Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary - Newsletter

Tennessee's First Breakfast Club - Charles Crowe - President 2009-10

Rotary Club No. 3878 - Oak Ridge, Tennessee - District 6780

VOTED DISTRICT 6780 BEST ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER - 2007-2008

Volume 30 - No. 19

Lydia Birk - Breakfast Bytes Editor

February 15, 2009

Notes from Last Week's ORBRC Meeting - 2/10/2010

by Pat Powell

Announcements: There will be a Board Meeting next week following the regular meeting.

Roger Olsen reminded club members about the auction on March 10^th. See below for new items (in addition the wonderful items discussed in previous meetings).

Martha Hobson announced we have a new Paul Harris Fellow in the club - Sherry Livingood who will be honored next meeting!

Kelly Callison, Rotary Literacy Chair, announced that he has flyers and posters for people who want to display them or use them in selling tickets. Rotary normally tries to have two tables. Any members wishing to sit at the Rotary table should contact Kelly to purchase a ticket.

Our Rooster collected $102 in fines and happy dollars this week.

This included $20 from Charles Crowe - last week each of the golfers in the club donated one dollar because Charles hit his 5^th hole in one recently. He was challenged to match the 19 golfers who gave $1 each. Among those making "contributions" of Happy Dollars, were Bonnie Carroll who survived the Blizzard of 2010 in D. C.; Kathy Edwards who was identified in a recent photograph as an Altrusan; Dan Robbins who is celebrating his 70^th birthday; Judy Gray announced her son, Gary, has been accepted into a post-doc program at New York University.

Dub Shults and Tom Lakers continue to staff a table in the foyer (and will continue to do so during the month of February) for members to find out how many points they have and what their options are for using the points.

A second 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"!

The Program:

The speaker was Hugh Ward who returned with "Chapter 2" , a follow-on of his presentation a few months ago about "Justice in Tennessee". As a former Federal Prosecuter, Ward had many interesting stories to talk about, including his view of the recent announcement of the current administration's intent to try the terrorist, Kalid Mohammed, under the civilian laws of the United States. He spoke about the federal system in which there are 93 Federal Districts with 93 U.S. attorneys. Appointments are made by the President with Senate confirmation. Ward retired in December with 17 years of federal service.

Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club Initiates Water Filter Project for Haiti

Contributed by Jim Palmer

The Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary Club had just finished organizing a project to provide water filters in Haiti - and then the horrible tragedy of the earthquake in Port au Prince turned those plans upside down. On January 10, 2009, members of the ORBRC returned from a water filter training seminar at Aqua Clara Foundation in Holland, MI. As the world knows, two days later on January 12, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake leveled the capital city, causing hundreds of thousands of deaths and traumatic injuries for hundreds of thousands more.

The ORRBC water filter project is designed to establish micro-enterprises to produce inexpensive ($50) maintenance-free biosand water filters in Haiti, starting with projects in two or three Haitian villages. The "business model" is built around the installation of Rotary-purchased water filters in schools. An enterprising business person would be identified at each school and mentored with the skills needed to produce, install and monitor the use of Rotary-subsidized filters in the homes of parents of school children. Support organizations in Haiti have been identified to work with ORBRC members and the Zanmi Haiti Foundation in Oak Ridge to do the mentoring and technical training.

When the earthquake struck, ORBRC recognized that this project was not feasible under the chaotic circumstances that presently exist in Haiti. The Club's attention turned to other assistance projects with a more immediate and urgent impact, including the purchase of Shelter Boxes to provide at least some measure of protection from the elements for families in Haiti. Subsequent contact with the partner organizations in Haiti indicates that the water filter project will have its time and place once some stability is reestablished in Haiti. Meanwhile ORBRC is still accepting tax-deductible donations to purchase of water filters to be deployed several months from now. For more information about this water filter project please contact Jim Palmer.

DON'T FORGET

ROTARY AUCTION - MARCH 10

New items announced this week:

Dub Shultz will be giving an overview of a week at a condominium in Hawaii;
Downtown Hardware is donating a Bob Villa heater.
A "Handyman of the Day"
A water skiing slalom event

Items announced previously include:

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 Rabinowitz 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.