Bellingham Kiwanis Soundings

February 26, 2008

Barb A. led us off in singing "My Country 'tis of Thee", and Bruce gave a fine invocation. We had John Howe as our guest. He is visiting us from the Palo Alto Club in California. Thanks for joining us, John! (Oh, yeah and Bill Audley was with us again.)

Announcements:

Barb A. reported that the Circle K club (CKI) is raising funds so that they can go to Jamaica and build a cafeteria for a school there. Many commented on the abject poverty in Jamaica and the importance of this project. Ange asked how club members could donate to CKI for this project. "Make out your checks to WWU CKI." Dick also announced that for the next four weeks, CKI members will be working at BINGO and will earn half of all proceeds as a result. CKI members actually leave for Jamaica on March 19th. We will have to schedule as a program when they return!

Committee Reports:

Bruce handed out collection bags for the Salvation Army Neighbor-to-Neighbor food drive. The plan is for us to give bags to our neighbors and to ask them to provide a donation of non-perishable canned goods which we will collect and bring to the next meeting. As we learned later, if for some reason you can not bring you donations to the meeting, you are welcome to drop them by the Salvation Army office on Northwest.

Bruce also sent the One Day Project sign-up sheets around; there are still a lot of interesting little tasks that need leaders and workers.

Jim C. got up to announce that our Club is now officially a member of the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce. He read our membership certificate to us, and offered a free ticket to the next monthly Breakfast. If you are interested in this, please contact Jim.

Jim also announced the next Membership committee meeting. It's on Friday at 7:30 at the South IHOP. Bob Mac. announced that the Scholarship committee will soon be meeting and sending out application letters for this year's scholarships. More details to come.

We had no Birthdays to celebrate, so we attempted to do the drawing which ended up being quite the confused affair. Two tickets had to be drawn, and the winning ticket belonged to the esteemed Mr. Zagelow. He was very excited about this, until he lost, then it was back to business for our fearless leader.

Mr. Zagelow presented Rob Toyer's apron to the group and fined those of us who failed to sign. I'm guessing about a quarter of us failed to introduce ourselves to Rob.

Happy Dollars:

John E. began the happy dollars. He was happy because he will soon be on Maui, and then Kauai. We all expressed our jealousy, except Bill L. who will also soon be on Maui. Bill said that he would call John when he gets there and let John take him to dinner. That Bill is a nice guy. The real question is where is John E. getting all this money if Ted Dewitt is monitoring it for him? I think Ted may be asleep at the switch.

Mike Y. gave a dollar and told us that we really need to go see Les Miserables at Bellingham High. Mike reported that the singing and the acting were "very impressive".

Al Dale gave a dollar to report that he had been to Eugene, OR. to see an old friend who had become a very successful Psychologist, and now lived in a very "opulent house". Al said that he was especially impressed because his friend washed Al's car while he was there.

Larry W. gave a dollar because he has started a new job at Northwest Credit Union.

Vaughn gave a dollar to tell us about a new technology where you can go on your computer, and talk to your loved ones who are far away. The program is called Skipe????,. Vaughn said that they had used this program to talk to his brother-in-law in Ireland, and that it had been a lot of fun.

Dick S. gave a sad dollar because Larry's new job meant that he would have to change to Roster again. (A never-ending task.)

Bruce gave a dollar to say that he hoped that the new job would mean that we would be seeing more of Larry. He also reported that Russ W. had had an excess of fire wood and that he shared some with him. Lucky Bruce!

Bill A. got up to tell us that he won $30 in Vegas, and that it only cost him $12 to do it. He also said that he had met his daughter's new boyfriend and that he thought the he might be a "keeper".

Bob Mac. shared that he had taken Allegiance airlines to Palm Springs, that the weather had been nice and that he had gotten in a couple of rounds of golf.

Barb A. gave us a dollar because she didn't want it. It had "Ron Paul for President" stamped on it. Apparently, she is not a Ron Paul Delegate.

Program:

Cathy Dearman came to speak to us about the Salvation Army. She began by asking what we knew about the Salvation Army. She got a multitude of answers, and expressed surprise at how much we knew. She went on to tell us about the services that we didn't know about. The Salvation Army is a non-profit agency, known for their low overhead, and"not a hint of scandal". Part of the low overhead is due to some very dedicated volunteers. One of their volunteers has been working there for 26 years!

She said that one of the ways their organization is different than others is that they really take the time to get to know the person in need and to try to help them meet most of their needs. She said that their food bank is an emergency food bank. It is not intended to "compete" with the Bellingham food bank.

She gave us a little more information about the Neighbor-to-Neighbor food drive. They chose early March for their drive because there are several other food drives that compete for time with them. (Haggen's in October, Postal Employees in May). She said that they help folks by providing clothing, food and furniture. She said that sometimes people who have donated items have been put off by seeing the items up for sale. She explained that one reason they are put up for sale is so that people who need them can "buy" them with vouchers. She said that helping them "purchase" what they need prevents them from being "set apart" and helps to preserve their dignity.

She talked about the money they are able to raise through various methods, including governmental agencies. Money from the government for social services often comes at a great price. The record keeping requirements are burdensome. As a community we are fortunate that there are groups who are willing to do the paperwork so that they can help others. Still, the need will always be greater than the resources.

She also mentioned that the have Church Services Sundays at 11am.