwater collection system, rather than treating and recirculating it.
One advantage of this project is that it could be clearly branded as a Rotary effort with a permanent logo built into the water park infrastructure.
As with past service projects, we would partner with other local Rotary clubs, and seek District/Rotary International grant funding.
The water park is just one option under consideration; the Service Committee will continue to explore possibilities and present them to the membership for discussion and final selection.
The weekly raffle($510 in the pot) saw David Cotant’s ticket drawn; his luck ended with pulling a golf card (“FOUR!!!”) from the deck.
Join us next week, when Red Badger Lisa Blevins presents her Classification Talk: “Flipping Houses”!
