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| Sept. 11, 2009 |
Editor: Dave Guttu
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President Greg Horn rang the bell at about
12:30 to begin the September 11th, 2009 fifth meeting of the Rotary Club
of Lakewood. I only say at about 12:30 because I am not sure my Tommy
Bahama Rolax watch keeps the best time.
Meeting assistants
Joe Quinn gave an invocation that included a request for protection for
the law enforcement, fire fighter, and military service members of our
nation. The pledge to our flag was led by our speaker Howard Hunter. A
call to the lobby brought our Sergeant-at-arms Mary Lou Sclair with the
list of visiting Rotarians: Ed Trobraugh, Bob Edington, President Elect
Georgene Mellom, and President Deanna Ebsen from Clover Park Rotary.
Also visiting was John Anderson from Sumner Rotary, our current assistant district governor.
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Guests of Rotarians
Dan Livingston brought Tom Saunders to the meeting as his guest; Tom works with Dan at Youth For Christ in Tillicum. Kismet Kechejian brought John Mathews to our meeting as his guest; John works at
McChord
Air Force Base with part of his work involving making notification and aiding survivors with benefits.
Sunshine report
Jan Luze reported out that Ann Tremaine is still hospitalized and there is still a request for No Visitors. Cards are certainly welcome. Update on Sep 17 - Ted Wier reported Ann was released from the hospital on Saturday, 9/12 and is resting comfortably at home. She thanks everyone for their cards and prayers. She is still trying to g ain strength, so no visitors, please.
New Member Inducted
President Greg II called Donya Martin to the front of the meeting for the purpose of formally inducting her into the Rotary Club of Lakewood. She was co-sponsored by President Greg Horn and Ron Adkins. Donya is a district manager for home loans with the Bank of America. She grew up in the midwest and later in Eastern Washington. Her reknown there involved our president's favorite activity: barefoot skiing. You should have seen the bonding. Everyone is reminded to introduce your self to Donya and sign her club directory. At this point Don Daniels gleefully jumped up with Puffin raised high. It only took Don two weeks to regift the Puffin.
Wynn Hoffman was next called to the front of the meeting by the President, where he exchanged five bucks for his blue Rotary badge.
Announcements
President Horn brought up the subject of interest in forming a Computer Club/Fellowship Group. Anyone interested in either sharing their experience and knowledge or seeking aid for a techie issue might benefit from this proposed Computer Fellowship.
Judy Hosea had flyers on the tables and announced "the 2nd ONE" event coming September 26th at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center. $25 out of each $100 ticket to the event bought from Judy will be given back to The Rotary Club of Lakewood. It has a Surfin' Safari theme and promises to be a celebration you don't want to miss. Benefits go to the Boys and Girls Club.
Dave Sclair wanted to tell everyone that the November 6th meeting will be the Veterans Day agenda. If you have a picture of yourself, in uniform, that you have not submitted to be included in the slide-show, please get it to him prior to November 6th. Hopefully much sooner than that.
Ed Trobaugh invited us to attend Clover Park Rotary's Invitational event on October 30th at the Elks Club in Tacoma. The event is a pseudo gambling night of fun and fellowship. Odds of winning a prize are about one in two and the top prize is $1,500. Happy hour will be at 6PM and dinner is at 7PM
Fun and Fines
Jan Luze's granddaughter Jessica graduated from Western and she gave $20.
Mary Lou Sclair finally had Leon Titus show up at the meeting to put her on-going speeding fine to rest before it went to a warrant. Mary Lou said she will gladly pay $100 for getting a new car that she loves, but not for driving 90 miles per hour in it. She wants $50 to go to the Foundation. Leon got up and agreed that he will match that fine. He paid $50 for Mary Lou buying a car from Lakewood Ford, a relative of Titus-Will. He then added another $50 for his thirtieth anniversary in July and a July trip to Sun Valley. Leon then announced that he has his own Cash for Clunkers Rotary program: he will match the fine that any Lakewood Rotary member pays when they buy the vehicle from Titus-Will or his brother Bruce's company.
John Walstrum gave $50 for a week in Maui that was given away by his showing up with a nice tan.
Jay Mayer was called upon by President Greg as he was strolling around the room collecting fines. Jay admitted that he spent a week in Spain and France. Pres. Greg asked him how much that was worth and Jay, unfortunately he looked down, said "I got a hundred bucks here." Pres. Greg had to ask him, "Is it your's" Jay collected $100 from himself as a fine. Yes, his own money.
