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Visiting Rotarians
Bill Young announced the Visiting Rotarians, including Bob
Edington and Joyce Oubre of Clover Park Rotary and Terry Arca of Tacoma 8. Terry is providing the meat for our first Homebrewfest.
Sunshine Report
There was no Sunshine report as it was noted that Jan Luze
is sick. Wait a minute.that is a
Sunshine Report.get well soon Jan.
Guests of Rotarians
Guests included Staci Mapes, wife of our speaker today and
Ed Shannon, a retired Army Officer who is an Oakbrook stalwart and golfer.
Also, former Lakewood Police Chief and high-ranking MP, Col. Larry Saunders was
back safely with us from Iraq, so he was welcomed with loud applause.
Exchange Student
Greg Rediske introduced our newest exchange student, Anatole
Verhaeghe of Rouen, France. Rouen is located in the province of
Normandy and is about two hours from Paris. Anatole will be attending Lakes High School and staying
first with the Mark Blanchards. Anatole,
who has only been in country for two days, will be looking for Rotarians to
take him along on outings.
Donya Martin
was introduced again; she will be inducted as a
member next week.
Dr. Tom Saunders was introduced by Dan Livingston.
Pepper Roberts (another Oakbrook golfer) was
introduced. He runs the Veterans
Hospital Golf Course Program, which provides athletic opportunities to vets at
the American Lake Veterans Hospital.
Someone said that would make a good meeting program and worthy of our
support.
New Club Member
King Gregory I called forth Don Daniels, a transfer member
from the Fife-Milton Rotary Club and a Past President there. Don has lived in Lakewood 20 years and
also serves on the Lakewood Planning Advisory Board with Steve Mazoff and Jason
Whelan. Welcome to our club, Don.
Announcements
The King allowed a few moments for Larry Saunders to serve
as the unofficial liaison from Lakewood Lions to the Lakewood Rotary. Larry announced that he has auction
tickets and that the money will go for a water feature in the Springbrook
Park. This is a park that is near
and dear to Lakewood Rotarians who spearheaded the effort to create that park
several years ago on land once owned by the Howie Williams family - a Lakewood
Rotary legend of perfect attendance.
Immediately, someone tried to sell Larry some Sportsman's Dinner
tickets.
Kim Prentice of Clover Park School District drew our
attention to the postcards on the tables, inviting us to preview the Phase I
construction at Lakes High School.
There will be a walking tour, like an open house for folks to view the
status of construction progress.
Mick Johnson, President-Elect, brought us up to speed on the Home Brew
Fest, but I will not say too much here since you probably will not read this
until it is over. About 30 home
brews will be available for tasting and tri-tip steak sandwiches will be
served. Proceeds go to Community
Concerns, Youth Sports and Scholarships.
The Brew Fest took place on schedule Saturday, Aug. 29, and after rain threats in the morning the sun came out and so did the beer tasters. Preliminary reports indicate over 100 turned out, not counting all the homebrewers and members of the club and spouses. All in all, a great event for a first time effort.
Here are some photos from the event, taken by Mary Lou or Dave Sclair
 (At left - How many Rotaians does it take to erect a tent? Checking on the chow 
Ted Wier checking on trash. Beer helped fuel the tent erection project.
Makeup improved Dave Covey's appearance. The crowd milled around the home brew tents sampling the products  
The ski park site was beautiful and pleasant
Birthday & Anniversary recognitions
Next, King Gregory I (we omit the full title but it is
something like King Kamehame hapoolookeelookeeloooipoi the First, but only John Magnuson really knows the
correct spelling and history) asked Bill Potter to come forward to assist with
recognizing birthdays and anniversaries by playing Trick Card Jeopardy. Like lambs being led to slaughter the
following came forward: Terry Roarke, Dave Reames, Wynn Hoffman, and Bob
Peterson. For the most part, they
chose the game where the player names his favorite color. Inexplicably, they could not get it
right, as game show host Potter called foul ball time after time. Terry claimed his favorite was puce,
but Bill said actually it was an ambiguous gray, fining him $20. (Personally, I
felt Terry deserved it for choosing a color that sounds like "puke".) Dave lost his $20 by claiming his
favorite was white, when actually Bill said everyone knows his favorite is "triangle" (see how
hard this game is!). Bob said his
was red when it was actually blue, but then Peterson digressed into an attempt
to force the King to put his fine money into Bob's designated earmark fund -
the Scholarship Committee. The King looked askance at that extortionary tactic
and began negotiating. Before they
were done, as your scribe understands it, Bob ended up paying or pledging a
total of $150, with $50 for the color error, $50 for his daughter getting
married (all earmarked for scholarships) and then King Gregory fined him
another $50 to go into the fine budget, presumably for trying to intimidate the
fine master. Which all goes to
prove you can get away with anything if you pay a big enough bribe.
