Regular Meeting, November 12, 2008

(Shortly after the meeting, Jim Lowell and John Weting engrossed in conversation.)



Our meeting attendance was 16 members (50%) and 4 guests. Guests were Linda and Dave Grahek; Asststant District Governor Bob Sharkey; and John Weting of Marquette, our District Rotary Foundation Chair and our speaker.

A sign-up sheet was passed around for the CLK Rotary dinner in December. A good turnout will be much appreciated.

Midway through the meeting, Chuck wicker of Hancock Rotary arrived with bundles of beautiful Rotary Roses. Chuck has been doing this fund-raiser for well over 15 years and we all look forward to his annual visit...and especially our wives, husbands, or significant others as the case may be.

After lunch, John Weting took the floor and gave a stirring presentation about the various projects of the Rotary Foundation. Though he emphasized the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship fellows with pictures and examples of their accomplishments, we also touched on the many programs of the foundation such as Polio Plus, Group Study Exchange, Around the World Medical Programs, and World Peace Fellows to name a few. In addition, he mentioned programs that are specific to our district such as Power Flour.

He pointed out that 1/6 of the world's population live on less than $1 per day and 1/2 on less than $2 and followed that with examples of what $100 can do such as provide hearing aids, catarack surgury, textbooks, etc. That brings to the forefront the Every Rotarian Every Year program or $100 per Rotarian every year.




(A couple of years ago I was in Tampa, Florida, for a few hours as we disembarked from a cruise and then immediately drove north toward Michigan. As we left, I picked up a Tampa Tribune and later, in our motel, I started reading it. A picture which appeared on the Opinion Page featured a ferryboat sailing in front of the Statue of Liberty, a boat that looked strikingly like the Isle Royale Queen IV. Well, I kept examining the picture and was convinced it was a sister ship until using a magnifying glass I was able to make out the name of the boat, the John Jay, which was the name of the Queen before we bought her. After a good deal of investigation I was able to track down the picture and now have a copy for my wall. Unique, eh?)