Serving Bellingham for 80 Years

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

Bellingham Kiwanis Soundings

February 23, 2010

The regular meeting (2/23/10) of the exceptional Kiwanis Club of Bellingham was called to order by President Jim Carney. Lyla lead the singing of America. After the Pledge of Allegiance, Nancy Larsen gave us as Invocation.

Guests were introduced:

Anita Jackson, speaking to us from the food line, introduced her husband, former member Andy Jackson. He had decided to spend his 65th birthday with us. Dr. Bob Olson, introduced Katie Rose, Jose Martinez and his mother Tanya, who will be presenting today's program. It also was Tanya's birthday! Our new mommy, Nancy Leavitt was also introduced. It wasn't her birthday.

Our favorite visiting Kiwanian, Bill Audley was introduced and it wasn't his birthday either.

Announcements:

Ralph Gardner's Blue Bingo Team will be performing tonight and will be trying to beat the attendance records noted earlier in the month. He was feeling pretty confident.

President Elect Barbara gave a Board Report from the meeting on February 17. The Board met at the Lighthouse Mission's New Life Center and following the meeting toured the new Agape House building and also the proposed playground area.

The Board discussed the proposals from Kiwanis International regarding the new World Wide Service Project. The 3 proposed projects would take a considerable amount of money and Kiwanis would be a very small part of the support. The Board decided to issue a resolution to the PNW District Board, reflecting our feelings about these options and suggesting instead that the KI consider the SIGN project as their new World Wide Service Project. Individual members can also go on the KI website (www.kiwanis.org) and make comments.

Bruce Jorgensen proposed a project in March to help do some hands on work at the Big Brothers Big Sisters building. The project was approved.

Club Delegates to the International Convention in Las Vegas are Barbara Audley and Greg Wegrich. Attending the upcoming Zone Conference in Mt. Vernon on March 20th will be Barbara, John Howe, Greg and Emily Citron.

The Board of Directors has set Saturday, May 22 as the annual planning retreat. It will be held at Bob's Burger and Brew in Sudden Valley.

Committees:

Mike Yeend announced that Sponsored Youth/Youth Services Committee will meet on Monday, March 1st at noon at Our House Deli.

Dick Zagelow will be having a CHOICES training program on Thursday, the 25th….somewhere. Hopefully if you need to be there…you know where.

Layne Johnson from the Community Service committee let everyone know that he still has several bags to be filled for the Salvation Army Food Drive. They will need to be turned in at our Club meeting next week on March 2nd OR you can take them directly to the Salvation Army by March 6th. Layne is planning on collecting the most food for the drive so let's get busy!

Emily Citron announced that she had lots of paperback books for sale for the SIGN project and that she was hoping to raise $200.

Barbara Audley requested our presence at the Circle K meeting at Western on Monday March 1st. The dinner will be held at the 7:15 p.m. in the Viking Union Hall, room 460. Please call Barbara if you would like to attend and hear what the young people have been up to.

Happy Dollars:

Guest Bill Audley wanted to know if a certain horse dentist shouldn't be fined because of his unauthorized positioning of his name tag….on his Olympic hat. Dr. Bob Gregory was decked out in red with many Olympic insignias and had a cowbell around his neck. Bob agreed to pay the $1.00 but only if we would sing "Oh Canada" …..which we did.

At that point President Jim asked members to tell their Olympics' stories as several members had attended the events. Rich Emerson: He attended the Swiss VS Norway ice hockey game and said it was wonderful to be there. He also took the Sky Train to the site and thought it was fantastic. Dr Bob Gregory: He and his family stayed at a campground because there was no room at the inn. They attended one of the Snow Boarding Half-Pipe events. They took a bus to Cypress Mountain and he could not get over the size of the grand stand. It seems there were 215 steps from top to bottom and of course the restrooms were at the bottom! Greg Wegrich: Greg didn't have tickets to any sporting events, but just wanted to feel the excitement of the Olympics and talk to people from all over the world. They ate at The German House and enjoyed great food. They also visited the Queen E Theatre to see the Aboriginal Exhibition which included dancing and exhibits of the native Canadian tribes.

