Posted by Dene Hadden
SPOKES VOL. LXV NO. 3                                                                               July 17, 2018
 
 
Jerry Portman and Paul Hemmeter were our greeters this morning.
 
President Mark Odland opened today’s meeting with “My Country ‘tis of Thee” and Art Ayers provided our invocation.
 
Guests:
Prospective members Steve Miles and Tom Noverr along with Dr. Paul Wahbe and Ella Wahbe were our guests this morning.
 
Spotlight:
Dan Thompson spoke the club about the possibility of hosting a golf outing for charity.  He suggested teaming up with a local charity and raising money for them, suggesting that we could raise $10,000 hosting such an event.  He suggested that it will be a lot of work but could bring big recognition to the club.  The questions he drew included how many golf events our community could support and if our club would see any of the profit that we could use to support our own charities.
 
Music:
We postponed our music this morning (except for a couple of birthday songs) but Jim Davis is excited to lead us next week!
 
Announcements:.
  • Prospective members Steve Miles and Steve Noverr will be inducted on August 7th.  Anyone with comments concerning their membership should contact Mark Odland before then.
  • Don Hixson has postponed his surgery but still needs help distributing car show posters.
  • On September 18th any candidate for public office will be able to present their program to the club.  The time will be divided into equal segments so each candidate/proposal will have equal time.
  • Bob Stickland repeated that We Care still needs drivers for their programs that helps folks get to important appointments when they don’t have transportation.  It is not a high demand situation for volunteers but is critical for We Care clients.  Contact Bob or We Care if you can help.
  • It was announced that the performance series presentation of Ikuro Nakamichi has been moved from August 4th to the next night, August 5th.
 
50/50
 
Tom Ruesink, Sargent-at-Arms, had Ella Wahbe draw Ted weber’s ticket today but Ted drew the 7.  Ted then drew the $2 winner for Art Ayers.
 
President Odland presented our program, Bob Brickman.
 
Bob began his presentation by talking about one of our communities most respected individuals, Dr. Paul Wahbe.He talked about the service that Paul has provided to South Haven as a doctor and a citizen/leader.
 
In a special presentation, Bob presented Paul with the highest award that Rotary can bestow on an individual, making him a Paul Harris Fellow.
 
Bob went on to talk about his experiences in Rotary, from founding a club in Illinois to serving as an International Vice President before joining us and enjoying his time in our fellowship.
 
His experience started in 1963 and he became heavily involved in the Rotary Youth Exchange.That experience led him to help a young South Haven student get into the program.Her name was Debbie Renner and that was Bob’s introduction to the Renner family.
 
Through his work with the youth program, Bob and Gail were able to travel all over the world and he offered several anecdotes about his travel and experiences.One of the most repeated themes in his talk today was the abject poverty that he saw in his travels.He indicated that we have no idea what real poverty is unless we have seen some of the part of the world where that kind of poverty exists.
 
He did have one observation about politics that seemed appropriate: “The higher you climb in the tree the closer you get to the monkey’s butt”.
 
Bob became a Vice President of Rotary and had even more anecdotes, even one about Wal-Mart and his experience in Benton, Arkansas.Ask him about his Wal-Mart hat.He also served on the Review and Operations Committee of Rotary for six years.He feels one of his biggest accomplishments was changing the way speakers were selected for conferences, encouraging the use of immediate past district governors to give presentations as various Rotary events.
 
However, the most repeated theme in Bob’s talk was his reaction to the many times he saw babies inoculated against polio.He mentioned a couple of times that hearing the words “thank you Rotary” – often the only English words the mothers knew - was very emotionally striking.
 
Mark presented Bob with one of his most treasured awards, our speaker’s pen and we thanked him for his entertaining and inspirational presentation.
 
Fines:
  • Ella Wahbe celebrated a birthday and was rewarded by a very nice “happy Birthday” song.
  • Larry Lewis celebrated a granddaughter’s birthday this week.
  • Tom Renner and his lovely wife Carol celebrated 53 years of marriage this week and Carol has her 39th birthday.
  • Don Hixson has a birthday, as does his son and Daughter-in-law.
  • We sang a Ludington style birthday song for our other celebrants.
  • Jim French’s daughter graduated from the Great Lakes Naval Training Center last week.
  • Richard Swanson had a couple of humorous stories for our entertainment after Bob Copping postponed the next edition of the Notre Dame bell ringer story which all of our newer members are anxiously looking forward too.
  • Nick Tuit was celebrating her granddaughter’s employment (as was her father) in Indonesia as a teacher.
  • Larry Wittkop was feeling especially generous today and donated $1 for every Tiger playing in tonight’s All Star game.
  • Apologies to any birthdays or comments missed in this list.  Your contributions are appreciated anyway.
 
 
We closed our meeting with the Four Way Test.
 
Next week’s program: Tom Fleming: Connie Didonato presents Services for the Elderly
 
Next week’s Greeters:  Paul Hix and Dene Hadden
 
Editarian:  Dene Hadden