Rotary Ramblings - 7/22/08

[ynotsue at bellsouth.net]

Sorry for the delay in last week's Ramblings.  There was a computer glitch.  But we're good to go now.  Enjoy!


Rotary Ramblings – July 22, 2008
 
The meeting wascalled to order by our new President, Steve Bates.  Kay Johnston led us in the invocationfollowed by a lively, albeit musically challenged (as we were missing our pianoplayer) rendition of  Smile and R.O.T.A.R.Y.  led by Tom Cook who made sure we had lots ofRotarian participation.
 
Harvey Brownintroduced our visiting Rotarians and discussed the several makeups sometraditional in interesting places such as Mark Denkler in Georgia and BillArnst on the Holland America Prinsendam and some online also interesting suchas Kay Johnston’s online make up from England. Way to go Rotarians.  Nancy Owenshad 2 guests with her, both of whom are interested in possibly joining Rotary,Kate Hanley the president of a private nursing firm and Carol Lang, a nurse andartist.  Also, our proposed member AbbeWollens was in attendance again today. This is the second notice for him. 
 
President Batesindicated the stock market must be pretty bad since Fred Bonardi did not attend;however, Past President Kurt Godfrey checked with Merrill Lynch only to findthe market was up 40 points.
 
Sergeant at armsMike Campbell collected a total of $72 from a variety of sources.  
 
Some additionalperfect attendance pins were handed out to Bill Adams, Tom Stanley, HarveyBrown (3 years), Pat Archer (12 years) and Mark Denkler (13 years).
 
Announcements:  A short board meeting would be held followingthe meeting to approve the new member.  
The directory isbeing updated; therefore, if you have any changes, please advise Bob Teningaa.s.a.p. as we are looking to finalize by fall. 
October 7, foranyone interested in becoming a Paul Harris Fellow or getting and additionalPaul Harris Fellow, Betsy Owen is offering to add her $500 to a members $500 toget them the Paul Harris Fellowship.
 
Bob Teningaintroduced our speaker, Theresa Ringel, from the Department of Veteran’sAffairs, Fisher House Program Manager. Fisher House was started in 1990 by Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher toserve active military, hospitalized retirees and their families by providing awarm home to live in while they or their loved ones are receiving medicalattention from the VA.  They are locatednear VA hospitals throughout the country and Germany.  The houses have rooms for 16 to 42 guests andthere are numerous volunteer opportunities.  Ninety cents out of every dollar donated to the Fisher House Foundationare used to build additional houses.  Thehouses are then given to the Department of Veterans Affairs or the Departmentof Defense and they maintain them.  Theonly thing the visitors provide is their own food, although many donations arereceived in the houses to offset that. In the West Palm Beachhouse, as many of the occupants are the wives of WWII vets, Theresa makes surethere is some food in the house so they don’t have to go out looking for agrocery store.  There are also volunteerswho like to come in and cook or bake cookies. The West Palm Beachhouse has 8 bedrooms and is 5000 square feet. To qualify you must live outside the 50-mile residence and occupancy isbased on priority listings.  The firstpriority is returning Iraqveterans.  The house is always 100% fullwith a waiting list.  This is the secondoldest house having been built 13 years ago. Since opening, they have served 8200 families.  In 2010, there will be 50 houses in total. 
 
Green hat totaled -$857 and yours truly had the number, although (unlucky as I am) I did not pullthe Ace.
 
Meeting was closedby President Bates.
 
See you next week, 
Sue Miller
-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related