Notes From Last Week's Meeting - February 3, 2010

by Pat Powell

Annoucements:

ShelterBox Project - Karen Bridgeman reported that we have reached and exceeded the amounts needed for seven ShelterBoxes and are working on #8.  To date the ShelterBoxes have been donated by Albert Beasley, Henry Perry, Bonnie Carroll, and the Little Leaf Baptist Church (Freda Hopper), donations from a variety of our members and our club funded one from its reserves after a vote by the Board. 

Other Haiti news: Karen reminded club members that Diane Caves, the 1996 ORHS graduate is still missing in Haiti.  Diane, 31, an employee of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, was in Haiti on temporary assignment. She was at the Hotel Montana when the earthquake occurred.  Please keep her parents, Lee and Linda Berry, who live in Oak Ridge in your thoughts and prayers.

The World Rotary Day Supplement (spearheaded by Pat Imperato for our club), which is sponsored by all three Rotary clubs in Oak Ridge, will be published soon in the Oak Ridger.   Karen Bridgeman will be available next week to take pictures for those who have signed up for ads. 

Rotary License Plates - Brenda Thornburg provided an overview of this project being headed by the Murfreesboro Breakfast Rotary, District 6760.  They are obtaining a "Rotary International" license plate in Tennessee to raise money for Rotary.  The state requires 1,000 participants to prepay $35 for this project.  For every tag that is purchased, up to 50% of the $35 will go to RI. 

Dub Shults and Tom Lakers will be manning the Rotary Foundation table in the foyer during the month of February for members to find out how many Paul Harris Fellow points they have and what their options are for using the points.

A thank you was given to Dub Shults and Terry McGhee - they are now providing coffee after the meeting so members can get a "cup to go"! 

Our Rooster collected $50 in Happy Dollars this week. 

This included $19 - one dollar each from the golfers attending the meeting.  According to the Rooster, Charles Crowe hit his 5^th hole in one recently so he will match the $19 contributed by the other golfers. 

John Michaels gave a happy dollar  in honor of the Free Clinic (which was recently one of our outstanding programs) has been open a week and served over 80 patients in that short period of time. 

The Program:

Pat Parr, Chairperson of the Board of Directors for Discover Life in America, introduced the Director of the program Todd Witcher.  DLIA is a program that focuses on both science and education.  They are involved in coordinating the All Taxa Biodiversity Inventory in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  The efficient conservation of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the primary goal, however, this organization's biodiversity inventory has many other valuable benefits.  One of its interesting aspects is its education arm - they teach and train teachers on the importance of biodiversity issues as well as the variety of life and genetic differences that may be found in the Smoky Mountains.  They are also involved in training a new generation of taxonomists, including many young people. 

More information on this unique and interesting organization may be found at www.dlia.org.

Rotary Auction - March 10

Dan Robbins reminded members that the club's annual auction is scheduled for March 10^th. 

Rember to bring your family and friends to the club meeting that day.  Just RSVP by March 3 to let us know how many guests to plan for.

Several "big ticket" items will be auctioned.

• The "Party Girls", i.e. Pat Postma and Emily Jernigan are putting together a dinner for 12
• The two "Johns" (John Iacovino and John Wheeler) will be hosting a wine tasting for 8 people.
• Lou Robeniwitz will prepare ravioli served with authentic Chianti.
• Tom Lakers showed a beautiful quilt which is handmade by his wife.  For more information on the quilt, he suggested that members look on the website where it is featured. 
• The second best Chinese cooks in the world (David McCoy, John Wheeler, and Tom Lakers) will be contributing a Dim Sum dinner for 20 people. 
• Pat Postma is donating a stay in her condominium in Santa Fe, NM.  This beautiful condo is right off the downtown area, close to many interesting attractions.  Pat has agreed to provide the winner of this vacation accommodation with a list of things to do, see, and places to dine...all within walking distance of the condo.