Rotary

The club had the pleasure of having Bernadette Bascom join us today to give us an update on the Music Project of Northshore. We are also proud of our ongoing support of the Music Project for over 10 years.

The Music Project of Northshore is a special needs and music partnership program to assist students in developing relationships, communication, music skills and rules of personal engagement…to foster inclusion and compassion in the process.

Bernadette is an emmy-winning creative director and founder of the Music Project. She has produced, directed and taught young people all over the country. She has had an incredible career as a singer and performer. She was the first artist who Stevie Wonder signed and contracted to his record label. She has performed and worked with everyone who really mattered in the music industry for the past 40 years. Bernadette has provided the Music Project program a unique vision of the importance of inclusivity through music.

For the past 10 years, Bernadette has worked with kids – all kinds – alternative, inner city, at risk, little kids, big kids, black kids, white kids, Asian kids, Hispanic kids, hostile kids, autistic kids, Down’s syndrome kids. She has found that she has an incredible affinity for them, but most importantly them for her. In 2013, she was the subject of an Emmy award-winning
documentary entitled “Bernadette’s Touch,” which chronicled the progress of a group from Northshore called “The Wranglers”. Their progress has been amazing in its simplicity that rhythm and speech are so necessary to each other. This is why Bernadette’s program works. The “inclusion” piece has come from her desire and ability to bring all these “kids” together to a common place where they can be compassionate, then have fun together.

Learn more and donate

Watch an inspiring video.

Make a donation and help keep the project going. PayPal or checks accepted.

Attend the upcoming annual Wranglers concert on December 2 at the Northshore Senior Center in Bothell, WA.

Today Tom Hanson provided us an update on the plans and status for revision of 171st Street in Woodinville which will add two roundabouts and create a larger stream offset from the road and revitalize the stream to support Salmon habitat.

Tom has updated the club on numerous occasions over the years and is retiring from the City of Woodinville. We would like to thank Tom for his service and wish him well in his future endeavors.

Today we had the pleasure of having Dick Sanford the founder of Operation Warm give us an update on the foundation.

From it’s humble beginning’s while driving on the streets of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, Dick Sanford encountered a sight that eventually spurred the formation of Operation Warm: a group of children – coatless – huddled at a bus stop on a cold December morning in 1998. The sight led Dick to drive to a local department store and purchase every coat in stock. With the help of his local rotary club, those 58 coats were given directly to kids in need.

This gesture of kindness inspired the creation of Operation Warm. The first 58 coats were purchased by one man, but the millions of coats since then have been a result of communities united, working together to improve the livelihood of children living in poverty.

The Woodinville Rotary club has been a proud partner for over 10 years and is responsible for bringing the program to the Northwest.

Operation Warm’s mission is to provide brand new winter coats to children in need, helping to improve self-confidence, peer acceptance, school attendance, and overall wellness. To learn more check out the Operation Warm website.

In Erv’s absence Paul ran today’s meeting and quelled a revolt. Paul and Elaine shared their stories with the club. Thanks to both for sharing.

Elaine went on to pull the green marble to win the pot of money. The amount is to be determined. Congrats to Elaine. Elaine has since decided to donate the money to Push International, our Mobility in Mexico partner.

Next week is out 30th anniversary celebration.

Dr. Sameer Gafoor, Medical Director of Structural Heart Disease and Anna Corliss, Philanthropy Officer at Swedish Heart & Vascular Institute in Seattle, brought new information on the latest minimally invasive techniques. Very interesting and lively discussion!

In other news, new member Gayle Hickey officially received her blue badge, after a successful signature signing campaign, and Steve Dolan officially brought out his summer retirement shorts. Let the summer festivities begin!

Building Friendships to Serve Others.

Jill Eikenhorst, Project Coordinator, Northwest Sustainable Energy for Economic Development was our guest speaker today. Jill spoke about “Application of solar panels for residences and commercial buildings”. Ms. Eikenhorst discussed the value and benefits along with the opportunities we have to use solar power in our community.

Currently there is a Solarize Woodinville campaign in progress. Using the power of neighbor-to-neighbor organizing and the compelling cost savings of a group purchase, Solarize Northwest helps communities in Washington and Oregon go solar together. By partnering with grassroots sustainability groups and local installers, we help neighbors come together to enjoy discounts and time savings through the group purchase of solar systems. Solarize provides a streamlined process through which neighbors can collectively decide where to start, how to budget, what to buy, and who to hire.

You can learn more at Solarize Northwest where you can also register for a free information seminar.

Happy St. Patrick’s Week from the Woodinville Rotary!

Greeter Jon and fun party props welcomed our members and guests as we kicked off a festive St. Patrick’s holiday theme.

