Business Meeting: October 3, 2007

President Eva began the meeting by explaining that because Tom Liljigren has a special guest who will be delivering a presentation, she will hurry through the business portion of the meeting.

Attendance: 27 members (the most we have had in a long time) and 6 guests: Bob Thornblum, our speaker, Dave and Linda Grahek, Julie Jennerjohn from the Houghton Rotary, and Dave and Jan Palmazal.

Mainly, Eva announced that she hopes for a big turnout at the District Governor's Dinner in Houghton on October 15. In addition, Eva thanked the six people who cleaned the highway the Saturday before, Tom Scanlon, Richard, Don, Andy, Sandy, and Herself.

A stellar birthday song was rendered for the October birthdays. Richard Schaefer and Jim Lowell.


(Before Eva arrived, Don captured the mood of the participants, Richard, Tom Scanlon, Andy and Sandy, as they prepared to clean up the mess.)


After lunch, Tom Liljigren introduced Bob Thornblum who has served as a Christian missionary in the Congo most of his adult life. An engineer by profession, Bob is working to improve the infrastructure and thereby the economy of the northern Congo. Though the country is very wealthy with an abundance of extractive metals and minerals such as copper, gold, and diamonds, little government money reaches the that region. Therefore, almost all improvements are funded by the private sector. During his talk, Bob distributed many photographs for the improvements in bridges and roads which facilitate the movement of their produce to the market place. During his talk, he praised Rotary International for their Polio Plus program which is designed to rid the world of the virus. It was an interesting and informative program.

Lucy won the monbthly 50-50 drawing and then donated her winnings to Mr. Thornblum for his work.



(Bob Thornblum, center, talks with Kathy Johnson and Tom Liljigren after his presentation.)