Wynn Hoffman saw that the favorite color game was a dead
bang loser so he chose to play "How I stayed married this long." His answer was, "I married my wife".
Bill Potter said the right answer was "overnight babysitter" so Wynn lost $50.
Well.you just can't win Wynn. Or
it was not a Wynn-Wynn situation at all. Not so good, Wynn, but did you notice
his first attempt to dodge the bullet was to claim he was his twin brother - also
a Rotarian - Vaughn Hoffman.
Fun & Fines
Trying to wheedle out more fine money, King Gregory I then
turned to Mary Lou Sclair. He is
still trying to get money out of her for driving 90 mph in Montana in her new
car. God, Greg, don't you know 90 is the speed limit in Montana? Mary Lou just as persistently
continues to dodge the fine and say that Leon Titus said he would pay it since
he is a part owner of Lakewood Ford.
(I thought he stopped selling cars and went into real estate.) If Leon ever comes to a meeting the
treasury may be enriched.
Dave Covey's photo riding the bike with the #1 chest number
did not escape the President's notice.
Dave said that was last year's bib number at the Courage Classic, but
smartly added this year's number was #130. The King picked up on that one, but Covey slipped out of a
big fine, when he offered $1 and Larry Saunders agreed to match it.
Finally, King Gregory nailed Cindy Thompson - movie star - for
making a commercial that aired on TV.
A lot of Rotarians saw it and naturally ratted her out to the King. Some wag suggested that Cindy has put
the "fun" back in funerals, but she said it was very serious and somber. The King tried to fine her $20 but
Cindy, ever the adroit negotiator, got him up to $50 instead. When Greg tried to say she meant $20
plus $50, however, Cindy brought
him up short, pointing out this is NOT what she said. In addition to the TV ad, Cindy said her mixed doubles team
from Lakewood will be going to the nationals in Tucson, Arizona.
Program of the Day
Jim Rooks, whose father passed away recently (condolences,
Jim, from all of us) introduced our Speaker for today, Command Sergeant Major
Jim Mapes. He serves with the 2nd
Infantry Division, currently at Fort Lewis. Jim has served in the U.S. Army since 1989. Among other items on his resume, we
noticed that he has been a Ranger and is a parachutist, having served with the
historic 101st Airborne. Among
many significant medals and awards,
Jim has been awarded the Bronze Star. Jim left on our tables a one-page dissertation on
"leadership" and it was obvious from his humble but strong demeanor why his 850
"folks" in his unit love him. This
is the kind of guy we all want our children or grandchildren to be following,
if they have to charge into battle to defend our country on foreign shores!
Jim posed and answered several questions in the course of
his talk. For example, he asked
and answered, "Who are our soldiers?"
They are well educated and often college graduates. They are fit and committed to serving
our nation. He also asked, "Why do
they serve?" Speaking for himself, Jim answered that
question by saying, "It was time for me to give back to my country."
He spoke extensively about the mission in Iraq and how it
keeps changing. He is about to
return for his fourth (yes, four, count 'em) tour in that war-torn nation. He used the analogy of a bicycle,
stating that our relationship with Iraq started like a parent pushing a kid on
a bike with training wheels. It has
evolved to a situation where now it is more like the child is steering and
pedaling by itself and we are about to stop running alongside. American forces do not answer to Iraqi
officers, he said, but follow their own American officers. He noted that the number of troops in
Iraq is being reduced steadily, by not replacing those that leave, so our
presence there is slowly shutting down.
Of course, however, the action in Afghanistan is ramping up at the same time. After completing his description of the
transition efforts, Jim took our questions, sometimes with a big assist from
Col. Saunders.
Both soldiers spoke of the problem of corruption and tribal
rivalries that keep sectarian violence always close to the front burner. Larry said, strategically, the American
goal for Iraq is a stable country, first and foremost, and if possible it would
also be one of our aims to see a democracy born there.
At that point, CSGM Mapes, ably assisted by his wife Staci,
presented a military coin to his friend and introducer Jim Rooks. Avery inspiring and patriotic program
indeed!
DRAWING:
Amid all the hubbub at the end of the meeting and
unsuccessful drawing of tickets we did not see who won, but probably it was
only the $5.
Veterans Day Observation coming
On Nov. 6 we will be joining with
Clover Park Rotary for our annual Veterans Day observation. For a number of
years we have shown photos of members when they were in the service, some many
years ago. If you served in the armed forces (or are currently serving) we want to include a photo of you in your
uniform. Get a photo of yourself in uniform to Dave Sclair (dave@generalaviationnews.com)
so we can get it into the database. The photo can be any size, framed or
unframed. We'll copy and return it to you unharmed.
Start looking for that photo now so you can get it to us
early.
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