Larry West gave a happy dollar for Nancy Leavitt who filled in for him at Bingo while he and Dee were in Hawaii.

Elizabeth Bennett read a joke about a burglar, a parrot and a dog named Jesus.

Rich Emerson told a groaner and everyone decided he need to pay $2.00.

Dick Zagelow was happy because he had just received the approval of the Elk's Club to install a sign about our bingo games and by the time he turned around, Russ Weston had already installed it!

John Howe had 2 reasons to be happy. One was for the "In The Mood" show at the Mt. Baker Theatre filled with wonderful songs of the '40s including some military recognitions that brought tears to many eyes. The other was for the fact that he and wife Sue will be gone for 2 weeks on a cruise to Buenos Aries and around the horn. They will fly home from Chile.

Barbara read a joke from her daughter about ice fishing in a skating rink. Very funny!

Greg Wegrich was happy he attended a Dinner Theatre presentation in Lynden and got to learn all kinds of scuttle about Lyla Tjoelker that he never knew before. It seems she is very well known in those circles as she is the current President of Claire vg Thomas Theatre group.

Lyla immediately stood up to defend herself because she said she had left strict instructions with her cohorts not to share any stories with Greg. It seems another one of our members, Nancy Leavitt, was also heavily involved in the same theatre group. Boy…the things you find out!!

Birthdays:

We had lots of them! Bruce Jorgensen asked every one to sing who thought they could sing. About 10 members stood up and sang (I use the term loosely). The rendition also included a few chimes from the cow bell. Bruce commented that it was actually worse this time than the last time he heard it.

Andy Jackson asked everyone whose last name starts with Z to sing. Dick Zagelow was going to pay $2.00 NOT to sing, but changed his mind. He tried to sing a seductive version of the birthday song….….it was not pretty!

One of our guest speakers, Tanya (I'm sorry I did not get her last name) was the recipient of a Full Club sing.

Drawing:

The weekly drawing was won by our very own President Elect Barbara Audley but she didn't pull the lucky joker.

Program:

Our own Dr. Bob Olson introduced our program about the local chapter of the Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) program. He knows a lot about it since he is a member of the Board of Directors.

He introduced his "Little Brother" Jose Martinez who spoke about his gratitude to both Dr. Bob and to the BBBS program that helped bring him through some tough times. He felt himself going down the wrong path and after he met Dr Bob, things changed for him. Even though he dropped out of high school, he now has his GED and is working full time at Target and living on his own. He said that Bob helped him realize why his mother required certain things from him and what kind of sacrifices she has made for him over the years. Bob also taught him to get outside and enjoy golf. He said he will always stay in touch with him even if he moves from the area.

Jose's mother, Tanya, spoke about how she saw her children making bad choices and so she moved from Yakima to Bellingham. She is amazed at the difference she has seen in her children since they have become involved with BBBS and is very thankful that she was able to find this program.

BBBS Marketing & Development Manager, Katie Rose, presented some interesting facts about the organization. She compared the goal of her organization to the 4th Object of Kiwanis ("To develop by precept and example, a more intelligent, aggressive and serviceable citizenship"). She emphasized the impact that mentoring has on young people, especially for some children who need a positive roll model. Volunteer big brothers and big sisters provide about 6 to 12 hours a month of direct contact with the children. In 2009, the agency increased their pairings from 353 the previous year to 418.

The agency is having a fundraiser called "2010 Bowl for Kids Sake" on March 27 and 28th. To find out how to get involved, please check out their website at www.firstgiving.com/bbbsnw .

Next Weeks Program:

Our next week's program will be about Polio Eradication and will be presented by a member of the local….Ro…Ro…Rotary Club.