(It was nice seeing Tom Scanlan back from his long trip around the country and into the Caribbean basin. Here he is greeted by Dan and a membership welcome.)
Attending were 20 members and 4 guests: Guest were Dick Dana, Linda and Dave Grahek, and Tom Schields from St. Louis, Ole's brother-in-law.
This was the last meeting of the Rotary Year and in keeping with tradition, President Kevin wrapped up the year's accomplishments. Indeed, they are impressive and should qualify the club for a Presidential Citation. In summary, they are:
On International Service Projects:
Although it was not initiated by the CLK Rotary, we have contributed $1,000 this year to the polio eradication effort and have pledged to make equal contributions for the next two years. We have also contributed $1,600 to the EREY and have taken the steps necessary to start two 5/5 club which will raise an additional $10,000 towards our club’s Foundation/International contribution over the next five years.
We have contributed (monetarily) to the Districts efforts to supplement the funding necessary to continue with the Flour Power project.
We have recruited 3 new members this year – including one former Rotarian who had recently moved to the area and expressed a desire to become an “active” Rotarian once again. He was re-inducted in February.
On Membership Recruitment
We have addressed membership recruitment through the involvement of the family. Members have been encouraged to bring their spouses/children to weekly meetings and extra events. We have had 6 child guests this year and 11 spousal guests. In addition we have hosted nearly 60 non-Rotarian guests at our weekly meetings this past year. Three of which are considering membership but have yet to join.
Efforts to include representation from local schools and youth-based community organizations have been made as part of our membership recruitment. One new member is the director of a non-profit organization that serves youth through community-arts programming.
On Club Service:
Complimentary Subscriptions to the Rotarian are provided to two local libraries.
Both the current President and Incoming President Elect have attended the 2008-09 and 2009-10 PETS Training.
The current RYE officer has been sponsored to attend the RYE conference/trainings.
We have included members’ families (spouse/children) in various activities including our Adopt
A Highway cleanup, hosting/ushering during our Tamburitzan’s performance, helping serve diners during the spaghetti dinner, and attendance at other events such as the Polio Awareness dinner held in collaboration with the Houghton and Hancock Clubs. We had nearly 50 hours of non-rotarian service from family/friends during our various Rotary activities this year.
On Vocational Service:
Several Club members participated in a “Mock Interview” sessions. This was in collaboration with the CLK Public Schools young business leader’s class and provided real-life interviewing experiences for 20 students.
The CLK Rotary Club has developed and implemented a CLK Rotary Scholarship fund. The first two awards ($1,000 ea) were made to a graduate of both the CLK Public Schools and Lake Linden-Hubbell High School. This scholarship is intended to be an annual award and is funded through our local efforts.
On Community Service:
CLK Rotary supports the Calumet-based Angel Mission “Free Store” which provides food, clothing, and utility expense relief for under-served, under privileged families.
The CLK Rotary Club, with support of a district matching grant, provided over $500 in toys, clothing and other gift items to the “Secret Santa” project. This project is coordinated by Keweenaw County Sheriff, Ron Lahti, and serves nearly 300 underprivileged children in Keweenaw County, In addition to the financial contribution, club members helped Sheriff Lahti in sorting and preparing the gift items in time for delivery for Christmas 2008.
Club members awarded $3,000 in support of a local project intended to memorialize the 74 people (mostly children) killed during the Italian Hall disaster on Christmas Eve 1913. Seventy-four candle luminaries were commissioned to line the walk-way of the now historical landmark on Christmas Eve 2008. The CLK Rotary Club has formed a committee to ensure this continues annually in collaboration with the Village of Calumet and the Keweenaw National Historic Park.
Finally, in addition to all that, we inducted 3 new members into the club.
CLK Rotary, you can be proud of what you have done. But as they say in show business, "you're only as good as your last show," so we face a new year and new challenges that our incoming president, Jim Lowell, will present to us on the weeks ahead.
Winner the new Outdoor furniture set donated by Kevin was, fittingly, Jim Lowell, with 100% attendance, 51 meetings. Congratulations, Jim!
Runners up were: 3rd place with 94%, Patsy Bastian, and 2nd place with 96%, Andy Murtaugh.
With that, Kevin Store turned the gavel over to Jim Lowell and received a hearty round of applause from the members for a job Well Done!
