Rotary Reporter Alan Nelson

Tuesday morning dawned sunny and warm in the Great Northwest. Summer has certainly arrived on this first Tuesday in July. With this being the first Tuesday in July, this also means that a “dawn of a new ‘error’ has arrived! Hizzoner Rick P. is presiding over “Rotaryville”. Dr. Bob led us in our Flag salute; Becky C. (coming off the 60 day disabled list and still ‘playing’ hurt) delivered the United Nations prayer, and with this being Independence Day Eve, Dr. Al led us in the 2^nd verse of our National Anthem.

Hizzoner had a full slate of topics to cover for his first day of office, starting off with Engineers without Borders (EWOB). Art Haines stepped up to podium to present Donee and Robyn, members of EWOB with a check for $2,000 for the wonderful water projects they will be doing in Bolivia later this summer. Best wishes and safe travels to Donee & Robyn as they embark on their project in 10 days. We all look forward in seeing and hearing about the project upon your safe return.

Next on the ‘docket’ were Chris B. and Greg R., our co-chairs for this falls ‘Charitable Event’, titled a “Celebration of Literacy”. The event will take place on Saturday evening, October 6^th, 2007 at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. With this year's event centered around literacy, our co-chairs tried to explain to the ‘masses’ how the room will be set up, by using the terms ‘ambient’ and ‘egress’. Unfortunately, no one in the room received a dictionary from last winter, thus we relied on our hosts to further explain that, hopefully, the room will be set up to bring maximum exposure and dollars for our auction items, and allow our guests to have a wonderful time. Giuseppe (AKA Joe T) reported that the raffle tickets and “Save the Date” cards should be done later this week. A ‘barrel of wine’ will be awarded to the winner of the raffle. Jay S. is currently forming a committee (this writer has already stepped forward as a member of this committee) to ‘tour’ the many wineries in the area to select the “Best of…” wines in the valley. Jay S. explained the complicated process that will be going into selecting theses wines, by stating that it all comes down to the “Yum & Yuck” factor. Jay F. will reprise his role as auctioneer. He explained the new Draw Down Raffle that we will doing this year. Best of Luck to Chris B & Greg R on your three-month odyssey, that will culminate in, what I know will be the best ‘charity event’ ever!

Larry D introduced Gabriella Reyes as the new outgoing exchange student. Gabby is a student at Lake Washington High School and will be traveling to Ecuador for 1 year later this summer.

Hizzoner had a few announcements:

v July 19 or 20 Bill G announced the resurrection of the Rotary Golf Outing @ Inglewood CC. It was announced the format will be a ‘shamble’.

v July 28 is the final work day at Rotary Park

v July 31 is our 5^th Tuesday social, which will be a family picnic @ Wilmot Park

Usually the raffle is not too ‘newsworthy’, however this time, this writer felt that the ‘marble draw’ was. The ‘pool’ is up to $910 with 2 marbles. Visiting Rotarian, Norm Noble from Sun Lakes, AZ had the winning ticket and did NOT pick the white ball! That means the winning ticket next week is assured $910+!

Well, it certainly has been nice getting back into the ‘swing of things’. It’s great being back in these pages and thanks, again for listening. Thanks all for listening and we’ll see you real soon.

- - - submitted by Alan Nelson, a Colts fan

Jorge Rides
for Diabetes Cure
Last Saturday (June 23) we began the day at 5:30 for breakfast and a scheduled start of the ride at 6:30. We were “released” in groups of twenty or so, all together we were 200 participants. Once we got out of Santa Rosa we rode through beautiful country along vineyards, the Russian River , through Redwood Trees, cattle ranches and the ocean front along Highway One. The ride was a challenging one; we climbed over 5000 feet and rode for seven and a half hours covering one hundred miles, however what was most remarkable about the event was the passion of people with diabetes or with a diabetes connection and their determination to do whatever in their power to find a cure and to try to make the best of life in spite of their challenges, what an inspirational bunch.
This was an exhausting experience, fortunately for me the pain I went through was temporary, not so for children, young adults and adults suffering from diabetes, their condition is twenty four seven that is why we must continue to support diabetes research so that one day soon a cure is found.

Thank you for your contributions, encouragement and support.

Jorge

Rosa's Prom Night

Rosa Faoro, our exchange student in 2005-06, is pictured at her recent prom night in Germany. Photo provided by Stacie Eckland who reports Rosa will be visiting the area in August and September.

Adds Stacie, "This was taken at her "Prom" which....unlike our proms.... is a family affair. Her entire family went too!"

NOW WE KNOW WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

After having dug to a depth of 10 meters last year, Scottish scientists found traces of copper wire dating back 100 years and came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had telephone network more than 100 years ago.

Not to be outdone by the Scots, in the week that followed, British scientists dug to the depth of 20 meters and shortly after the U.K. newspapers read: British archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper wire and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the Scottish.

One week later, "The Nordic Klub" a newsletter reported the following:
After digging as deep as 30 meters in the corn fields near Grace, Washington, Ole Verkelist, a farmer and a self taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing.

Ole has therefore concluded that 300 years ago, Grace had already gone wireless.