At 12:05 pm President Carol Duris rang the bell to begin the August 22, 2019 Rotary Club of Tacoma #8 meeting at the Tacoma Yacht Club. The room was filled with anticipation for the program and backpack project! Jamie Brooks, Brooks Dental provided the following invocation: This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first slave ship to land on our shores in the British colony of Virginia. The lives of those first slaves and of their descendants - and of the horrifying numbers who perished in the infamous Middle Passage - have never been the same. As I read this short poem, I would like us all to reflect on this bitter history and its lasting legacy. Reflect on whether, 400 years from that fateful landfall, the promise of our Constitution and of the 13th Amendment has been realized by so many of our fellow citizens.
I am the American heartbreak—
Rock on which Freedom
Stumps its toe—
The great mistake
That Jamestown
Made long ago.
American Heartbreak by Langston Hughes.
Finally, if you haven’t seen it, here is a
link to a NY Times article. It is a powerful narrative of this history and its aftermath.
Chris Serface, Tacoma Little Theatre, accompanied on the piano by Libby Catalinich, Pierce County, led us in the Canadian National Anthem followed by our National Anthem and the Rotary Anthem, aka, 4 Way Test. Jan Brazzell , Advancement Consulting and Becky Fontaine, American Red Cross, brought mics to visiting Rotarians & members with guests to be introduced. Kent was a visiting Rotarian from Iowa. Catie Douville, wife of John Douville, was in attendance to help with the backpacks. Speaking of backpacks, Kieran, son of Jamie Brooks is on his way to St. Martin’s College this weekend!
Next, President Carol invited Sally Glover, South Sound CARE Foundation forward as our meeting sponsor. Sally thanked the club for the recent time at the meeting for a presentation from Dr. Senecal regarding different clinical trials for cancer patients. Sally thanked many in the room for their continued support and partnerships. She also invited us to attend the Beer and Bites event on October 5th at Narrows Brewing and benefiting South Sound CARE Foundation.
President Carol congratulated Anniversaries for the week: Hunter George,Metro Parks Tacoma-3 years, Sherri Stanton, KBTC-3 years, Rob Roth, Western WA Pathology-19 years and Stephanie Christensen, American Cancer Society-27 years.
President Carol introduced Assistant AG Jennifer Durham, to present our Program – DG Maureen Fritz-Roberts (DG Mo). After joining a Rotary Club in 2002, DG Mo first served as the District Member Chair where she was recognized as a world leader in Rotary membership. She also began Rotary Club Vision and served as the District Vision Chair. Now as District Governor she is excited to share her journey as a Rotarian and travel our District with her husband Dale.
The program presented by DG Mo was inspirational, to say the least. She shared many experiences that shaped her Rotary path to currently serving as District Governor. She reminded everyone about the 2020 Annual Rotary conference in Honolulu, Hawaii in June. Closer to home is our District Conference and Training May 15th and 16th in Victoria, B.C. Later in the presentation she did talk about our Duty of Care as Rotarians since our club works so closely with youth. She encourages every District Club to have a Youth Protection Officer ours is Kathryn Nelson, but we are also lucky to have Becky Fontaine serving on the youth protection training committee.
The majority of time, and to the great delight of the audience, was DG Mo sharing about Joy (not the same one as our amazing bookkeeper, Joy!) DG Mo’s Joy lived in Ethiopia in a very desolate and poor community, but still Joy was the happiest person ever. When Joy was connected to Rotary thru a micro-credit she was needed and was determined to find seven other neighbors to join with the Rotary program. Soon Joy received her first $50 and was able to start a bakery in her backyard to sell flatbread in the local marketplace and began to payback her loan. With time Joy was able to provide running water and a fenced yard, and more importantly her children are enrolled in school. One thing that brings Joy the most happiness is that her seven other neighbors are also thriving with their micro-credit projects which are greatly benefiting her whole community! DG Mo wants our members to share this joy and wants us to invite our fellow neighbors and family members to join us in Rotary. Rotary gives us the opportunity to do whatever we put our minds to – if the community needs something they find a Rotary Club to help. We are ordinary people who do extraordinary things with much joy!
After the presentation President Carol thanked DG Mo by making a donation in her name to the Rotary International Foundation (RIF), which we know she and Dale support as Major Donors and Bequest Society members. DG Mo has experience RI projects first hand as she has gone on three immunization trips to Ethiopia.
President Carol reminded our club that our district Governor is not the only one who supports RIF, as we could see on our tables were all of our members who gave to Rotary International last year, as well as a list of all of our Paul Harris Fellows.
Next, Rusty Hersey, Superior Linen and Kirsten Willis our PGG/Foundation Co-Chairs to came forward to recognize some members for their support of the RIF with a Paul Harris Awards presentation. As many know, Paul Harris Awards are given when donors make a cumulative gift of $1,000 to the RIF. Donations are making a difference to those that need our help the most in six areas of focus: 1. Promoting Peace 2. Fighting Disease 3. Providing clean water, sanitation and hygiene 4. Saving mothers and children 5. Supporting education 6. Growing local economies
Earning their First Paul Harris Awards were Jeremy Fogelquist, Johnson Stone & Pagano, PS, and Chuck Heaton, BCE Engineers, Inc. Earning his 2nd Paul Harris Award was Stephen Deal. Earning his 3rd Paul Harris Award was Glenn Everitt. And earning his 9th Paul Harris Award was Larry Tevelven, Sprague Pest Solutions.
During the past 100 years, RIF has spent $4 billion dollars on life-changing projects. The Foundation awarded over $86 million in funding to 1,306 grants last year. The areas that benefited most were education & literacy projects, disease prevention & treatment, growing local economies & water & sanitation projects.
What impact can one donation have? For as little as 60 cents, a child can be protected from polio. $50 can provide clean water to help fight waterborne illness. $500 can launch an anti-bullying campaign and create a safe environment for children Thanks was extended to all donors and a suggestion made to sign up to support RIF today by using your Project Greater Good (PGG) pledge form!
President Carol called for True Confessions which were plentiful, and I failed to gather all the good news and updates celebrated – come next week to see all the great info that you miss by not attending the weekly meetings. And if you have already made it this far in the notes then maybe you are just waiting to see it come to an end!
President Carol had a special thanks to our members who spent time organizing everything for our Stuff the Bus Project and for those folks who volunteered at St. Vincent dePaul and for those who will be volunteering at Leavenworth for the Courage Ride and or here in town with our Literacy Committee who will be priming Little Free Libraries on Sunday!
Please join us for a wonderful program featuring Peter Rogoff, CEO of Sound Transit on August 29. It was time to hear about the backpacks and John Douville, Windermere, gave us the run down on our Stuff the Bus Project. At 12:59 pm President Carol rang the bell to close the meeting and invited us be People of Action as we adjourned to pack 400 backpacks for the students at Arlington Elementary School.
Paul Harris Fellows; Jeremy Fogelquist, Stephen Deal, Larry Treleven, Chuck Heaton, Glenn Everitt and DG Maureen Fritz-Roberts
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