Clint Johnson said that he has been a little down-hearted lately because last Friday was his actual birthday and the number ended in a zero. He didn't even get called on. Clint got over his depression by paying $50 for his 50th birthday and then kicked in another $50 for a short trip to Mammouth and a trip to the San Juans.
Gordon Quick, Two Weeks in a Row Now, Quick gave $20 to recognize Lisa Korsmo. As he talked about John, Lisa, the library pictures, John stood to redirect the conversation back to this being about Two Weeks In a Row Now Quick and his fine, not John's.
Program of the Day:
Larry Faulk introduced our speaker; Howard, Howie, Hunter. He is a World War II survivor and former Prisoner of War. Hunter attended the University of Montana and worked for the St. Regis Paper company in Montana prior to coming to Washington many years ago. He told us about his personal experience of being captured by the Germans during a midnight patrol he led to find a Tiger tank in the area. He talked about his five months as a POW and briefly about his interrogation following his capture.
He didn't know how valuable being a University of Montana Grizzly was until one of his German interrogators let it be known to him that he was a fan when he lived in the United States. He told us how living on 600 calories a day in a work camp caused him to go from 165 pounds to 94 pounds when liberated five months later. There are still 22,000 unclaimed US service members from WWII.
Hunter told us that as a prisoner of war your only thought goes to survival; like an animal it is your only daily thought. Toward the end of his program he said "I have always enjoyed life, as I thought I would die three times."
The drawing:
Bud Montgomery had the winning ticket drawn today and succeeded in getting a white chip for five bucks.
The bell was rung thus ending another meeting of the Rotary Club of Lakewood on a sunny warm Friday in September.
From Greg Rediske:
It was Satu's (our Finnish exchange student from last year) birthday September 11, and the following is a Happy Birthday greeting response from her:
Everything's fine, though I don't remember much about yesterday, since I'm over 18 now. Drive a car, too! I'm taking my driver's ed right now and I'll probably get my licence this next month. I would advise you to stay long ways away from any road that I might be driving, I think I'm a horrible driver, and I'll get a truck card too. So big, terribly big cars for me.
Satu
More Youth Exchange news:
We are looking for an outbound student for next year: Sophomore or Juniors, basically. Friends and relatives of Rotarians are eligible. We have a one-month family-to-family exchange, or the year long exchange, which Hunter Larsen is currently on. Let Greg Rediske (581-2332 or 307-3494) know if you have any thoughts on this!
India Report from Hunter Larsen
September 14, 2009
There are three Rotary exchange students in Jalgaon and we spend a lot of time together. We're interested in the arts and culture of India, like classical dance, and our Indian peers are just not interested. Plus, they are absolutely afraid of girls. They don't even sit on the same side of the room as each other let alone speak to one another. Only the most gutsy men have conversations with the opposite sex and only for a short amount of time.
Today I started Tablas (Indian drum) classes and it is very hard. You use every finger differently on one drum and the other drum (there are two) you have tons of different hand positions to make it sound different. I haven't been able to find any sitar or flute classes like I was wanting. Sadly there is an enormous craze for all things American over here and there are more rock guitar classes than classical Indian ones.
You know how they tell every foreign exchange student he should study the language before going to whatever country they are going to or they will feel completely lost? I think India is the exception. Most people speak English and if they don't, then they know a large amount of the words. Everyone speaks with a few English words per sentence because of how much they love the West.
I have been hanging out a lot with two German foreign exchange students and have decided to learn German as well as Hindi. German is remarkably close to English and I think will be somewhat easier to pick up then the tonal Hindi language. Sometimes I am corrected when I say "a" instead of "A." Hindi is pretty hard.
Life is becoming kind of quiet in tiny Jalgaon now. Whenever a stranger on the street asks me where I am from and what my name is the third question is always "why Jalgaon?" As I explain to them that I didn't get to pick they just say okay and walk away. Everyone living here knows it's a pretty small town being only 500,000 (small for India).
I do like the people here so much. The other day I was bargaining with a rickshaw driver who promised to take me to a friend's house for 20 cents and then wanted 40 cents on arrival. I refused. He said 20 cents would be acceptable only if I gave him my autograph as well. I wrote My name is Hunter. How can you not love that kind of a person?
If Rotary has anything specifically they want to hear about like the differences in food or family could you let me know? There is so much happening day to day and so much of the culture I have gotten used to.
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