Our guest speakers, Dennis Wheeler and Dennis Rockwood, from the AARP Fraud Watch Network educated us on detecting and preventing fraud. If you suspect fraud reach out to the Fraud Watch Network.

To continue the celebration, join us for a traditional lunch at Maltby Cafe or 5:30pm at Tandem for our next Thirsty Thursday on March 17th.

Thank you to all who visited and joined the festivities. Where else can you find a green party at 7am?

Today, we heard from our own Dr. Tim Burner discussing the traditional approach to dealing with tissue inflammation. Tissue inflammation is the result of irritants or toxins entering our body, resulting in a reaction from our own defense system. This reaction is called inflammation and often leads to more serious problems like strokes, heart attacks and cancer.

The best way of dealing with inflammation is to restrict or eliminate the toxins entering our bodies. Smoking is the most obvious toxin, but there are others as well. Tim stressed the importance of practicing moderation in our eating and drinking habits, and exercising regularly. Tim also emphasized that Vitamin supplements are unnecessary and a waste of money if we eat a balanced diet rich in fruits, vegetables and proteins. He also emphasized the importance of timely vaccinations and shots.

Steve Suhler received his blue badge today, so is a full-fledged WRC member now. We miss our Songmeister Jeff, so started the meeting with a multi-pitch version of “Take me out to the ballpark”. We do have fun!

The morning program featured our guest speakers: Drs. Barbara Mendrey and Joshua Goldenberg from Northshore Family Practice, who educated us on the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

We welcomed a special new greeter, “Big John” who gave us an overview of Rotary and jumped into his role with flair.

Auction Chairs, Greg and Eric, recapped our recent event, to great celebration. Well done team!

Join us next week with our own Dr. Tim Burner.

Woodinville Rotarians and partners celebrated our 25th fundraising auction this past Saturday at the Tulalip Resort.

Our fund-a-need alone raised over $50,000 towards our newly launched Community Scholarship Initiative. Overall totals will be announced soon.

A huge Rotary thank you to all our Rotarians, Community Partners, guests and volunteers for joining us to raise funds for scholarships and the work that we do in the community.

Together we can make a difference!

Next years event is on Saturday, February 25, 2017 at the Tulalip. Please join us.

The morning program at the February 16th meeting, featured our own Dr. Roger Stark with a presentation on Health Care Reform. It was an informative, relevant and engaging discussion.

A special thank you to Debbie Moore, from Partners for Work, for introducing Alec to our club. He did a fine job greeting and assisting President Jeff this morning!

We also welcomed our speaker: Julie Trembath-Neuberger, assistant Director of the Adult Transition Program at NSD, and Teacher Jeanne Schmidt. This innovative program is dedicated to providing education and training to young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, with the primary goal to secure jobs for each of the student graduates.

Bravo to these wonderful programs, for bringing these special young adults to the community.

This morning we were involved in a stimulating exercise of trying to establish our priorities of support and funds disbursement for the next several years. Jeff distributed the results of the survey conducted 3 years ago to give us some background context. He then distributed a new form to obtain feedback on where we should go in the future. Please see Bob’s email for this information.

Some of you filled out the forms at the meeting, but we would like all members to give thoughtful consideration to the questions, and return sheets 4 & 5 from the email to Bob, either electronically or by snail mail. We urge everyone to participate and take time to think out your answers carefully-this is extremely important. This is your club and you have made the effort to raise the money for our Foundation. We all must feel ownership in how we manage the Foundation funds. Thanks for providing your input.

We welcomed coach, educator and Woodinville High School Athletic Director, Terry Agnew, to tell us about the “Importance of Competitive Sports on the Development of Youth”.

It’s ethos is characterized in the developmental process of students as important builders of character and life lessons. We listened to Terry, old school coach and kinesiologist, as he told about taking kids through the process to teach them the real lessons about life through healthy competition.

What competitive sports teaches are the higher disciplines, sacrifices, respect, trust, selflessness and other tough qualities that take us well into adulthood. Not just physical fitness, but teamwork, working hard, being flexible, making sacrifices, helping others. Hey, isn’t that what grown-ups do all the time? Let’s give our youth an opportunity to be leaders in their disciplines, overcome adversity, make mistakes and celebrate success. Win and Lose with dignity by displaying respect for opponents and the game. Competition means to always strive, never give up and to play hard; don’t quit! I know that’s what my grandmother said, too. Never give up.

I asked Terry if he coached Parker Moore and he said, yes, as a young baseball player at WHS, prior to his football days. He was glorious in his recollection of the famed local athlete who died tragically in 2015. Our Scholarship Foundation of Northshore recognizes Parker Moore with a scholarship honoring his name and family.

