Serving Bellingham for 80 Years

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

Bellingham Kiwanis Soundings

February 9, 2010

Looking around and not seeing President Jim Carney in the room, President Elect Barbara Audley stepped up to the podium and called the meeting to order. She coerced her husband Bill Audley into leading us in My Country Tis of Thee followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Rich Emerson gave the invocation straight from his heart and the meeting was off and running. At that point, President Jim burst into the room and carried on with the agenda.

Guests:

Announcements and Committee Reports:

Anita Jackson gave a CHOICES report from the food line. She was impressed with the committee meeting she had on Monday and felt that everyone was very well behaved, except of course Rich Emerson who was involved in a food fight with orange peels. They will be making CHOICES presentations at Whatcom, Fairhaven and Meridian Middle Schools this year, starting in late March. For new comers, this is an excellent program where middle school students are taught the consequences of making good or bad choices in life.

John Howe, Interclub Chairman, announced that there will be an Interclub to the Lake Whatcom Kiwanis Club for dinner next Tuesday, the 16th at 6:00. Please let John know if you can attend.

Jan Armstrong announced the Community Service Committee will meet next Thursday for lunch at Oriento Restaurant on Meridian Street in the Fountain District. Layne Johnson also announced that he will be bringing collection bags for the Salvation Army's Food Drive to the meeting in the next week or so. Each member who wants to participate will be given several bags to have filled with non perishable food for the drive. The food drive will end in early March.

YCPO (Young Children Priority One) is waiting breathlessly for news from the Pacific Northwest District Foundation on their grant request for the Agape House Playground Equipment.

Ralph Gardner announced that the Fundraising Committee is having a brainstorming meeting on Saturday, February 13 on ways to market both our club projects and our Bingo games. Breakfast will be held at The Oboe Café in the Lakeway Best Western at 7:45 followed by a meeting at 9:00 at The Gateway Center. Rich said that Vaughn would probably just show up for breakfast. Ralph announced that Nancy Larsen-Kolakowski will be there which will be saving her husband George a pile of money. It seems that she sacrificed a Valentine's trip to Seattle just so she could be at the meeting. The Club's applause expressed their appreciation.

Anita Jackson and Elizabeth Bennett appeared in evening wear (aprons), to announce the upcoming Theatre Night and Auction. They jumped up on chairs in the front of the room so everyone could see them better. The event is actually a few months from now (June 10th) but now is the time for club members to start collecting or creating auction items. Idea lists for items were distributed and members are asked to submit their items as soon as possible as the planning for this event is very time consuming. To quote Anita…."The earlier the better". The play this year at the Bellingham Theatre Guild will be "Guys and Dolls" an "odd ball romantic comedy". There are 198 seats in the house and it would be great if we could fill every last one. Joyce Gardner, who in the past has collected large volumes of items for the auction, was put on the spot for this year. With a knowing look, she said…. "maybe"!

Bruce Jorgensen distributed inserts for our roster with information for our 2 newest members Joan Dow and Danielle Paskewitz.

Bingo had a record breaking night last week at the Elk's Club in spite of Vaughn Hagen's calling faux pas's. Vaughn mumbled something about the rumor mill kicking into high gear about nothing, but all in all the Red Team simply performed magnificently!

Happy Dollars:

Bill Audley was happy about the Saints winning the Super Bowl.

Rich Emerson was sooooo happy about all of the fruit he was served at the CHOICES meeting. He also said that Anita and Jeri Bungard kept him humble which seems like an impossible task.

Larry West was happy for Nancy Leavitt who agreed to take his place at the Bingo game next Tuesday while the poor dear is in Hawaii with wife Dee.

Vaughn was very happy. First he wanted to encourage everyone to vote in today's school elections. Then he also wanted to brag about all of the celebrity's he has seen lately and dropped such names as Billy Joel, Elton John and The Smother's Brothers.

Barbara Audley was VERY happy to have gone to San Diego with husband Bill to celebrate the 98th birthday of her dad. She also read a joke about moose hunting and plane crashings that was pretty funny.

John Howe was very happy. He was very happy that the Saints won and noted that whenever the NFL team wins the Super Bowl the market goes up….and it did. He was happy to be back from a visit to California where his old Kiwanis Club in Palo Alto collected many happy dollars for his appearance. He was also happy because he was able to attend his nephew's daughter's wedding. His last item of happiness was for the passing of the Olympic Torch through the Peace Arch in Blaine.

Former Boy Scout Ralph Gardner was happy because today was the 100th birthday of the Boy Scouts.

Rhonda Shaffer was happy because she had attended the Sehome Key club meeting and was pleasantly surprised that there were 12 kids at the meeting. The group will be volunteering for projects at the Boys and Girls Club.

Program:

Jan Armstrong re-introduced our guest speaker, Anita Bowen, who is past President of the local NAMI chapter (National Alliance for the Mentally Ill). She spoke about the stigma of mental illness and the effect it has on those who suffer from the illness but also their families and the community. Statistics show that 1 in 4 citizens have some sort of mental health disorder and that the cost to the US is in the Billions. A very high percent of those in jails and prison suffer from some form of the illness and that this has nothing to do with the intelligence of the person. This malady can be corrected, either with counseling and support of medications. The local NAMI chapter offers 24 hours phone support as well as a library of material and a free 12-week class for families in Bellingham and Whatcom County. In addition to the family support given, they also have Wellness Recovery Action Plan classes. Their website is www.whatcomnami.org.