Serving Bellingham for 80 Years

Meets every Tuesday Noon - Bellingham Golf and Country Club - Bellingham, WA

Bellingham Kiwanis Soundings

January 19, 2010

Prez Jim opened meeting. Barb Audley lead us in America the Beautiful, Hans Erchinger-David gave the invocation.

Guests:

Happy Birthdays:

Russ Weston - had all sing happy birthday. (more about this in happy dollars) Greg Wegrich - Had all present and past Presidents sing. (decent size group did a decent job) Ian Willey - Had all sing.

Committee Reports:

Lots of meetings announced. Please refer to Calendar.

Interclub:

Division Council Meeting to be held at Abbotsford.

Sign Program:

Emily Citron reported that the Sign program was active in Haiti providing much needed help repairing broken bones. The center had just received their supplies. There center was in an area not affected by the earthquake - and therefore were able to quickly mobilize to the areas affected.

Installation of new members:

Nancy Larsen, with help from sponsors Pres Jim Carney and Bruce Jorgenson inducted Danielle Paskewitz and Joan Dow into our club. They were presented with certificates, pins, a temporary name tag and our traditional apron.

Danielle is working towards her Masters Degree at Western and is currently interning at Gateway Center Executive Suites. Her mother works for a non-profit, so Danielle has watched her mom provide services for those in need. She is very excited about being involved in volunteer work and making a difference in our community.

Joan is retired from a long career as a professional writer. When she was a child, her father was the President of the Kiwanis Club in Arlington Virginia. She is looking forward to participating in our long tradition of providing community service to Whatcom County and throughout the world.

Happy Dollars$

Jim Carney was happy to have two new members inducted in the club.

Russ Weston was happy to be 62 and could now sign-up for Social Security.

John Wilson had a check for our Bellingham Kiwanis Foundation. He dedicated this donation to the terrific job Russ did singing happy birthday to him last week.

Bruce Jorgensen thanked Russ for bringing Joan to a meeting.

John Howe had five bucks of happiness. One for Joan mentioning Arlington Virginia. It seemed that just a couple of years ago, while service in the armed services, he was promoted from 4th Class to Civilian. The balance of the dollars were for safely returning from the Kiwanis International Foundation Meeting. With the heightened airport security at the check-ins he was consistently late to the gate - and in one case, the last passenger to board. Through it all, however, he and his suite cases made back together.

Barb Audley was extremely happy that her daughter has now firmed up the wedding date.

Ralph Gardner announced that he and his company was moving to 108 Ohio Street.

Elizabeth Bennett welcomed our new members and read a list of air travel puns. These were much appreciated by John H who just experienced most of them.

Alyson Batchelder-Bestle was happy that her new job was going well. She had also watch her husband at work moving large refinery structures from the Port of Anacortes to the refinery. Streets needed to be closed, wires removed and put back - an amazing achievement.

Rhonda Schafer thanked all who attended last weeks meeting at the Boys and Girls Club.

Vaughn Hagen noted that the spaghetti (free) was the best ever.

Drawing:

Larry West won the drawing - pulled the King of Diamonds.

Program:

Michael Onorato introduced Sergeant Colin Emmet. Sergeant Emmet is the officer in charge of the Bellingham Police Department's Proactive Initiatives. Michael reminded us that as in the Army and Navy, it is the Sergeants and Chief Petty Officers that MAKE THINGS HAPPEN. Sergeant Emmet has 25 years of service with the Bellingham Police Department (BPD) and 9 years previous service with the United States Military and Western Washington University.

Sergeant Emmet provided an interesting program by providing information about the many proactive programs the BPD uses to prevent crime. These include Block Watch, Citizen's Academy, Crime Free Multiple Housing Program, Rental Property Nuisance Review Program, BPD Speakers Program, Crime Prevention through Environmental Design, National Night Out, Liquor License Review and Volunteer Programs.

The two volunteer programs are the Explorer Program and the Senior Citizen Volunteer Program. The Explorer program consists of high school students who have an interest in a career in law enforcement and the willingness to volunteer to assist the Bellingham Police Department.

The Senior Citizen Program consists of senior citizens who provide a number of services which otherwise would need to be performed by the regular uniformed police officers. The volunteer work provided by these volunteers saves the Bellingham Police Department resources and frees up regular officers so that they can perform other duties.

The Senior Program has three tasks.

Our member Michael Onorato is a member of the Senior Volunteer Program. What is required to participate in the program.