Ken also walked the club through the new web site.

Thanks for the summary Susan

For the past 10 years, the Rotary Club of Woodinville has distributed more than 7,000 brand new coats to Northshore School children at the annual Rotary-sponsored Santa breakfast. On December 12th, the Rotaract Club at UW Bothell served alongside fellow Rotarians this morning to provide happiness and warmth to children living in need.

This is one of the highlights of our year, combining service and festive fun with the community. Keep warm everyone! Thanks to all for making this a huge success.

Kathy Lambert, King County Councilmember gave us an informative update on the roads and bridges in our county and encouraged everyone to prepare our home and car emergency kits. Kathy represents District 3, which surrounds Woodinville. She spoke about the condition of our rural roads and bridges, and the picture isn’t pretty. The maintenance needs simply are greater than available funds.

She urged us to contact our state representatives and senators to express our concern and ask them to provide the necessary funds. In particular, contact Senator Andy Hill and Representatives Springer and Goodman.

You can see more details at King County Roads Task Force Update. And get follow continual updates at King County Councilmember Lambert.

A special shoutout to Keith Wells, our Santa and Sleigh Brigade leader, along with our Rotary Elves, led by Chief Elf Erv, who brought a festive spirit to the 1st Annual Christmas Tree Lighting at Molbaks over the weekend.

Several more items were harvested for the Rotaract Holiday Sock & Shoe Drive. Keep them coming!

And as always, a warm Rotary welcome to our guests that joined us this morning and congratulations to Greeter Eric for rocking the raffle!

Today’s meeting was truly eclectic, starting with Jeff Samuelson sharing some historical perspectives on Thanksgiving. Next Eric Angelo, our young greeter, shared with us his job-application resume. Eric is graduating from High School and hoping to find permanent employment. We wish him well; he certainly has a joyful personality. Greg Riggs shared with us the progress we have made in registering guests and contributions to the auction. We have a long ways to go to meet our goals, so he urged us to post our registrations and auction items. There are still 4 members who have not registered. We need active guests!

Jeff Lair reminded us of the Tree Lighting ceremony scheduled for Nov. 29 in the Molbak’s parking lot. All Club members should have received emails describing the details. Jeff also reminded us of the Mobile in Mexico project scheduled for this weekend, the details of which are contained in an e-mail. He also reminded us of the Holiday Party scheduled for Dec. 8 at Crystal Lake Lodge. If you are coming, be sure to let Gordy know. We are certainly a busy bunch!

Bob Guide finished off the morning by sharing his thoughts on “Giving Thanks”. He suggested that there are three major aspects of “Giving Thanks”:

• What are we thankful for? What events have occurred in our lives that significantly impacted our lives?
• Who are we thankful to? Have we identified the persons who contributed to these impactful events?
• How do we express our thanks? Do we just think about it or do we verbally express our thanks.

Bob suggested that we should try to be verbal, particularly face-to-face or in writing. Thanksgiving should be a year-round activity, not just limited to the 4th Thursday in November.

The morning began with a rousing Veterans Day song line-up, led by songmeister, Jeff Samuelson. What a great way to start the day and honor our veterans!

A special thank you to Interim Woodinville City Manager, Dick Zais, for his frontline account of the “Eruption of Mount St. Helens”. We appreciate your excellent response as City Manager of Yakima during this historic disaster. Your Rotary colors are showing in fine style!

The October 13 meeting of RCW was very interesting, to say the least. Our featured speaker was Dr. Brad Remington, a plastic surgeon who practices at the evergreen Medical Center. He showed many pictures of pre- and post-operative features. It took me back to my Jr. High years when I used to sneak views of pictures in National Geographic. Seriously, the talk was very informative and was well received.

The auction registration and sale items are progressing with team Green in the lead. We need more group dinner items, which are very popular. If you haven’t registered yet, be sure to do that this week. Just go to www.maestroweb.com. It’s really easy.

Erv Desmet went to Bolivia in search of some exotic fish. I don’t know if he caught any, but he was able to capture some Bolivians to display his beloved Grace Town flag and explain the town’s history in detail with special emphasis on the duties of the town clerk and how many think that the clerk’s position is more important than the mayoral position. Many questions were asked by the Bolivian audience and thorough answers were provided. Erv claims the applause was extensive. He also explained how he came up with the slogan of “Having fun is serious business”. He noted that being in Bolivia-so far away from Grace and all authority figures-it seemed that the words just kept flowing in great numbers. I notice there was no mention of RCW in his report, or that he presented no RCW banner. Sounds like this needs an extensive explanation. See you next week when John Hughes et alia will update us on the Northshore Scholarship Foundation.